Monday, June 6, 2016

WHAT WOULD IT TAKE?



Ok, so you’re an atheist.  You don’t believe in the existence of God, and you don’t see how anyone else could possibly believe in Him.  Or maybe, you’re an agnostic and you believe that there could possibly be a God or gods, but you don’t see enough evidence to justify that belief.  You’re thinking, “If there really is a God, then why does it look like He is hiding from us?”  Either way, you’re a rational thinker and you need hardcore evidence before believing in any “old man in the sky” fairy tales, right?

But the question has to be asked:  What kind of evidence would you require?  What exactly would it take to convince you of the existence of God?  Would you only be satisfied with purely scientific evidence?

But appealing to science brings up another issue:  Is science equipped to truly demonstrate God in a laboratory?  How would that work?  Look, we all know that you can’t measure the weight of something with a tape measure.  And we all know that you can’t calculate distance with an electrical volt meter, nor can you measure pressure with a microscope.  In other words, to measure or test something, you must use the correct tools for the job.  But using science to directly measure something metaphysical or spiritual (like God) is absurd.  Scientific methods are not equipped to directly determine the qualities or existence of God.  You can’t find Him in a test tube or see Him through a telescope.
 
Yet, atheists and other skeptics will often demand that God (if He does indeed exist) should make Himself visible so all can believe in Him… is that too much to ask?  He should “show Himself,” or maybe perform some great miracle, like giant writing in the sky for all to see.  You know, seeing is believing, right?  Yet no one has ever seen gravity, but no one goes around demanding that gravity needs to become visible before we can believe in it, do they?  By that logic, someone could also say that since your mind is not directly visible, it must not exist!  Physical visibility is not always necessary to prove existence.  Some things we don’t directly see, e.g., electricity, force, heat, pressure, energy, etc., but we can see their effects.  This is also true of God… although He is invisible, we can see His handiwork (Psalm 8:1; 19:1-2), His creation (Romans 1:18-20), and His affecting of our lives in many ways (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).  But we don’t need to directly see Him or directly hear His audible voice to know He’s there.  We can find Him through indirect evidence.

We find an interesting (and relevant) Bible story in the book of Luke, where Jesus tells us about two men who die, ending up in two vastly different places - the rich man in agony, and the poor man in bliss (Luke 16:19-31).  The rich man, after realizing the hopelessness of his eternal mistake, cries out for Abraham to send Lazarus (the poor man) back from the dead to testify of this horrible place to his still-living family, so that they don’t end up there with him.  But it is important to note that Abraham tells the rich man that if his brothers will not believe Moses and the prophets (Scripture), then they will not believe someone who comes back from the dead (v. 31).  Notice that Jesus, through this story, considered the testimony of Scripture as far more reliable than the witness of the dead coming back to testify!  The rich man wanted extreme evidence for his family to see.  But no one can demand the luxury of such extreme evidence.  Scripture is sufficient.

But the problem with skeptics, though, is that it seems that they are always able to “explain away” any evidence produced.  Medical miracles are simply written off as a hoax, and even if God were to visibly appear, they would claim that it was just an illusion or hallucination, anyway.

They ask for visible proof of God; but God already did show Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ (God becoming flesh), who did many, many miracles and even rose from the dead, yet many still didn’t believe!  But when skeptics demand evidence, what they are really asking is, “Why doesn’t He reveal Himself the way I want Him to?”  But God is not obligated to reveal Himself to skeptics, or to anyone, especially to someone who is not repentant nor willing to serve Him.  No one is promised a dramatic “Damascus Road” experience (Acts 9:1-9).

And God is not asking anyone to use “blind faith,” but faith resting on reliable historical evidence.  It pleases Him when we believe what He says – like parents who desire for their children to trust them without having to prove or explain everything to them – it’s about a relationship.  God wants us to learn to trust Him without having to give us every single detail, because we may not be ready for some details yet.

It is true that believers will often be biased, and they are not always willing to consider all the evidence concerning science.  But extreme bias can also be found in atheist circles.  The esteemed Professor Richard Lewontin (atheist geneticist at Harvard) writes:

“We take the side of science IN SPITE OF the patent ABSURDITY of some of its constructs… IN SPITE OF the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so-stories, because we have a PRIOR commitment – A COMMITMENT TO MATERIALISM.  It is NOT that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, ON THE CONTRARY, that we are forced by our A PRIORI ADHERENCE to MATERIAL causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce MATERIAL explanations, NO MATTER how counter-intuitive, NO MATTER how mystifying to the uninitiated.  Moreover, that materialism is an ABSOLUTE, for WE CANNOT ALLOW A DIVINE FOOT IN THE DOOR.” (Billions and Billions of Demons, Prof. Richard Lewontin, New York Review of Books, January 9, 1997, Volume 44 [Emphasis added])

In other words, for the atheist, the existence of God must be kept out of the equation at all costs, no matter what the evidence suggests.

But ultimately, the issue is not whether God exists or not.  The answer to that is built into every one of us, atheists included.  Deep down inside, we all know He’s there (Romans 1:18-20), though some will not admit it.  God, in different ways, makes Himself known to all of us.  But are we willing to reach out to Him and let Him change our lives?  Are we willing to trust Him and submit to Him?

God is not obligated to provide greater evidence.  It’s not that skeptics need more evidence, the problem is that they are not believing the evidence that exists already!

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3 comments:

  1. This article is refuted HERE

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous,

    Could you please try again and put the link. It apparently didn't work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JUST KIDDING! There was no link.

    ReplyDelete