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Christianity Today, November, 2007 |

Foolish Things

Answering the Atheists

A Reader's Digest version of why I am a Christian.

Stan Guthrie | posted 11/13/2007 08:33AM

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Progress: Despite some horrific incidents perpetrated in the name of Christ, freedom and prosperity generally have followed Christianity. Sociologist Rodney Stark said, "The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians."

Testimonies: While many Christians have behaved badly, Christ specializes in turning sinners around. What other faith can boast of a Chuck Colson? A John Newton? A William Wilberforce? Then there are the innumerable soup kitchens, universities, hospitals, and orphanages founded to the glory of Christ. While many atheists are moral, how many such institutions has the atheistic ideal—uncoerced by Communism, which is itself a perversion of Christianity—produced?

My experience: Finally, as a forgiven sinner, I testify to an imperfect yet growing sense of God's peace, presence, and provision since receiving Christ more than a quarter-century ago. Despite occasional setbacks, my faith has deepened and strengthened, whatever life brings.

And that includes the angry rantings of atheists.

Related Elsewhere:

Other articles on atheism include:

Puncturing Atheism | Fourfold God Squad brilliantly takes on Dawkins, Hitchens, & Co. (October 31, 2007)

My Top 5 Books on Atheism | Compiled by John Wilson, Books & Culture editor. (August 24, 2007)

"Is Christianity Good for the World?" | Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson debate. (May 8, 2007)

The New Intolerance | Fear mongering among elite atheists is not a pretty sight. A Christianity Today editorial (January 25, 2007)

Thinking Straighter | Why Antony Flew, the world's most famous atheist, now believes in God. (April, 2005)

Forced by Logic | It took philosophy and a friend to convince this atheist (June 1, 2003)

Stan Guthrie's previous columns are available on our site.

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November 2007, Vol. 51, No. 11

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Steve Schlicht

Posted: November 25, 2007 5:28 PM

I'm an atheist because there has not been any evidence to support the existence of any one of them. Despite continued claims of religious adherents throughout history that Gods, Goddesses and their respective antagonists exist in the shadow realms beyond space and time, there still hasn't been the first shred of empirical evidence that proves these claims. Christians are simply one more class of believers in talking snakes, human sacrifice, virgin births, water-walking wizards, incestuous heroes and genocidal tyrants who love only their special tribe that have presented themselves over the history of humankind. In time we'll learn that Oz never gave nothing to the tin man that he didn't already have.

NKNWN

Posted: November 25, 2007 12:01 AM


TO ALL NONBELIEVERS: Don't just say, "There is no GOD." Dare to dig in for "Yourself" and really, really, really prove, "There is no GOD." In the name of JESUS. AMEN.

J. J. Ramsey

Posted: November 24, 2007 2:15 PM

Some of these arguments are bad arguments, and some of them are non sequiturs. The fine-tuning argument was dealt with above, so I'll deal with some of the Scriptural arguments: * Yes, we have a lot of copies of the NT. This doesn't help if the original manuscripts were filled with half-truth or worse to start with. Even if you get past the apologetics, the texts still show serious errors in chronology and geography. So why should we rely on their more extraordinary claims? * "the Bible gives us the good, the bad, and the ugly of its heroes." It does not follow that we should believe that David slew Goliath because the author who tells us this also tells us that he committed murder by proxy and adultery.

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