The God Debate

Over on the Wilco fan board I frequent, in the non-music topic section a topic was started talking about the new "militant" atheists, and how they seem to be a bit on the dogmatic side. The whole thing went pretty far, and I was surprised at the number of atheists on the board. This was my reply based on what somebody said about how they "worry about people whose motivation for kindness stems from the hope of making deposits in the stock of their afterlife."

The Bible says, "Good works alone are like filthy rags to God"-- to paraphrase it slightly. While, it is good to do things for others, and show true Christian love, ultimately (as I believe it) the most important thing is a true faith in God and Jesus Christ as Savior.

I've stayed away from this topic for sometime now, though it has been interesting to read things from an atheist world-view. Though, Donald Miller said once, that there are no actual atheists, merely people who God hasn't spoken to yet, or folks who choose not to listen to what He is saying.

I am a liberal Evangelical Christian. Born again a little over a 2-years-ago now. For me, the debate about whether or not God exists in non-existant, because I have seen His work in others lives, and most remarkably my own. It would be easy to write a lot of things off as "fate" or "circumstance", but that's where faith comes in, right?

The way I see it, even by an atheist saying, "I believe when we die we turn to dust", promotes a belief in something. Even if that something is a nothing, it's still a belief that it will happen. Some might even say that the little inkling of "nothing" might even be God talking to those individuals.

I don't get how people can look at some of the world's wonders and not understand that there is a God. I mean that with all seriousness too... so much beauty in this world, how did it get there? Who thought it up if God didn't? Seems way too complex to be "fate".

I'm interested to see if you guys have any thoughts. And if you are interested in reading the whole thread it is here: http://forums.viachicago.org/topic/42194-the-new-atheists/