5 Questions To Ask An Atheist
Aug 17th, 2009 by Rich Bordner
“How can God exist amidst so much evil and suffering?”
“Why are so many Christians hypocrites?”
“Why isn’t there more evidence? Why is God so hidden?”
If you are a disciple of Jesus, you’ve probably been confronted with those questions, whereas if you are a skeptic, agnostic, or atheist, you’ve probably been the one asking the questions! Mostly, it is the religious who have to answer the tough questions. Skeptics also have some tough issues to face, though!
Rest assured, the questions above have good answers, but they shouldn’t be the only focus; the skeptic should be in the hotseat too:
1) Why is there something rather than nothing?
The “big bang” has a lot going for it, both scientifically and philosophically. If the “big bang” happened, then the universe began a finite time ago. Atheism runs smack dab into this–out of nothing, nothing comes. How could the universe just pop into existence uncaused? Either something outside the physical universe brought it into existence, or it all came ex nihilo. If the big bang happened, those are our options. Which is more solid?
2) What is it for something to be “good”?
Sometimes atheists say “you can be good without God,” but this goes much deeper than that. If all we have is the physical cosmos, then everyone, Christian included, *thinks* he is acting good, but it’s all a farce. I like cheese, you don’t. I like killing people, you don’t. How horrible would that be! In the absence of a universal moral good, the only thing left are preferences, pragmatics, and the herd morality. How can the atheist ground and justify a universal moral good? How can he say that racism or misogyny is not just wrong “for me,” but wrong, end of story? If someone from another culture says that beating homosexuals is ok, is he really wrong?
3) Inanimate matter stays that way no matter how complicated the arrangement. Without an immaterial mind, how can consciousness emerge from pure material?
Causally or correlatively linking a brain state to a mental state is not sufficient. You cannot reduce the mental to the physical because the former states possess properties the latter do not. For instance, mental states are first person, whereas brain states are third person.
4) If the physical world is all that exists, how can you explain free will?
5) This last one comes from The Wintery Knight: if Jesus appeared to you and told you everything about Him in the Bible is true, and witnesses confirm you weren’t hallucinating, what would you do?
Their answer will tell you a lot about the true state of their heart. Intent is prior to content: some, using the supposed lack of evidence as a red herring, won’t believe even if God appeared to them. The evidence is not the problem.
If you are a Christian, the next time you talk spiritual things with a skeptic, turn the tables a bit! If you yourself are a skeptic, thinking deeply about these questions might lead you to a surprising truth.
