"5 Reasons: Why I Still Believe in God" - DAY 42

Day 42 – the atheist’s rebuttal

I do not believe in a God. The belief in a God is still generally accepted… But, in the light of scientific discoveries and demonstrations, such a belief is unfounded and untenable today.  –ROBERT BLATCHFORD

We have noted that belief in a supernatural reality is uniform across contemporary and ancient cultures, and we have surmised that the presence of this belief puts the atheist in a real dilemma. How did such a belief come to be? We have answered that it must have been placed within our minds by the supernatural itself, that it would be unlikely for nature—if nature is all there is—to introduce something to us outside the natural realm.

Not to be outdone, the atheist will usually counter with an alternate explanation of our supernatural belief. In summary form, it goes like this:

Primitive man was ignorant of the physics of the natural world yet dependent upon nature for his very existence, so he began to reverence and fear its component parts. The sun, for example, became an object of favor and wind and locusts objects of disfavor. Man then began to believe he could influence these natural objects through rituals or behaviors. Thus, nature worship was born. Today, belief in the supernatural is nothing more than an outgrowth of this primitive superstition. It is our futile attempt to woo nature's benefits and deflect its fury. If the truth were known, it serves no useful purpose than to appease us in our ignorance. Sooner or later, with the continued march of science, it will be discarded once and for all.

Now I agree with the atheist to a certain point. Primitive man did fear and favor the component parts of nature and did try to influence them through rituals. I agree that it was futile for him to do so, for ritualistic fervor, no matter how sincere, will not change the course of the sun in the sky or send rain upon a parched earth. The activity of the sun and the excesses and shortages of precipitation are now known to be governed by scientific laws unknown to early man. I agree that modern science has made nature religions obsolete, reserved only for those who are scientifically illiterate.

Where I disagree with the atheist is his assertion that today's religions are essentially grown-up versions of these primitive religions, that the former are a continuation of the latter. I do not believe that nature worship could have ever given birth to modern religions like Judaism or Christianity that worship a God above and beyond nature.

Tomorrow, I will use an illustration that may help us see more clearly the error of the atheist's argument.

Daily Quotation

Quoted in Vernon C. Grounds, The Reason for Our Hope (Chicago: Moody, 1945), 18.