Response to an Interview with an Atheist Blogger

I posted a link to my article “Why I Believe in God” on Twitter and received some interesting feedback:

“A long list of invalid reasons. Nothing new there.” someone wrote.

I know. Very dismissive and curt.

But nonetheless, I took a look at his blog and read a few posts. This one stood out at me, being titled “An Interview with an Atheist Blogger.” There were a few points I wanted to respond to here.

1. “Recognize that if you were born in Saudi Arabia, you’d almost certainly be using the same logic to argue that Islam/Quran is true and Christianity is false.”

I’m always baffled when I see atheists bring up this point. Certainly, they are aware of the genetic fallacy.

“The Genetic fallacy is a fallacy of irrelevance in which someone accepts a claim as true or false solely on the basis of its origin..”

Truth is truth. It doesn’t matter where it comes from, or if nobody alive is aware of it. Truth is truth, and doesn’t care about our feelings, or our intuitions on it.

If I was born in Pakistan, and was trained in Islam from a young age, and surrounded by Islam and Muslim Imams, it would not alter the truth or falsity of any claim regarding Islam or Christianity.

2. “People who claim to know for certain that God exists are using as evidence things like personal revelation, visions and signs and such. We know that this type of evidence convinces some people that astrology, New Age beliefs, contradictory religions, etc. are true, so we know it isn’t reliable evidence.“

Yeah. Sure.

But all of the signs count as evidence to a Christian, whether it is an answered prayer or an unusually accurate astrological report. It is helpful not to forget that Christians don’t only believe in God and Jesus, but they believe in satan, as well. They believe in demons and possession and demonic manifestations. Therefore, all evidences of the supernatural can be encompassed within the evidential sphere of a Christian. I can’t disprove that the Quran is a miracle, but I believe that there will be false prophets showing signs and wonders, that will deceive even the very elect.

Evidence of the supernatural world is evidence of the supernatural world, no matter how you slice it.

3. “I think the character is pretty despicable as written, but no more so than other god myths. If I thought God existed, I would be trying pretty hard to hide my opinion that he’s a monster.”

This is no surprise.

It is one thing to own an opposition to God solely based on logic, and having an emotionally-detached approach to the question, but I hardly ever find this to be the case. Atheists, like all humans, are emotional creatures, with biases and such, as anyone. I often find that many of them are opposed to the actual heart of the bible, if you dig deeply and question them in this direction. IMO, it is the true root of their unbelief, despite what they might say. Let me explain…

I always tell people that if I no longer believed in God, I would still be a Christian.

Sounds like a weird statement to make, but I became a Christian before I became a theist.

What first had me take another look at the bible and God and Christ was the realization, over a few decades of hard living, that on moral issues, the bible was generally right on. I was not at first convinced by logic or persuasion or rhetoric, but by experience, you might say.

It was just one issue after another, I was slowly coming around. I was pro-choice before I got out there in the real world, but after dating a number of women, I began to question this belief, after seeing firsthand the deleterious psychological ramifications that abortions had on the women who had them. And there are many other examples such as this.

Therefore, we find a lot of atheists who have a dog in the fight, as there is sometimes a very real moral opposition to the doctrines and guidelines offered by the prophets. The emotionally-charged language they use keys us in on this, when they call God a “monster” or offer that certain beliefs are “despicable.”

9 out of 10 times, anyway, they are simply failing to examine the bible and scripture in its historical context. Christians and theologians know that there are many covenants detailed in the bible, each for a different time period and context. What kind of moral guidelines believers may need in one era may not be appropriate in another.

For example, in a time of constant warfare, when a small nation is surrounded by larger enemies, a kind of military law may be instituted in this small nation, in opposition to a time of general peace, where different guidelines, that bring more liberties, may be more appropriate for the nation.

The original interview can be found here:

or copy and paste: https://discountbutcher.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/the-interview-project/