Trolling for Atheists

One afternoon, about a year ago, with nothing better to do, I went to Google Blog Search and typed in the word “atheist.” It just so happened that about that time, four or five atheist authors were red hot in the book seller’s market. Atheist blogs crackled with excitement as these books appeared to add feelings of credibility to the average sceptic. Comments by these bloggers and authors regarding Christianity made me sit up like a guard-dog sensing an intruder. For the next year and a half, while I devoured atheist blogs and atheist authored books, it felt as though every comment they made needed to be addressed. Atheists would write things like, “If you tell me why you don’t believe in Zeus or Thor, then you’ll understand why I don’t believe in your god.” I’d read that and blink in amazement that an atheist, a person who thought of h/himself as an especially intelligent person would see that as a valid argument. I mean, did they really and truly think that Jesus was as mythological as Zeus? Did they really think that? Or were they just trolling?

Atheist author Richard Dawkins would write - [The Christian God is] “Arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynist, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

Atheist author Chris Hitchens said, “All religions and all churches are equally demented in their belief in the existence of the divine.”

Richard Dawkins wrote, “Faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate.”

Sam Harris said, “Some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them.”

Over a period of about 16 months, I came to see that those who adhere to “scientism,” are unable to comprehend any truth or see anything as valuable unless it’s understood from a scientific perspective. They also believe that there are no limits to what science can discover. In their minds, ‘there is no truth but scientific truth.’

The posting that I did at the time took a lot of time away from my family, so I stopped for awhile. However I seem to want to post again on how that experience forced me to find clarity in what I believe and why I believe it. To maintain my sanity I think that I'll only post once a week, on Fridays.

My last foray into this field was not good in the sense that I was too easily drawn into the nastiness that is so prevalent in this corner of the internet. The last thing that I want to do is become the Fred Phelps of atheism. And the last thing the Church needs is more negative messaging. I’m not a philosopher or theologian or educator or poet. I’m a man who’s been a Christian for almost thirty years and in that time I’ve found that the evidence for being a follower of Jesus, the reasons that one might have for accepting Jesus’ offer of salvation are nothing to be ashamed of.

In fact, science is on our side. While atheists diss us for believing in something that can’t be seen or touched, we as Christians have logical, epistemologically sound and rational reasons for our faith in Jesus the Christ.

We are not the fools in this debate.
See you tomorrow.