Closet Atheist

Before I started to follow Christ, I was an atheist.

Back then I hardly ever talked about religion.

On occassion I was forced to attend a church service of some kind or another (JW, RC, etc), but it was never because I believed in God or I felt I had a need of some kind.

Usually it was due to having an aquaintence and wanting to please them somewhat.

My morals were based on nothing but how I felt at any given time and not wanting to get into "trouble" of some sort or another.

I didn't consider getting into "trouble" as doing something "wrong" but i recognised that as much "freedom" as I believed I had, those who had some kind of authority over me would cause my life to become annoying, at least temporarily.

So not getting into "trouble", was simply for convenience sake.

Of course, getting into "trouble" always depended on whether you got caught or not, and I was pretty good at not getting caught.

From the outside, many adults would call me a good kid.

However, if they knew the many things I did and wanted to do but didn't, they definitely would change their opinion of me. But there were never any intentional soul searching questions posed to me.

My atheism formed my outlook on life, which to me, made life worthless.

There became no reason to do anything. And anything that was done, was simply due to social concern. Whether i'll be annoyed with the resulting "fallout" of those who know of whatever I did.

The reason i'm saying these things is because there a number of people within the visible church who fit that description.

They are in church, participating in church, confessing Christ, not because of a deep conviction of their sins and the realisation that Christ has indeed paid for their sins and calls them to repent and believe in Him for the forgiveness of those sins.

No. The reasoning behind their actions are socially driven. Due to the expectations of their family and friends or even a sense of belonging and fellowship, they confess Christ and seem to be following after Him, when in reality, they are really closet atheists.

One would wonder how it is that people can leave Christ tor become atheists or agnostics.

Did these people not have an encounter with Christ? Did they not feel the weight of their sins while at the foot of the cross?

No, They didn't.

We must make sure that the gospel is preached to those both outside and inside the four walls of the church building.

After all, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

Why I'm A Christian (Acts17Apologetics)

Atheist Morality

Do atheists have morals?

A lot of christians tend to ask this question. In their mind, an atheist couldn't possibly have morals if they don't believe in the one who, by His very existence, defines morality.

This is wrong thinking though. Atheists, just like every other ungodly sinner, do have morals.

They're just not grounded in the living God, but in a variety of other things.

Some christians believe that because atheists don't have their morality grounded in the unchanging law giver, that there is nothing stopping them from say... murdering people.

This though, is only partially true.

You see, it all depends on where they ground their morals. And because atheism has no creed or set of beliefs that defines its "adherents" apart from believing there is no God, you'd have to speak to every self-identifying atheist to find out what morals they have and what they're grounded in.

The atheist the average christian thinks of is a person who lives with absolutely no restraint. They think of a person who has no regard for anyone and anything. A person who does whatever they want at any given time.

Although the logic behind this description of an atheist is sound, it only defines someone who takes atheism to its final conclusion.

You will be extremely hard pressed to actually find an atheist who fits that description.

The reason for that is because most self-proclaimed atheists are not serious about their non-faith.

As a matter of fact, a great majority of them are "theological atheists" but "social christians".

In other words, even though they reject the foundation of the christian faith, namely the God of creation, they affirm societal affects that take place when people obey they christian God.

Of course they don't agree with everything, but for the most part, they are in agreement.

Not only that, but it's only under christianity where the various forms of atheism would be allowed to thrive.

Even under a truly atheist regime, Richard Dawkins could be killed for no reason at all, especially if he disagreed on some point held by the atheist leader.

While under christianity, a person would have to disobey the commands of God to murder someone, and the penalty would be that they inturn would be killed by the government.

Sometimes atheists clearly see this. Richard Dawkins has gone on record as saying he is glad he lives in societies where "christian morality" is the foundation, as all other belief and non-belief systems would never allow him to promote his views.

"But how can an atheist have morals?"

The answer is quite simple. Their morals come from themselves as well as governmental/societal "norms".

A "true" atheist can not say that something is inherently evil or good. And because of that, any moral judgement they make can only be grounded in their perception. In other words, it's only bad to them. They can't say that someone should feel bad for doing something as there is no objective standard. So another individual can see the exact same thing as being right and the atheist can't balk at their judgement.

Some atheists realise this and so what they do is attempt to wrap their moral opinion up with government laws and societal norms.

Although this bolsters their opinion a bit, it's still shaky ground. Atheists often disagree with the government and societal norms change.

What it boils down to is that someone who professes to be an atheist has to be completely inconsistent with their atheism in order to live.

It is impossible to live without absolute moral values.

An atheist will say it is ok to lie, but they don't want people to lie to them or about them to other people.

With every moral opinion and every moral expectation they place on others, their hypocrisy increases.

Yet they continue to maintain this position as they don't want to have God above them. However, their very inconsistency shows that there is an absolute morality and therefore an absolute being from which that morality comes from.

This is also a clear indication of a biblical truth. There are no atheists. There is no one who really believes that there is no God, no matter how much they make the claim.

The proof is found in how they live. They live by a moral standard that is not based on how they feel. They also expect people to not violate this moral standard when people deal with them.

Again, they expect people to not lie to them or about them to other people. And when this moral standard is broken, they are offended and hurt.

Yet at the same time they claim that that moral standard doesn't exist. If they truly believed this, they wouldn't be offended and hurt.

The bible tells us that everyone knows that there is a God.

Romans 1:18-23
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

We see that the issue is not that there may or may not be a God, but that there is a God, they know there is a God, and they seek to hide the truth in unrighteousness.

The bible calls this foolish.

Psalms 14:1
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

Not only that, but because they disregard the most obvious truth in the universe, their character is worse off as they don't want Godly instruction or care about Godly righteousness.

Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

So, does an atheist have morals?

A true atheist does not. But as there are no true atheists, they do.

Converted to Atheism

In these last days, we see more and more people throwing away their Christian faith and converting to atheism.

From your average joe on the streets to celebrities to well-known/famous preachers, atheism seems to be gaining a lot of converts as time goes on.

This, obviously, gives many atheists reasons to rejoice. To them, another person has given up their fantasy world for reason... or so they think.

There are many atheists who describe themselves as ex-christians.

Some are even pastors of christian congregations.

The general population of Christians, on the other hand, will shake their heads wondering how someone could turn their back on God.

They will label those people as back-slidders, and request for prayers for that person to come back into the fold.

The problem is, however, that these people were never in the fold to begin with.

These people were never christians at any time.

Some people, atheist and christian alike, will take offense at that statement... but it's true none-the-less.

Some might even see it as an excuse or cop-out to pacify the minds of believers as to why so many are leaving christianity... but that isn't true either.

By definition, a christian is someone who has an intimate relationship with God.

We speak to God and He speaks to us.

To a christian, God is as real and personal to us as our own parents.

Now, for someone to live in a home with their parents who loves them, and claim that they have no parents, is either joking or a liar.

In other words, for someone to claim that they once had a relationship with God and now God doesn't exist is proof that they either never had a relationship with God in the first place (they were deceived) or they are lying.

The bible even gives us a number of examples on both sides.

During the trial of Christ Jesus, Simon Peter was asked 3 times if we was one of Jesus' disciples. He lied all 3 times and went so far as to say that he didn't know Him.

Here we have someone making they claim that they have no relationship with God in order to save their life, but they were lying.

Jesus tells us that on that day, many will come to Him saying 'Lord, Lord, have we not done this and that in your name', and Jesus will tell them that He never had a relationship with them.

So those who are being converted from christianity to atheism, were never christian to begin with.

If they insist that they were then they are lying to people by saying there is no God because they did have an actual relationship with the God they now claim doesn't exist.

The Atheist Thinker

A lot of times, I see Christians with a burning desire to see atheists saved... and that's a good thing.

However, those same Christians do not understand the mindset that an atheist has.