There are many critics of theism, Christian theism in particular, who dispute the existence of God, claiming that science has indeed killed society’s need for God.Often,atheists generally argue that the Big Bang creation of the universe was followed by the origin of life, which in turn was further driven by the process of evolution, ultimately resulting in the emergence of human beings millions of years later. All along the way, scientific theory provides the explanation of how such a stepwise progression is possible. Therefore, there is no longer a need for God, or so it is said. It was, in fact, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who boldly said that as a consequence of the great advances of man, “God is dead and we have killed him.” What Nietzsche meant, of course, was that modern man, bolstered by the advances of science, no longer needs God to explain anything. Therefore, it is argued, faith now rests fully in the power of science rather than in an unseen God. The grand irony in all of this is that atheism in and of itself requires a great deal of faith as well. Sure enough, arguments can be strongly madeandhavebeenmadebyChristian writers Norman Geisler and Frank Turek, that atheism requires so much faith that, more often than not, the earnest Seeker does not have enough faith to be an atheist.
For example, the atheist must have faith that energy and matter already existed before the Big Bang, because science is without explanation of how they came into being out of nothing. So, to believe takes some measureoffaith.Furthermore,itrequires a greater measure of faith to believe that the Big Bang occurred naturally without the intervention of Someone or Something to initiate it. It seems highly unlikely that if the universe had a beginning, then matter and energy were not brute facts but created realities.
Atheism also requires a large measure of faith that human life evolved from a warm pond of prebiotic elements, advancing in complexity all the way up the evolutionary tree from earthworm to Einstein. All this by unguided random genetic mutations. But the remarkable amount of faith required to believe in atheism does not stop there. Faith is required to believe, as the religious skeptic does, that complex structures and functions like the human eye and the blood clotting cascade evolved little by little, piece by piece, through natural selection over millions of years in spite of these systems being proven to be irreducibly complex. Atheism also requires a full measure of faith that human beings are not composed of both a body and a spirit, despite the strongest evidence indicating that the brain (body) and the mind (soul) are separate entities. Atheistic neuroscientists remain frustrated that they have no natural explanation for the mental states produced by the mind.
That’s not all. Atheism requires faithtounderstandhumanmorality as a product of evolutionary forces designed to allow greater tolerance within a naturally competitive group through social cooperation. Great faith is required because such a notion is in direct conflict and contradiction with the mantra of evolution: “survival of the fittest.” It seems to me they are mutually exclusive claims. One can choose only one or the other but not both. I think Alfred Lord Tennyson was right when he described nature as “red in tooth and claw.” That is, Darwinian survival of the species is a bloody fight, not a community social. Therefore, morality also remains beyond the sciences’ ability to adequately explain from whence it comes.
Atheism also requires a substantial measure of faith to hold that all Christian and all secular historical sources for the resurrection of Jesus lied about what they reported as truth about the event. Some 13 historical sources in all, written within 100 years of Jesus’ life. Once again, atheism requires great faith to suppose all of these accounts, some even given by enemies of Christianity, are false. But that is not all. Atheism requires faith that the tomb of Jesus was not found empty but was occupied by a corpse despite multiple eyewitness testimonies to the contrary. It also requires a tremendous amount of faith to believe, wrongly, that the apostles suffered and died for what they knew to be a lie about what happened to Jesus after He died. Finally, it takes a tremendous amount of faith to declare that 2.3 billion Christians around the world are, each and every one, out of their minds.
That is, after all, the point of all of this: with so many things that science cannot explain, how much faith does it take to be an atheist? After thorough consideration of the facts, it seems to me that atheism requires too much faith to believe. Maybe that is why Giesler and Turek conclude with the utmost confidence, “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.”
Join us next time as we press forward to answering the question: Is God dead?
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics, and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife Vicki are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore. You can contact him at: dr.kerley@isGoddead.com.