I’ve missed the point of atheism—missed it all along—
I thought I was an atheist, but now I know I’m wrong:
An atheist hates God, you see, because he loves his sins
(It says so in the bible, and the bible always wins).
An atheist loves cruelty; an atheist loves death;
Defending immorality with every lawless breath
Their ideal life is meaningless—it’s nasty, brutish, short—
I thought I was an atheist; I’m nothing of the sort!
Don’t ever ask an atheist, “You’re godless—tell me why”
They’re atheists, remember—all they’re gonna do is lie!
I, myself? I would have answered, but I clearly did not know
It’s all hating God and loving sin—the bible tells us so!
In a world of chance and chaos, where the godless blindly grope,
There’s no beauty in a sunset—there’s no poetry, no hope—
All is ultimately pointless, so it’s meaningless as well,
And at death, these unbelievers face eternity in hell.
Only God has love and kindness, as the atheists will learn
They’ll be sorry they denied Him, as unendingly they burn
There’s a lesson for the godless, which they eagerly ignore:
They could love God if they wanted… they just love their sinning more
From a silly little Gospel Centered Arminian Blog, a screed, “The Point of Atheism.” It’s nothing you haven’t seen before dozens of times–the author was witnessing to an atheist (“Jason”), and ignored everything Jason said. See, the truth is:
The reality is that the point of atheism is simple: Romans 1:18:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Atheists simply hate God because they love their sins. This is the point of atheism.
It doesn’t matter what Jason told him. It doesn’t matter what I myself might say, or what any given atheist organization might say, or if hypothetically every atheist in the world agreed on one definition, but that definition disagreed with Romans 1:18 it would simply be more evidence that atheists are lying sinners, or sinning liars, or some such.
The truth is that when I observe a sunset and Jason observes a sunset, we both look at it through the lenses of a prior worldview assumption. He looks at a beautiful sunset and he sees nothing more than randomness taking place. He believes that nothing caused this sunset and it just exists by chance. I look at the same sunset and see the hand of Yahweh (Psalm 19:1-6). Jason has no hope. I have hope. Jason has no faith (well he does in Darwinian evolutionary theories) and I have hope in God. Jason lives a pointless life. I live a life where I seeking to not only love God but to help others to love Him along the way. Jason does good to others (at least he said he does) just because he is a human who evolved from a lower substance but I do good because I am created in the image of a good God (Genesis 1:26-27).
Atheism doesn’t produce hope. It produces death. I don’t doubt that religion can be equally as evil but I am not calling people to a religion. I am calling people to repentance and the truth in Christ (John 14:6). I don’t want religious people. I want disciples of Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20). I want people to love Christ and obey Him as Lord (Luke 6:46-49; John 14:15). I want people to bear the fruit of the Spirit by the work of the Spirit among them (Galatians 5:22-23) which is where true goodness comes from. I want people to obey God and His moral law by His grace (Titus 2:11-12).
What does atheism produce? Does it produce hope in people? Does atheism lead to great human compassion and acts of kindness? Where are the atheist groups feeding the poor, serving the sick and dying, giving hope to those who are struggling with life? Where are the atheist hospitals? Where are the large segment of atheists going forth defending life, morality, and purity?
And we could point to those atheist groups, and because they don’t agree with a particular narrow biblical definition, they will be ignored. Water off a duck’s back.
So why even bother writing this? Because the Arminian site, if you look at it, appears to find one group even more objectionable than atheists (I’m sure a similar pattern will hold for other groups, but this one was presented prominently). That’s right… Calvinists. As is so often the case, the big acrimony is reserved for those who are in the church down the street. And the internecine bickering is observed, and some of us find it much ado about nothing… and that is often step one toward atheism.
Not a hatred of god. But hey, don’t take my word for it. I just love to sin.
Apparently.
PS. As the cherry on top, at the end of the post, he links to a Ray Comfort video.
Times like these, I’m reminded of a famous quote by Hedy, I mean Hedley, Lamarr: “I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists!”
So I guess this means our Arminian friend (BTW – isn’t it supposed to be spelled ‘Armenian’?) can tell us from personal observation what the weather was like when God created the platypus. Or, since there was no death in the Garden, what did aardvarks eat with that tongue and that tiny mouth? Or, just how did all those marsupials get to Australia from the mountains of Ararat?
@#2– Arminianism is the religion, Armenian a completely unrelated nationality. The latter are not bound by articles of faith to be unreasonable.
@#3
Oh! So that’s why he so hung up on Calvin. Well, I learned something today.
“As the cherry on top, at the end of the post, he links to a Ray Comfort video.”
Surely Ray Comfort is the banana on top, not the cherry on top? Or would that be the banana on the bottom?
Mmmm. Now I want a banana split with a cherry on top.
Another theist arguing with the straw atheist who only exists in his mind.
I just love to sin.
Me too!
Gluttony, sloth, and lust are my favorites, but sometimes nothing will do but a hot bout of weekend stick-picking-up!
Moar @ 2, Nope, its named after Arminius – an early church figure.
“When I said that I cannot see what happened millions of years ago”
By that logic he surely can’t believe in the crucifixion of old wassname… unless he’s a lot older than he looks (whatever age he looks, well, short of looking like a mummy.)
what a goose
It’s so hard to tell what’s a religion nowadays. Not Islam – it’s an “ideology” or a “way of life” or a “geo-political system”. Not Christianity – it’s a “relationship with Jesus”.
Evolution, on the other hand . . . .
Margaret #5
I suspect what you need is a Candle Salad. Indeed, don’t we all?
Hmm. Preview is giving me something very peculiar.
“Atheism doesn’t produce hope. It produces death.”
Christianity hopes for death, and says that life isn’t worth living, so hopes for a future life that is worth living.
Atheism isn’t a philosophy so it can’t be said to produce anything of this sort, but certainly many optimistic atheists have hope that life will be better for future generations, and even think life now can be pretty good.
@pensnest #12
Yikes. No. Especially not the version with mayo.
But, Margaret… is it your worst nightmare? Could Ray Comfort actually be right?
That was preordained.
Thank you Cuttles (if I may be so familiar) for #2 and busterggi at #8 for learning me something new.
No, Cuttlefish, bananas are not a nightmare — I have a yummy banana-mocha-peanut butter smoothie most mornings. It’s the thought of bananas with mayo that is yucky, though not anywhere close to my worst nightmare.
What is it with religionists and sunsets? Or waterfalls? “Majestic Nature”?
What about the more mundane things like hamburgers, or banana splits?
I can imagine it would go something like this: