Religion Explained?

British comedian and avowed atheist Ricky Gervais offers a concise albeit cynical explanation of religion.¹ He argues that early childhood conditioning accounts for widespread faith in God and is comparable to believing in Santa Claus and fairies. “I think there would be more atheists and less faithful,” Gervais opines, “if you weren’t allowed to teach anything, you weren’t allowed to mention any gods or any beliefs or atheism until they were 20.” He reasons, as the myth of God is ingrained in impressionable minds, “if you’re born in India you’re probably a Hindu, if you’re born in America you’re probably a Christian, if you’re born in Pakistan you’re probably a Muslim. That’s a coincidence, isn’t it—that you’re always born into the right god … into the right religion?” He thinks it strange that people still hold onto the medieval belief that God made the universe, so he asks, “Who made God?” If the assumption is that God has always been, then Gervais responds, “Let’s just say the universe has then. Let’s just cut out the middle-man; it saves time.”

An Eternal Universe?

This overly simplistic scenario generates more questions than answers. Gervais is merely repeating what astronomer Carl Sagan said back in the 1970s about a timeless universe,² one of the most unscientific assertions that can be made! The very year Sagan died, renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking affirmed: “All the evidence seems to indicate, that the universe has not existed forever, but that it had a beginning …. probably the most remarkable discovery of modern cosmology.”³

If the ultimate cause of the universe is God, where did God come from? The question assumes our limited naturalistic environment can adequately explain an unlimited supernatural creative force, even though the evidence points to a source of the natural world beyond nature itself.⁴ It was at the beginning of the cosmos that time, space, matter, and finite energy all came into being. The ultimate cause of the physical world is thus outside of time (eternal), outside of space (omnipresent), outside of matter (immaterial), and outside of finite energy (omnipotent). The God of the Bible is the infinite, independent, supernatural primal cause of the finite, dependent, natural world (Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 3:4).

Childhood Conditioning?

Where one is born and the environment in which one is raised may account for nominal faith (including atheism), but this ignores so many factors inexplicable from a purely naturalistic worldview. Childhood conditioning does not explain why adult atheists become believers, like William J. Murray, son of militant atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, or Oxford professor C. S. Lewis, biochemist Alister McGrath, geneticists Francis Collins and George R. Price, astrophysicist Hugh Ross, astronomer Allan Sandage, philosopher Nina Karin Monsen, Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, journalist Lee Strobel, MIT professor Rosalind Picard, et al.⁵ Apparently how the evidence is interpreted and the conclusions drawn therefrom are not simply a matter of the mind but of the will.

Christianity originated in the Middle East, yet there are followers of Christ not only in America, but in Pakistan, India, and all around the globe. The Christian movement emerged in a hostile Jewish environment and spread throughout a resistant polytheistic world. These early believers did not choose their religion because it was familiar and popular. They embraced the Christian faith as true, irrespective of cultural conditioning and geographic location.

The sarcastic characterization of one conveniently “born into the right god … into the right religion” is a straw-man argument that miserably fails. Former atheist turned Christian apologist, Forest Antemesaris, reasons that if 1,000 people stole his identity and claimed to be Forest Antemesaris, this would surely not prove his nonexistence. “If the God of Christianity exists, the claim of other gods existing does not affect His existence.”⁶

J. Warner Wallace, the son of a devout atheist, was not raised in a Christian home. In his mid-30s, having examined a wide range of philosophical and religious worldviews, he began an investigation of God’s existence and the claims of Christianity. He writes, “Like so many others, I came to believe Christianity is true, not because of my surrounding influences, but on the strength of the case itself.”⁷ Wallace notes further that Christians continue to be the most persecuted religious movement worldwide, especially in Islamic and communist nations. “These suffering believers did not become Christians because Christianity was the default religion of their region or culture.”

Wissam Al-Aethawi, a former Iraqi soldier and engineer who grew up in Baghdad, was disillusioned by a religion that taught hate. He purchased a Bible, was convicted by its message, and obeyed the gospel. He now works with Arab immigrants in the USA, using the New Testament to teach them English, large numbers of whom are experiencing religious freedom for the first time and coming to faith in Christ. You can read Wissam’s story here: <Link>.

Conclusion

Michael Patton observes, “Christianity is the only viable worldview that is historically defensible. The central claims of the Bible demand historic inquiry, as they are based on public events that can be historically verified. In contrast, the central claims of all other religions cannot be historically tested and, therefore, are beyond falsifiability or inquiry. They just have to be believed with blind faith.”⁸ The Christian movement began and flourished, not in a vacuum, but among real people in the first century world who could readily test its claims (cf. Acts 26:26; 1 Cor. 15:6). The credibility and tenacity of the Christian faith, void of violent threats and coercion, better explains why it continues to thrive worldwide.

The geographical location of one’s birth and cultural environment of one’s upbringing is a weak rationale for religion in general and Christianity in particular. Since the creation of the world the evidence of God has not been hidden, and to stubbornly ignore it is inexcusable (Romans 1:18-22). May the entire human creation hear the words of God's revelatory vessel: “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (John 12:48).

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

     ¹ Ricky Gervais, “Religion Explained in 2 Minutes,” YouTube video clip posted by Mike Panagopoulos (25 March 2018), <Link>.

     ² Carl Sagan, “On God and Creation,” YouTube video clip posted by angryatheistdotnet (13 Dec. 2009), <Link>. For a good response to this question, see Kent Hovind’s reply to Reinhold Schlieter, <Link>.

     ³ Stephen Hawking, “The Beginning of Time,” 1996 lecture, <Link>.

     ⁴ See K. L. Moore, Are You Sure About God? Part 1 and appended links. 

     ⁵ This extensive list would also include Emory professor Mark Bauerlein, biologist Alexis Carrel, physicist Russell Humphreys, Harvard law professor Simon Greenleaf, et al. Though certainly not exhaustive, for the names of other prominent figures, see “List of former atheists and agnostics” <Link>.

     ⁶ Forest Antemesaris, “Five Bad Reasons to Reject Christianity,” Apologia Institute (21 May 2018), <Link>.

     ⁷ J. Warner Wallace, “Am I a Christian Simply Because I Was Raised in a Christian Culture?” Cold Case Christianity (31 Jan. 2018), <Link>.

     ⁸ Michael Patton, “Christianity, the World’s Most Falsifiable Religion,” credohouse.org (07-08-2013), <Link>.

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Psalm 14: Proclaiming God's Existence to the World

     The collection of poetic verses known as “the Psalms” served as a hymnbook for the corporate worship of the Israelites. Above fifty-three of these texts is the heading, “To the Chief Musician,” probably alluding to the one who organized and supervised the song service. What makes this so intriguing is that a number of these psalms contain little or no expressions of praise. With statements of doctrine and even cries of complaint, they appear to have been used not only to worship Jehovah but for teaching and admonishing the assembly. The words of the fourteenth Psalm, with slight modification, occur again in Psalm 53 and are then quoted in part by the apostle Paul in the third chapter of Romans.

THE FOOLISHNESS OF UNBELIEF

     “The fool [senseless one] has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1a).¹ Beyond the foolishness of rejecting the Creator, having done so one becomes a fool in the way he lives. A person can deny the reality of fire, but that will not prevent him from getting burned. Likewise, to dismiss God’s existence does not eliminate the consequences of so doing. And the denial is not limited to formal atheism. People deny the Lord when they dismiss Him from their thoughts and leave Him out of their lives, saying in essence, “There is no God for me.”

     Does a man first become an unbeliever in his head or in his heart? “The fool has said in his heart . . .” If one’s affections are set on truth and righteousness, there is no difficulty acknowledging the reality of the Supreme Being. Alternatively, if one’s affections are set on the earth – worldly pleasures and selfish ambitions – then it becomes much easier, more convenient, and even necessary to deny that God is real. Such a repudiation is not due to a lack of evidence (Psalm 19:1). All the proof in the world will not convince a man whose heart is set on earthly things (cf. Luke 16:31). It is therefore not a problem that can be solved in the realm of intellect alone.

     The bottom line is, if a person does not first have a willingness to believe, he will not be convinced regardless of the evidence that is available (see Acts 17:21-34). It is ultimately a matter of faith, but it is a false dichotomy to suggest that the issue is faith vs. science or faith vs. evidence or faith vs. reason. I exist, you exist, and this universe exists. From where did it all come? Whether one accepts the origin of our universe as having resulted accidentally from absolutely nothing or from a primordial clump of non-intelligent matter or purposefully from the intelligent design of a supernatural Creator, it is still a matter of faith.

     No one looks at an intricately designed, carefully constructed edifice and concludes that it came from nothing or randomly fell into place or gradually evolved into its current state. “For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God” (Hebrews 3:4). While this is reasonable, believable, and even self-evident, unfortunately it is not enough to convince the Richard Dawkins of this world. The problem is one of the heart.

OUR RESPONSE TO AN UNBELIEVING WORLD

     When it comes to the highly complex intellectual debates, I am happy to leave that to the capable apologists among us.² But what about those of us who deal with ordinary, everyday people who disbelieve, not because of outright antagonism and immersion in naturalistic philosophy, but simply because they have not had the opportunity to hear the alternative?

     In my experience, when meeting people who say they do not believe in the God of the Bible, the biggest obstacle for them is the problem of evil and human suffering. The irony is that evil and suffering exist, not because there is no God but because people reject Him and then live accordingly. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good” (Psalm 14:1). While the basis of the world’s evil lies in a practical denial of God, this is frequently twisted around to serve as what appears to be one of the most powerful objections to God’s existence.

     The argument goes all the way back to Epicurus (300 BC): If God is all-good (omnibenevolent) and all-powerful (omnipotent), why does evil exist? If He desires to take away evil from the world but cannot, He is not all-powerful. If He can take away evil but does not, He is not all-good. If He is neither willing nor capable, He is neither all-good nor all-powerful. If He is both willing and capable, why does evil exist?

     While this may sound like a compelling argument on the surface, is it valid? Let us first acknowledge that there are some things God cannot do. He cannot lie (Titus 1:2), for instance, or be tempted by evil (James 1:13). He cannot realistically be expected to do what is logically impossible (like make a square circle). If He is indeed a God of love, would He force us to act against our wills or would He grant us freedom? The blessing of freedom involves choice, and choice includes not only the possibility of making right decisions but also wrong ones. It is impossible for God to have made man a free moral agent and yet take away his capability of making wrong choices.

     Now the Lord has given mankind an instruction manual to guide us in the right direction (2 Timothy 3:16), but when people disregard divine directives and make bad decisions, pain and suffering often result. It is man, not God, who has created slavery, whips, bombs, death camps, liquor, pornography, pollution, environmental devastation and waste, false religion, et al. The gift of freedom, when it is misused, accounts for the majority of human misery.

     At the same time, the imperfections of this world serve a purpose in allowing individuals to grow and develop into mature, responsible beings in a way that would otherwise not be possible (see Romans 5:3-4). God’s desire for His creation seems to be, not the suffering itself, but the positive and beneficial effects.

     Pain, loss, and hardship also help to create a realization of human weakness and the need for God in one’s life. Pride and arrogance are self-destructive traits (cf. Proverbs 16:18), but suffering has a way of helping put things in perspective. "My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26). Moreover, the suffering we see in the lives of others provides opportunities for compassion and volunteer service (both of which would otherwise be superfluous).

     The trials we face help us to avoid complacency and to look forward to that place where “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). It would appear that the Lord desires a loving relationship with His creation more than a perfect world. Out of suffering, pain, hardship, and loss God can and will accomplish His good purpose (Romans 8:28-39).

GOD’S RESPONSE TO AN UNBELIEVING WORLD

     “The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God” (Psalm 14:2). The Lord is seeking those who seek Him! “But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29); “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27); “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

     For anyone who sincerely desires to know God, God will provide a way. And this more often than not involves a connection with the people of God (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). May we be diligent, not only in seeking the Lord ourselves, but in proclaiming His message to a world that is lost and dying without Him.

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

     ¹ All scripture quotations are from the NKJV.

     ² See, for example, Apologetics Press, Focus Press, Christian Courier, et al.

*This is a modified version of the lecture “Preaching God’s Existence to the World” presented at the 2009 FHU Lectureship.

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