What Kind of Atheist are You?
Here are some facts that challenge the conventional wisdom of our secular Western culture:
- The total number of Christians in the world continues to grow, and the percentage of the planet’s population that believes in God is projected to continue increasing rapidly for the foreseeable future.
2.The atheist population is declining.
According to the Pew Research Center, the startling truth is that the percentage of the world’s population that is atheist or unaffiliated with any religion is dropping, and will continue to do so. That’s an interesting thought, given the predominance of high-profile opinion leaders in the West who don’t embrace any religion.
But that’s not what this post is about. I’ll include the link to the Pew report at the end of this post, but the real question that intrigues me is: what kind of atheists are in this shrinking pool. Let me list some varieties. See if you can find yourself or someone you know in one of them
SCIENCE HAS DISPROVED CHRISTIANITY–IT’S ALL A BUNCH OF ANCIENT FICTION
You’re probably thinking of the first chapters of Genesis and the account of how the Earth and the heavens were created. It doesn’t coincide with the scientific explanation of the Big Bang and the subsequent formation of the universe as we understand it. You might want to know that many Christian theologians have treated Genesis as an allegorical picture of the cosmos, in which the truth of humankind’s problem–we don’t want to follow God’s will and would rather do what we want–is clearly set out. Augustine back in the 5th century made the argument that the creation stories are allegorical.
But of course many modern Christians insist on treating the Bible literally in every word. Atheists say this traps them into believing the unbelievable in the face of scientific fact.
Ironically, atheists increasingly find themselves trapped in the Origin debate. That’s because the more we know about the Big Bang and the evolution of our solar system, the more it becomes apparent that either a series of improbable coincidences took place, or the universe was “made this way.” For example, if the gravitational or electromagnetic or nuclear forces were even slightly different than they are, the universe could not have formed. Even minute differences would either have led to a dead universe, or one that collapsed before being able to form the building blocks of life.
Scientists recognize that there are far too many improbable coincidences and examples of “fine tuning” of the universe. So they accept the most logical explanation: that an intelligent designer ensured that the various forces and subsequent cosmic events unfolded as they did in order to produce the universe we live in.
Right? Well, not if you are a scientist who is unable to consider the existence of God. In that case, you come up with the theory of multiverses: that there are actually an infinite number of universes in existence, and we just happen to live in one that turned out this way. The other uncountable (and unobservable) universes probably evolved differently and have very different physical properties. I say probably, because this theory is absolutely untestable. There is no way for us to know if there are other universes. But such eminent physicists as Stephen Hawking subscribe to the idea, because the alternative, which seems so obvious (i.e. all of these amazing coincidences occurred because they were created to do so) is unacceptable to them
The general public doesn’t follow this issue too closely. Many people just assume that science has all the answers and the Biblical explanations are just ancient myths. They don’t know that the top minds in science are now willing to believe an unprovable, improbable theory for the development of the universe, simply because they are unwilling to believe in a God who can act in supernatural ways. Everything was fine until their research started to show startling evidence of a fine-tuned universe.
Talk about being trapped into believing the unbelievable in the face of scientific fact…
Coming up next…”But Christians have done so much bad stuff…”
But first, the link to that study:
http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/
petermaize 