A Christian view of reality and modern atheism
This essay is a responce to Mike Winger about his YouTube video dated 5/23/2023,
titled 'A powerful argument against Christianity'. I don't think that God is hidden.
I certainly know He is not hidden in my life.
The purpose of this essay is to offer a philosophical argument why God
has designed the world to provide scientific/historical evidence that is
purposely sometimes in favor of His existence and the Gospel and
sometimes not in favor of His existence and the Gospel.
If we suppose that the God of the Bible prefers not to force His existence on the people
of earth, then He must have so formed the earth so as to allow for some naturalistic
theory of its formation, along with the Bible's supernatural presentation of its formation.
But this would clearly rule out the earth being flat.
God wants you to find Him. He has left Himself a witness of His existence in the factual
world. Jesus promised to manifest Himself to His true followers. The existence of God
can be easily seen in the things of the modern world we take for granted. God can be
found in those unlikely, but meaningful, coincidences we have throughout our lives.
The ancient greek philosopher Plato put forward in one of his books the
argument that we have a choice of beliefs about what is right and wrong
(or pious and unpious): 1) That which the gods think is pious is received
of them from some outside source, which accounts for their belief that it
is pious. 2) The gods invent their own notion of piety and then hand that
notion down to humans. At stake is the status of piety itself. Is piety
logically prior to the gods, or is it the invention of the gods? And by
'invention', I don't mean merely the concept of piety, but rather the
particular rules of piety. I don't believe that the conceptual origin of
piety is addressed by Plato in his argument. And this is as far as I will
go with the classical version of this topic. The modern-day version of it,
particularly as it pertains to God, especially the Christian God, of whom
I claim to be a follower, is where I'll take the discussion now.
Do you think that your faith in God, specifically in Jesus, should rely only on the "facts"
coupled to your rational mind? If that's the case, you will probably never believe in Jesus.
This is what we're supposed to do:
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first
commandment. -- Mark 12:30
What has just been described are four modes of worship and service to God. But they
are much more than that. They are also four modes of communication with and
understanding of God. If you have decided to approach the question of the God of
the Bible through only science and secular history (the domain of the mind), then
you are using only one cylinder instead of four cylinders to understand the existence
and nature of God. That bypasses issues of 1) knowing by intuition (through the soul),
2) the love of justice and virtue and the love of your neighbor (the realm of the heart).
3) And what about strength? Of course it can refer to physical strength, such as of
'going the extra mile', as Jesus commanded. But it can also refer to a strength of
character and of will, so that we adhere to Jesus and His teachings, come hell or high
water. If you ever do come to Jesus, you had better put that out front and center of
your own convictions, what I call, in my Ilfinor novels, the Brenjah-dar. And then you
will be changed -- the old things will pass away, and a new creation will emerge. Being
a true Christian is not just to accept a set of outward practices, religious beliefs, and
moral restrictions. Nevertheless, as we see so often in the news the scandals involving
political and religious celebrities, if you do not get control of your lusts and feelings of
entitlements, they will get control of you.
- You have to be instructed of God the Father first, and then by the words of Jesus.
- Love your neighbors (be kind), love justice, love virtue. Hate racism.
- Love the truth, which is to hate lies. Never tell a lie. Reject unproven conspiracy
theories immediately.
- Listen to your intuitive feelings of truth and virtue.
I have always believed that I live within a Moral Universe, and that I didn't make
this universe moral by personal decree. Rather, I recognized it to be moral because my
own intuition told me it has to be this way. This degree of confidence did not come from
the teachings of my parents, church, or culture. It came from inside of me. But it was
reaffirmed by the Father, for He spoke to me -- but not me only. Jesus said that if He
were lifted up (on the cross) that He would draw all men unto Him [John 12:32]. That's
billions of people (including you), not just me. Just the same, you can lead a horse to
water, but you can't make him drink. So, led you were by the Holy Spirit, but how did
you respond?
A list of axioms I made up to understand where atheism comes from.
In a YouTube video published by Penguin Books UK (November 22, 2019), Neil deGrasse
Tyson answered a few questions. I found all the questions interesting, but the one that
first caught my eye was the one which was used to title the video: "Was the moon landing
faked?" But this is not the question that I intend to respond to. That question was: "Does
God Exist?" Before I go any further, I will make full disclosure: I am a Christian (but not
an evangelical, which to me nowadays means to be a cult member). I am a young-earth
creationist. And, I am a believer in the reality of the moon landings in 1969-1972 (they
were not faked), and that the earth revolves around the sun, our local star. I am also a
pro-vaccination and pro-mask believer, during this pandemic and otherwise. (It's a public
moral duty to be vaccinated.)
I present my own rebuttals (as I have time to get to them) to Lloyd Evans's 30
'obvious' Bible contradictions, which he presented in a YouTube video.
I reply to Episode 26.08 (Feb. 23, 2022) of The Atheist Experience.