The agnostic responds with 'I don't know' and 'no one knows,' which is actually an affirmative answer that has never been established, so the question is meaningless because they are not direct answers.
(See https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/evidence-god-revealed-that-proves-he-exists-dr-craig-nelson-sermon-on-truth-262668
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/three-areas-of-evidence-that-prove-jesus-existed-dr-craig-nelson-sermon-on-apologetics-249305 )
REASONING, INTERPRETATIONS, AND PRESUPPOSITIONS
A building is proof there is a Builder because buildings don't build themselves. A painting is proof of the painter because they can't paint themselves. Creation is evidence of the Creator and it is scientifically impossible for nature to have made itself.
All reasoning is based on different assumed presuppositions that cannot be conclusively proven, which becomes the basis for other conclusions. Christians and non-Christians have the same stars, earth, and fossil layers, as do animals and plants. The difference is in how facts are interpreted.
Because human beings live in the present, they cannot conclusively know what happened in the past by observation. Christians have the Bible, which is the written Word of the Creator of all things. It reveals the significant events of the past that human beings need to know, which the Christians set of presuppositions that they use to build a way of thinking that enables them to interpret present facts. Non-Christians also have beliefs and presuppositions about the world, which they use to analyze the facts of the past and present.
Both Christians and non-Christians use interpretations that are based on presuppositions about the same facts seen from different perspectives, resulting in other beliefs. The Bible is proof to Christians that God exists and is the basis for their understanding of the universe and for them to interpret scientific facts.
Truth can and should be determined independently of God. However, the Bible states, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" and "knowledge," but the "natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 1:7;1 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV).
Every Christian must understand that those who are not Born-Again are against Jesus because their deeds are evil, and they love darkness rather than His light (Matthew 12:30; John 3:19). Those who don't believe there is a God will often refuse to hear what the Bible says, yet will use so-called contradictions taken out of context to prove it is wrong. It is not our words but God's Word, the Bible, that opens people to the truth and convicts them of their sin and need for forgiveness that Jesus alone can provide.
"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12 ESV)
The Bible tells us that God made distinct kinds of animals and plants and how the created animals increased into a wide variety of animals that exist today; about the fall of humanity caused sin to enter into the world, resulting in judgment and the curse on creation, which is relevant to geology and fossil evidence that supported by the evidence of harmful genetic mutations, violence, and death. Evolutionists and Creationists believe in natural selection and accept the science of genetics. The difference is that Creationists believe the Bible says God created separate kinds of animals and plants to reproduce their kind; therefore, one kind will not turn into a totally different kind. The Bible provides the correct basis to interpret the facts of the present, and scientific observations confirm that interpretation. It is up to the non-Christians to logically defend their beliefs with science and their presuppositions and point out where the science and logic of Christians are wrong.
Christians need to always start with the presupposition that God's Word is true in order to correctly interpret the facts of the present and show overwhelmingly that observational science repeatedly confirms those interpretations. We must constantly build our thinking on the Word of the One Infinite Creator God, who has the answers to all of the questions that could ever be asked, rather than on fallen human beings' fallible presuppositions about creation and history.
THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS
Many scientists believe that the entire Universe came forth from a vacuum state which underlies everything within it and is the foundation of existence for all things because virtual particles are both spontaneously emanating and being absorbed back in continuously without end.
Every event has a cause. There is a growing consensus that it was within a concentrated ball of light that appeared out of nowhere during a rapid and cataclysmic explosive expansion or 'inflation,' all energy, space, and time came into existence together in what is known as the 'Big Bang.' This happened in only about a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth (10 to the minus 35) second! It then immediately started to cool, leaving behind a faint pattern of temperature fluctuations on the edge of the observable Universe. Before the Big Bang, there was no time or space. The belief that the Universe is eternal and in a steady state was put to an end by the Big Bang because it posits that the Universe had a finite point of beginning, and the increasing speed of expansion suggests it will have a cold final death.
It is theorized that ripples of time, known as primordial gravitational waves, were generated by the Universe of time and space as they worked together with gravity on the same scale as particles and other forces.
As a young teenager, I came to the logical conclusion that nothing can create something, so the Universe had to have been created by a 'Supreme Being' of some sort. It seemed far more reasonable and more straightforward to believe that God exists than not to believe He exists. The Bible reveals why there is an existing universe rather than a non-existing one.
A person who makes the absolute emphatic assertion that there is no God and that no one can know if there is simply cannot prove it absolutely, which logically opens the door to acknowledging the idea or possibility that God may exist. Proving that God does not exist requires either faith or the ability to travel the entire Cosmos and examine every Quantum particle to qualify and have the authority to make that assertion, which would obviously make them God!
It would appear that it does take more faith not to believe than believing. The Bible says, "Without faith, "it is impossible to please God "because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him" (Hebrews 11:6 NIV).
I made that decision many moons ago, and I have never looked back, even through thick and thin, heartache and sorrow. I grew up in the occult, seeing and experiencing things I could not explain naturally. Then, I had a radical encounter with God that changed everything, and I started to be transformed from the inside out. Some say I was brainwashed, but it needed washing!
The one thing I still can't wrap my head around is the paradox of how, through every tragedy and loss of loved ones, including my wife, I experienced profound peace in the midst of my confusion and pain. So, because of that, even if the promise of Heaven is a lie, it's been worth just having the Jesus of the Bible in my life.
The Cosmos is intricately balanced and tailor-made for life and yet is both profoundly complex and chaotic. At the macro level, the Cosmos appears orderly, like a clock, but at the sub-atomic level, matter behaves chaotically. If gravity were infinitesimally different, everything in the Universe would change.
Whether a person does or does not believe that God exists, no one has yet to honestly explain what caused that existence, which is perceived as the starting point of the Cosmos. It has yet to be proved and again requires the element of faith to believe.
It is irrational and nonsensical reasoning to contemplate God's origin because it implies that He lives within the space-time continuum of a finite universe He created. The truth is that God has no beginning - He IS! The Bible tells us why the Universe exists and proclaims that Jesus is the divine Designer who created it with a purpose and maintains all things by the word of His power.
God's existence is axiomatic. Arguing about the existence of a Creator is intellectually demeaning, which is why the Bible says, "The fool has said in his heart, There is no God" (Psalm 14:1,53:1). The Bible also says that God has clearly revealed Himself to every human being since time began in the beauty of the heavens,
"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" (Romans 1:18-20 NIV).
"Most people are bothered by those passages of Scriptures they don't understand, but for me, I have always noticed that the passages that bother me are those I do understand." (Attributed to Mark Twain)
Is it objectively possible that there is enough evidence to prove that God exists in the 99% of the knowledge about the Universe a person hasn't yet come across? If a person is honest and reasonable, they will be forced to say, "Yes, it is possible…so I honestly don't know."
AGNOSTICISM
The term 'agnostic' is often used to describe anyone who maintains that it is not known or cannot be known whether there is a God and if they exist. The word 'agnosticism' is about knowledge that is a separate issue from belief. "A" means "without," and "gnosis" means "knowledge." Literally, an 'agnostic' holds that some aspect of reality is unknowable. However, since theism is a belief in God and atheism is a lack of a belief in a God, logically, there can be no third position or middle ground because a person can only believe or not believe there is a God.
A person who is an agnostic may or may not suspend judgment on God (or anything) they feel is unknowable so that no decision can be made. An atheist can be agnostic about whether it is possible to obtain knowledge about God, and a theist can feel that certain aspects of God are unobtainable but still be adamant in their belief because it is based on faith and not on having absolute, incontrovertible knowledge. Some theists don't believe they can know something for sure because God is unfathomable and works in mysterious ways, but they believe anyway, and some people cannot claim to know and decide that is enough not to believe.
ATHEISM
The word 'atheism' has multiple related meanings. In a psychological and metaphysical sense, it is the state of mind of a human being who lacks the belief that God exists, which is the opposite of a theist who believes that God(s) exists. An atheist denies the existence of a personal, transcendent creator of the Universe and affirms there is no God or divine realities. They adamantly believe that nothing can create something so there is no need for God.
Contrary to the exact definition of the word 'atheist,' some atheists say they don't assume there is no God, nor do they assume anything about how the Universe started or that something can't come out of nothing. They say that theists are the ones who assume that God is needed for the Universe to somehow magically exist.
The Atheist claims that the Bible cannot prove itself and without any empirical evidence that there can be no God, which is paradoxical because it requires an underlying assumption that it is inspired; otherwise, there is no logical basis to treat the books of the Bible as a unified whole that stand on their own.
Atheism only exists in a vacuum and can't prove itself to be true intellectually. Atheists do not believe in any god(s), yet sufficient scientific evidence must be provided to support that it is true. The claim that there is no God must be proven, and the Atheist must disprove theistic proofs.
ATHEISTS AND MORALITY
Contrary to the belief of some, Atheists have a moral compass and believe that morality is objective and a necessary illusion, so they must either maintain and embrace amorality or maintain morality and embrace theism. Most atheists are forced to admit that there can't be such a thing as objective morality in an atheistic universe because objective morality is an illusion.
Many atheists argue that goodness and moral standards can exist without God because they do have a sense of right and wrong. Yet, if there is no God, people don't live after death and aren't held accountable for their actions, good or evil, of which they cannot explain.
Atheists believe they can experience a happy and fulfilling life even though they have no explanation for objective meaning, value, or purpose in life. A theist would say that it is because they live in a culture that has been influenced for centuries by a historical belief in God and the morality revealed in the Bible.
To the theist, any meaning, value, or purpose an atheist finds for morality is simply a delusion. It is not objective because the evolutionary process fabricates it and is around for its survival benefit and social utility. Morals aren't derived from animal instincts of the natural world, which propagates the survival of the fittest. That is descriptive and not prescriptive because it describes the world as it is, not as it should be, and has no basis for declaring some things good and others evil. Human beings are often ignorant of the law of proper morality and consistently defy it.
The Bible calls the natural basis the conscience, which is the natural law of God written on the heart and allows human beings to step outside of what they see around them and call it good or evil (See Romans 2:15).
"Destroy a man's belief in immortality and ... everything would be permitted, even cannibalism" (Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov).
Every person should strive to be a moral inspiration to others. However, the fundamental question is 'Why?' There cannot be any reason for morality in a universe where all meaning is the result of random bio-evolution, nor is there any reason to think any morality is either valid or binding without a supreme being.
OBJECTIVE MORALITY
Although an atheist is someone who rejects belief in God, they share moral values that relate to protecting people with theists. However, the question that arises is whether there can be such a thing as 'objective morality' without God.
How can human beings formulate a system of ethics without referring to God? If the atheist acknowledges that human beings have objective value, then there is no reason to think that they cannot work out a system of ethics with which the theist would mostly agree. The theist will acknowledge that a person does not need to believe in God to recognize such things as loving their children.
For there to be a coherent understanding of objective morality, the existence of a personal God is crucial because all rules, principles, and standards require a lawmaker. If God really does not exist, then the atheist must provide a compelling argument to support that claim because if moral laws are objective, then the lawmaker cannot be the result of biological evolution and be the one who made the second law of thermodynamics true. If evolution is a person's guide, then morals can't be objective and unchanging because morality and biology are in different categories. Immaterial moral law cannot be explained by a material, biological process because they are descriptive and has no authority to tell human beings what to do.
It is possible to know objective morality while denying God exists. Yet, there would be no objective morality unless God exists. Not all laws require lawmakers such as the laws of logic and rationality, which tell people what they should do.
Objective morality requires the existence of a necessary, personal, powerful, and good God. The only God who truly fits this bill is the one triune God, the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God, the Holy Spirit. The Gospel message is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16 ESV).
CONCLUSION
In contrast to the esoteric ramblings of non-believers, the Bible is actual truthful evidence, and quoting it is not circular reasoning to validate using its texts because it is not a singular book but a compilation of 66 books created over 1,500 years by numerous authors.
The conclusions of an atheist can't be trusted as being correct because the human brain is restricted to the physical laws of chemistry and physics and can't account for its chemical state, which leads to another chemical state and doesn't guarantee proper logical inference. The mind is unreliable and cannot be trusted to understand absolute truth itself.
The theism of Christianity offers the best foundation for the reliability of the mind and the external reality of truth in the universe because it makes logical sense. The Atheistic/natural worldview does not include God or the supernatural as part of the equation of reality and life itself because, due to the laws of physics and chemistry, the human brain produces logical inference as a result of one chemical state losing another chemical state which infers that any particular brain is going to actually reason correctly. Truth is that which corresponds to actuality and/or logic. Science relies on Independent affirmations and opinions that are filtered through the brain, which is in a chemical state that leads to another chemical State, etc., and doesn't produce proper logical inference. Each human brain is different and cannot be used as the standard of logical inference because one chemical state can change to another. The laws of chemistry and physics cannot produce proper logical inference.
Atheists can't have absolute certainty about anything because the human brain cannot be trusted to properly represent reason or actuality without presupposing that the laws of logic excuse a person. Chemical reactions lead to other chemical reactions, but it cannot be demonstrated that they lead to proper logical inference, which means no one should trust them.
The Bible reveals that there is intention behind every created thing, which is why different seemingly disparate components of reality actually find their source in the Creator God' I Am,' and that the universal and transcendent laws of logic are abstractions that clearly imply there is a universal mind that can be accounted for, which is why it presupposes that God exists. The atheist must borrow their assumptions from a theistic worldview where God explains beauty, love, human consciousness and senses, universal constants, and that there is meaning to life and eternity in the heart.
God's moral nature is expressed to us in the form of divine commands, which constitute our moral duties or obligations and can be summed up in the Great Commandments.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40 ESV)
God's holy and perfect goodness supplies the absolute standard against which all actions and decisions are measured. His requirements are good, not because He commands them, but because He is good, and His attributes include holiness, love, kindness, and justice. His moral character expresses itself towards humanity in the form of commandments, which are necessary and become moral duties. There cannot be an objective morality in an atheistic universe. The choice an atheist must face is to either maintain atheism and embrace amorality or maintain morality and embrace theism.
God holds all persons morally accountable for their actions, whether or not they are a Born-Again Christian. It is the "riches" of God's "kindness and forbearance and patience" that lead a person to repentance (Romans 2:4 ESV). However, those who die intentionally rejecting Jesus as Lord and Savior will be eternally separated from Love Himself.
"And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15 ESV)
