Atheism & Offence

If there is no God why are we talking about him?

From time to time I get into conversation with, usually young men, who are what I would call evangelical atheists. That is to say they believe in the non-existence of God so fervently that they want to convince everyone else that there is no god. They invariably come well discipled in the “Gospel according to Richard Dawkins“.

They usually start by listing all the bad things about God, at which point, the first time, I was confused. If there is no God why are we talking about him?

The Gospel according to Richard Dawkins

The Gospel of R D preaches simply from an atheistic basis of why and how everything that exists came from nothing. But he doesn’t explain how that stuff from nothing came with an inbuilt urge to become something! Using the tenet of “survival of the fittest” it can explain fear, ambition, jealousy, greed, anger, violence, etc. but hardly begins to to explain the development of our intellect and creativity, art, music, our emotions, love and compassion, or our desire for spirituality and it seems the inate awareness that there is a God or gods.

Once you get into proper discussion it becomes very evident that the real core message of atheism is “we know God exists, he just isn’t very nice“! To someone who has found life a massive disappointment, and perhaps most of us have, that is a very attractive propostion. One only has to listen to Stephen Fry (see YouTube footage below) to pick up on that sentiment and train of thought. (See note 1 below). In fact I have had maybe two or three who, claiming to be “satanists” have said exactly that to my face.

The God Delusion

It stands to reason that if God exists, He can be whatever or whoever He wants to be. He could be a God of wrath, vengeance, even cruelty. He could be a God of love, compassion and kindness. He could be uncaring, distant and dispassionate. For Dawkins the ultimate irony is that he (Dawkins) will find that he is the one deluded about God.

Essentially the atheist has taken offence at who they think God is

Atheism holds out little hope for mankind since it offers no moral boundaries, no “compass“, no framework for society and community. Having bought into and actively promoted the impossible lie that we evolved from nothing, we are encouraged to make the most of it, to “do what makes you happy” (hedonism), be “free” and not accountable to anyone, find your own “identity, gender and sexuality” and create your own morality, etc. Where others disagree with your views and ‘morality’ there will inevitable be conflict and “offence” with no touchstone for agreement.

For me the real tragedy of atheism is that it literally is a worldview without a soul. There is no hope or future for the individual, just a sad inevitable decline towards death. This life is it. It’s all you get. Use it or lose it, it will soon be over. You are just a very intelligent ape born into a universe that has no interest in you. The best you can hope for is to leave behind you offspring who may hold you in high regard and perhaps some achievement that makes it to the history books.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the complete antithesis of this.

Yes the “Gospel” (Good News) starts from a bleak view of mankind as fallen, almost irrevocably damaged, destined to be eternally lost. There has to be a sense of emptiness and void without God. But that is overturned and overwhelmed by the LOVE of the very one who created you, stepping in to turn that on its head and make you a Child of God, redeemed, forgiven, cleansed and given a Hope and a Future both here and in the hereafter.

“And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

John the Baptist built his whole ministry on being the forerunner of the Messiah. He had studied the scriptures and knew what the Messiah would do when He came. He then declares that Jesus is that Messiah and stands back and watches. What he sees is a disappointment! He becomes unsure both of who Jesus is and then inevitably of his own understanding and discernment and so of his whole purpose.

In Luke 7 we read, “And John, ¹⁹ calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” ²⁰ And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” ²¹ In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. ²² And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. ²³ And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.””

Here is not the place to get into the theology of why Jesus didn’t look like the xpected Messiah. That’s a massive topic. Suffice it to say that he’ll look much more like John’s expectation when he comes for the second time!

We live in a world today where it is almost the done thing to be offended by something or someone and we expect them to do something about it not us! A very odd idea indeed.

We all have a notion of what God ought to be like.

Our problem comes when he isn’t!

Why God exists and is nice! A Postscript.

Note 1: “We know God exists, he just isn’y very nice” is not exactly a new premise. In fact according to the Bible it is one that existed before man existed! Little is said in explanation for these events but from the beginning of creation the “Light Bearer”, Lucifer, stood in the very presence of God, indeed leading the worship of the angels in heaven. Somehow despite being in God’s presence, looking upon the very face of Jesus himself, he became jealous and ultimately rebelled. It is very easy to explain therefore why he should have as one of his core beliefs to share with mankind that, “We know God exists, he just isn’y very nice“. For me the eternal wonder is that God has chosen to be a Father and to exhibit Love towrds His children.

So here is Stephen Fry explaining how if God exists he is a maniac and inherently evil. What Fry is saying is that he can’t believe that there is a God because of the way that the world is, i.e. seemingly random and harsh which doesn’t look like the creation of a “God of love”.

So, just to be slightly obscure I’ll let an Islamic apologist answer Stephen Fry since he does it so well and it isn’t solely a Christian issue. I love his line of argument.

And for those who love Jordan Peterson, he really is a great match for Stephen who is clearly not really angry with God since in Stephen’s world God doesn’t exist. A great conversation.