What is an "Atheist Convert," Anyway?

I'm curious why atheists try to "convert" believers. Some atheists make a living at it; Dawkins and Hitchens are two examples. Some atheists attempt to convert believers by trying to make us feel stupid, irrational, and delusional. Why? These tactics seem inconsistent with the fundamentals of atheism. Let me explain:

Atheism is the worldview that there is no god. There is a negative manifestation: denial of the existence of god; and there is a positive manifestation: belief that there are only laws of nature, matter, science. In most cases, atheists think they are following what is simply truth: that no god exists is as true and intuitive as 2 + 2 = 4. By definition, there is no moral value in espousing atheism. Atheism does not guide the conscience; it does not prescribe an ethical code; it does not promote justice. If true, atheism just is.

We can easily contrast this with religion. The major religions come with a moral code. That is, God's existence entails consequences for humanity. In some cases, eternal consequences. God might have something to say about ethics, justice, family, and all the rest. And most religions are mutually exclusive: there is only one God, and He has the knowledge and authority to dictate His will to us. Further, believers acknowledge the faith element to religion. That is, believers understand that our worldview involves...well...belief. It follows that believers would want to convert as many people as we can: literally everything is at stake. Yet, believers rarely approach evangelism by attacking atheists. Surely many believers think atheism is foolish, and some make a living debating and fighting atheism. But this is usually a defensive move. Religion has to defend itself against the attacks of atheism. Which gets us back to my concern: atheism has no business attacking in the first place. Atheism is just not the kind of thing one should concern himself with spreading. Or is it?

Atheists will say that religion is dangerous: violence, oppression, tyranny, all in the name of God. We've heard it all before. The problem is that the same tragedies and injustices occur in the name of democracy, justice, productivity, and much more. Yet, no one goes around (at least no one we'd take seriously) saying that we should abolish all governments and business.

Atheists might say that religion is unhealthy to the believer: it's delusion, fantasy, like wishing on a star. We'd be better off if we'd follow the more enlightened of the world. The problem here is that there's no evidence that faith hurts anyone. There is, however, much evidence to the contrary. Believers tend to be more generous, hopeful, and happy. The only ones who seem to be bothered by faith are atheists. But they should feel no more threatened by believers than by a child who believes in the Tooth Fairy or the Boogeyman.

Perhaps what is really going on is that atheism requires just as much faith as does religion. Some might say it requires more faith to believe that life evolved by chance out of lifeless particles in space (never mind the bigger question: where did the particles--and the space for that matter--come from?). Perhaps atheism is the ultimate arrogance, believing that there can be no higher intelligence than our own. Perhaps atheists are searching, as everyone does at some point, to make sense out of the world, and it bothers them that believers have such a simple answer.

Any thoughts??

They Meant Well

The saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” It’s an interesting cliché. But it wasn’t until recently that I realized just how true it is.

I noticed this as I was reading Genesis—the story of Adam and Eve being tempted in the Garden of Eden, in particular. We all know the story: God creates man and woman for each other. God gives them instructions. There is only one thing they aren’t allowed to do: don’t eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That’s it. Everything else (as far as they knew) was all good. Why did He give them that instruction? That’s an entry for another day. For my present purposes, let’s just agree on this: Adam and Eve needed an opportunity to choose; if there was no way for them to sin, then their “decision” to follow God (an offer everyone is entitled to accept, or reject) would have been essentially involuntary. And since God is not in the business of creating robots, He gave them an opportunity to choose not to sin.

So there they were, in paradise, in perfect relationship with God and each other. Then, here comes Satan. One might wonder (if we didn’t already know the story), what could he possibly come up with to convince Adam and Eve to disobey God? How could he lure them away from paradise? There was only one thing they couldn’t do. And that one thing didn’t seem all that special. One tree they couldn’t eat from out of all the others. Sounds simple enough, right? Not so much.

I’ve heard sermons on this story many times. Often teachers focus on Satan’s appeal to their pride. He appeals to their desire to be like God, a temptation Satan knows a lot about—after all, that’s what got him in trouble. I agree. Adam and Eve were prideful, placing their desires above God. And how absurd the desire was! God had given them everything, well except one thing. Even with everything they had, all they could think about was that one thing they couldn’t have. Sound familiar? How often do we have so much going for us, yet we think, “If I could only have this.” But I digress.

I don’t want to focus on the prideful nature of their desire. I want to focus on the desire itself. Ultimately, they were convinced because they were told they would be like God. That’s not such a bad thing, is it? Aren’t we supposed to desire to be more like God? So at its root, there was some nobility in their intentions. Satan convinced them to pursue a good intention the wrong way. And he’s been using the same trick ever since.

Think about some of the times you’ve sinned. Now think about whether, at the root of that sin, there might be a kernel of truth, a hint of some noble intention that, by the time you got to the sinning part, had been perverted beyond recognition. Got an example, yet? I bet you don’t have to think too long.

So now what? How do we guard ourselves against this? If you’re asking yourself these questions, you’re on your way because the first thing you’ll have to do is be on the lookout for the trap. The second thing you might do is take a moment to be thankful for the noble intention, whatever it may be: a desire to get closer to God, a desire for an intimate relationship with another person, a desire to make a difference in someone else’s life. After you recognize the good of the situation, you’ll want to pray for help. Ask God to help you avoid walking down the road to perversion. You want to keep the noble intention, but shake the temptation to sin.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well so did Adam and Eve’s instructions, and we all know how that story ended. I admit all of this is easier said than done. But God never said we have to do it alone. Seek God for help. Find an accountability partner. Guard you mind and heart fervently with the Word and with prayer. And free yourself to enjoy all the good God has given you, just as he gave our ancestors at the beginning of mankind.