Apologetics
Is Atheism Reasonable?
If you think about it, apologetics is not just for the believer in God. It is not as though only the theist must account for his/her worldview. Indeed, it is helpful sometimes to turn the tables and ask the atheist to defend his/her own faith. Why must only one side be called into account?
So we ask, is atheism reasonable? After all, it is just as much a "faith" as is belief in God. This faith, however, is faith that there is no God. It is faith in something other than God. It is trusting that no God exists, and then living a life consistent with this faith. But it is still faith. It is a trust in which ones stakes an entire life, and even an eternity.
If one doubts whether or not atheists have faith, notice some things they have faith in:
• They have faith that there is no God, though they cannot prove it. Granted, it is extremely difficult to prove a negative, but shouldn't this difficulty at least give one pause to reconsider the position?
• They have faith that matter is eternal, though no verifiable facts support this. Science is no help in this area for them. They also have faith that matter is all there is, that there are no spiritual aspects to humanity.
• They have faith in the concept that life must have come from non-life, that order arose from chaos, that the conscious evolved from the non-conscious, that the moral came from the non-moral, and that intelligence came out of non-intelligence. There are no facts anywhere to support such assumptions. Yet they live their lives by faith in these assumptions. Is this really all that reasonable? They ought to defend such a faith if they are to be so adamant that there is no God.
It is impossible to disprove God’s existence. Science certainly cannot disprove God. It is far too limited to do that. So we would suggest that one at least admit the possibility that God does exist. Unless the atheist knows everything there is to know, perhaps there is something he/she does not know that would allow for the existence of God. Perhaps the very thing that the atheist does not know is that there is a God. How could he/she show otherwise without assuming such knowledge?
Atheist Robert G. Ingersoll stated, at his brother’s funeral, stated that life will pass into "silence and pathetic dust," that every life will, in the end, "become a tragedy sad and deep and dark." Such a view does not contribute to the happiness and peace for which we strive in this life. Statements like this from prominent atheists of the past show that atheism leads to despair. Is faith that every life will "become a tragedy sad and deep and dark" really a worldview by which you want to live your life? Think about it.
I realize that arguments like this do not prove God's existence. However, the alternative does not look too promising, and one would hope that those who take such a view would think about that. This, in turn, should cause an honest truth-seeker to take a closer look at the concepts surrounding the existence of God. Faith in God is not as irrational as the atheist would have it seem.
July 2000
Doy Moyer