Posted by
Patrick Henry on Thursday, December 11, 2008 11:07:27 PM
Ever hear about the dyslexic atheist who says he doesn't believe in "dog?" If the
humor in that one eludes you, you'll be even less amused by the signs and placards
posted by militant atheists in public places during this holiday season proclaiming
that "there is no God," and "humanity does not need a Saviour." Proudly trumpeting
their right under the Constitution to publicly tout their anti-religion, they avow
their negative purpose of criticizing all religions.
With the gays hyping their "Pink Nativity" with two "Josephs" and two "Marys"
it seems that the Grinch won't need much help stealing Christmas from the rest
of us. On the premise that "all that is required for evil to prevail is for good men
to do nothing," maybe it's time for a little pushback.
What the atheists don't want you to know is that their unbelief is, in fact, a
belief. If most people's faith is that God is real, their faith is that He is not. The
philosopher John Wisdom once propounded a parable about people living in a
magnificent garden. Many in the garden, pointing to the orderliness of growing
and harvesting seasons, the blessings of life-giving rain and warming sun, the
beauty of the blossoming flowers and the sustenance provided by the fruits and
vegetables, believed that there must be a great and benevolent gardener who came
unseen to tend his paradise.. Others, focusing on the chill of winter, the rocks, thorns
and thistles in the soil, those crops dead on the vine and the fact that they had never
seen this elusive gardener, said that he must not exist. So which group was right?
Before jumping to conclusions it is prudent to understand afresh that religion calls
people to faith, not to knowledge. When a proposition is empirically proven, it can be
said that we"know" it to be a fact. Otherwise, whatever we conclude about it is a
belief, i.e., a "faith." So if we "knew" God to exist, then we could no longer have
"faith" in the classic sense. It is key that the Bible, for example, summons men to
faith -- belief within a vacuum of certainty. Lacking that, the Bible further says,
humans cannot be reconciled to God.
In view of all this, the religious need not be disheartened by the atheist's demand
that we prove God to him. God is no scientist, nor is He bound by science's narrow
definition of what is factual. That the religious cannot prove God's existence is no
more damaging than the atheists' total inability to disprove it.
So how, then, are we as creatures of reason to make a choice? What do we believe
about our "garden?" Is there a Gardener, or not? To decide, we must subject the claims
and the counter claims to two telling tests? How we evaluate the results will likely
determine the faith we choose. Tomorrow's installment of this essay will explain
the tests, and explore their results.