A few nights ago my husband and I watched a YouTube video, a debate between an atheist college professor and students from a Christian University. This should be good, I thought to myself. We watched all but the last 15 minutes of it. I was deeply saddened. The college kids did their best to put the professor on the spot but he had a pat answer, neatly packaged, for everything. Normally I could not watch any show that refutes the existence of God but my curiosity got the better of me. My husband is always up for the challenge.
I listened attentively as the professor politely but absolutely squashed every concept the students put forward. I kept thinking that I wish one of my pastors, or a biblical scholar from my last church could debate this man. Those kids did not stand a chance. The man was articulate and clearly learned in science and philosophy, as well as the Bible. (His interpretation of it.) He was raised in a Christian home and was familiar with Scripture. It was only later, as an adult, that he changed his mind about God.
If I had been there, I would have asked him his position on miracles, especially of the medical kind. When doctors (aka scientists) find no logical explanation for tumors disappearing, for cancer that goes away on its own without treatment, for terminal patients who live many years past their prognosis. How would he explain that?
Or people who walk away from a horrific car crash with barely a scratch, or those who tell of someone else at the scene that they were talking to when no one else was there? What would he do if his plane was going down or his child was dying in the hospital or his wife was diagnosed with a terminal disease? He couldn’t pray so what would he do? Where does he get comfort from? Is the answer simply he doesn’t? He said he gets comfort from family and friends. But they can’t be there 24/7 like God can. And we all know that as flawed humans, we often let people down, even when we don’t want to. God never does.
Over 30% of the world’s population are Christians. Under 10% are atheists. So are the 30% wrong? Mislead? Brainwashed? America was founded on a solid belief in God. Were our Forefathers misguided?
The perfection of the Universe, the magnificence of the human body – these are cosmic accidents? Many brilliant scientific minds in history believed in God, e.g. Nicholas Copernicus, Sir Francis Bacon, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal….. just to name a few. Were they all crazy?
God gave us free will. We can live our lives with him or without, our choice. For those who choose to live without him, I pray you are someday faced with irrefutable proof that God exists, because he does. A life without God is immeasurably less than what it could be. I am blessed to know God and to follow him. The joy I have in knowing he is always with me gives me the confidence to walk through anything, knowing I am not alone. I pray the same for all humanity. May God bless you all.
You are not going to like my comments, so I’ll try to go easy on you. In paragraph 3 you asked ‘what about medical miracles. Have you ever studied Probabilities? next paragraph is concerning accidents, again probability theory shows up. In the next you say our country was founded on a belief in god, how there be so many atheists – belief does not and never has implied reality. the great scientists of the past, again belief does not equal truth. So your title question applies how? The reasons that atheism is correct are all based on science and fact. Believe what you wish, but belief does not make anything in the universe exist to please us.