*** SHOW NOTES (not a transcript) ***

Lead:

There isn’t just one “atheism.” Learn to spot different flavors.

Intro:

If you want to really connect with people, it’s useful to figure out where they’re coming from. Every worldview has nuances, just like world religions have different flavors — there isn’t just one form of Buddhism, right? The same is true with atheism, and that’s what we get to today in our Thinking & Reflection segment.

Yesterday we started into the part of Luke that introduced Jesus’ healing ministry, but that was a long time ago. What about today?

Well, theologian and prolific author Craig Keener wrote 1100 pages worth of book investigating just that. He writes:

Hundreds of millions of persons alive today claim they have witnessed or experienced miraculous healings. One might disagree with all of these claims, but one cannot simply arbitrarily exclude all the claimants from the modern world. ~ Craig Keener Miracles Vol 1, 208

Understandably, if Jesus was healing people, the word spread. I don’t remember if the story is in Matthew, but you might remember that in Luke Herod heard the scuttlebutt and, knowing that he’d already beheaded John the Baptizer, sought to learn what was up. As we’ll read today, Jesus commissions his disciples to go out in His’ name which will accelerate things, and He warns that opposition is ahead.

Sponsor:

Today’s sponsor and provider of background music is Pip Craighead’s The Dandelion Project, and the new track is Night School.

Bible segment (read along with The Bible Project):

Passage: Matthew 9-10
Translation: NLT (New Living Translation)
Verses: 80
Words: ~1691

Thinking/reflection segment:

Our journey so far.

Question 1: Zero, one, or more than one god?

Question 2: If one god, what is the relationship god has to the cosmos — the created order?

Today is a simple exploration of the “zero” answer to question one. Again, we’re just sharpening our observation skills.

Be careful to listen for clues that distinguish atheism from agnosticism or skepticism:
- Atheist: I know God doesn’t exist; I believe God doesn’t exist
- Agnostic: I don’t know/we can’t know whether God exists
- Skeptic: I doubt God exists.(1)
Atheists may prefer to not be called atheists. One alternative is “humanist.” Or they not refer to themselves as an atheist per se, and simply describe a view of the world. Remember, there is more than one view that fits under “atheism” — lean toward asking questions; don’t assume they’re all alike. For example, as I learned from Tom Price (reference below):
- Physicalists/naturalists — likely believe that everything can be explained by natural causes (science); God is irrelevant and unnecessary (if not simply superstition — see “God of the gaps?”)
- Nihilists — Everything is meaningless; there really isn’t any difference between humans and trees or rocks except for time, matter, and chance.
- Existentialists — Unlike nihilists, some see humans as unique and, perhaps, embrace ideas of identity, meaning, morality, etc. Unlike theists who see God as the absolute standard, existentialists look to humanity, and perhaps just themselves, alone.(2)

Arguments for Atheism. The arguments for atheism are largely negative, although some can be cast in positive terms. Negative arguments fall into two categories: (1) arguments against proofs for God’s existence (see GOD, OBJECTIONS TO PROOFS FOR), and (2) arguments against God’s existence (see GOD, ALLEGED DISPROOFS OF). On the first set of arguments most atheists draw heavily on the skepticism of Hume and the agnosticism of Kant.
Atheists offer what they consider to be good and sufficient reasons for believing no God exists. Four such arguments are often used by atheists: (1) the fact of evil (see EVIL, MORAL PROBLEM OF); (2) the apparent purposelessness of life; (3) random occurrence in the universe; and (4) the First Law of Thermodynamics—that “energy can neither be created or destroyed” as evidence that the universe is eternal and, hence, needs no Creator.

Obviously countless books have been written to answer these arguments — that’s not the point here. So I’ll leave you with a question to ask — if they think there is no god, how do they explain meaning and morality?

To be fair, I don’t expect you to get into a philosophy discussion with them, but you’ll spark some conversation that just might lead to you knowing where they’re coming from.

Wisdom segment:

Passage:
Translation:
Verses:
Words:

Love you!

-R

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

(1) Norman L. Geisler, “Atheism” Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 56.

(2) Tom Price and David Montoya, "Belief Mapping: Discover Your Unique Way of Seeing the World" (handout presented in a contemporary spirituality class at Oxford Centre for christian Apologetics -- Business Programme, July 4, 2019). Learn more at BeliefMapping.com.

Other:

Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks, When Skeptics Ask (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1990), 2. This, by the way, is a brilliantly organized work on apologetics, approachable if you don’t have a doctorate in philosophy or theology, and is a book I’d heartily recommend.

Cameron Blair, “Worldviews” blairs.id.au (blog), 2005, http://blairs.id.au/worldviews/. Accessed August 24, 2019. This is a brilliant flowchart if you want to go more deeply.

#865: Matthew 9-10 | Spotting worldviews, part 3 - atheism