I had a very enjoyable
conversation recently with a man who told me he didn’t believe in God. The
reason he gave for his view was that he didn’t think there was any reason to
believe in God.
Now, we could have launched
into a discussion giving reasons why he should think God existed (and we did
talk about that eventually), but I wanted to start with something else.
He said he didn’t think
there was any reason to believe in God. This obviously implies we can
think and reason. The point I raised with him was that thinking and reasoning
are impossible if there is no God.
If there is no God then
everything is physical and merely acts according to the laws of physics and
chemistry, which means that we have absolutely no control over our thoughts –
they are just the by-product of non-rational physical processes going on in the
brain. And that brain is the result of blind forces acting on mindless matter
which is subject to random mutations.
That means that, although
atheists like to style themselves as free thinkers, there is no such thing as
free thinking if atheism is true. The only way we can be free thinkers is if
the biblical view is correct – the brain is designed by God for the mind to use
to think.
After explaining this to
him, I said, “So, do you see that if atheism is true, there is no such thing as
rationality? You believe what you believe for the exact same reason I believe
what I believe – mindless matter in motion.” He told me he agreed with that. So
I went over it again and asked him if he really was agreeing with me that
atheism eliminates rationality. He said yes!
He saw the inconsistency
between atheism and rational thought, but rather than give up his atheism, he
was prepared to relinquish his belief in rational thought! And yet, he did this
as a result of a reasoned argument.
We are rational beings; in fact, that is
the meaning of the expression homo sapien – wise man. You can’t deny it
without affirming it; you can’t reject it without using it. Anyone who says
that we have no control over our thoughts has just sawn off the branch he was
sitting on – he wants you to think about what he said and come to the same
conclusion, and yet he has left you with no reason to believe what he says,
because he has just said his thought was the result of non-rational processes –
it is a view that can’t be rationally affirmed.
We know that our thoughts
aren’t the deterministic result of mindless processes over which we have no
control. That tells us that we didn’t come from a mindless source but from a
mind.
It is sometimes
said that a mind capable of forming an argument against God’ existence
constitutes evidence for His existence. That is, a conscious being with the
ability to reason, weigh evidence, and argue logically must come from a source
that has at least the same level of cognitive ability. ‘He who planted the ear,
does He no hear? He who formed they eye, does He not see?’ Ps. 94:9. The cause
must be capable of producing the effect. Water does not rise above its source.[1]
You can come up with all the
arguments you like against God, because every single one of them actually prove
His existence. Think about it.
[1]
Nancy Pearcey, Finding Truth, 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism,
Secularism, and Other God Substitutes, p. 31.
