Category: Answering Atheists Questions

Christians are plagued with an almost Islamic conception of the Bible. Some even want to say that because Jesus is the Logos (the Word) and the Bible is the word of God, that therefore, Jesus is the Bible. But this view immediately leads us to the worship of the Bible, and we are no better than the Pagans who worship gods made from human hands. Christians ought not hold the view that Jesus is the Bible, nor ought we hold an Islamic conception of Scripture. Muslims believe that the Qur’an…

It is sometimes charged against Christians that they only do good things so that they can be rewarded with Heaven. In contrast, the atheists argue, they do not have such an expectation, and therefore, when they do good things, they are being truly genuine. While Christians are only doing it for selfish reasons, that is, to have a nice place to live in the future. Similarly, Christians may do good things out of fear of going to Hell. But is that the case? Do Christians only do good for a…

When somebody close to you dies, everybody wonders what happened to their loved one. Did they end up in Hell? Did they just pass on to the spirit world? Are they with God in eternity? Did they reincarnate into another animal? Is my loved one in Hell? When you encounter Christians, the first thing that you probably think is that your loved one went to Hell if they are right, and this repels you from the Christian faith. Unless you had a really nasty relative, this usually invokes the reaction…

How do you know that religion is true? “Well,” came the reply, “because I have seen the power of God. I have seen a healing.” This is usually regarded by non-believers as a sleight of hand. Some traveling evangelist or faith healer has fooled the masses into believing a fake healing. This is especially prominent in charismatic churches in which healing and miracles are emphasized and said to be witnessed every day. I have personally witnessed fake miracles, and a number of people were taken in by it. This raises…

When westerners think of slavery, we immediately think of the breed of slavery which took place in the United States a few hundred years ago. In fact, there is similar slavery throughout the world and there has been slavery throughout history. There is even slavery in the Bible. But when we think of slavery, something very different comes to mind than that which was practiced in the ancient near east. Does the Bible condone slavery? In a sense, it does, but the slavery practiced in the Bible was very different…

We hear a number of attacks against the Bible in the world today. People will say that everything in it is a metaphor, not to be taken seriously, or to be taken with a grain of salt. They will say that God did not really mean what he said. They will say that the Bible has to adapt to modern science. They will say, “the Bible was written by men.” People do not want the Bible to be authoritative, so they will desperately mount these attack against it, something like…

Why do the synoptic gospels seem to contradict each other? Certain biblical scholars have attempted to put these three gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) next to each other, lining up each of the stories that they tell and creating one cohesive narrative. But when they do this, they find that they run into problems. They seem to be inconsistent with one another. This is an issue that even biblical scholars have struggled with, after all, how can an inerrancy account contradict with another inerrant account? Why do the synoptic gospels…

In an attempt to mock and ridicule religion (as is the great commission of the atheist as prescribed by Richard Dawkins at last years’ Reason Rally), atheists will compare belief in God to something ridiculous, that anybody would regard as false, like Santa Claus, or the Tooth Fairy, or even what they call the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The Flying Spaghetti Monster came as a response to the advocacy of Intelligent Design being taught in schools. The very concept is as ridiculous as teaching students about the Flying Spaghetti Monster. However…

One of the most common arguments against the existence of God is the problem of evil and suffering. We see evil in the world, and ask, how could a loving God permit such a thing? The atheist philosopher of old, Epicurus, is often cited as raising this issue. But obviously it extends back much further than him. This is one of the most integral and touching questions that a human being can ask. If God is good, should he not want to stop evil? If he is powerful, is he…

People are typically very superstitious by nature, and as such, are very receptive to myths about Santa Claus as they are children. Children are taught that a jolly character named Santa Clause arrives on the eve of December 24th, and brings gifts to all of the children who behaved, and brings coal for all of the children did not behave. There are elaborate stories of Santa commanding a tribe of elves in the wonderful wintery abode known as the North Pole, complimented by reindeer who can fly and help Santa…

When quizzed about why atheists are so vocal, their typical response is that they see the horrors which come forth from the world of religion, and they speak out against it to rid humanity of this terror. However if religious people were to live quiet and peaceful lives, they would not care to interfere and would not care to work toward the abolishment of religious practice. In fact it often seems as though horrors coming forth from religion are the cause of many people coming to be atheists. So then…

Some of our favorite science fiction narratives include an ensemble of parallel universes, in which the people in the opposite universe are just like us, perhaps even having the same DNA molecule, but behaving as though they were different people. Perhaps there are implications of nature and nurture in these dramas. Interestingly, in the modern atheist blogosphere, these science fiction narratives have come to life. The multiverse hypothesis is a favorite of the modern atheist, using it explain away the existence of specified complexity in the universe, and concluding that…

There seems to be an inordinate respect for men in the field of science in our society. Now that is not to say that we should disrespect scientists, however people tend to give scientists authority in fields that they do not have authority. There is popular meme that reads something like, “98% of the National Academy Of Sciences are atheists.” However that seems to me like saying that there was a poll that a high amount of people who own small businesses are atheists. It leads one to just say,…

I usually cannot go more than a few days without being engaged by someone of the Islamic faith, typically offering arguments that Jesus is not the eternal Logos, that the trinity is not true and that the Bible has been corrupted through the centuries. I have been to salons with statues of Buddha, met women bearing a Bindi between their eyes. There have been a number of encounters with those who bear the Pagan symbol and I have met a number of atheists. In fact I have even initiated a…

Our belief in God is often described as something that we can just see plainly as a consequence of the existence of the world, for it is obviously not rational to believe that nothing created everything. When speaking of our knowledge of Christ, the inerrancy of the Scripture and so forth, we might appeal to the internal witness of the Holy Spirit, that we know that God has revealed himself to mankind in the Scripture because he has revealed himself to us on a personal level. We know the Lord…

Among some atheists, the Big Bang theory is sort of like a rallying cry, for, they think it is an explanation of the universe that eliminates the existence of God. It is a product of scientific discovery, thorough research and is in contrast with the Christian view that God created the world. They will represent the Big Bang and God as though they were mutually exclusive, and this is something that many Christians have fallen into as well. There are many Christians who do not believe the Big Bang for…

In an attempt to avoid providing evidence that God does not exist, atheists will sometimes say that it is impossible to prove a null hypothesis, or a universal negative. A universal negative is a claim that denies all members of a particular set, such as, “there is no God,” or “there is no Santa Claus,” and this is the type of claim that atheists maintain are impossible to prove. Therefore, since the non-existence of God falls in this catery, proving it or providing evidence for it can be taken as…