National Atheists’ Day

In the early 1990's my job required a lot of travelling around Victoria. To pass the time I started listening to audio books, especially autobiographies, histories and the like. I found personal stories where people spoke of their own life history and experiences particularly interesting.

As a Christian I found the stories of atheists particularly interesting and challenging. While I cannot recall the names of those I listened to there was a common theme running through all of these. They had been raised in Christian homes and still adhered to what I see as Christian values. Yet they rejected the religion of their youth. Why?

The answer was simple. Rules and rituals seemed meaningless and restrictive. Difficult questions were met with simplistic and unsatisfactory answers – well, you just have to believe, don’t question God, because that’s the way it is, etc. Little wonder so many atheists today accuse Christians of accepting faith blindly, of not thinking for themselves, of being brainwashed.

Recently I saw a bumper sticker proclaiming ‘National Atheists’ Day – April 1’ with the words ‘The fool says in his heart “There is no God”’ (Psalm 14:1) beneath it in smaller print. My response to that was quite negative and left me questioning the mentality of the driver or whoever had placed it there in the first place. This negativity is reinforced when I see some of the comments placed on line by Christians in response to comments made by atheists challenging religion. Anyone who trades in insults and personal abuse rather than debate around the issue has, in my mind, lost the argument. It simply reflects a lazy intellect and, from a Christian perspective, insults God.

If, as the Bible says, God created humans in His ‘image and likeness’ He created us with brains. Many books have been written about the capacity of the brain and how little of it we use. The ability to question, reason, hypothesize, test and reach conclusions seems to be a purely human attribute. If He didn't want us to use it why did He give it to us in the first place? Can we honour God if we don’t use it?

There will always be gaps in human knowledge. In fact, the more we know the more we realise we don’t know. We will never know all there is to know, so we shouldn't feel threatened when asked questions we cannot answer. Questions we can’t answer give us the opportunity to explore further, to grow mentally. While I reject the notion of blind faith, believing that Christianity can stand up to intellectual interrogation, the nature of faith is that we will never have all the answers. Tough questions can be asked of Christianity and the Bible but the inability to answer fully or partially some of these does not take away what I see as its basic integrity.

As I see it many atheists are seekers for truth. They possess an honest integrity that looks for a reasonable explanation for the world in which they live and are repulsed by some of the things done in the name of religion. Many make outstanding contributions to the advancement of human welfare and look for answers to the problems facing the world.

Attitudes such as that expressed in the bumper sticker proclaiming ‘National Atheists Day’ do nothing to advance Christianity and can only help confirm in the minds of atheists an anti-intellectual view of religion. When it comes to discourse with those who disagree with us, all I can say to my fellow believers is ‘Use your God given brain”. You might learn something.