Expert: Quentin Parker - 7/21/2010

Question
How do you personally talk to atheists? It seems pointless. I'm talking to someone right now, telling him that everybody knows that there's a God, except the atheists won't admit it. Of course, he denies this idea.

I know the Bible teaches that the creation itself will give us each the witness that there is a God, so do these atheists really feel this? Is that why they lash out at Christians? Because we are the witnesses for the Bible, and the Bible teaches that everyone is accountable to God, and that is unacceptable to atheists?

Answer
Hi  John,

Thank-you for your question. I’ll address your questions under three different headings…

1. INNATE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

Yes, you’re right, Scripture says that all men have a knowledge of God. Romans 1:18-22 says: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.” And the first few verses of Psalm 19 concur: “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork; day unto day utters speech and night unto night shows knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out into all the earth and their words to the end of the world.”

Paul, in Romans 1, affirms that God reveals Himself plainly and undeniably through natural (or ‘general’) revelation so that men have no legitimate excuse for their unbelief. However, since the Fall, unredeemed mankind is at enmity with God – they don’t want to believe – and so they suppress this knowledge of Him.

2. PERSUADING ATHEISTS

You’re quite right – in our own strength talking to atheists IS utterly pointless because their hearts are hardened against the truth. They’re steadfastly committed to suppressing the truth in unbelief and unrighteousness. As the parable of the rich man in Luke 16 tells us, (‘if they refuse to listen to Moses and the Prophets, they won’t be convinced even if someone were to come back from the dead’) – no matter how compelling our evidence is it’s not going to convince the unbeliever who is not submitted to the authority of God’s Word. But thankfully, we don’t trust in our finite wisdom and persuasiveness to save and convince people but in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. God is the only One who can make the blind see, the deaf hear, raise the dead to life, and turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh.


3.  HOW TO TALK TO ATHEISTS

It’s vitally important, when discussing the existence of God and the truth of the Bible with an atheist that you remember that there is NO neutral ground between the atheist and the believer. The atheist’s entire worldview is bent on rebellion: escape from the truth and opposition to God, whereas the believer’s worldview is centered around submission: obedience to Scripture and surrender to the lordship of Christ. See, the atheist’s basic commitment is to unbelief and rebellion and he will thus judge any fact and argument you may offer in light of this basic presupposition  – even to the point of being ridiculous and illogical because his primary commitment is not to logic, or science, or evidence, but to his unbelief and rebellion. He will do all he can to try to escape the truth, to escape God.

An effectual, God-honoring, approach to take when talking with atheists is to show them the ‘impossibility of the contrary’: that without first believing in God’s existence and the truth of Scripture it is impossible to account for any of our experience or to prove anything at all. Facts cannot be known apart from God for it is only in His “light that we see light”. It’s only through belief in God and His Word that any part of our experience can be made intelligible; Christian theism is the only worldview that can account for Logic, for Morality, for Science (uniformity of nature (the laws of nature), inductive reasoning, the reliability of sense perception etc.) and – in fact – for any facet of life and experience.

If the unbeliever tries to use logic to refute Christianity, show him that logic and reason are the property of the believer.  According to the atheist’s materialistic worldview there exists nothing more than matter in motion and therefore it simply cannot account for rationality or for immaterial, absolute laws such as the laws of logic. If an atheist attempts to use morality to disprove God’s existence (i.e. the argument commonly called “The Logical Problem of Evil” which tries to show logical contradiction between the two premises 1.God is good and powerful, and 2. Evil exists) tell him that without belief in a holy and good God who provides an absolute Standard for morality it doesn’t even make sense to speak of any distinction between good and evil. If the unbeliever purports to use science to argue against Scripture, remind him that if he was consistent in his unbelieving worldview he couldn’t account for the Laws of Nature: uniformity of nature, induction, the reliability of his senses etc. There is no knowledge, or truth, or intelligibility apart from God.

As Proverbs 9:10 says: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the holy is understanding.”

You can read some excellent articles on apologetics at this link: http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Apologetics/Greg-Bahnsen/

Thanks again for your question, John. I do hope you find this helpful. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

God bless!
Quentin Parker

Where is the wise? Where is the disputer of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" (1 Cor. 1:20).