On January 8, 2015 CNN.com published an article entitled “Why You Don’t Need God”. The article is written by Ryan Bell who was once a Seventh-day Adventist pastor. He is now an atheist. The entire article can be accessed via the following link: http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/08/opinion/bell-god-atheism/index.html
When I first read Bell’s article, I was angry. I write many blog posts for people who are “searching”, searching for purpose and meaning. My personal opinion is that purpose and meaning can only be found through God and Jesus. Bell’s article is basically the antithesis. Therefore, naturally I viewed him as an enemy. However, I remembered that I am supposed to love my enemies. See my previous post: http://rebuildandrestore.com/my-ultimate-challenge-loving-my-enemies/
I’m glad that I remembered to love my enemies because it helped me realize that Bell had just given me template to tell people “Why we DO need God”. While I don’t agree with his opinions, I appreciate Bell using a straight forward and reasoned approach. He brings up some very valid points that believers in God should be able to counter with a straight forward and reasoned approach. You see, I am not one of those people who believe or don’t believe simply because it “feels” right. I’m not a “blind faith” kind of person. I am simply not wired that way. Before I can make a decision on something, such as the existence of God, I need the argument broken down. I need to see the evidence on both sides, and the evidence undoubtedly points to the existence of God. I believe in God because of the evidence, not in spite of it.
1) Bell says ” ….I couldn’t find any other way to find peace and clarity. I encountered major theological differences with my denomination and evangelical Christianity in general, including the way it marginalizes women and LGBT people.”
Response: I concede that churches and church leaders have sometimes marginalized women and LGBT. However, that is an issue with the followers of Christianity and not a problem with Christianity, itself. Christians believe that Jesus was part of God put on earth in the human form. Jesus never marginalized anyone. In fact, Jesus made it a priority to socialize with everyone. One of the greatest contemporary criticisms of Jesus was that he made a habit of socializing with sinners and social outcasts, such as tax collectors and Samaritans. Jesus may have been the first women’s rights advocate as well. See my previous post: http://rebuildandrestore.com/paul-liked-women-but-jesus-was-a-ladies-man/
2) Bell says, “I questioned the problem of evils and God’s general silence and inactivity”.
Response: I concede that there is evil in the world. Because humans are separated from God, we live in a fallen world. Hence, humans have a “mean streak”. The real issue for me is why God lets evil happen. Nevertheless, I want to focus on the second part of Bell’s statement: God’s general silence and inactivity. Conversely, I think God is very active. God is running the universe. You see, science tells us “how” things work: the Big Bang, the human body, quantum physics, etc. But science doesn’t tell us “why” things work. For example, we have laws of science. They tell us how things work, but “why” do we have laws of science in the first place???God???
3) Bell says, “I was struck by how unlikely my existence is.” and “But my experience is that acknowledging the absence of God has helped me refocus on the wonderful and unlikely life I do have.”
Response: I concede that the human existence is unlikely. However, it is this very “unlikeliness” that is actually evidence of God’s existence. Generally, when something odd or unusual happens, people say it is either coincidence or divine intervention. Well, the human existence is odd, unusual, and unlikely. For life to evolve, several factors must be in play: distance of the planet from the sun, the presence of an atmosphere, the presence of water, etc. While there is a little variability, all of the factors must work in the right combinations to support life. So, what are the chances that we could be born on a planet that has all of the factors for life to not only exist, but also to flourish? What are the chances that we could be born on a planet where life flourishes enough to produce intelligent life, such as humans? It “could” be a coincidence. I mean someone has to win the lottery, but what are the chances of you or me winning the lottery? Similarly, is our existence the equivalent of winning a cosmic lottery? Or is it more likely to be divinely inspired? My money is on the latter.
4) Bell says, “Ironically, my Christian upbringing taught me that this life ultimately doesn’t matter, which tends to make believers apathetic about suffering.” and “Without dependency on a cosmic savior who is coming to rescue us, we are free to recognize that we are the ones we’re waiting for. If we don’t make the world a fair and habitable place, no one else is going to do it for us.”.
Response: Life matters. If it didn’t, Jesus’ death wouldn’t have atoned for our sins. Additionally, I have come to accept that there will be suffering on the Earth. However, I am not apathetic towards it. Furthermore, I don’t think other Christians are apathetic about suffering either. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have organizations like the Salvation Army and Compassion International.
I concede that Christians sometimes wait for God to fix something, when God actually wants to use Christians to fix something. It’s like the Matthew West song goes: we shake our fist at God and ask him why he doesn’t do something. Then God replies, I did. I created you. We were created to serve God and do his work. Furthermore, even if Christians were apathetic towards suffering, that’s an issue with Christians, not God. God has given us the directive to do his work. We simply struggle to carry out that directive.
In summary, it appears that many, but not all of Bell’s issues with God come from his experiences with Christians. In my very first blog post, I explained the shortcomings of Christians. See http://rebuildandrestore.com/three-things-that-ticked-me-off-or-why-churches-fail-to-reach-people/
However, God set the bar pretty high, when he sent Jesus as an example. One of the basic tenets of Christianity is that we have failed to live up to God’s expectations, and we need a savior. So, while disheartening, the struggle of Christians is not only understandable, but it is also expected. However, is it unfair to doubt the existence of God simply because his followers can’t get it right.
For more on the existence of God, and more specifically the existence of Jesus, see: http://www.leestrobel.com/channels/CFChrist.php and http://coldcasechristianity.com/ .
I belong to a men’s group at my local church. There’s about 10 of us who meet at 0630 on Thursday mornings. As one would expect, we’ve grown very close to each other. We share our successes and our struggles. A few months ago, I gave my testimony during a morning meeting of my men’s group. Also, during that particular meeting, a new guy named Shawn Parker was present. After I gave my testimony, Shawn nearly broke down. He said that he had the same issues with anxiety that I once had. He also said that he absolutely knew that God wanted him to be at the church that morning to hear my testimony. I had actually been somewhat apprehensive to share what I had always considered to be an embarrassing part of my life. However, when I heard Shawn’s response to my testimony, I became more transparent. That day Jesus acted through Shawn to encourage me to be more transparent, to be more of a risk taker, and most importantly, to use my struggles to glorify God.
