Why I am Not an Atheist, Part 3

Atheists Change the Meaning of Faith.

By Jon Kauffman

Several atheists have tried to convince me that atheism is true. Most atheists are not evangelical atheists and most of my atheist friends do not try to convert me. I have been asked by several atheists why I am not an atheist. I am answering that question.

I am thankful for outspoken atheists. As a result, many have gone to great lengths to explore the validity of the Christian faith. Biblical scholars have used textual criticism to demonstrate the Bible to be extremely reliable in relation to early manuscripts. Many apologists have developed the historical evidence available. Christian scientists have written many books demonstrating that science and the Christianity are compatible.

Definition of Faith

How do atheists define faith: Peter Singer says, “And what is faith? It is just believing in something for which you have neither rational arguments nor good evidence.”

How does the dictionary define faith: 2. a. 1: belief and trust in and loyalty to God. 2: Belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion. Meriam Webster.

Also: The assent of the mind to the truth of a proposition or statement for which there is not complete evidence; belief in general. The Century Dictionary.

How I define faith: I agree that faith is a belief and trust in and loyalty to God. Belief in God is based on the evidence. Faith comes when evidence ends and give us confidence to reasonably believe what is logically based on that evidence. But faith is more. Whenever we believe something that is a logical extension to the evidence, we are practicing faith. Almost everything we believe is based faith

Example: A paleontologist may find a jaw bone and tell us many things about that animal. If we follow the evidence, more bones found later may prove some of his theories incorrect and change our view of that jaw bone. We can have faith that the conclusions reached by the paleontologist correspond to truth about that animal.

If we follow the evidence, we can have faith that Jesus rose from the dead. The evidence is strong enough that we can easily believe that beyond a reasonable doubt the resurrection occurred. Millions have believed. Based on the fact of the resurrection, we can by faith follow the teachings of Jesus in the way we live. Because we are human our knowledge of the truth about God is very limited.

Everyone has faith. Each of us has a worldview. Our worldview is what we think is really true about our world, ourselves and about God. That worldview is determined by our experiences, the culture in which we live, the evidence we see in theology, philosophy, and science. As our knowledge increases our world view may change.

We are very small human beings, on a tiny planet earth, on a small galaxy that is one of billions. From a scientific perspective we know almost nothing. From a spiritual perspective we know almost nothing. Almost everything we think we know is based on faith.

Atheists pretend the evidence does not exist.

Atheists pretend that the New Testament is not reliable. “How Badly Was the New Testament Corrupted?”, Dan Wallace at SDSU.

They pretend evidence of Israel in Egypt at the time of the Exodus does not exist.

They pretend evidence for reality beyond the material world does not exist.

They pretend scientists who disagree with them are liars.

They pretend evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus does not exist.

They claim changes Christian’s experience are only psychological. They do not understand. We cannot understand until we have experienced it.

By blind faith atheists believe the blind watchmaker can create the universe and life and fill the gaps.

When atheists begin looking for truth, they find God.

We know that atheists such as C. S. Lewis, Alistar McGrath, Jane Fonda, Lee Strobel, David Wood and Michael Guillen and many other atheists became Christian due to the evidence.

The historical evidence strongly suggests that Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus became Christian before their deaths.

Anthony Flew became a deist.

When we become Christian, the Holy Spirit speaks to us. Many people experience drastic changes in their lives and in their behaviors. As we develop a relationship with Jesus our personal experience provides more evidence.

Great archeological finds.

“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12

In this world of unbelief, the mountains and hills are breaking forth into singing and giving us evidence. The boyhood home of Jesus has been found in Nazareth. The site of Sodom has been found. A great deal of evidence for Israel in Egypt dated from 1850 BC to 1450 BC has been found. More evidence demonstrating the reliability of the Bible as a historically accurate document is being found by archeologists every year.

The New Testament often refers to the Evidence.

Writers of the New Testament thought we can only believe if we have evidence. They often referred to the evidence.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We write this to make our^[a] joy complete. 1 John 1: 1-4.

Only by the evidence can we figure this out.

“There is evidence that God exists and that the Christian faith is true.” John Lennox

If we want to believe in Jesus and follow Jesus, we can see by the evidence that we can believe and follow Jesus.

If we do not want to believe and follow Jesus, we can easily come up with one more excuse explaining why we should not believe.

If we pretend evidence does not exist and do not include that evidence in forming our world view, how is it possible to have a faith or a world view that corresponds to reality?

If Jesus is not risen from the dead than our faith is useless.

⁸ “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim^: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. ¹¹ As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” Romans 10:6-11

Referenced in this post:

 “Is Atheism Dead?” by Eric Metaxas. If only I was as intelligent and witty as Eric Metaxas perhaps, I too could write such an entertaining and well thought out book.

“Believing is Seeing: A physicist Explains how Science Shattered his Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith” by Michael Guillen, PhD.

“Against the Tide, Finding God in an Age of Science” John Lennox, Kevin Sorbo.

“The Universe Next Door, A Worldview Catalog” by James W. Sire.

“How Badly Was the New Testament Corrupted?”, Dan Wallace at SDSU.

Copyright © 2022 by Jon Kauffman. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted when used to further the Kingdom of God. Permission is gladly given to re-blog this post.

Revised: 11/30/2022

Why I am Not an Atheist, Part 2.

Atheism is Incompatible with Science.

By Jon Kauffman

Over the last 40 years several atheists have tried to convince me that I should be an atheist. Over the years I found several reasons that atheism does not make sense to me.

Several months ago, I read “Believing is Seeing, A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith.” By Michael Guillen. Before he became a Christian, in his search for truth, Guillen compared science with atheism, Christianity and several other world views. Here is a chart he shared in his book to compare a few of his findings:

Guillen’s comparisons

I can also think of other inconsistencies between science and atheism.

We can continue the line of questioning that Guillen used in his book.

Does the Universe have a beginning?

Science: Yes, Atheism: No, Christianity: Yes.

For science the universe starts with a big bang. For Christianity the universe starts with a creative act from God who is outside of time and space.

Since the discovery of the background radiation a majority of scientist have believed that the universe has a beginning. Before Einstein, a majority of scientists believed in an eternal universe.

Atheism is incompatible with a beginning to the universe because then there is insufficient time for life to be created by chance.

Albert Einstein fudged his numbers creating a “cosmological constant” to avoid a beginning. He later claimed it was his “biggest mistake.” Albert Einstein was not an atheist, however this demonstrates that all of us have great difficulty changing our world view even with the best of evidence.

Stephen Hawking tried to redefine “nothing” to mean “the law of gravity.”

 “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing,” he writes. “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.

“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.” Stephen Hawking, The Grand Design, page 180

Laurance Kraus changed the meaning of “nothing” to mean the empty vacuum of space.

Kraus said, “Since something is physical, nothing must be physical”

When John Lennox asked Kraus what this statement meant, Kraus said, “I suggest to you that nothing is a colloquial term that means many different things to many people. If empty space is your definition…not only will something come from it, something is required to come from it. Science has just changed the definitions. I call it learning.” John Lennox/Kevin Sorbo, Against the Tide, Finding God in an Age of Science.

Miriam Webster dictionary defines Nothing:

Definition of nothing (Entry 3 of 4)

1a: something that does not exist

b: the absence of all magnitude or quantity.

c: NOTHINGNESS, NONEXISTENCE.

I think it was Laurance Kraus who changed the meaning of “nothing”, not science.

If we need to fudge the numbers, or the change the meaning of nothing to equal the law of gravity or if we need to change the meaning of nothing to be the empty vacuum of space, we have redefined nothing to be something other than what most scientists would define as nothing.

If an atheists must change the meaning of “nothing” to remain an atheist then science is incompatible with atheism.

If as science and Christianity suggest, the universe came from nothing physical, then the Hawking and Kraus quotes seem like gibberish to me.

Science currently cannot tell how the universe was created from nothing. Christianity says that the universe was created by a creator who is outside of time and space, is eternal, and has freedom of choice to create when he wants.

Near death experiences and deathbed experiences give us evidence that it is highly probable that something beyond the material world exists.

The historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus suggests God is reaching out to man and Jesus is an exact representation of that God. A God who can create the universe out of nothing.

If atheists would like to convert me to atheism, they must convince me that nothing can become something.

I am not aware of any scientific evidence that support the theories that the law of gravity, or the empty quantum vacuum of space or multi-universes existed before the big bang.

Copyright © 2022 by Jon Kauffman. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted when used to further the Kingdom of God. Permission is gladly given to re-blog this post.

Revised: 10/23/2022