Stealing From GodSample

The Real Reason Many People Don’t Believe

When I sense hostility during the Q&A period of an I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist presentation, I normally ask the questioner, “If Christianity were true, would you become a Christian?” On several occasions I’ve had atheists yell back at me, “No!” 

No?  “How is that reasonable?”

It’s not. That’s because reason or evidence isn’t the issue for such people. They don’t have an intellectual objection to Christianity — they have an emotional, moral, or volitional objection. They’ve been hurt by Christians or think they’ve been let down by God. But more often, as several atheists have admitted, they simply don’t want to give up their autonomy and submit their will to God. They’re not on a truth quest—they’re on a happiness quest.  Therefore, they suppress the truth about God because they think that God will interfere with their pursuit of happiness.  

The idol for many is sexual freedom. In fact, the late Christopher Hitchens admitted that he rebelled against the very notion of God. He described God as a “Cosmic North Korean Dictator” peering into our sex lives. Hitchens refused to live under the “tyranny of a divine dictatorship.” Even his book title and punctuation screamed out contempt — god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. (He insisted on the lowercase “g”)

While Christopher was undeniably brilliant and verbally gifted, his book was short on evidence and long on attitude, which is why I concluded both of my debates with Christopher this way: “You can sum up Christopher’s book in one sentence: There is no God, and I hate him.”

If you encounter people like this—people who are closed to evidence—then ask them, “If Christianity were true, would you become a Christian?”  If they hesitate or say “no,” their issue is not in the head but the heart. 

To be fair, some Christians believe just because they want to, not because they have evidence for their position.  However — although some Christians don’t know it — abundant evidence exists for their beliefs. So Christians can say with confidence that while some atheists have the attitude, “There is no God, and I hate him,” Christ had the attitude, “There are atheists, and I love them. In fact, I died for them.” He died to offer all people His eternal forgiveness and love. Why cling to idols when you can have that? (See Chapter 4 of Stealing from God)