Episode 99: The Atheist Experience (And What's Wrong With It)

"Look through a faithless eye/are you afraid to die?/Yeah-yeah/yeah-yeah/it scares the hell out of me/and the end is all I can see."

                      -Muse, "Thoughts of a Dying Atheist"

    The fact that people can deny the fact that creation is the product of a divine being astounds me. Looking around at the world around me, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a God. Thus, it surprises me that atheists can ask for proof that God exists - everything is proof that God exists. The atheist asking that question is proof that God exists. There is no way that our vast, beautiful, complicated universe was the product of happenstance. Everything that is was undeniably the product of divine creation.

   I just know that if the audience for my blog was bigger than just my family, some friends, and some family friends, I would no doubt be hounded by keyboard warriors brandishing their usual brand of Reddit-style atheism, saying things like "sky daddy" and "if God is real why do bad things happen?". Atheists like to mock Christians for the things they believe and say, while ignoring the fact that they themselves are very predictable.

    And that's another thing - maybe it's because they're exposed to Christians more than other faiths, but it seems like atheists go after Christianity much more than, say, Islam or Judaism. 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 also says some good words about why atheists come after us more than any other religion.

   With all that being said, I not only can't understand how one could deny the existence of God, I also don't understand how one can not believe in eternity and an afterlife. If there is nothing beyond mortal death, what is the point of life? It also seems like such a terrifying outlook - I can't imagine going through my life thinking that once I die, that's lights out. No more thoughts or feelings, because there is no me. I don't exist anymore. I don't wanna wrap my head around that, and I'm not going to - because it's not true.

   Like in the song I quoted at the start. I'm sure some atheists are okay with the stance that there's nothing after death - but death still has to be scary to some of them. 

   My dad gave me this point I'm about to articulate, and maybe he got it from someone else but as far as I know, it's a Mr. Hardy Sr. original - and it goes like this: say the atheist is right and there's nothing after death. Then when we die, we'll be in the same boat - no existence; nothingness. But say I'm right. That means eternal joy and prosperity for me and eternal suffering and pain for the atheist. Even if an atheist believes hell doesn't exist, shouldn't the thought of it existing still scare them? Shouldn't they at the very least be scared by the possibility that they might be wrong? I can't imagine going through life with the knowledge that eternal torment might be a thing and not doing everything I can to avoid being subjected to it. 

    I can't help but believe that at least some atheists have faced these thoughts in their final moments, like in the Muse song. How many atheists have laid in their deathbeds, terrified that they've chosen the wrong path their entire life? How many turned to God in their final breaths and begged forgiveness and mercy out of fear of damnation? Or maybe just out of hope that they won't just cease existing? It would be easy an for atheist reading this to be like "nah, they don't do that, because they don't believe in that stuff", but I can't help but think it happens. 

    Anyway, I just wanted to talk about how absurd I think the concept of atheism is. I've definitely not shied away from confessing that I'm a strong Christian in my blogs, and the few people that actually read this blog know that, so you should know that I reject the stances of atheism, that there is no God and nothing happens after death. I believe, and I choose to believe, because I physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally cannot not believe. 

Romans 1:20: "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."

Anyway, see you next week!