Atheism is often a result of religion and the practices of religious people. During the Inquisition, religious people persecuted atheists and those that didn’t believe the Bible as they believed it. Roman Catholics had born-again Christians killed because they didn’t follow Catholic doctrine which was opposed by many teachings in the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church became a feared organization that forced people to conform to it instead of a religion that followed the teachings of Christ and the Apostles. The Roman Catholic Church was hateful and atheists were repelled by it. So you could say, religion helped promote atheism.
Atheism is easy to accept if one is logical.
Does it make sense to give 10% of what you earn to a church and expect to have enough money to live on? Since God can’t be seen and we have to accept what the Bible says, how can we prove he is real or that everything contained in the Bible is true? Moses wasn’t alive to see Adam and Eve so he could write about them and we may have a lineage to connect generations. But was there proof of a worldwide flood that killed all life not in the ark with Noah and his family? It is easier to believe in an old earth and an even older universe. How could God create the entire universe in six days? Once people start doubting the Bible and even questioning the existence of God, it becomes easier to believe the Bible is just a bunch of stories and advice on how we should live our lives. The Bible then becomes just another good book instead of “The Good Book.”
Atheists often live as decent a life as Christians.
They consider themselves moral and at times better than judgmental Christians because they are willing to be open-minded and accepting of differences. They aren’t in fear of being struck down by God and feel they are living just as good a life as those that rely on God instead of themselves. Christians are viewed as weak-willed and insecure.
What Christians need to do to reach atheists and show them the error of their way is to first pray, secondly to study the Bible so they will have answers for the questions they ask, and finally to use Godly reasoning to counter human reasoning. If the Big Bang created the universe, why is the expansion of the universe at speeds far greater than the speed of light, not a violation of Newton’s law which states that when an object is in motion it tends to stay in motion unless it is acted upon by another object or force? Gravity may be too weak to cause particles to form molecules and eventually molecules to form the stars, planets, and everything else in the universe. Even human life and morality violate what one would expect of higher forms of animals. If our animal ancestors didn’t have moral codes, worship God, or remember the dead, why do humans have morals, worship God, and create memorials for the dead? Animals sometimes eat their own and it’s not considered cannibalism. Animals kill their own and it’s not considered murder. There are no animal police officers arresting animals for theft or indecent activities. Why would humans feel compelled to control behaviors that to animals are natural? Shouldn’t that continue as a species evolves into a higher form of an animal. Even evolution from a less complex to a more complex species violates the laws of entropy which states that order becomes chaos in time and energy can’t increase naturally. Humans should be less complex than lower forms of animals. Genetic problems that are passed down from generation to generation should have ended the human species millenniums ago or been eliminated if weaker genes are eliminated and replaced by genetically superior genes.
Even history teaches us that either God exists or the laws of science and nature can be violated. Moses and the children of Israel should not have been able to cross the Red Sea on dry ground. But the evidence that the armies of Egypt were drowned by the Red Sea was shown by Colonel John D. Craig on his TV travelog program around 40 years ago. He dived down to the bottom of the Red Sea where there is a line of iron chariots that still exists that have been down there since the time of the exodus. Too many people have seen what has been described as Noah’s ark on Mount Ararat to believe the flood was just localized. A localized flood couldn’t have left a wooden vessel over two miles above sea level.
The existence of Israel violates reason.
It should have never been formed since the Muslims outnumbered Jews considerably. The war for existence 60 years ago should have ended with the demise of the state of Israel. If Muslims couldn’t make Palestine bloom, how could the Jews make Israel become one of the most inviting countries in the Middle East with citrus groves, fruit and nut-bearing trees, and productive farms where desert once prohibited agriculture? Abraham left Ur to travel to what is now Israel which at the time wasn’t as lush as what is now Iraq. Today, Iraq is like the land Abraham settled upon was.
There are many stories Christians use to support the existence of God. But they shouldn’t feel upset if atheists think they are fools. The Bible says that to the natural man (atheist), trusting in God and believing he exists is foolishness. They don’t understand the Bible because it seems like foolishness to them. And arguments often turn them off. All we can do is pray for them, love them, and try to reason with them if they are willing to consider the possibility that they are wrong and we may be right. Show to them that unlike the propaganda of atheists that Christians have killed more people than atheists have, atheists like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao killed well over 100 million people in less than 40 years. That is a far larger number than can be attributed to the killing by Christians. Also, just because someone says they are a Christian doesn’t mean they are Christians. A certain man studied the Bible and wanted to become a priest while another man had Jewish friends that helped him. The one who studied the Bible was Stalin while the one with Jewish friends was Hitler.
There will always be atheists until Jesus establishes his kingdom in Jerusalem during his 1000-year reign on earth. They have to be drawn by the Holy Spirit to become believers. It’s not impossible for an atheist to become a believer. It’s just harder. They may never understand God and the Bible. But we shouldn’t give them a reason to turn away from the coaxing of the Holy Spirit. Only when they are dead is it too late to reach them and convert them to Christianity. By then, they will know if being an atheist was foolish and they are burning in Hell or they won’t know anything because they will cease to exist.
