08/11/2025
Worth the read! Please engage your friends in serious conversations. They usually end up in a spiritual direction.
๐ฒ ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐น๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐ช๐ผ๐ฟ๐น๐ฑ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐
โYou think what I believe is crazy, right?โ I said to a Jewish-atheist friend.
His girlfriend kindly intervened, โNo, he doesnโt think that!โ
โYes he does,โ I said. โI believe that the whole of human history hinges around a first-century Palestinian Jew who died on a cross and was raised from the dead. Thatโs crazy, right?โ My atheist friend agreed. โBut the problem is,โ I responded, โI think you believe crazy things, too.โ
When our friends hear the claims of Jesus, they wonder why weโd believe such fantastical things when there is a perfectly rational, coherent view of the world available to us. But if we look at the secular ground on which we supposedly all stand, weโll realize itโs more like pack ice floating away from land.
And there are cracks in the ice. Here are six of them.
๐ญ. ๐๐๐๐ค ๐จ๐ ๐
๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐๐ข๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ฑ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ง๐๐
Belief in a personal Creator God may seem crazy, but itโs the foundation on which science was built. The scientific method was developed by Christians because they believed in a rational Creator who ran the universe according to rational principles. Princeton professor and world-class philosopher of science Hans Halvorson argues that science still rests best on a theistic foundation. Science can explain ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ the universe came to be, but the scientific method of seeking natural causes for natural phenomena canโt give us a first cause. Atheism struggles to explain why there is a universe at all or why the universe follows rational laws comprehensible to human minds. If the success of science points us anywhere, Halvorson argues, itโs to supernaturalist theism.
๐ฎ. ๐๐๐๐ค ๐จ๐ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐๐ง ๐๐ช๐ฎ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ
My secular friends believe that the equal value of all humans is a self-evident truth. But if we embrace the materialist story that humans boil down to their physical parts, why should we be valued equally? Some try to ground equality in science, referencing evolutionary sources for altruism (a field led by Harvard professor and Catholic Martin Nowak). But evolution gives us plenty of evidence in the other direction, and as leading atheist psychologist Steven Pinker observes, examining how human morality emerged is different from the moral project of how humans ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ต to live.
Others look to ethical frameworks that transcend culture, often citing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But the Declaration was penned by a disproportionately Christian committee chaired by Eleanor Rooseveltโa keen Christianโand is strongly informed by Judeo-Christian values. Indeed, in 1983 the Iranian representative to the UN called it โa secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition, which could not be implemented by Muslims.โ
Of course, secular philosophers can and do formulate ethical systems that uphold human equality. We can even observe that equality promotes flourishing. But if the universe is nothing more than what science can measure, we have no ultimate grounding for human value and equality. Weโre only atoms, after all.
๐ฏ. ๐๐๐ง๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐ญ๐ฐ๐๐๐ง ๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐๐ซ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฎ๐๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ข๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ
My secular friends celebrate religious diversity and uphold the rights of religious minorities to practice their faith. This is a beautiful instinct. But what happens when religious beliefs clash with secular values? If we say to our Muslim friends, โWe uphold your right to be a Muslim, so long as you embrace equal roles for men and women, the legitimacy of same-sex marriage, and the freedom of your teenagers to experiment sexually,โ are we truly upholding their right to practice their faith?
Beliefs predominantly held by white Westerners often stand in tension with the beliefs of racial and religious minorities.
Nicholas Kristof challenged his tribe in the ๐๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด, โWe [liberals] want to be inclusive of people who donโt look like usโso long as they think like us.โ My non-Western immigrant friends from a range of religious backgrounds often struggle with the sense that a secular worldview is being thrust on them and their children. Of course, this doesnโt mean secular liberal ethics ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏโ๐ต right and ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฏโ๐ต be enforced. Perhaps they are. But we must recognize theyโre beliefs predominantly held by white Westerners, and they often stand in tension with the beliefs of racial and religious minorities.
๐ฐ. ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ซ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ข๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ
Some of my secular friends are comfortable saying religious beliefs are just wrong. Most, however, would balk at that and prefer to think all religions are equally valid: the COEXIST bumper sticker approach. But since religions make competing claims on objective truth, we canโt say they are all equally true without invalidating truth itself.
If racism is wrong, then religious beliefs that uphold racism are wrong. If the claim that Jesus was raised bodily from the dead is untrue, then the central tenet of Christian faith is untrue. Where different religions make conflicting claims about historical eventsโas they doโthey simply canโt all be right. However hard it may be to prove what happened in the distant past, if we abandon the concept of historical truth, we abandon truth itself and reality unravels.
๐ฑ. ๐
๐๐ฅ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐จ๐ ๐๐ง๐๐ซ๐๐๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ
We donโt see the cracks in the ice of the secular worldview because it seems like the default setting. Religious believers are thought to be on the wrong side of history: as the world becomes more modern, more educated, and more scientific, secular humanism will spread and religion will recede. But this hasnโt happened, and itโs not going to happen anytime soon. In fact, the world is becoming ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ religious.
The idea that atheism is the default setting for educated people is simply untenable.
That memo has yet to arrive in most university departments, but itโs been sounded loud and clear by sociologists of religion. Moreover, the link between education and secularism is a myth. Christians invented the university, and today, Jews and Christians are the most highly educated groups in the world, with the smallest gap in education levels between men and women. In the United States, while college-educated Americans are less likely to say they believe in God with absolute certainty, itโs still 55 percent of the graduate population, and college-educated Christians go to church more often than less educated Christians do. The idea that atheism is the default setting for educated people is simply untenable.
๐ฒ. ๐
๐๐ฅ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ก๐๐ญ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐จ๐๐ข๐๐ญ๐ฒ
New atheists argue that the world would be better off without religion, but you have to be highly selective with your examples to make that claim persuasive. And you have to ignore the data indicating that in the United States at least, people who participate in religious community are happier, healthier, and live longer than those who donโt.
In our present moment, atheism isnโt evaluated on the same basis as any given religion. People say, โI canโt be a Christian because of the Crusades.โ People donโt say, โI canโt be an atheist because of North Korea.โ Of course, my secular friends will protest that North Korea, China, and Stalinist Russia donโt represent their kind of atheism. Amen to that. But neither do the horrors of the Crusades or the Inquisition represent my kind of Christianity.
To be sure, religious beliefs can motivate horrific actions. The so-called Islamic State gave us daily examples of this horror. But atheism is not well-correlated with virtue, even outside its totalitarian regimes. As atheist psychologist Jonathan Haidt observes, โAtheists may have many other virtues, but on one of the least controversial and most objective measures of moral behaviorโgiving time, money, and blood to help strangers in needโreligious people appear to be morally superior to secular folk.โ
Donโt get me wrong. We Christians arenโt good people either: Weโre a bunch of immoral hypocrites clinging for dear life to a beautiful Savior. But something about that clinging seems to help.
So do religious folk believe crazy things? Absolutely. And, for the record, my Jewish-atheist friend is far smarter than I am. But itโs crazy whichever way you lookโand it may just be that people who believe in crazy things like the resurrection are on counterintuitively solid ground.
The late Dallas Willard once wrote: ๐๐ฆ๐ค๐ข๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ญ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ง๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ข๐ด๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด, โ๐๐ฉ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ถ๐ด ๐๐ฉ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ต?โ ๐๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ธ๐ข๐บ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ: โ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ?โ
๏ปฟ-----
In our Cultural Apologetics 101 cohort, you'll learn about how we got to the challenges we experience in our cultural moment, be equipped with answers for common defeater beliefs surrounding things like sexuality, slavery, science, and naturalism, and gain skills in our ability to tell the gospel story in even more compelling ways. Registration closes August 13; don't miss your chance to discover practical ways cultural apologetics can be used in teaching, preaching, Bible studies, and day-to-day conversations. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/cohort/cultural-apologetics-101/
๏ปฟ๏ปฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐น๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐ช๐ผ๐ฟ๐น๐ฑ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ by Rebecca McLaughlin. Originally published January 4, 2018.
