Debate Reaction

On ABC last night they had an excerpt of the atheist - believer debate that I mentioned in a post below.  I watched the excerpted session.

 

Afterwards they had reactions from the audience.  The reactions were predictable.  The atheists in the audience said the atheists won, the believers said the believers won. 

 

I have a reaction.  Even though I could watch the whole hour and a half debate on ABC.com, I have slow speed internet and it would take forever to watch it. So I won't.  I have a friend who has downloaded it and burned a DVD. 

 

What I watched resulted in these impressions:

 

Without faith it is impossible to believe in God.  One must first believe that he is and that is the rewarded of those who seek him.  His reward is him. 

 

The atheists represented in this conversation were mean spirited, condescending and unhappy people.  People with a chip on their shoulder.

 

They showed a clip of several people denying the existence of the Holy Spirit as an act of atheistic defiance.  They are convinced that they will go to hell if there is a hell which they don't believe in.  They think that somehow they have implemented the intentional commitment of the  unforgivable sin.  Even in trying to intentionally commit the unforgivable they failed.  God's goodness and mercy will woo them till the day they step from time into eternity.  Some will turn before they take their last breath.  God's mercy endures forever.

 

My emotion when it was all over was sadness and pity for those lost unhappy empty people.  There is no Joy without Hope.  They have none.  Oh, they put on a good show but they are miserable people inside.  That misery manifests itself in anger, bitterness, meanness, cynicism, pedantry, inferiority, condescension and lovelessness.  What a horrible way to live.

 

I thought Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort were pretty good.  I think it's hard to prove God's existence if people have chosen to disbelieve.  The arguments they used are those from Romans chapter 1.  Creation cries out evidence of a creator. 

 

I don't know many real atheists.  I know some who think they are.  But in truth they are people seeking truth.  A man I know who was raised in the Church and who I respect claims to be an atheist.  But, sometimes  when I exchange views with him I hear an emptiness in him that rattles around.

 

There was a famous French Atheist who in his 40s said he no longer could deny the hole in his soul.  Late in life he came to Jesus.

 

Peggy asked me a key question, "Have you ever known anyone who was a sold out Christian (Not just taken to or raised in the church in a lutheran sort of way) who later became an atheist?"  I had to say no, I could not think of one. 

 

Most people who become atheists are disillusioned with religion and church.  They are not rejecting God, they are rejecting his marketing group. That's why I became a Christian.  I became disillusioned with Church and Religion.  Then after I was well grounded I was able to re-enter church with a belief that I might have a positive influence for change on the culture of the Church that causes people to be driven away.  I haven't succeeded yet.

 

I'll keep trying.