Terry Read
I recently heard radio personality Michael Medved give his answer to an e-mail from a “thoughtful listener” who challenged Michael’s “commitment to faith and God,” asking: “You’re a smart person, who emphasizes evidence and logic. How then, can you give such importance in your life to something illogical for which there is no evidence?”1 Michael’s answer was to state how his “life dramatically improved” when he “began praying every day, and then observing the Sabbath.”
Michael, this is all well and good. And certainly God can change lives. John Newton was a human trafficker – a slave trader. But Newton found God during a storm at sea when he thought he was going to die. He then went on to become a minister, aid William Wilberforce in ending slavery in Great Britain, and write the hymn “Amazing Grace”.2 But as to the “thoughtful listener’s” charge of “commitment to faith and God” as being “illogical,” we really need to do more than just talk about personal experience.
I talked to a very nice lady named Vicki from the American Humanist Association. Vicki walked away from the Catholic Church after not getting her questions answered by the church. And she disagreed with church teachings. I am sure Vicki would tell you that her life is better as a humanist. It obviously would be if she had been told by the church to “just stop asking questions” and she could not truly believe in God anyway because her questions had not been addressed. And Vicki would tell you about all of the good work the American Humanist Association does – food pantries, working for Habitat for Humanity, etc. I think she would tell you her life is very fulfilled. We must give logical, sound, reasonable arguments as to why it makes sense to believe the Bible – something that goes beyond our personal experience; as important as that is. I know something about really engaging with people. I do not have the luxury of giving the person that I am having a discussion with however much time that I decide to give them; then saying what I have to say; and then moving onto the next caller, saying “Thank you for your call.”
The assertion of your “thoughtful listener” that faith and God are “something illogical” should be addressed head on. Atheism is basically synonymous with philosophical materialism – the idea that matter and energy are all that exist.3 If matter and energy are all that exist, then we are just matter and energy – a bunch of chemicals. Our very thoughts are nothing more than chemical reactions following the laws of physics and chemistry – like chemicals reacting in a beaker. This is totally inconsistent with even the concept of logic, as well as the concepts of morality, reason, free will, or even consciousness. Are we even thinking? Or are chemical reactions just making us think that we are thinking? Think about it!
The only way logic even makes sense is if we have a Creator who created us with a consciousness and the ability to be logical and reasonable. At the end of the book of Job, when God is showing Job that He knows more than Job does, He asks in Job 38:36: “Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind?”4 The Bible explores questions about God and the greater issues of life in the books of Job and Ecclesiastes.
To even do science, the universe has to be governed by laws and those laws have to be unchanging. In Job 38:33: God asks Job: “Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth?”5 So more than 4,000 year s ago, the Bible is telling us that the universe has laws and they regulate the earth. Written about 2,600 years ago, Jeremiah 33:25 states “But this is what the Lord says: I would no more reject my people than I would change my laws that govern night and day, earth and sky.”6 So a person who believes the Bible has a basis for doing science. What basis does an atheist have for doing science?
Let me also say this. Michael’s “thoughtful listener” questions Michael giving God and faith “importance in his life.” But without God and faith, nothing is of importance. We were nothing more than just matter and energy to start with. And then we just die and that is it. If we are remembered, we will not be aware of it. Any descendants that we have are just going to die and then that is it for them. Because genomes run downhill as genetic load builds up (what we actually observe); someday plants, animals, and people are going to die off. Even if you do not accept this process of genetic load that we actually observe happening over time; someday the earth will be destroyed when the sun goes nova; if it is not destroyed before that by a solar flare. Even if you believe that our descendants will colonize other planets in other galaxies, someday the universe will suffer a heat death or collapse on itself. In other words: Nothing matters anyway! Atheistic evangelist Lawrence Krauss calls us “cosmic pollution.”7 And Krauss predicts “If the expansion of the universe nowadays is extrapolated into the future; which may or may not be appropriate … the universe will become cold and dark and empty; and that’s the future. So enjoy it while you can.”8
Krauss is actually talking about the second law of thermodynamics – things inherently go downhill! Interestingly enough – Krauss (even though I am sure he does not know it) is actually parroting the Bible – at least as far as his statement on the end of the universe. Psalm 102 states: “Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever; they will wear out like old clothing. You will change them like a garment and discard them.”9 This is the Bible, 3,000 years ago, describing the universe running down – again, the second law of thermodynamics. But Krauss misses the rest of Psalm 102. Again, speaking about God, the Psalm continues: “But you are always the same; you will live forever. The children of your people will live in security. Their children’s children will thrive in your presence.”
Terry Read
- http://www.michaelmedved.com/column/the-evidence-for-faith/
- https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1701-1800/john-newton-discovered-amazing-grace-11630253.html
- https://www.thefreedictionary.com/philosophical+materialism
- https://www.biblestudytools.com/nlt/job/38.html
- https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=job+38&version=NLT
- https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jeremiah+33&version=NLT
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsLCs8vR2VE – Krauss: We are “cosmic pollution”
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOVOFTOJBMQ – Krauss: End of Universe
- https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+102&version=NLT
