The recent death of writer and atheist Christopher Hitchins is spawning a number of great articles for consumption in atheist/theist debate circles. Author Cal Thomas (above) who is more often a political correspondent, weighs in on atheism and it's shoddy belief system...
" C.S. Lewis, once an atheist and thus conversant with the subject, wrote after his conversion, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
Some people exist, however nervously, believing that this life is all there is. The late singer Peggy Lee put the result of such faith this way: "Is that all there is? If that's all there is to life, then let's break out the booze and have a ball, if that's all there is."
Why contribute to charity, or perform other good deeds? Without a source to inspire charity, such acts are sentimental affectations, devoid of meaning and purpose. If survival of the fittest is the rule, let only the fit survive.
That was the sentiment of Ebenezer Scrooge before his visitation by those three spirits and his subsequent transformation. Let the poor and starving die, he said, "... and decrease the surplus population." Who is to say such a notion is wrong without a standard by which to judge wrong.
To object to God is to create morality from a Gallup Poll. In Gallup We Trust doesn't have the same authority."
Some people exist, however nervously, believing that this life is all there is. The late singer Peggy Lee put the result of such faith this way: "Is that all there is? If that's all there is to life, then let's break out the booze and have a ball, if that's all there is."
Why contribute to charity, or perform other good deeds? Without a source to inspire charity, such acts are sentimental affectations, devoid of meaning and purpose. If survival of the fittest is the rule, let only the fit survive.
That was the sentiment of Ebenezer Scrooge before his visitation by those three spirits and his subsequent transformation. Let the poor and starving die, he said, "... and decrease the surplus population." Who is to say such a notion is wrong without a standard by which to judge wrong.
To object to God is to create morality from a Gallup Poll. In Gallup We Trust doesn't have the same authority."
The Southwestern Journal of Theology is now coming out with a series of essays, the intention of which "offers pastoral and intellectual advice for combating the new atheism" put forward by such writers as the dearly departed Mr. Hitchens, Dr. Richard Dawkins and others. Dr. William Dembski is one of the contributors to the essays and provides us with the following...
"The more virulent atheists might better be called 'anti-theists,'" writes Dembski, research professor of philosophy at Southwestern. "They not only deny that God exists but also hate Him. Yet whence this hatred of a nonexistent entity? 'There is no God and I hate Him' seems a strange position to take."
More common than the "anti-theist" is the "Christian atheist," who admits that God exists but lives as if He does not. Whatever the form of atheism at hand, Dembski notes, the "challenge in confronting atheism is ... to bring those who deny God to repentance and faith, thereby closing the moral gap between them and God. In the end such moral transformation will always be the work of the Holy Spirit, ... (but) every act of divine grace presupposes the means of grace by which God makes that grace real to us."
More common than the "anti-theist" is the "Christian atheist," who admits that God exists but lives as if He does not. Whatever the form of atheism at hand, Dembski notes, the "challenge in confronting atheism is ... to bring those who deny God to repentance and faith, thereby closing the moral gap between them and God. In the end such moral transformation will always be the work of the Holy Spirit, ... (but) every act of divine grace presupposes the means of grace by which God makes that grace real to us."
Perhaps Mr. Hitchens is looking down with great amusement and favor over all of the discussion and robust debate that his passing initiated. Hopefully some of the more intellectually honest atheists out there will listen to the arguments advanced by theists and come to accept such a position in spite of Hitchens' protestations to the contrary.
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