Anti-theist Talking Points

I’ve met a lot of atheists in my outreach conversations, but Jacob was the first who described himself not simply as an atheist, but as an “anti-theist”. This means that not only does he not believe that God exists, but he believes that the world would be a better place without all the theists who believe that He does.

Despite our very different world views, Jacob and I had a friendly and respectful conversation out at a basketball court. Early on, I asked if he had been reading books by some of the well-known atheists, such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and he said that, indeed, he had.

This didn’t surprise me, because during the course of our conversation Jacob mentioned most of the same atheist talking points I’ve been hearing for years. I’ve just never heard them all in the same conversation like this. I think they flowed so freely from him because he is not only trying to defend his atheist beliefs, but is on a mission to debunk the beliefs of theists as well.

At the risk of overwhelming believers with a firehose of skepticism, I’m going to list all the claims and questions Jacob had for me, because if we are to have a rational faith in this secular, skeptical society, we need to be aware of what questions people are asking. Here they are in the order he brought them up during our conversation:

• Hypocrisy of churchgoers;
• Believers are just trying to overcome fear of death;
• Science is the only basis for truth;
• Too much suffering and pain, God either not good or powerful enough to stop evil;
• Many gods and religions, which one?
• Contradictions between and within religions;
• A loving God would not allow people to be misled with false religions;
• Genocide of whole tribes of people in the Old Testament;
• God should not tolerate any evil in world;
• Believers attracted to authoritarianism, desire to be under authority;
• Believers fooled into believing by mere coincidences;
• Believers selfishly think God and universe is all about them;
• God is a dictator, chooses some but not others;
• God treats women unfairly;
• Unfair to be blamed for Adam’s sin;
• God unfair to reveal Himself to some but not others;
• Why would God make eternal happiness or torture dependent on whether we have heard about him or not?
• Can God have the right to save some but not others? Why is God worth worshipping?
• It’s like we are born sick and commanded to be well;
• We didn’t make the choice to be born;
• We have to beg and plead to be accepted by God and not punished;
• Isn’t the essence of Christianity hoping to please God, hoping to make it into heaven, or earn God’s approval?
• It’s only human to make mistakes, we don’t deserve to suffer for that;
• Why would God set us up for failure?
• Why should we have to believe in something with no evidence at all?
• God’s attributes can exist without demonstration in an evil world;
• Why do we need to experience good by going through bad situations?
• Christianity does not hold its weight in logic or evidence;
• Not healthy to have to fear God;
• Ethics are different in different cultures;
• Evolution explains why we are cooperative and moral;
• Fear of God can’t exist with love for God.

Whew! We fit a lot in a short conversation, and somehow my recording was cut short so there was even more! It’s interesting that some of these claims actually contradict each other, and many betray false beliefs about the very nature of Christianity itself. I think a big reason why so many reject the Gospel is because they have been given false impressions of it and don’t truly understand it in the first place.

I thought it might be helpful to share these issues and questions because they are typical of the questions our secular world is asking, and they very much affect our families and churches. They are not just for those of us who wish to share our faith with people on the street, but also as we raise our kids, talk with relatives, encourage others at church, and maybe just to be honest that we have some of these same questions ourselves.

I didn’t have much time to speak to each of these in our conversation, because Jacob would just move on to the next one fairly quickly. But there is plenty of evidence and resources available for those who want answers for every one of these issues and are willing to take the time to look into them.