“I'm fine with people believing whatever they want, as long
as they don't try and inject it into society.”
So says an atheist in the comments on a story at a website I
sometimes visit.
The story related that a 7th grader in Texas was
given an assignment by her public school teacher which would have required the
young lady to deny God’s existence or get a failing grade. The 7th grader showed up at a
school board meeting to protest and said her piece.
As is typical with so many who hate religion, especially
theologically conservative evangelicalism, this atheist fails to make a
rational or reasoned argument. Let’s
examine the nonsensical nature of what he said.
First, he claims he’s fine with people believing what they
want. Well, then he’s not a very serious
atheist. I recommend he go to https://atheists.org/ where he can learn about
what the group American Atheists believes.
Ironically, this group claims to believe
all kinds of things and support various causes, many of which are antithetical
to allowing people to “believe whatever they want.” For instance, the group desires the public
schools have a completely secular education.
In other words, the 7th grader in this story would NOT be
allowed to believe what she wants and still do well in school. She is free to believe in God off school premises if the American
Atheists have their way. So Mr. Atheist
probably really means people can believe what they want in private but they shouldn’t be allowed to speak it in public. Logically, however, doesn’t this also mean
that Mr. Atheist, if he adhered to his own standard, shouldn’t be allowed to
speak what he wants in public, but should only be able to believe it in private? Awkward!
Second, he ironically claims that people should be allowed
to believe what they want but they just shouldn’t be allowed to “inject it into
society.” By its own force, doesn’t that
argument then mean that Mr. Atheist shouldn’t be allowed to “inject” his own
views “into society?” Again, that’s not
really what he means. He means anyone
who believes something other than what he believes should not be allowed to
“inject” their views. And right wing,
religious nutjobs like me are dogmatic?
You see, the American Atheists and our commenting friend
really don’t want people to believe what they want, even in private. What they want is a society in which all
belief in God is wiped out. The American
Atheists have all their arguments ready for why religion is such a bad thing
and why it should be wiped out. They are
not interested in live and let live. The
American Atheists and our commenting friend want to believe what they believe
without interference from anyone and want to utterly crush any belief in
anything else.
I say let the atheists believe what they want. Frankly, I agree with the American Atheists
that there should not be a government sponsored, state religion. Where I disagree with them is whether religion
has a place in the public square. Moreover,
just because I believe in a creator God doesn’t make me irrational, ill-informed,
unreasonable or stupid (despite the often cartoonish claims to the contrary by
many atheists). There is plenty of
evidence to support the idea of a creator – we can form our own
conclusions. However, once you conclude
there is a creator God, there are implications for our lives. More importantly, when one concludes that
Jesus is God (again based on the evidence, not whimsy) the implications for all
of life are profound. As a consequence,
a faithful Christian is compelled to speak out and to engage in public
discussion. To do otherwise would be to
deny Christ.
I cannot, in a blog post, make out a full blown apologetic
for Christianity and won’t attempt it.
Such would be sheer folly. As a
lover of irony, however, I will say this: isn’t it odd that I’m okay with
allowing atheists to have a public voice but they don’t think I should?
