Beating the Atheist

Atheist Tuesday, Famous Lost Words, , ,

“WHEN I SEE GOD, I WILL TELL HIM THAT HE’S A NUT JOB!” said Rich the Atheist during a conversation I had with him on a college campus.

Why would Rich utter such blasphemous words? Because he got so frustrated with the way I argued my points using what’s called “presuppositional apologetics.” Don’t be intimidated by that phrase, it simply means that I defend the Christian faith (apologetics) by presupposing that God exists and that the Bible is valid and true having the ability to change lives.

When talking with skeptics, Christians do not need to know about every scientific theory or secular doctrine that comes down the pike; they do not have to be well-versed in Quantum Physics, evolutionary biology or abiogenesis hypotheses. That’s the unbeliever’s game. All a believer needs to know is the Word of God.

David Wright from “Answers in Genesis” clarifies further: “When explaining their beliefs, Christians often feel they must first prove the Bible or prove the existence of God. This approach reveals that they do not yet understand the Bible’s approach, known as presuppositional apologetics.

“Presuppositions are simply beliefs that everyone has that affect how they think, view the world, interpret evidence, and read the Bible. Apologetics is a reasoned defense of beliefs. Presuppositional apologetics is a reasoned defense of Christian beliefs based on recognizing our presuppositions.

“For instance, my presupposition is that God exists and He has given us His Word, (the Bible), that is absolute truth. So, I use the Bible as the basis for how to think, interpret evidence, explain the world around me, and read the Bible. An atheist’s presupposition will most likely be that there is no God and that truth is relative. An atheist believes that man decides truth, and so he thinks, interprets evidence, and views the world and Bible accordingly.”

Said another way, atheists presuppose there is no God. The Bible presupposes that they do. 

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Why the Atheist Mocked My Blog

2 CommentsEV Articles, Famous Lost Words, , , , ,

On this day, five years ago, I wrote this…and nothing has changed!

I got an email recently from an adolescent atheist mocking my decision to make “Atheist Tuesday” posts an occasional blog item instead of weekly. Here it is:

SUBJECT: Laughter

Wish you could hear mine. [Presumably his own laughter]

Quitters never win and winners never quit, Steve.

I like the fact that your “Evangelism Schedule” and “Evangelism Training” posts have received no comments, not even from Christians, while your “atheists are bad” post has received over fifty.

Keep up the good work.

Yes, it’s a sad fact that this blog will never be popular.

If I wanted to pander to atheists, I suppose that it would be more popular, but why would I want that? I will end up having to answer over and over again the same Googleable questions that are found ad nauseum on Christian apologetic sites’ comments sections. You know, questions like these:

  • What makes your story of creationism fundamentally different from all the others that exist now, have existed before, and will exist in the future?
  • Why is there at least some evidence for our scientific theories, but none at all for your creationism?
  • Why does your God support slavery, murder, etc.

Remember, this is an evangelism blog “written to be an encouragement to those who share their faith and a motivation to those who don’t.” (Steve’s note: The emphasis of this blog changed in 2013.)

I found I was getting off-track and wasting my time answering questions that never lead to salvation. That is, I can try and answer all those questions, but really, atheists will not believe the truth by my answers, only if they have been called by the Holy Spirit.

So, back to the adolescent atheist’s email….

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