January-February 1999
You've Got to Believe Something
by Greg Koukl
Everybody believes something, and even what appears to be a rejection of all beliefs is a kind of belief. We all hold something to be true. Maybe what you hold to be true is that nothing else is true, but that is nonetheless something you believe.
Even if you are agnostic, you believe that it is not possible to know things about ultimate issues like the existence of God. You believe in the justifiability of your agnosticism-your uncertainty-and you have a burden of proof to justify your unwillingness to decide. There is nowhere someone can stand where he or she has no beliefs.
If you reject Christianity, there is something else that you end up asserting by default. If you reject Christianity for certain problems that it has (and it does have problems), you might do so because you believe another world view has no problems or fewer problems than Christianity. But in rejecting Christianity one might create more problems than he or she solves.
Defending Atheism?
Christians are not the only ones who have to defend their beliefs.
If someone says, "Well, I disregard Christianity. I don't believe it because I don't think it's possible to know anything true about God." Christians ought to ask, "Why would you ever believe that?"
How do you solve the problem of evil by rejecting God? If you reject God, then you must also reject the idea that there's evil in the world -- because God is the standard for defining good and evil. Not only must you reject the idea of evil, you must reject the idea that there is anything good -- because no absolute standard for good or evil exists.
So you haven't solved the problem of evil by getting rid of God. Rather, you have added another problem -- the problem of good.
| Everybody believes something. Even a rejection of all beliefs is a kind of belief. |
In rejecting God, the atheist still has to face evil in the world and explain where it came from. Can he? I doubt it. But the atheist also has to explain where good comes from. If there is no God, it's hard to make any sense out of either of those concepts. If there is no God, then there is nothing that is evil or good. You have to have a standard of good and evil that stands outside of us to define what evil and good actually are.
Unanswered Questions
Unanswered questions are not a liability for any belief system. Christianity certainly has unanswered questions (although not as many as some people think). There are some questions that I struggle with -- but that doesn't sink my faith. The fact that I struggle with problems in Christianity is not necessarily a reflection on Christianity; it's a reflection on knowledge in general.
Every world view has its set of problems, and every belief system has its unanswered questions. When you reject Christianity because of certain problems, you receive a whole new set of problems. In many cases, that new set of problems is much more difficult and damaging than the set of problems you faced in Christianity.
For example, if you remove God from the equation, then you must conclude that everything comes from nothing -- that life comes from non-life -- that order comes from chaos -- that natural law comes from randomness. Essentially, you must conclude that the effect is greater than the cause.
Of course, all of these things are patently absurd, but these are the kinds of problems that a person rejecting God must honestly address. It's a whole set of things that you don't have to face if you believe in God.
Rejecting God
Do you see the tremendous problems created when one rejects the existence of God? Do you see the problems that are added?
I'm not offering this as an argument for God's existence. I'm simply trying to put things in perspective.
If you reject one point of view you end up landing on another square, another world view with all of its own problems. And some of the problems in the new world view are more extreme than the problems you thought you were getting away from by rejecting the Christian world view.
It may be that everything came from nothing. It may be that life came from non-life -- order came from chaos -- natural law came from randomness -- the effect is greater than the cause. But you need a whole lot of faith to believe those kinds of things.
It seems to be much more reasonable, given the evidence, that God is the one responsible. As we observe the world, it seems that the effect is never greater than the cause.
Atheists don't solve problems by rejecting God. They create whole new sets of problems, and most of them are much more pressing than the problems they think they are escaping.
Now available in bookstores, Greg Koukl's new book Relativism -- Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air (Baker Books).