Cyclic Arguments for Atheism

Several years ago, a non-Christian friend asked me how I accounted for people, even people before Jesus, espousing many of the same ideologies preached in the Gospel. Unfortunately, most of his other Christian friends were, let's say ill informed and over-zealous*, and had previously told him that such men were sent by Satan to give us cause to doubt the origins of Jesus' message. Understandably, this wasn't terribly palatable to him. My answer on the other hand, which was sufficient for most of the people in the room, basically boiled down to Common Grace and Jesus being the Eternal Word. The friend who posed the question, not wanting to appear beaten, responded by saying, "But I don't believe that." Amazingly enough, that's a pretty generic example of a pretty dumb strategy I've seen a lot lately across the interwebs when those hostile to religion feel the need to try and challenge religious individuals with the intent of embarrassment. As such, I thought I'd address it quickly.

Attention, atheists: I know plenty of you, I generally understand your reasons for not believing, and I think most of you are perfectly swell folks irregardless. But, when you're debating the relative merits of theism, or asking how people of faith respond to apparent paradoxes or more general quandaries, you've got to remember that you're going to get a theological answer rather than a practical one nine times out of ten. After all, if there were a clear, practical answer, you wouldn't be asking the question in the first place. Moreover, the challenge was never to somehow "solve" the problem for you -- a rigged game if ever there was one. It was to explain how a person of faith can justify continued belief in spite of it.

So, while I welcome you to go on ahead and challenge the answer given, whether you're questioning its theological basis or its ability to adequately resolve the issue; asserting that said answer is invalid because of its nature and resultantly claiming some sort of victory for yourself just makes you look like an ass. It's what happened to my friend when I simply retorted with, "but I do," and he got laughed at so hard that he briefly left the room; and it will happen to you if your "opponent" is even mildly competent.**

Thank you, and goodnight.


Also, for those interested, this was brought on by this tweet and my consideration of how poorly the man who wrote it would likely respond to an answer revolving around doctrines of Inspiration and The Trinity in light of earlier boasting about his atheism -- always a bad sign.



*In this case, Youth Group leaders at the local Evangelical Free Church. Sorry to the EV Free people in the audience, but this sort of experience is why I'm generally skeptical of your churches.

**and if they aren't competent, you haven't accomplished anything anyway, so shut your damned trap. ;)