Some People Just Don't Want to Believe

 November 1, 2024

Friday

I just listened to a YouTube post that featured people who attempt to dissuade people from a belief in God. The first speaker was a young man who has been claimed to be a philosopher. I found it hard to believe that he was. He used erroneous arguments which I didn't find logical. First, he attacked how some Christians act. While it is true that some Christians act terribly, that in no way says anything about the existence of God. He also reasoned that the world would be a drastically different place if God is the benevolent God that Christians claim that He is. I suppose this young man doesn't give mankind any credit for the way we have made the world. Romans 5 tells us that sin entered into the world through Adam. God did not create the world in its present state. We, not He, messed up the world. He spoke of the evils done by religious people who didn't believe as others did. They executed those they considered heretics. In this case, he argues that it wasn't because they didn't believe but that they believed something different. He gave the testimony of a well-known atheist who had become a Christian as only saying that it was her experience, not her proof that God existed that made her change her belief. Again, that has nothing to do with whether God exists, one way or the other. It means that a woman who clung to the doubts whether God existed had come to the conclusion that not only did He exist but that He loved her and gave Himself up for her. He makes other claims that are simply false. He believes that all great discoveries were done by atheists. Of course, we all know this isn't true.

One speaker said that he was eloquent. I thought he hadn't really thought out his arguments. His arguments followed fallacies that he should have known were fallacies if he is truly a philosopher. They sounded a lot like something that guys would say in a bar to convince each other rather than giving compelling reasons to cause others believe as they do. While this may be common for politicians, it should be far from the lips of a philosopher.

The real reason that he doesn't believe is something he doesn't want to admit. He simply does not want to believe. He will not bring himself to the point where he must know that he doesn't know. (He did call himself an agnostic. I could see that he has fallen into that trap. An agnostic doesn't know because he cannot say that he has made a thorough search. No one can say they have made a thorough search when they can't find the existence of God. They simply haven't looked in every place. He calls himself an agnostic to avoid being pulled into that hole.) He is conclusive. He appears very sure of himself.

He ignores the fact that time must have a beginning for time to exist. He ignores that life must have a beginning and has no idea how it came about. (He cited the survival of the fittest. I am not sure many evolutionists would make that argument any more. Gradual mutations make an organism weaker.) He ignores that the conscience has no logical place in a purely evolutionary world order.

No, the existence of God is plain to him but he refuses to see Him.

Romans 1:19–20 (NASB 2020) ¹⁹ because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse.