The single biggest problem atheists are presented with is that they have faith in something that they know isn’t true. Here’s how it looked in a recent conversation I had:
Atheist: You believe in an invisible god, that’s just the same as believing in an invisible unicorn – you can’t disprove its existence, therefore it must exist.
Me: No, I’ve met God, therefore I know He exists.
Atheist: That’s silly.
True story. But the analysis isn’t so easy. If I have met God Christianity is definitely true and atheism is definitely false (and so is belief in the invisible unicorn). If I haven’t met God, both Christianity and atheism may be true, because not having met someone doesn’t make them cease to exist.
So the question for atheists is really: without evidence of a supreme supernatural Being(s), is the logical conclusion to attempt to meet the Being(s), or to believe that there is none?
Atheists like Richard Dawkins violently believe that there is none, but they’ve encountered a pr0blem: what about morality? If we are nothing more than mutated animals who have an ability to communicate about imaginary things then morality is not objective; it is no more ‘right’ to stay faithful to one partner than it is ‘right’ to tell the truth or to laugh at someone’s misfortune.
Without objective morality it’s impossible to discern whether the Holocaust was good or bad. That’s a problem, because people just know that the Holocaust was bad.
Don’t worry, though. Some atheists have settled down to work to figure out how we can have objective morality and a meaning to life without the existence of God, and they’ve come up with an answer. Ready? To get meaning from your life, pick from one or more of the following:
- take drugs to improve your mood
- get lots of money
- buy lots of stuff
- watch lots of telly
Having done at least one of the above I think it’s fair to say that they all suck, so giving Christianity a go is easily the best idea an atheist will have all day.
