Why Atheism Doesn’t Work

A very simple argument can show why atheism doesn’t work.  Atheism doesn’t work simply because, without God, there can be no hope, no joy, no goodness, no justice, and no truth.  How can I say that?  I can say that because without God, ideas of truth and justice depend upon people’s thinking about them.  Hope, joy, and goodness depend upon people being able to rightly experience and practice them.

The only standard in atheism is power

But people differ from one another in how they think and practice these qualities.  They argue about what they mean and what they look like in real life. One person can argue another out of their concept of goodness, or justice. One group of people can gain enough power to enforce their version of truth on everyone else.  Under atheism, these qualities are defined and enforced by those with the most convincing arguments or the strongest will to dominate. This is why societies that give way to atheism tend to become totalitarian dictatorships.

Atheism cannot allow real freedom and choice

Most people hate dictatorships.  They sense that one group of people telling everyone else what it means to be good, or to have hope, or what what they can and cannot believe to be true, is a very bad thing.   Most people understand that true belief and genuine behavior cannot be forced.  In other words, human choice is a very real and very precious thing that atheism as a system cannot tolerate.

Atheism falsely claims that belief in God restricts freedom

Some might argue that Christian people and Christian organizations have sometimes tried to force people to believe and act in certain ways.  While that may be true, the bad or mistaken behavior of people who claim to believe in God doesn’t change the truth that God is the one from whom flow the qualities of justice, truth, and goodness.  God made people to be creatures who can make considered choices for or against these qualities.  People’s responses to God and to the qualities that flow from his character determine their experience of hope or joy.  The fact that people long for these qualities and desire to experience them seems to argue that God exists, since people can’t experience them fully without some outside source.

Here is the link to a related video from Prager University which makes a very similar argument.  I hope you enjoy it.