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Tag: Christian Worldview

The Differences Between Evangelical and Atheist Reality

Bruce Gerencser 7 Comments
reality christian magazine
This is not a fake magazine cover. The magazine is now defunct.

Each of us has a worldview. For Evangelicals, the Bible establishes the parameters of their worldview. God said it, I believe it, and that settles it, the Christian says. Anything that does not fit within the pages of their leather-bound Bible is rejected out-of-hand. Secularists and atheists, while prone to their own delusions, tend to view the world from a rational, materialistic point of view.

Evangelicals Christians view reality this way:

  • God has a wonderful plan for their lives and nothing happens that is not part of God’s purpose or plan for their life.
  • God uses pain, suffering, financial reversal, sickness, loss, and death to teach them a lesson, get their attention, make them stronger, or punish them for sin.
  • For those who love God and are the called according to his purpose, everything in life works out for good.
  • God loves them and would never do anything to hurt or harm them.
  • It only seems that God is not involved in the day-to-day machinations of his creation. Behind the scenes, in ways that no human can see or comprehend, God is working, moving, changing, correcting, tearing down, and building up.
  • God hears every Evangelical’s prayer and answers it according to his will.

Of course, the Evangelical view of reality is for Christians-only. Non-Christians are under the wrath and judgment of God and deserve to be cast into Hell this very moment. Non-Christians may at times enjoy the blessing of God (it rains on the just and unjust), but God reserves his blessings for those who are his children. Non-Christians are the children of the devil.

I have come to see that the Evangelical worldview is delusional. It requires a suspension of reason, a shutting-off of oneself to what can be seen, experienced, and known. It requires the rose-colored glasses of faith, glasses that allow Christians to see a reality that is not visible with human eyes.

What does a secular, atheist view of reality tell us about our world?

  • There is no purpose or plan.
  • Shit happens.
  • Life is a crap shoot and there are no guarantees that it will turn out one way or the other.
  • Genetics play a factor in our lives, and far too often condemn us to suffer horrible diseases.
  • Being at the wrong place at the wrong time can have catastrophic consequences.
  • Human powers outside our lives make decisions over which we have no control.  Their decisions can, and do, materially affect our lives, both for good and for bad.
  • Talking to ourselves might be helpful psychologically and make us feel better, but we are cognizant of the fact that we are talking to ourselves and not some sort of mythical being.
  • Inanimate objects have no power of their own. Kicking the car and swearing at it when it breaks down may make us feel better, but it is just a car.
  • We understand, despite what the promoters of the American dream might tell us, that we can’t be anything we want to be. It is not true that anyone can be President and it is not true that we are destined to win American Idol/The Voice/The Sing Off/America’s Got Talent.
  • There are things that happen that we can not explain. Secularists and atheists know that there are likely to always be unanswered questions or inexplicable events. They know that luck or being at the right place at the right time is often the sole reason for something happening.

Atheists and secularists know that the world is fraught with danger, and it is amazing that any newborn lives to old age. Christians, on the other hand, know that the world is fraught with danger, but newborns live to old age because God is merciful.  God controls the keys to life and death, and it is he alone who kills us at the appointed hour. I wonder, does God pencil in a time next to our name when we are born? How does God determine this? Is there an annual birth lottery where, like the military draft, God pulls death dates for each newborn?

What comfort is there in having a God who controls your life from birth to death? I much prefer a life where I at least have some say in the matter; a life where my choices and decisions materially affect my future; a life where disaster and death lurk in the shadows; a life that is a game, a chance to outrun, for a time, the Grim Reaper.

I have no place in my worldview for letting go and letting God. I have no need of putting my hand in the hand of the man (Jesus) who stilled the waters and calmed the seas. With irreverent, even violent gusto, I refuse to surrender to the will of a mythical deity. I shan’t embrace death because a comic book-bound deity promises me a room in his Trump Hotel in Heaven.

Life is harsh. If we live long enough, it will bruise and bloody us, and ultimately it will kill us. I don’t intend to resign myself to anything. As much as lies within me, I plan on running hard, fighting long, and when I check out of this grand experiment called life, I hope to leave behind a testimony of one who lived life to its fullest.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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Evangelical Professor Larry Dixon Says Unbelievers Have a False Worldview

Bruce Gerencser 6 Comments
biblical worldview

Larry Dixon, an Evangelical author, speaker, professor (his words), and professional bullshitter, aka apologist (my words) started a new series on his blog several months ago titled Bless-ed! 52 Blessings Your Lost Friend Doesn’t Have . . . And What You Can Do About It! As you might imagine, Dixon paints poor, pathetic, ignorant unbelievers in a negative light, positing that Hey-Zeus is the solution for what ails us. Standard Evangelical pablum, but I do want to focus on Part Ten of Dixon’s series.

Here’s what Dixon had to say:

Not to get too philosophical, but any worldview other than that given by God in His Word is susceptible to attack and eventual overthrow. Wow! What a dogmatic statement! But seriously, if biblical Christianity isn’t true and the Bible isn’t God’s Word, why should we bother following Christ? But there are clear evidences of the Bible’s truthfulness; Christ’s life, death, burial, and resurrection; and the fact that the God of the Bible is real and holy and angry at sin.

….

How do I pray for my unsaved friend? First of all, I need to understand his present worldview. Then do whatever I can to challenge it in light of the gospel. And, second, I need to pray for God the Holy Spirit to open my friend’s eyes to how he ought to view life and eternity and . . . Jesus.

Spoken like a true presuppositionalist, Dixon emphatically states:

[A]ny worldview other than that given by God in His Word is susceptible to attack and eventual overthrow.

What is this singular worldview given by God? Which God? How does Dixon know this worldview was given to us by God? When was this worldview given to us? The Old Testament? The New Testament? Both? SO many questions, yet Dixon presupposes his peculiar worldview is that which was delivered to humans by the Triune God of the Protestant Christian Bible. Perhaps Dixon can put this worldview in writing for all to read, and then ask his fellow Christians if he is right. Something tells me that no two Christians have exactly the same worldview. How do we determine who is right?

Dixon goes on to ask an awesome question: If biblical Christianity isn’t true and the Bible isn’t God’s Word, why should we bother following Christ?

Unfortunately, Dixon doesn’t spend any time pondering this question before saying: there are clear evidences of the Bible’s truthfulness; Christ’s life, death, burial, and resurrection; and the fact that the God of the Bible is real and holy and angry at sin.

Another bold statement by Dixon. Where, exactly, can these “evidences” be found? Wait . . . drum roll, please . . . the B-I-B-L-E.

Please cue:

The B-I-B-L-E,
Yes that’s the book for me;
I stand alone on the Word of God,
The B-I-B-L-E.The B-I-B-L-E,
Yes that’s the book for me;
I stand alone on the Word of God,
The B-I-B-L-E.The B-I-B-L-E,
Yes that’s the book for me;
I stand alone on the Word of God,
The B-I-B-L-E.The B-I-B-L-E,
Yes that’s the book for me;
I stand alone on the Word of God,
The B-I-B-L-E.

Sadly, Evangelical apologists have little to offer to atheists, agnostics, humanists, pagans, and other unbelievers, those who do not believe that the Bible is an inerrant, infallible collection of books. All, it seems, that Evangelicals have to offer is prayers and Bible quotations. And that is why Evangelicalism continues to hemorrhage church members, particularly young adults. We are winning the battle one worldview at a time.

Other posts featuring Larry Dixon

Beware of Evangelicals Coming in the Name of “Friendship”

Do We Need to Believe in the Christian God to Have a Meaningful Life?

Larry Dixon Says Premarital Sex is Abnormal, Unnatural, and Definitely Not Fun

Larry Dixon’s Followers Dish the “Truth” about Atheist Bruce Gerencser

My Response to Larry Dixon’s Starbucks Story

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Connect with me on social media:

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Christians Say the Darnedest Things: Atheism Leads to Malnutrition and Death by Roger Browning

Bruce Gerencser 9 Comments

house-about-not-caring

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve debated and reasoned with atheists who adamantly and passionately insists that atheism in not a religion. It’s not a religion, unless, of course, it appears to have benefits. The more and more I looked at atheism the more and more I see a handful of options made to order.

“Today I’ll have my morality include…stealing is wrong with a side of a problem of evil.”

It’s inconsistent. On the surface, these look and feel like solid arguments, worthy of building a worldview upon. But they are filled with contradiction. Tell me, atheist, when you chose that stealing should be immoral for you, did you also choose for me or, am I free to steal from you? I promise to do it under the cover of darkness so as to not be caught. Is that wrong? By what standard? Tell me, atheist, how is evil a problem if morality is subjective?

….

More inconsistencies! Every argument, every appeal, every aspect of atheism is a superficial argument. It’s covered in a wrapper labeled “worldview” but inside is emptiness, un-thoughtful, meaninglessness. Tell me, atheist, what do you make of the trees and the rocks and the seas? Do you have evidence of them erupting from the depths of nothingness or did you formulate an opinion based on what you know and choose the one you wanted, the one that felt right to you? Tell me, atheist, are you so whimsical that your worldview is mere happenstance? Does your worldview have such control that it chooses you and you have no choice in the matter at all? Tell me, atheist, what evidence to you have for a godless universe? Tell me, again, how you appeal to science—the study of order, repeatability, and structure—to draw the conclusion of evolution—random, non-repeated, mutations. Your worldview is hypocrisy.

The more and more I examine atheism, the more and more the inconsistencies surface, the more and more atheists continue to ‘have it their way’ is the more and more I foresee the demise of the worldview. Atheism is unhealthy, it has no substance, and it only offers the illusion of nourishment. How fitting, and somewhat ironic, that Burger King and atheists are ultimately selling flame-broiled products.

Perhaps it’s time, my atheist friends, we stop having it our way and start looking for nutrients that do not lead to death. Wide is the path to destruction, but narrow is the gate that leads to life. This imagery provided by Jesus implies that the narrow road is not one to stumble across but one to seek and find. It’s easy to run through the drive-through and pick up a whopper and some fries. It’s just as easy to pretend I don’t need God to live a life free of problems. The problem is, eventually, you need nutrients not just food. The problem is, eventually, you need Jesus and not just atheism.

— Roger Browning, A Clear Lens, Atheism is the Burger King of World Views, December 7, 2016