Atheist Lives Have Meaning - Sorta

That’s what one atheist tried to tell me. I understand of course. To survive his miserable life, he HAS to believe that to be true. On atheism, no such reality is possible.

“You are the descendant of a tiny cell of primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach three and a half billion years ago. You are the blind and arbitrary product of time, chance, and natural forces. You are a mere grab-bag of atomic particles, a conglomeration of genetic substance. You exist on a tiny planet in a minute solar system in an empty corner of a meaningless universe. You are a purely biological entity, different only in degree but not in kind from a microbe, virus, or amoeba. You have no essence beyond your body, and at death you will cease to exist entirely. In short, you came from nothing and are going to nowhere.” Randy Alcorn

The atheists that I meet seem to be caught between two opposing world-views. On the one hand they’re convinced that they deserve to be treated special. In fact, they get quite upset when the rest of the population doesn’t go out of their way to recognise them as important. I understand that. No one wants to be thoughts of a “less than.” However, atheists don’t explain why a biological accident must be treated as special by other biological accidents. They just feel offended when they don’t rate very high in the social stratum. Atheists loudly proclaim that we came from nothing, by accident and we’re going to nothing, but “I’m something special.”

Unfortunately for the rest of us, this latter perspective of undeserved atheist arrogance seems to be the side that is gaining the stronger influence.

Here are just a few comments from prominent atheists that describe what I find to be a sad and pathetic way of seeing humans.

“It is hard to conclude that the universe was created with a special, cosmic purpose for humanity.” Victor Stenger

“The human race has had to grow up a good deal in the last five hundred years to confront the fact that we just don’t count for much in the grand scheme of things.” Steven Weinberg.

“The ancient covenant is in pieces. Man at last knows that he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he has emerged only by chance.” Jacques Monod.

"We must challenge our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe." Carl Sagan

“The universe has no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.” Richard Dawkins.

“The universe is an accident.” Victor Stenger

“As far as we have been able to discover the laws of nature, they are impersonal, with no hint of a divine plan or any special status for human beings.” Steven Weinberg

“[humans] are survival machine - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the self molecules known as genes.” Richard Dawkins

“Modern science directly implies that there are no inherent moral or ethical laws, no absolute guiding principles for human society. . . We must conclude that when we die, we die, and that is the end of us.” William Provine

“The ultimate measure of evolutionary value is fitness - the capacity to replicate more successfully than the competition does.” Daniel Dennett

"The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it." Margaret Sanger, founder and role model of Planned Parenthood - from Margaret Sanger (editor). The Woman Rebel, Volume I, Number 1. Reprinted in Woman and the New Race. New York: Brentanos Publishers.

Compare the above statements to the Truth that Christians know and atheists reject.

“You are the special creation of a good and all-powerful God. You are created in His image, with capacities to think, feel, and worship that set you above all other life forms. You differ from the animals not simply in degree but in kind. Not only is your kind unique, but you are unique among your kind. Your Creator loves you so much and so intensely desires your companionship and affection that He has a perfect plan for your life.” Randy Alcorn.