Practical Atheism
The Cosmic Authority Problem
TCF Sermon Text
July 15, 2007
Did you ever notice that children sometimes have misconceptions or misunderstandings, about the Bible, about church, and about God?
There’s the Sunday school class that was studying the Ten Commandments. They were ready to discuss the last one. The teacher asked if anyone could tell her what it was. One girl raised her hand, stood tall, and quoted, "Thou shall not take the covers off the neighbor’s wife."
There’s the man who had been teaching his three-year-old daughter the Lord’s Prayer. For several evenings at bedtime, she would repeat the lines from the prayer. Finally, she decided to go solo. The dad listened as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer: "Lead us not into temptation," she prayed, "but deliver us some E-mail. Amen."
One particular four-year old prayed, "And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets."
A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were on the way to church service, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" One bright little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping."
Six-year-old Angie and her four-year old brother Joel were sitting together in church. Joel giggled, sang and talked out loud. Finally, his big sister had had enough. "You’re not supposed to talk out loud in church." "Why? Who’s going to stop me?" Joel asked. Angie pointed to the back of the church and said, "See those two men standing by the door? They’re hushers."
A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5, Ryan, 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. "If Jesus were sitting here, He would say ’Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.’ Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!"
After the church service a little boy told the pastor, "When I grow up, I’m going to give you some money." "Well, thank you!," the pastor replied, "but why?" "Because my daddy says you’re one of the poorest preachers we’ve ever had."
A wife invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the blessing?" "I wouldn’t know what to say," the girl replied. "Just say what you hear Mommy say," the wife answered. The daughter bowed her head and said, "Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"
A little boy was overheard praying: "Lord, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it. I’m having a real good time like I am."
Out of the mouths of children. But this last one illustrates something important I want to address this morning. Children grow into adults, and many adults still have misconceptions or misunderstandings about God.
Sometimes these misconceptions, if you dig deeper, are more intentional – and they’re for the same reason this little boy prayed that if God couldn’t make him a better boy, that’s fine, because he was enjoying being just like he was, which was apparently not so good.
One look at the national best-seller lists of books, reveals something very important about our culture today. On the one hand, this may seem like a new development, but on further reflection, we realize this growing trend is nothing new at all.
Names like Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett are found among the non-fiction best-sellers, with book titles like God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything and The God Delusion, and The End of Faith.
This trend cannot be explained away fully as a reaction to the conservative Christianity of our president. This also cannot be explained away as a passing phenomenon, nor, can it be explained away as the diatribe or ravings of a fringe element. It’s obviously becoming more mainstream thinking, as evidenced in part by the fact that these are best-selling books.
Now, of course, polls still show America is an inherently religious nation, and that the vast majority of Americans believe in God. Statistically, believers in God far outnumber nonbelievers in America. In an 2005 AP poll on religion, only 2 percent of those surveyed said they did not believe in God. Other surveys concluded that 14 percent of Americans consider themselves secular, a term that can include believers who say they have no religion.
A common theme in these books we’ve mentioned, and we’ve only highlighted the best-sellers among these, is that atheism is inherently rational and religion is absolutely irrational. We could, and we have from this pulpit, tried to illustrate that our faith is not irrational, so we won’t address that this morning.
But these best-selling atheists write that not believing in God is a sign of humanity’s intellectual maturity. Belief in God, they say, is a holdover of humanity’s passion-filled childhood when it was ruled by fear, hate, and ignorance.
“It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail” Sam Harris
Interestingly enough, we could get into a real tug-of-war on this issue. I’m not suggesting we do that with self-proclaimed atheists, because I don’t believe it would be particularly helpful. However, though these evangelistic atheists say religion is irrational, and that atheism is for smart people, while religion is for the stupid – I guess that would be most of us – the Word of God says just the opposite.
Psalms 14:1 (NIV) 1 The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."
Psalm 53:1 says virtually the same thing. What’s more, this divide between believer and unbeliever is to be expected.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (NIV) 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
As I read stories about these books, and even excerpts of these books, I see a real disconnect here. We also see a real hostility to religion in general, and often especially to Christianity.
What we see in these books is revealing the true agenda of atheists in general. There are emotions and desires driving the arguments of atheists, even though they claim to base their atheism entirely on rational thought.
Richard Dawkins says believers of all stripes are infected with a sort of “mind virus.” Christopher Hitchens says, “religion kills,” and he pokes fun at a God who “hates ham.”
Let me read some excerpts from Hitchens’ book – it’s rather lengthy, but I think it illustrates well what’s passing for popular books these days:
"There are four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum of servility with the maximum of solipsism (the theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified, or that the self is the only reality), that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking. There is no need for us to gather every day, or every seven days, or on any high and auspicious day, to proclaim our rectitude or to grovel and wallow in our unworthiness. While some religious apology is magnificent in its limited way—one might cite Pascal—and some of it is dreary and absurd—here one cannot avoid naming C. S. Lewis—both styles have something in common, namely the appalling load of strain that they have to bear. How much effort it takes to affirm the incredible!…believers still claim to know! Not just to know, but to know everything. Not just to know that god exists, and that he created and supervised the whole enterprise, but also to know what "he" demands of us—from our diet to our observances to our sexual morality. Such stupidity, combined with such pride, should be enough on its own to exclude "belief" from the debate. The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species. It may be a long farewell, but it has begun and, like all farewells, should not be protracted."
Do you hear the bitterness? Do you hear the arrogance? Do you hear the inconsistencies? For example, he says that the person who is certain “belongs now to the infancy of our species.” I wonder if that means he’s not certain that there is no God?
Many secularists find such writing highly entertaining. I just find it sad. Such vitriol really begs the question. Why are these atheists so angry? And why, really, do they believe in their hearts that there is no God?
I think there may be many reasons this is true, but I think we can boil most atheist rejections of God, down to just a few basic ideas.
I know there are people who struggle with the existence of God because of suffering in their lives or the lives of others. I know there are people who struggle with the existence of God for other reasons altogether.
But I honestly think these so-called atheists are in the minority. Atheists who are honest with themselves, and for just a moment are able to get past their own bitterness and pride, just might give us a clue.
Atheist writer Thomas Nagel, confessed in his book, The Last Word, to a “fear of religion itself.”
"I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true, and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that. My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time."
I read that quote, and I have an “aha!” moment. He wrote: I don’t want there to be a God. Why? It’s a cosmic authority problem. That’s why, this morning, with Psalm 14:1 as our text, we’re looking at Practical atheism, the cosmic authority problem.
Because I think this man, Thomas Nagel, gave us an honest answer about why one might be an atheist, and because I think Psalm 14 supports this idea.
I don’t think of this trend as particularly or especially dangerous to us at least in any way that’s new. I think we should recognize this is a philosophy as old as time. Certainly at least as old as the Psalms.
The word “fool” in the Hebrew of Psalm 14:1 is referring to someone who is morally insensitive, not necessarily intellectually ignorant.
…the fool is not simply one lacking in mental powers. In fact, the fool may be a highly intelligent person. The fool is one whose life is lived without the direction or the acknowledgement of God. Word Biblical Commentary
International Bible Commentary says:
The Hebrew (word) nabal (translated:fool) does not connote a simpleton, but one whose moral thinking is perverse. He has deliberately closed his mind to the reality of God and to the implications of His moral rule
I think the word “deliberately” is important. I guarantee you Christopher Hitchens would not see it this way, but I believe atheists, at some point in their journey, deliberately close their minds to the reality of God. They do this because they want to do things that they see religions of all kinds as prohibiting, and they don’t want anyone to tell them what to do. We see this illustrated by the Pharaoh of Egypt, who refused to listen to Moses, when he came to Pharaoh.
Exodus 5:1-2 (NIV) 1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ’Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.’" 2 Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."
It’s really not very likely that Pharaoh had never heard of the Hebrew God when he said “I do not know the Lord.” What he was saying is that he rejected the authority of this God of the Hebrews. A paraphrase might read: “Who’s this God of yours to tell me, the mighty Pharaoh, what to do? Why should I listen to Him? Who’s He to tell me what to do. He’s not the boss of me.” Sounds like what our kids say to us at a certain young age.
Pharaoh had a cosmic authority problem. He’d said in his heart that there is no God. In his case, there was no god but himself. “I’m in charge, and I don’t need no stinkin’ God to tell me what to do.”
Psalm 14 illustrates that a fool says in his heart there is no God, and this leads, inevitably, to a corrupt and wicked life. The second part of verse 1 reads:
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.
One commentary says:
As a practical atheist (i.e., living his life as if there were no God) he is separated from the wisdom revealed in God’s Word. As a result he is corrupt, spoiling whatever he does. His actions are vile, that is, he does abominable things that the Lord hates Bible Knowledge Commentary
God’s verdict on these fools is that they are corrupt in themselves, and that their deeds, their actions are terrible. There is a close connection between a man’s creed (what he believes) and his conduct. The lower his conception of God, the lower his morals are likely to be.
Either as cause or consequence, atheism and agnosticism are inseparably tied with a corrupt life. The belief that there is no God is commonly founded on the desire to lead a wicked life, or is embraced by those who in fact live such a life, with a desire to sustain themselves in their depravity and to avoid the fear of future retribution. Believers Bible Commentary
I don’t think it’s an accident that atheists in the Psalmist’s day, as well as, I believe, atheists today, are described as “believing in their heart” that there is no God. Why is this important?
It’s harder for people generally to doubt the existence of God, but it’s not hard for them to question his authority or dominion. The atheist says this in his heart. It may not be his rational judgment at first, but his imagination. Paul’s letter to the Romans addresses this idea:
Romans 1:19-22 (NIV) 19 …what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 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 men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
So, Paul echoes Psalms here. Atheists become fools. They may not start out that way, but that’s where they end up. They might start by thinking they can’t be sure there is a God, but they sure wish, they sure hope, there isn’t one.
Why? Because if there is a God, we have to somehow answer to Him. If there is a God, and He’s a creator-God, and He’s all-powerful, and He’s given us His Word, and He requires something of us, that presents a problem.
What’s more, the existence of God might actually cramp our style somehow. It might keep us from things that, unfortunately, God would call sin. It might keep us from doing anything and everything we want. It might keep us from indulging our desires. It might keep us from having fun. It might keep us from being in charge of our own lives. This presents us with having to make a choice.
So, people allow themselves to go down that road toward agnosticism, or even atheism, and become willing to think that there is no God. They say it first in their heart, in their thoughts, in their minds, long before they’ll say it as boldly and confidently, or even arrogantly, as some of these evangelistic atheists say it in their best-selling books.
Matthew Henry writes:
Atheistic thoughts are very foolish, wicked thoughts, and they are at the bottom of a great deal of the wickedness that is in this world. The word of God is a discerner of these thoughts, and puts a just brand on him that harbours them. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; for he thinks against the clearest light, against his own knowledge and convictions, and the common sentiments of all the wise and sober part of mankind. No man will say, There is no God till he is so hardened in sin that it has become his interest that there should be none to call him to an account.
Now, isn’t that a sobering thought? That’s where this verse, Psalm 14:1, might begin to get a little convicting.
It’s pretty easy for us Christians to pick on atheists. It’s pretty easy for us to shake our heads and say, how pitiful, how foolish. But when we think of it this way, as Matthew Henry writes it, it hits closer to home. No man will say that there is no God until he is so hardened in sin that it’s in his best interest that there is no God, because then, there’s no one to hold him responsible for his sin.
Hebrews 3:12-13 (NIV) 12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Here, the writer of Hebrews is writing to those he
calls “brothers,” which would indicate that these are fellow Christ-followers. They’re Christians. He’s urging them not to be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
The deceitfulness of sin is right there along the road to foolishness, to saying in your heart that there is no God.
It’s easy, as we read Psalm 14, to think of the fools, those poor atheists, as other people. But, interestingly enough, the apostle Paul applies this passage of scripture from Psalms to establish beyond any theological doubt the universal evil and folly of mankind.
Word Biblical Commentary says:
The fool is not a rare subspecies within the human race; all human beings are fools apart from the wisdom of God.
Paul is quoting Psalm 14 in a passage from Romans 3:
Romans 3:9-12 (NIV) 9 What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."
So, we can read Psalm 14:1, and note that those who say in their hearts that there is no God are fools, and be comfortable with that statement.
But we can be practical atheists when we sin. We can be practical atheists when we withhold parts of our life from the Lordship of Christ. We can be practical atheists, de-facto atheists, consciously or unconsciously saying in our hearts, there is no God, when we disobey. When we rely more on ourselves than we rely on God. When our attitudes or our actions reveal we trust more in ourselves than we trust in the Maker of the universe. When we’re not quick to repent. When we rebel. When we run from God. When we try to be in charge of our own life. When we have this cosmic authority problem.
We might not think of ourselves as atheists, but functionally, we can be atheists, because we say in our hearts, God’s not in charge.
Psalms 10:4 (NIV) 4 In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
We need God. We need to make room for Him in every part of our lives. And when we live our lives as if we don’t need him, we’re functioning just like Christopher Hitchens, whether we would believe the things he says or not. He writes, specifically in mockery of Christians:
How much vanity must be concealed—not too effectively at that—in order to pretend that one is the personal object of a divine plan? How much self-respect must be sacrificed in order that one may squirm continually in an awareness of one’s own sin?
We are the objects of a divine plan. The Lord says, “I know the plans I have for you.” We should squirm often in an awareness of our own sin.
1 John 1:8-10 (NIV) 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
It’s not about vanity. It’s not about self-respect. It’s about acknowledging what the priest told the aspiring football player Rudy in the football movie called Rudy.
“There is a God and I’m not him.”
It’s about acknowledging what God said to Job, when Job questioned his circumstances.
Job 38:1-7 (NIV) 1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: 2 "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 4 "Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-- 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? 8 "Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, 9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, 11 when I said, ’This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? 12 "Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,
God went on for a few more chapters, and then we read this:
Job 40:1-5 (NIV) 1 The LORD said to Job: 2 "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!" 3 Then Job answered the LORD: 4 "I am unworthy--how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. 5 I spoke once, but I have no answer-- twice, but I will say no more."
What I’d like to get at this morning is this:
Psalm 14:1, which says, The fool has said in his heart “There is no God” isn’t just about people like Christopher Hitchens. For those of us who are followers of Christ, it’s about giving Jesus Lordship of every part of our lives, holding nothing back. Because to do less, to hold back things from His authority, is to say in our hearts that there is no God, to be practical atheists.
So, even as God might use this passage of scripture to convict us to pray that people who are not followers of Christ might come to grasp the foolishness of the cross, and the power of God for salvation, let’s also allow God to use this passage to convict us, when and where it’s needed, when we’re practical atheists, functioning as atheists, in our heart.
Pray
