Category Archives: Atheism

Article: When Science Points to God

Author and speaker Dinesh D’Souza has debated well-known atheists such as Christopher Hitchens, Michael Shermer, and Daniel Dennett.

In his recent article, When Science Points to God, D’Souza discusses the relationship between science, atheism, and a Creator. What does the scientist do when empirical data begins to suggest that a “plot” is involved in the creation of the universe?

Whether you enjoy D’Souza’s work or not, the New Atheists despise him so he must be doing something right!

[HT: Chad A. Gross]

Bill Maher and John Piper

Denny Burk says:

You have probably seen by now one of the ads for Bill Maher’s new documentary “Religulous.” If you haven’t seen it, it’s a movie that was produced for the expressed purpose of denigrating religion. The fundamental point seems to be that having faith in any religion is ridiculous—thus “Religulous.” In the trailer for the movie, the following exchange takes place between Maher and a person dressed up like Jesus.

Maher: Why doesn’t [God] just obliterate the devil and therefore get rid of evil in the world?

Jesus Impersonator: He will.

Maher
: He will?

Jesus Impersonator
: That’s correct.

Maher: What’s he waiting for?

The whole point of the exchange is to show how ridiculous it is that the Christian God will not do anything about evil in the world even though He’s supposed to be both good and all-powerful. Even though it’s delivered with sarcastic humor, Maher is asking a serious question. At bottom the exchange is really about the classical question of theodicy, and the whole thing is framed in a way to discredit the Christian faith.

In a recent blog post, John Piper answers Maher’s question, though he doesn’t mention Maher’s name. Nevertheless, the title of Piper’s essay reads like an allusion to “Religulous”: “Why not destroy the devil now?” Piper gives an answer that is (as you might expect) grounded in God’s passion for His own glory. God is most glorified by allowing Satan to remain for a time. He writes:

“The glory of Christ is seen in his absolute right and power to annihilate or incapacitate Satan and all demons. But the reason he refrains from destroying and disabling them altogether is to manifest more clearly his superior beauty and worth. If Christ obliterated all devils and demons now (which he could do), his sheer power would be seen as glorious, but his superior beauty and worth would not shine as brightly as when humans renounce the promises of Satan and take pleasure in the greater glory of Christ.”

Maher’s question deserved a serious answer, and I am grateful that Piper took the time to write one. You should read the rest.

“Why Not Destroy the Devil Now?” – by John Piper (desiringgod.org)

Bobby Maddex on Bill Maher

From Bobby Maddex:

What a fun game, Bill. Let me give it a try:

So there are all these chemicals just kind of floating around in space. Somehow, the chemicals begin reacting against each other; they form our universe and then our planet; and then create this miraculous bowl of soup. Then get this: Out of the (non-living) soup comes a (living) cell that then turns into a fish. The fish grows some legs and eventually becomes an opossum. That opossum turns itself into a whole mess of other animals, including monkeys. These monkeys learn to stop flinging poop at each other long enough to begin walking upright, at which point they become human. The humans then have a bunch of babies who have other babies until a baby named Charles is born who argues that he knows how the world came to have babies in the first place. Some of the humans decide that they like Charles’s story better than the other stories circulating throughout society (mostly because the other stories require them to behave like humans instead of monkeys), so they dismiss the other stories. Eventually, it becomes fashionable among some humans to ridicule stories that aren’t Charles’s, whereupon a human named Bill makes a movie about how “religulous” non-Charles stories are.

Wow, that was fun and easy.

[HT: James M. Kushiner]

Free Apologetic MP3 Downloads from Doug Wilson

If you’ve never heard Doug Wilson debate, now is your chance and best of all… it’s FREE! Pastor Wilson is a very important figure in the ongoing debate with the “New Atheism” that has so loudly proclaimed itself as the truth in recent years. Thankfully, Canon Press is now offering several mp3s and a new book where Pastor Wilson has debated these atheists. See the information below for what they are offering. But first, I would like to draw your attention to the free mp3 they are offering on why Doug Wilson would even attempt to debate an atheist. You can download that mp3 from my web site here or listen to it from the player in this post. Enjoy!

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Here is the info about the free mp3s:

Apologetics, the Why and the How

“But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…” (1 Peter 3:15, ESV)

For most Christians, Peter’s words present a daunting challenge. Unless you’re a pastor, or an evangelist, or someone else similarly gifted and accustomed to preaching the Gospel, giving a defense of your faith tends to be a messy enterprise. Answers rarely come easy. Objections, on the other hand, come like a mighty river, and they’re often difficult to refute and turn aside. And often, Christian apologetics seems to be a futile exercise—we can’t argue anyone into the truth, and sometimes it looks like our efforts only make unbelievers more stubborn in their resistance to the Gospel.

Over the past year-and-a-half, Pastor Wilson has written several books attacking the “New Atheism” movement, but debating atheists is not a newfound hobby for him. Wilson has debated atheists Eddie Tabash and Dan Barker—each of them twice, no less—in the past fifteen years. And in this CRF Lecture, Why Debate an Atheist, he explains what good can come of such debates and why he has taken the time to participate in them. For those who question debates’ worth, or who would simply like to know what they can learn from them, this lecture provides answers.

To celebrate the release of Is Christianity Good for the World?, we’re offering this talk as a free MP3 download. Please visit the item page to download the talk, and please share it with your friends: it is a wonderful introduction to and defense of Christian apologetics, particularly since we face the ongoing attacks of New Atheism.

And speaking of Is Christianity Good for the World?, we have been very pleased with the reception it has received thus far. Not only has it sold well on Amazon and other online retailers, but it is also being featured on front tables in Barnes & Noble stores across the country. (Please feel free to point your friends or your blog links to ischristianitygoodfortheworld.com: not only can they see a good-sized picture of the book, but they can choose where they would like to purchase a copy.)

“If there is no God, …

then all that exists is time and chance acting on matter. If this is true then the difference between your thoughts and mine correspond to the difference between shaking up a bottle of Mountain Dew and a bottle of Dr. Pepper. You simply fizz atheistically and I fizz theistically. This means that you do not hold to atheism because it is true , but rather because of a series of chemical reactions… … Morality, tragedy, and sorrow are equally evanescent. They are all empty sensations created by the chemical reactions of the brain, in turn created by too much pizza the night before. If there is no God, then all abstractions are chemical epiphenomena, like swamp gas over fetid water. This means that we have no reason for assigning truth and falsity to the chemical fizz we call reasoning or right and wrong to the irrational reaction we call morality. If no God, mankind is a set of bi-pedal carbon units of mostly water. And nothing else.”

Douglas Wilson