To My Atheist Friends, Part One -By Brother Chuck

By Brother Chuck

Atheism like Christianity are both faith-based beliefs. The big difference is that Christians have historical and archaeological evidence, among other proofs, that support the existence of God. The evidence of a changed life is proof that supports the existence of God. As a Christian missionary, I've witnessed this kind of evidence all over the world. As human beings we all have this natural "sense" of God because of the created world around us (Romans 1:20 NLT). This is irrefutable evidence. Christians and non-Christians alike have had personal experiences that support the existence of God.

ATHEISM vs. RELIGION - Is there any difference? They're both faith-based religions. Psalm 14:1 reads, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" First, I'm not calling anyone here a fool, and second, thank God you're wrong. There is a God! As an atheist, you don't believe in the existence of God or you claim to have a "non-belief" in God because, you claim, there is no evidence to support the claim of deity. However, any evidence I've ever presented in my dialogue with atheists was never truly examined by the atheists. It was simply dismissed as non-evidence. As I debate and continue to serve up evidence, and by the way, there is an unending supply of evidence for the open-minded truth seeker, the atheists inevitably get angry and mock; they mock Christians, mock me, mock my intelligence and call me curse names. It was always at this point, that I knew the atheist had run out of any logical reasoning or arguments and I had won the debate. After calling me a few curse names, "poof" they disappear. Just because one declares he doesn't believe in God, doesn't mean God doesn't exist. That's just your "unproven belief". Furthermore, just because you ignore or dismiss the evidence as non-evidence, doesn't mean the evidence isn't there for you to exhaustively examine if you were really interested in searching for truth.

There are many arguments for the existence of God that we won't get into here. Because my article would become a book if I did. But if you're interested, one can google any of the following arguments: cosmological argument: conclusive argument, ontological argument, kalam cosmological argument, intelligent design-teleological arguments, personal experiences, transcendental argument, fine-tuning argument, moral argument, phenomenal argument, the Bible's scientific foreknowledge argument, the unity of the Bible argument, anthropic principle argument, image of God argument, consciousness argument, linguistic argument, evidence against evolution, and evidence for creation. I don't claim to be an expert on any of these arguments. Some of these are arguments I'm very familiar with and some I found online in my research.

According to atheists, the burden of proof is on the Christian to prove God's existence because he makes the claim. But I know from experience, that the atheist will inevitably dismiss all evidence as non-evidence, or he will say that's been refuted already, and he will never truly examine any evidence for himself. Those who have examined the evidence, became Christians.

After a thorough examination of two world views, former atheist Lee Strobel said: "Essentially, I realized that to stay an atheist, I would have to believe that nothing produces everything; non-life produces life; randomness produces fine-tuning; chaos produces information; unconsciousness produces consciousness; and non-reason produces reason. Those leaps of faith were simply too big for me to take, especially in light of the affirmative case for God's existence ... In other words, in my assessment the Christian worldview accounted for the totality of the evidence much better than the atheistic worldview."

The atheist doesn't really want to know the truth. But, God is still there, even though they reject Him. Their unwillingness to do an exhaustive evidential examination proves my point. They don't really want to know if God exists because if they discover through an unbiased exhaustive examination of ALL the evidence including Scripture that God does indeed exist, then they are suddenly accountable to Him. They can't live their life anyway they want to. And then the 10 Commandments, the Cross, the Bible, heaven and hell suddenly have meaning. But also, suddenly their life has meaning as well. Finally they have hope and a purpose.

I came across the website, Freedom From Religion. It's an atheistic website. The title, "Freedom From Religion" is a title I can relate to. Having ministered as a Christian missionary in many countries with many religions around the world, I too want freedom from religion. In fact, like you, God wants people to be free from religion as well. God hates religion! And with good reason. With some 4,200 different religions in the world today including Christianity, all but one of those religions (Christianity) are trying to draw mankind away from God. One can understand why He too wants all of mankind to have freedom from religion. And in heaven, we will.

Religion is dangerous because it leads people away from God and into eternal damnation. And no my atheist friends, I am not fear mongering. It's simply a warning such as a weather warning, e.g., a storm is approaching. Some religions are extremely dangerous to humanity in this lifetime e.g., the Branch Davidians. In 1993 the FBI tried to forcefully bring the Branch Davidians out of their Texas refuge, during which the building caught fire, and 80 members, including several children and Koresh himself, died. He could have just surrendered and spared all those lives. Another one is The People's Temple. Remember Jim Jones, Guyana? 918 people died. Most committed suicide. Heaven's Gate, a UFO religion and suicide cult from the 70's is another. 39 members of this cult were found dead by police. They all committed suicide. The Church of Euthanasia; the title says it all. This cult has four chief doctrines - suicide, abortion, cannibalism and sodomy. All of these religions were extremely dangerous because people suffered, died and some were sodomized. Other dangerous religions include Scientology, the KKK, Children of God (a twisted cult devoted to pedophilia and sex), Raëlianism (a UFO religion), Bavarian Illuminati, Aum Shinrikyo, and The Order of the Solar Temple. You can google these religious cults if you want to know more. So yeah, we Christians also want freedom from religion, especially twisted cults like these.

Then you have more typical religions attempting to send mankind into outer darkness. These religions aren't murdering people today, in this life. But ultimately they are leading people to hell which Biblically speaking is the second death (again not fear mongering; a warning, a storm is approaching). There are thousands of false religions like, Buddhism, Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Atheism, and so on and so on. I too want freedom from religion. Thank God, Jesus never said, "Come follow my religion." Jesus said, "Come follow me." (Matthew 4:19-20 NIV)

One of the definitions of religion in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is this: #3 "a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith."  Yep, that describes Atheism.

"Do atheists have beliefs? Of course they do! Atheists believe that matter arose by natural processes. Can they prove this? Not at all! Atheists believe the universe, all life, the laws of nature, and laws of logic arose by natural processes. Can they prove this? Of course not, but they believe it to be so. Atheists believe they cease to exist after they die. Can they prove this? No, but they believe this is what happens. Atheists believe no God exists. Can they prove this? Not at all-it's their belief. Atheists have a "system of belief held to with ardor and faith." Atheists are very religious people."

Please watch, 4 Reasons Why Christianity is True - by Frank Turek

"Atheism is a religion. It's a religion which explains life without God."

- Ken Ham -

It seems illogical to me and to billions of other theists around the world that the atheist would devote his entire life along with millions of dollars trying to prove something (God) doesn't exist. They have meeting places and gatherings. So do we Christians. They purchase air time on TV, radio, they put up billboards and purchase bus ads all in the name of, "God doesn't exist". Some of them probably believe in aliens from outer space (another factless belief). There are some people who believe in Sasquatch (Bigfoot). I don't happen to believe in either one. Fine if you do. But because I don't believe in them, doesn't mean I'm going to devote millions of dollars and my entire life trying to prove they don't exist, and emphatically trying to stop others from holding those beliefs. Frankly, I don't care what one believes. If some want to believe in aliens, Bigfoot, ghosts, unicorns and fairies etc. then I'm cool with that. So why do they care so much that I believe in God?

I too want freedom from religion, especially the religion of atheism. Atheists are really religious about this stuff. They're problem is they have no evidence to support their belief. You can't really take God out of schools. As long as teachers give tests, students will pray. Christianity really is unique. To my atheist friends, and to my friends from all other religions, consider what sets Christianity apart from all other religions:

• Christianity is the only religion built upon the person of Jesus Christ.

• All other religions require man to reach up to God through his own efforts in an attempt to save himself. Only in Christianity does God reach down to man and save him by grace alone; no effort required. The definition of grace here is, "unmerited favor".

• All other religions are rules and requirements of conformity to pacify their god. Only Christianity is a living, walking, talking personal relationship with God.

• Only Christianity looks to the Bible as it's one and only source for Truth, faith and practices of the Christian and the church (sola scriptura).

• Only Christianity is based upon the most amazing event in all of human history – the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Only in Christianity do we have the person of Jesus Christ who claimed to be God, backed up His claim by performing many miracles. He proved His claim of divinity when He died on the cross and rose from the dead, and He claimed that He alone is "the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6) and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. I believe in Him! And so do 2.4 billion other Christians around the world today. Yeah, Christianity really is unique from all the rest. If you're not following Jesus, you're making a huge mistake by following religion. Trying to convince oneself there is no God is foolish. The point of "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'" is that it is an unGodly, disrespectful, wickedly sinful heart that will deny God. The atheist's denial flies in the face of much evidence to the contrary, including his own conscience and the universe he lives in.

Please watch this Norman Geisler video, The 12 Points that proves Christianity is true. I'm sorry to say Norman Leo Geisler went to be with the Lord (July 21, 1932 - July 1, 2019). We will all certainly miss his wealth of apologetic knowledge. He was an American Christian systematic theologian and philosopher. He was also the co-founder of two non-denominational evangelical seminaries, Veritas International University and Southern Evangelical Seminary.

The 12 Points That Proves Christianity is True

1. Truth about reality is knowable.

2. Opposites cannot both be true.

3. The theistic God exists.

4. If God exists, then miracles are possible.

5. Miracles can be used to confirm a message from God.

6. The New Testament is historically reliable.

7. The New Testament says that Jesus claimed to be God.

8. Jesus' claim to be God is confirmed by miracles.

9. Therefore, Jesus is God.

10. Whatever Jesus (who is God) teaches is true.

11. Jesus taught that the Bible is the Word of God.

12. Therefore, it is true that the Bible is the Word of God (and anything opposed to it is false).

"Are you telling me in your heart of hearts that you honestly believe that all the planets, the solar systems, the entire universe, the planet Earth and everything on it... plant life, animal life, and human beings all just happened by random chance? Everything, the consequence of a naturalistic process over time?"

– From the article: To My Atheist Friends, Part Two →

You might also like, Are Quantum Physics and God Compatible? Oh Yeah! →