Many people have thought that atheism offered a serious world view, only to discover that at root, it's a faith system.
They discover that it claims to be science-based, but then uses that apparent credibility to take a giant leap outside of science and say there is either insufficient evidence for God or that probably there is no God, as supreme, personal Creator.
Is science qualified to make such pronouncements? Hardly, unless it awards itself omni-competence.
But what's this about 'Game's up'? I shall need to explain that.
· APPEARANCE OF PRESTIGE One of the interesting things I find coming from the new Atheists like Richard Dawkins is that science and reason are exalted, given high kudos and used to enhance the prestige and authority of the reasons used to support atheism.
It nearly looks like atheism is the pinnacle of scientific discovery, until we take a closer look at what is going on.
Take for instance the observation of Dawkins: 'Science-fiction authors, such as Daniel.
F.
Galouye in Counterfeit World, have even suggested (and I cannot think how to disprove it) that we live in a computer simulation, set up by some vastly superior civilization.
'[1] What Dawkins has observed, quite correctly, I suggest, on his own assumptions, is that he is unable to disprove that his perception of reality may be a fictional one.
In other words, with his atheism underpinning his perception of reality he has no means at his disposal, not even scientific ones, of telling the difference between his being a computer simulated 'Richard Dawkins' or a real Richard Dawkins in an objectively significant reality.
· REVERSED DELUSION Press this a little further.
What Dawkins is saying, and this is central to his whole argument that the living God, especially of biblical Christianity, is a delusion, so much so that Dawkins' atheism, in comparison, appears to be urbane and credible, the real final deal, even though, and this is the crunch, he admits he has no way of knowing, whether he is in an objective reality or an illusory, simulated one! And what, might you ask, is the reason for his inability to make an objective assessment? It's quite simple - on his own presuppositions, he's not sure that his atheism isn't also a part of the possible computer simulated virtual reality in which he finds himself.
Of course, he doesn't like that idea and prefers to borrow categories of thought that transcend atheism from his true significance as a man made in the image of God; an objectivity which Dawkins must then distort to argue against theism.
He does this to try to show he's dealing responsibly with objective reality and ultimate issues.
And actually, he prefers that 'borrowed' significant reality, where he has true value and meaning, because, after all, let's face it: on his atheistic assumptions things begin to look decidedly bleak if one is only a meaningless cypher in a computer simulation.
· MAKE BELIEVE Yes, indeed, when you have gone as far as Richard Dawkins has into his make-believe world of Darwinian evolution, anti-theistic vitriol and atheistic exaltation, you have travelled a long way into an objectivity-condemning futility and into a virtual sub-reality.
And he has the nerve to call the living God, a 'delusion', the very One who has created this wonderfully significant reality, and given us the means to know and accept this.
And all this, despite Dawkins' admission that he is not even sure if he is a virtual reality in a computer simulation! Talk about 'people in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones'! Look, if you are not sure whether or not you're a computer simulation, why bother with trying to reason everyone into atheism - why bother if it's only a game? Really, don't you think by now the game's over? · LEAVE FUTILITY FOR TRUTH Yes indeed, but that admission is only one step.
The next is to own up that atheism is a futile abandonment of reason, but that biblical Christianity alone gives a finally true assessment, when it says, by nature, all live, 'in the futility of their minds.
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart' (Ephesians 4:17-18).
When you have accepted that as a divinely revealed description of your sinful rebellion against God, your next step is 'repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ' (Acts 20:21).
Ask God today for the wholly undeserved gifts of repentance and faith, and enter into the joy of forgiveness in a restored relationship with God; enter life and live for him, for whose glory and praise we were created - but not simulated! [1] Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Bantam Press), 2006, p 73.