What About Atheists?

There are a growing group of people that denies the possibility of revelation, who call themselves atheists and agnostics. Are they “lost”? Not in the biblical sense, where “lost” indicates those who once were in the fold of the revelation-community and have strayed outside of it. These who deny the possibility of revelation have this belief, more often than not, throughout their adult life. Nor do most of them seem “lost” in the sense that there are deep questions in their lives that seem unanswered. There are many philosophies that have made God unnecessary for the meaning of life, and those who have denied revelation have attached themselves to these. Nor are they “lost” in that they lead less fulfilling lives than religious people. While there are some benefits that religious people have—a greater sense of community and often a deeper sense of peace—in general, the lives of unbelievers reflect the lives of believers, and believers have a greater chance of becoming unhealthy in their religious belief and using that belief to harm themselves or others.

What, then, is there lost in denying revelation empirically? First of all, there is a loss of a potential set of data for truth. Those who deny revelation deny the possibility of a spirit world or being contacted by a spirit world. Should the monotheists be correct, and the creation of this universe is sourced by personal entities from another universe, then some of the most essential data to the purpose and functioning of this universe is rejected. Also, denying revelation is ultimately denying the possibility for life after death. This may not be bad in and of itself, unless they are wrong. Then the consequences could be tragic.

The worst consequence of the deniers of revelation is the public square that acts as if religion doesn’t exist, or if it does, it is simply unhealthy. To deny religion is to deny the motivating force of the majority of humanity. To dismiss religion as the worldview of the ignorant is to misunderstand and to reject the main perspective of most of the people in the world. This creates a separation and an ignorance of others. From this perspective of denying the understanding of the majority of the world, is to encourage the kind of public policies that cause the destruction of humanity, it is to refuse to listen, it is to render people in general as insignificant.

Worldviews aren’t some box. You can’t put a worldview as “historic” or “antiquated” if most people still believe it. There are many understandings of how the world works and the most balanced perspective is to understand them all, even if you don’t believe them all.

Whatever the case, the deniers of revelation are not the enemies of the monotheists. We should pray for them and prepare our children for facing such points of view. Most of all, we need to train ourselves to understand as many points of view as possible. Only then will what we believe makes sense. We do not do this simply for apologetic reasons, but mostly for the sake of clear communication.