“Atheism is a crutch for those who can’t bear the thought of identifying themselves with Jesus Christ and admitting that they are sinners.” —Philip DelRe

Could it be that the real motives behind atheism are moral/spiritual rather than intellectual?

What Are The Real Motives Behind Atheism?

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) was the grandson of Thomas Huxley who was an English biologist. He was known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his bold defense of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

Aldous Huxley was a writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Aldous Huxley, like his grandfather before him, was an outspoken atheist. In this priceless quote, he speaks for all atheists (whether they like it or not):

“I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently assumed it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem of pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system, and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.”

As you can see for yourself, one of the most well-known atheists of all time freely admitted he objected to morality. Huxley’s self-imposed spiritual blindness was not intellectual; it was moral. It was not a matter of the mind, but of the will. Here is the same excuse from one of the most evil men who ever lived, 

“The curse of Mt. Sinai must be gotten out of our blood. It is a poison which has spoiled the free instincts of man.” —Adolph Hitler

The “curse” that Hitler was referring to was the Ten Commandments. Apparently, Adolf viewed the morality of:

• Thou shalt not murder

• Thou shalt not commit adultery

• Thou shalt not steal

• Thou shalt not lie

As a poison that was spoiling his “free instincts.”

At least 1,000 years before Charles Darwin was born, Psalm 14:1 revealed the real motives behind atheism, 

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God; they are corrupt, and have committed abominable deeds.”

Another World-Renowned Biochemist Admits He’s a Liar

“When it comes to the origin of life there are only two possibilities: creation or spontaneous generation. There is no third way. Spontaneous generation was disproved one hundred years ago, but that leads us to only one other conclusion, that of supernatural creation. We can not accept that on philosophical grounds; therefore, we choose to believe the impossible: that life arose spontaneously by chance!”

Atheists Are Not Created They Evolve!

“A study was done a while back into all the famous atheists of history, Jean Paul Sartre, Camus, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, and every single one of them had something in common. They either lost their father when they were young, their father abandoned their family, or they had a terrible relationship with their father. That is very interesting because often these doubts aren’t really driven by intellectual questions; they are being driven by an emotional issue that really blocks them from wanting to relate to a heavenly father because they feel so abandoned, or cheated, or hurt by their earthly father.” 

Have you ever heard the saying, “He can’t see the forest because of the trees?” Picture a man standing right in front of a redwood tree with his face pressing right up to the tree and saying, “What forest I don’t see any forest?” That is what the atheist does while looking at God’s creation. It is the will, not the intellect, that causes the atheist to deny something as plain as the nose on his face!

God says (In Romans 1:18-20, 2:15, Psalms 19:1-3) that no man will stand before Him with any excuse for ignoring or denying Him because the sun, moon, and stars declare His glory!

Atheists are not born they evolve

People are not born atheists, it is a conscience, and deliberate choice to become an atheist, just as one chooses to accept Christ. While some atheists may try to deny it, like it or not, atheism requires faith.  It is a belief system just as any other religion. The atheist has faith alone, through his intellect alone, that God does not exist.

When reasoning with an atheist, we must help them see the obvious fallacies inherent in their faith. Here is a great point from Ron Rhodes.

• Some atheists categorically state that there is no God, and all atheists, by definition, believe it. And yet, this assertion is logically indefensible. A person would have to be omniscient and omnipresent to be able to say from his own pool of knowledge that there is no God. Only someone who is capable of being in all places at the same time – with a perfect knowledge of all that is in the universe – can make such a statement based on the facts. To put it another way, a person would have to be God in order to say there is no God.

Questions are better than answers when dealing with difficult and deceived people. So, a good question to ask is, “The Library of Congress has more than 70 million books most of which are were written by scholars and experts in their field of academics. What percentage of that information do you think you have in your mind?  Whatever there is you can follow-up with, “Do you think that God may exist outside of your knowledge and experience?” It’s a rhetorical question but wait for his answer. Then you can ask, “If I could show you that it is more rational to believe in God than in no God would you be willing to look at the evidence? If he says “No” then you can gently point out that it is his will, not his intellect that is the problem.

Another common excuse atheists use it the question of evil. “If God is good and all-powerful, why is there is so much evil in the world?” Many atheists like to use this but it does not work.

Ron Rhodes…

A good approach to an argument like this is to say something to this effect: “Since you brought up this issue, the burden lies on you to prove that evil actually exists in the world. So let me ask you: by what criteria do you judge some things to be evil and other things not to be evil? By what process do you distinguish evil from good?” The atheist may hedge and say: “I just know that some things are evil. It’s obvious.” Don’t accept such an evasive answer. Insist that he tell you how he knows that some things are evil. He must be forced to face the illogical foundation of his belief system.

After he struggles with this a few moments, point out to him that it is impossible to distinguish evil from good unless one has an infinite reference point which is absolutely good. Otherwise one is like a boat at sea on a cloudy night without a compass (i.e., there would be no way to distinguish north from south without the absolute reference point of the compass needle).

The infinite reference point for distinguishing good from evil can only be found in the person of God, for God alone can exhaust the definition of “absolutely good.” If God does not exist, then there are no moral absolutes by which one has the right to judge something (or someone) as being evil. More specifically, if God does not exist, there is no ultimate basis to judge the crimes of Hitler. Seen in this light, the reality of evil actually requires the existence of God, rather than disproving it.

At this point, the atheist may raise the objection that if God does in fact exist, then why hasn’t He dealt with the problem of evil in the world. You can disarm this objection by pointing out that God is dealing with the problem of evil but in a progressive way. The false assumption on the part of the atheist is that God’s only choice is to deal with evil all at once in a single act. God, however, is dealing with the problem of evil throughout all human history. One day in the future, Christ will return, strip power away from the wicked, and hold all men and women accountable for the things they did during their time on earth. Justice will ultimately prevail. Those who enter eternity without having trusted in Christ for salvation will understand just how effectively God has dealt with the problem of evil.

If the atheist responds that it shouldn’t take all of human history for an omnipotent God to solve the problem of evil, you might respond by saying: “Ok. Let’s do it your way. Hypothetically speaking, let’s say that at this very moment, God declared that all evil in the world will now simply cease to exist. Every human being on the planet – present company included – would simply vanish into oblivion. Would this solution be preferable to you?”

The atheist may argue that a better solution must surely be available. He may even suggest that God could have created man in such a way that man would never sin, thus avoiding evil altogether. This idea can be countered by pointing out that such a scenario would mean that man is no longer man. He would no longer have the capacity to make choices. This scenario would require that God create robots who act only in programmed ways.

If the atheist persists and says there must be a better solution to the problem of evil, suggest a simple test. Give him about five minutes to formulate a solution to the problem of evil that (1) does not destroy human freedom, or (2) cause God to violate His nature (e.g., His attributes of absolute holiness, justice, and mercy) in some way. After five minutes, ask him what he came up with. Don’t expect much of an answer.

Your goal, of course, is not simply to tear down the atheist’s belief system. After demonstrating some of the logical impossibilities of his claims, share with him some of the logical evidence for redemption in Jesus Christ, and the infinite benefits that it brings. Perhaps through your witness and prayers, his faith in atheism will be overturned by a newfound faith in Christ.