‘Is there more to life?’ A problem for atheists
In a mother’s womb were two babies. Let’s call them Clive and John.
Clive asked John: “Do you believe in life after delivery?”
John replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”
“Nonsense,” said Clive, “There is no life after delivery. What would that life be?”
“I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat through our mouths.”
“This is absurd!” said Clive, “Walking is impossible. And eat with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition. Life after delivery is to be excluded. The umbilical cord is too short.”
“I think there is something and maybe it’s different to life here.” Said John.
Clive replied “No-one has ever come back from there. Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery it is nothing but darkness and anxiety and it takes us nowhere.”
“Well, I don’t know,” says John, “but certainly we will see mother and she will take care of us.”
“Mother?? You believe in mother? Where is she now?”
“She is all around us. It is in her that we live. Without her there would not be this world.”
“I don’t see her, so it’s logical that she doesn’t exist.”
To which John replied,
“Sometimes, when you are quiet, you can hear her, you can perceive her. I do believe that there is a reality after delivery and we are here to prepare ourselves for that reality.”
The Bible is clear that Clive is a ‘fool’:
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’. . . The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside . . .” Psalm 14:1-3
Seeking God in our lives can at times seem illogical or impossible. We all know a “Clive” who will insist that there’s no point – that this is all there is! But seeking answers, being curious about life and death, wanting the truth - these are all great human qualities and we must pursue them.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali’ Experience
Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia and raised by a pious mother and grandmother as a Muslim in Saudi Arabia. In 1992, to escape from fundamentalist Islam and an arranged marriage, she sought asylum in the Netherlands. She started life there with a cleaning job but later became a Member of Parliament in the Dutch Parliament. After 11 September 2001 she turned her back on Islam and began to teach why the teachings of the Qur’an are wrong. She then became a leading voice of the New Atheism movement with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens. The “New Atheist” label was given to these critics of religion and religious belief. She was chosen by Time magazine as one of the hundred most influential people in the world and became a fellow of Harvard University.
However in 2023 she openly acknowledged that she had become a Christian. Six months after ‘coming out’ as a Christian she appeared in a debate with Richard Dawkins, with whom she was and remains very friendly. Richard asked her,
“Seriously Ayaan, are you a Christian?”
She then briefly explained why she had changed her mind after recognising the emptiness of atheism. She had been suffering from depression and anxiety and nothing helped this, her atheism could give her hope. Then one of her therapists suggested that she might be ‘spiritually bankrupt’. This caused her to turn to the God of the Bible for help. She realised that the cultural values of the west are the fruit of spiritual movement, belief in the God revealed in Jesus and that the enlightenment was the child of Christian traditions. She recognised that the values of love and grace, emphasised in the Bible, are what society needs. When reviewing her time with the New Atheists she stressed,
“The biggest mistake we made was to equate Islam with Christianity.”i
When reviewing what is happening in prestigious places of learning she says it is obvious that reason alone cannot supply a basis for a good satisfying life. Something is missing and it is this that Jesus has given her and to many others.
Neither Islam nor atheism can give what people most need. Reason that excludes God excludes the basis for moral values and purpose, whereas Islam lacks an intellectual basis for saying it is true and can lead to radicalism with ruthless cruel consequences.
This debate can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBsHdHMvucs
