Archive for the ‘folly of atheism’ Category

(A series of scripted correspondences from a ‘Heavenly helper’ to a Christian Soldier)

[Letter 16]:

Greetings Soldier,

Yes, I can definitely see that your unbelieving opponents are not very happy with your challenges to their professed worldview (in fact, ‘unhappy’ would be quite the understatement to describe the nature of their most recent remarks). Remember, the unbeliever has much to lose in these types of discussions, once it is exposed what their worldview truly amounts to, since they often enjoy being viewed as ‘intellectuals’ on internet forums and loathe the idea that their position is really just one of blind, irrational faith. Therefore, you should expect open hostility such as the name calling being engaged in as of late, since it is no doubt very uncomfortable (think glass palace during an earthquake) to have one’s most fundamental beliefs challenged and then demonstrated to be undeniably false.

As a positive, this is one crystal clear way of demonstrating that the unbeliever is indeed engaging in suppression of the truth (just as the Bible states in Romans 1:18)—that is, they are not continuing to hold to their current professed position BECAUSE of rational reasons, but IN SPITE OF them–simply because they happen to dislike the alternative (i.e. bowing the knee to God). The purely emotional nature of the objections at this point are really exactly what one would expect from someone with simply a personal ‘ax to grind’ and nothing more. Sure, the unbeliever may not like the God of the Bible, but that is definitely not a rational basis for their rejection of Christianity and/or the truth of the Bible. At this point, you’ve done your job and it’s probably just best to politely thank them for sharing their opinions with you and invite them to return to the discussion when they have something rational to contribute. Oh, and do not cease to pray for these individuals–that they might come to their senses, cease their suppression of the Truth, and repent. Here to serve,

Your Heavenly ‘Angent’

(A series of scripted correspondences from a ‘Heavenly helper’ to a Christian Soldier)

[Letter 17: The Impossibility of the Contrary]

Greetings Soldier,

Indeed, I did see the latest remarks from the unbeliever who continues to assert that you are engaging in fallacious reasoning (i.e. an argument from ignorance) by claiming that Christianity is true by the impossibility of the contrary. It is important to remember two things when dealing with this type of objection from a professed unbeliever:

1.  The unbeliever has no basis whatsoever for attempting to impose any sort of meaningful logical standard upon your (or any) arguments, since he professes to believe in a universe in which abstract, invariant, universal standards could not possibly exist if his worldview were true (which, it isn’t). Therefore, when he makes such a claim, just simply ask him by what absolute standard he deems your argument fallacious, how he arrives at such standards in his worldview, and why that standard must necessarily apply to anyone or anything. Of course, he will not be able to sufficiently answer these questions, but it may be helpful for aiding him in honestly thinking through this issue (if he is willing to do so, of course).

2.  The argument is NOT that Christianity is true BECAUSE the unbeliever’s position is false (since all non-Christian worldviews ultimately undermine the existence of logic, knowledge, truth, etc.).  The argument IS that Christianity is true AND their position is false–big difference.

Remember, according to the professed unbeliever, ANY standard that they seek to impose on someone else would necessarily be a purely arbitrary one if their position were really true. This reduces their complaints against other people’s behaviors and/or reasoning to that of mere opinion and leaves them with no real objective, rational reasons for attempting to impose those standards upon anyone else. Feel free to gently make them aware of this fact and also point out that rational people have good reasons for the things they believe in and act upon. Therefore, the unbeliever is behaving irrationally when they behave the way they are behaving. In reality, they have no choice given what they profess to believe, as no one cannot possibly live consistently with the profession that God does not exist and the Bible is not true (since everyone lives in God’s universe and is inescapably forced to ultimately rely upon Him and abide by his rules, whether they want to or not). As such, the unbeliever plays the hypocrite since they professes to believe one thing, but do not (and cannot) really live according to their professed beliefs. You will do well to keep this is mind as you continue to evaluate the arguments/objections from them. Here to serve,

Your Heavenly ‘Angent’

(A series of scripted correspondences from a ‘Heavenly helper’ to a Christian Soldier)

[Letter 18]:

Greetings Soldier,

Regarding your last correspondence; I assure you that you’re doing fine. No need to be concerned about the empty allegation that you are engaging in a double standard or being ‘unfair’ in your requests for the unbelievers to provide their worldview’s objective, consistent basis for the existence of preconditions of intelligibility (which must be appealed to and utilized in order to even begin to hold a rational discussion). Besides, as should be crystal clear by now, the unbeliever has no way of justifying such an allegation to begin with, since there can exist no objective standard of logical ‘fairness’ in a worldview without God. Not only that, it should also be pointed out that you have already provided the justification for how abstract, universal, invariants are justified in the Christian worldview, from the get go (as they are a reflection of the abstract, universal, invariant nature of the God of the Bible). Perhaps it would be helpful to remind those making the allegations of how discussions work: you provide your logically defensible argument, they provide theirs, and THEN they are compared and contrasted via internal critique to see whose is true.

Of course, because the unbeliever has no rationally defensible argument or justification to support their belief in abstract, universal, invariants (logic, truth, knowledge, etc.) there can really be no discussion at all, since they must borrow these concepts from the Christian worldview in order to even begin to levy any argument against the Christian worldview. Needless to say, in doing so, they are assuming the truth of the very thing they are trying to refute and, subsequently, destroying their own position. This only further substantiates the undeniable reality that Christianity is true by the impossibility of the contrary (since the contrary position cannot be rationally defended and always ends in some form of absurdity). Don’t ever be shy about exposing this for the unbeliever’s own benefit. Here to serve,

Your Heavenly ‘Angent’

(A series of scripted correspondences from a ‘Heavenly Helper’ to a Christian Soldier)

[Letter 21]:

Greetings Soldier,

Yes, your suspicions are well founded! We angels do find it very strange, indeed, that anyone would ever willfully deny the existence of God. Remember, we behold His very face in heaven, and there is no shortage of glorious revelation of Himself for those living upon the earth. As one of your great preachers of the past, C.H. Spurgeon, so eloquently stated:

“Atheism is a strange thing. Even the devils never fell into that vice, for the devils believe and tremble.”

Here to serve,

Your Heavenly ‘Angent’

Some time ago I was engaged in a very lively debate, regarding the validity of the Christian worldview vs. non-Christian worldviews, over at Debate.org. Believe it or not, a very simple challenge, put forth to those who hold to worldviews which deny the God of the Bible, turned into a discussion thread of over 800 comments (well above the norm)! I have included the link to the discussion for anyone who is interested in seeing how non-Christians fared when asked to account for the most basic, fundamental concepts (i.e. logic, truth, knowledge, the foundation of the scientific method, etc.), required for making sense of the world around us, in their worldview. Warning: it ain’t pretty!

http://www.debate.org/forums/Religion/topic/55783/

NOTE: What you’ll notice in these types of discussions is that those who deny God and the truth of the Bible will always ultimately be reduced to ‘vain and foolish’ reasoning, just like Scripture states (Romans 1:18-22, I Corinthians 1:19-20). In particular, notice how the unbelievers’ positions are always shown to be based upon nothing more than blind-faith and mere opinion, having no logical foundation whatsoever upon which to rest. As I always enjoy pointing out, that is the very definition of an irrational (and, therefore, untrue) position. The more familiar Christians become with these arguments, the easier it is to then (hopefully gently) expose the errors in the unbeliever’s reasoning and to pull down the ‘intellectual strongholds’ that prevent them from considering and, subsequently, receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember, no one will receive with their heart what their mind rejects as false, making the mandate of 2 Corinthians 10:5 especially relevant to us today:

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

I welcome your thoughts.

For anyone who’s interested, here are the links to a few recent online discussions/debates I’ve had with professing atheists that you may find informative (WARNING:  A few instances of profanity and rude language from the atheists):

http://amusingnonsense.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/this-is-awkward/#comments

 

http://hessianwithteeth.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/why-christians-need-to-stop-telling-atheists-to-read-the-bible/#comments

 

http://hessianwithteeth.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/why-i-cant-agree-with-the-bible-leviticus-part-2/#comments

 

https://christianammunition.com/2014/06/25/how-to-be-an-atheist/#comments

 

https://christianammunition.com/2014/05/07/questions-for-the-evolutionist/#comments

 

http://agnophilo.wordpress.com/2014/05/24/questions-for-the-evolutionist/#comments