Prologue

We have to be compassionate: people have been hurt in the past. Broken promises. Unfulfilled expectations. Two people can be exposed to the same evidence, but end up with a different conclusion. Not everybody is on the same page because we read the world through a different lens. Telling facts might not change someone’s mind. Our life experience will play a key role in our decisions.

Nobody is without bias, including myself.

Types of atheism

Not all atheists believe the same thing, just like not all Christians don’t believe the same doctrine. I’ve figure out 3 main branches of non-belief in God:

1. The Agnostic
2. The Militant
3. The Indifferent

The Agnostic

That categories are usually people with a neutral stance on religion in general. They don’t hate it or love it. They seek for genuine answers for life’s deepest questions. Since they never got deeply wounded by religion, they are mostly honest & less bias. The idea of religion doesn’t bother them. They never made a definitive decision.

Origin of their belief: never got exposed to the Gospel, no good or bad experience of the faith

The Militant

Example: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchen, Dan Barker, etc.
They are the one who usually attacks the Church by all sort of way. One thing for sure is that they don’t stay indifferent. All of them has been wounded by one way or another by religion (intellectually, emotionally, etc). Most of the influential militant atheists today are ex-Christians, with a frustrating Church experience.
Ex: Matt Dillahunty, Michael Shermer, Dan Barker, etc.

Militant atheists at their extreme can go bias and dishonest (mostly trolls or activists). But most of the intellectual debaters like Sam Harris do have a more sound & rigorous argumentation to share.

Contrary to the indifferent, they believe in a black & white area: religion is evil, atheism is the cure. That what makes religious debates so engaging.

Origin of their belief: interior wound caused by any type of religious experience; or they just never got a personal encounter with Jesus Christ (Jesus is the Logos, that connects everything together)

The Indifferent

Ex: Millenials, freethinkers

Known as the “nones” or the “unaffiliated”. Whenever religion is true or false, they just don’t care at all. They want to live their life as it pleases them. They tend to value relativism, universalism, inclusion, etc. and reject pre-made religion, exclusivity & hierarchy. They can be hostile sometimes when peace & harmony is threated. Since there are many alternatives to Christianity, they put that faith equally & in the same categories as others. Some will pick & choose a bit of every religion and make their own version. They don’t want a religion that challenges them but makes them feel good & comfortable.

Christianity is just one amongst many other options to pick and chose. There’s no objective truth.

Heaven & Hell are unfair visions, and so they can reject it.

Their moral standard is based on what feels good and not. That belief is irrational, mostly based on feelings.

They don’t believe in objective truth, so Christianity doesn’t have any more value than other belief systems.

Motto: I’m spiritual but not religious, whatever, it doesn’t matter, I’m a good person, etc.

Origin of their belief: societal pressure, relativism

Make the difference

Frank Turek makes the distinction about a person’s position is by asking this question:

“If Christianity is true, would you become a Christian?”

Some atheists will refuse to believe even if Christianity is 100% true without a doubt. No amount of evidence will ever be sufficient, they just don’t want to believe.

It’s because 2 people can be exposed to the same evidence, but end up with a totally different conclusion based on their worldview.

“I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I am right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.” ¹
Thomas Nagel (American philosopher)

How people lost their faith

A lot of current militant atheists used to be devoted Christians.

• Michael B. Shermer (Skeptic magazine): pray to God to heal his girlfriend, but got no answer²
• Tom Jump: problem of suffering, unanswered prayers³
• Genetically Modified Skeptic: science against religion, superstitions
• Bart D. Ehrman: errors in the Bible, problem of suffering
• Matt Dillahunty:
• …

Psychology of atheism

Everybody has a hungry heart. Once we get hurt, we can turn into another direction: seeking revenge.

The existence of God can be self-evident for a lot of people (including myself).
If the arguments are so strong, then why do people are still refusing to believe?

Skeptics want signs from God to prove his existence, but they also believe in Hume’s argument that miracles are impossible. At the end of the day, you can’t have both because they contradict each other.

Why is this happening?

Missing father

Paul C. Vitz (psychologist) wrote a book where he compared devoted Christians (priests, theologians, apologists, etc.) with influential atheists (Sartre, Nietzsche, Stalin, etc.). The difference: their experience with their father when they were kids. The strong believers did all have a good, loving & caring dad. On the other hand, the atheists had a hard time connecting the dots with a dysfunctional dad (either dead early, abusive, weak, etc.).

When we talk about the love of God, we talk about the love of a father. As a child, who to comes first into your mind: your own biological father! What if, our experience is really bad? It will create a dysfunctional effect on us.

This doesn’t mean that people with bad fathers will end up atheists. He was analysing the influening ones. The opposite can also happen. Don Bosco had a ‘substitute father‘, someone who plays a secondary role for replacing his own biological dad.

Every human being needs a role model, someone to admire and rely on.
Missing a good father is one thing, but our environment also influences us. When we are frustrated, maybe someone persuades us to rebel

In my own experience, I can tell that people who have a deeply wounded experience with the Church do have a defective father experience.

St Augustine, he had a pagan dad and a Christian mother. What retain him from being a Christian was he didn’t find strength in his mom’s belief. It was until he met St Ambrose, a highly intelligent men, who will become his mentor, that the question of God raised back seriously.

Again, be a role model.

Rebel for a reason

Have you ever wonder how was the family atmosphere of founders of huge organizations who promote anti-Christian values? Here’s are 3 examples: Playboy, Planned Parenthood & Church of Satan. Their founders all evolved in a Christian home.

1. Hugh Hefner (Playboy)
2. Margaret Sanger (Planned Parenthood)
3. Anton Szandor LaVey (Church of Satan)

Leading by example

“Your child will follow your example, not your advice.”

“Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.”
Rita Pierson (TED speaker)

Everyone has as role model they get attach to.

Missing a good father is one thing, but our environment also influences us. When we are frustrated, maybe someone persuades us to rebel.

We tend to adopt the value of people we love & admire. That’s why marketing agencies tend to use Hollywood stars to influence the customers.

We, as a human being, also have a natural instinct. We want to rely on the strong ones to survive. Our dad can be a good one, but if a good argument weight heavier, they will pursue it instead.

The other day, I did a small online survey with my youth ministry (TNTT). I asked the leaders why they became leaders. All of them, without exception, answer to me that it was because of a previous leader who inspired them.

In the Middle East, according to Ravi Zacharias, Muslims seriously convert to Christianity due to 2 reasons: the witness of an exemplary missionary or a daily dream of Jesus for years.

Our behavior can convert or de-convert. That’s the deal.

Arguments & healing

Sometimes, it’s not the argument. Some atheists admit, even if God exists, they would reject Him anyways. It’s a problem of the will.

Some people are hard-minded & cynical.
No matter how persuasive & rational your arguments are, they don’t want to accept it.

Types of wounds

Most of the people who left the Church has been wounded somewhere. They experienced ignorance, fraud, false promises, etc.

Intellectual

Example:

People has been exposed to false promises. When we believe something to be true so hard, there’s a high risk of getting hurt if they got it wrong.

Bad theology is more harmful than no theology at all. That is why it’s good to debate what theology is the right one.

Spiritual

Christianity isn’t a ‘feeling good’ religion. That’s New Age. Christianity is hard & demanding. It has high demand, ask for people to constantly grow, change and become more holy.

Many Christian made that mistakes, thinking that faith is solely based on emotions. They will argue that faith is about “just believe it” without evidence (fideism), critical thinking or Scriptural passages. They just take it as granted.

Faith is knowledge & trust. The Greek word is ‘Πίστις’ (pistis). And the very sad reality now, is that majority of Christians aren’t properly educated in their faith.

Dryness of a spiritual life can affect & discourage people. They want quick results to solve their problems.

Emotional

Every human being put their hopes somewhere. We trust big promises. The problem of evil & suffering is an emotional problem, not a rational one.

Emotions can create huge bias with personal preferences.