Psalm 53:1a (ESV) 1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
When we talk with atheists, they usually seem to think atheism is the default position. What I mean by that is they think if the evidence for God’s existence doesn’t convince them, then they claim atheism is the rational conclusion. But, let’s look at that for a minute.
Webster’s definition of “atheism” is “a philosophical or religious position characterized by disbelief in the existence of a god or any gods.” So, atheism’s mantra is, “There is no god,” not that they cannot know if there is a god (hard agnosticism), or they just don’t know if there is a god (soft agnosticism), but they are actually confident there is no god.
The statement, “There is no god,” is as much a truth claim as, “There is a God,” and requires just as much evidence to justify it. So, if the atheist cannot prove there is no god, then their conclusion is no better than soft agnosticism.
Sometimes you’ll hear this response: “You can’t prove a universal negative.” That’s not really true either. I can prove there are no purple elephants in my office right now. Universal negatives can be proven, so there is no leg to stand on for their claim.
The bigger question is, “Can someone claim there is no god?” Well, there are good arguments for the existence of God. Many of them have been outlined here on this blog. But, can someone really say they know enough of the totality of the knowledge of the universe to say for certain there is no god? Unless we can know everything, and I do mean everything, couldn’t God exist in that part we don’t know? Of course He could.
And what if God had made Himself even more obvious? What if He had carved a sign into our moon saying, “God exists.” Would we have more people believing in God? In his book, Foundations for a Christian World View (p. 158) J.P. Moreland points out, “In the Old Testament God is described as revealing himself to his people in manifest wonders: the plagues upon Egypt, the pillar of fire and smoke, the parting of the Red Sea. But did such wonders produce lasting heart-change in the people? No, Israel fell into apostasy with tiresome repetitiveness.” So, as part of the human condition, miracles become commonplace, we stray from belief and view signs of God’s presence as just the norm.
In the TV show, Joan of Arcadia, God, having taken on a human form, was having a conversation with Joan trying to show her that He was in fact, God. She, said, “Okay. Show me a miracle.” God pointed to a tree. Joan responded, “That’s just a tree.” God said, “Okay let’s see you make one.” God’s creation already testifies to His work, but we’ve taken it all for granted. It would be the same if God made Himself even more plain.
So, we mustn’t let the atheists bully us. It doesn’t follow if we can’t prove God’s existence to their satisfaction then atheism must be our conclusion. There are many reasons that simply isn’t sufficient. At best, we might arrive at soft agnosticism.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 