A while back ago I decided to watch the debate between Christopher Hitchens, a famous atheist who has since passed away, and Frank Turek, a known apologist. I was all up for hearing a debate from Chris and making his claims. For almost two hours I watched the debate and couldn’t believe my ears. Here this renowned atheist’s whole argument can be summed up like this: “I hate Catholicism therefore God doesn’t exist.”
Then I watched another Q&A where someone was stating God didn’t exist. And when they were asked why, they said, “There’s no evidence.” When this person was then asked what was their belief about the origin of life and the universe, they basically said, “I’m an atheist, I don’t have to have a reason for that.”
Again. Stunned.
The best evidence for the existence of God is the person asking the question. They exist. Every human is a highly complex, moral being that thinks, speaks, imagines, creates, etc… To not even dwell on the origins of existence and life and what happens after we die is just crazy. We exist. Therefore there is evidence of something.
David put it this way:
“The fool says in his heart, “God does not exist” (Ps 14:1).
For many atheists, what I’ve observed is that they get to that point of thinking as they have had a sour experience with church or a church leader, and they are angry. Or they prayed and it didn’t turn out like God wanted, and they are angry at him. Or they want to indulge in sexual immorality, and they don’t want him to exist. There typically are three kinds of atheists:
Scorned atheists – angry at God having been hurt by a church, Christians, or unanswered prayers
Secondary atheists – reject God because someone they love has been hurt,
Social atheists – reject God because their professors and peers teach that
But the bottom line when someone is dying, these questions arise. Questions about life, existence, God and more. It’s not enough to say we don’t need to think about those kinds of things.
The fruit of atheism sometimes is that one indulges at a higher level in sinful lifestyles. Granted, atheists can be the most kind and most moral human beings. It is a sense of leaving life better. The problem though is that if atheism is true, it really doens’t matter how one lives. While it’s nice to live well, if you just return to the dirt, who cares?
David looks out at the wicked and sees that a lot of the wicked he observes have rejected God’s existence. But the problem grows greater than that. And it is the corruption of the human race as expressed among the wicked.
“The LORD looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there is one who is wise, one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one” (Ps 14:2-3).
But while David does lament that it seems as if the whole world has rejected God, that wickedness abounds, and that there are those that are afflicted, there is also an acknowledgment that the righteous do exist. They are just currently surpressed.
“for God is with those who are righeous. You sinners frustrate the plans of the afflicted but the LORD is his refuge” (Ps 14:6).
And David does something that touches me. Even though he is surrounded, if not overwhelmed by the wickedness around him, he still declares the LORD is his refuge. He states that he knows God will act (v. Ps 14:5; Ps 14:7) and at some point Israel will be glad again. He says these things when everything around him cries out, “Where is God?” But David isn’t trusting in what his eyes see, he is trusting in what he knows of the Lord.
When a people and a nation and a world generally rejects God, reject his existence, and/or don’t know his ways, things get ugly. And awful. And oppressive. I believe we are watching this unfold.
We haven’t seen nothing yet unfortunately. But no matter how bad it gets, this psalm can remind us to never lose our hope and trust in the LORD, even when we don’t see him.
