Atheism is largely misunderstood, misrepresented, and often feared. To pit it against religion is in itself a misunderstanding.
Historically, atheism, as a philosophical movement, developed in reaction to religious corruption circa the time of the Protestant Reformation. Instead of reformation, it developed a secular retreat from Christianity.
Today, new atheism is more removed from its historical counterpart.
While still reactionary, it’s booked by authors such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens to seek to thwart Christian doctrine, more so than create a worldview in light of the non-existence of God.
New atheism borrows Christian morality to hold the Christian God accountable for his actions. Whereas, the atheism of Neitzche evinced a world where God is dead and along with Him every facet of Christian thinking including morality.
New atheists debunk all people of faith and purport that humanity would have less violence and hate if people left faith behind and moved into the new era of atheism. They imagine a world with no belief in God as the ideal world for humanity. But it lacks the philosophy necessary to create such a world.
These atheists try to circumvent the logical fallacy of atheism.
For one to prove a negative, one must be omniscient. Thus, atheists can never know there is no God for they cannot know all things without being gods themselves. Maybe agnosticism would be a more tenable assertion.
Notwithstanding, they continue to base their philosophy on this unstable foundation in which they must employ faith in order to believe there is no God. So now the atheists who are decrying faith are in fact using faith themselves to support their hypothesis, yet they continue to believe themselves to be more scientific and intellectual than people of faith. Atheism is self-defeating and thus cannot exist as a viable philosophy.
Moreover, if there is no God, there is no way to judge wars and violence as injustice.
Atheists cannot justify their blaming people of faith, for if there was no god there would be no grounds to blame anyone for any supposed injustice. Atheists borrow from the worldview of faith in order to substantiate their own anti-faith worldview. Without the former, they would not have a leg to stand on to support the latter. Justice does not and cannot exist apart from God.
There is no framework for it to be founded upon in atheism.
The atheist looks at the turmoil in the Middle East and sees one religious group fighting the other for religious reasons and concludes that a world without belief in any religion would bring about peace. This seems to be a logical conclusion, but it is in error. In part, they have the right idea for religion devoid of knowing God can cause problems on an individual and international scale. However, it is not evidenced against God’s existence, but against a man trying to find security in rules and tradition without surrendering themselves to God and having a real relationship with the living God.
One True God – The Answer to Problems
This distinction may seem like mere semantics and wordplay, but it makes all the difference in the world. The Answer to the world’s problems is not found in religion nor in atheism, but in knowing the One True God. The hope for humanity will not be found in irradiating belief in God, but in cultivating belief in the God who is known through Jesus Christ. This cannot be accomplished by force, or manipulation, thus no wars or violence are encouraged by Jesus. Jesus lived love and those who are truly known by Him are to be examples of His love for the world.
Atheism replaces one’s desire for a spiritual life with a gaping void of nothingness, whereas Jesus fills the void that was designed to be filled by Him like nothing or no one can. Only living the life you were made for can satisfy.
