I Shall Name Him George

As you can imagine, the title Why Atheists Look Up to Christians caught my eye. While there are Christians I look up to (Hi, Fred!*), no, I don't look up to Christians as a whole, and neither do any other atheists, to my knowledge.

Many people operate under the naive assumption that atheists base their views on reason while Christians base their views on faith. In reality, it is just the opposite. Atheists place their faith in their limited human understanding while believers have by God's grace reached a higher level of knowledge regarding God and spirituality. Christians base their confidence upon knowledge and facts. I will call this higher level of knowledge "sanctified reason."

And I can call my coffee cup an otter, but it's not going to run down to the river and do cute little tricks with its little people hands.

Think of apologetics and human reason and evangelism as taking place at the base of a mountain as logic and human reason and the Gospel get presented to unbelievers. Think of Christian faith as being that thing which brings a person halfway up the mountain through Christian conversion when the Gospel is accepted. At that level, the mystery of the cross becomes clear and the new Christian now has sanctified reason. This sanctified reason cannot be understood at the base of the mountain because "the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:14) Think of the top of the mountain as being heaven where we as believers will have our highest level of reason which I will call "heavenly reason." "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Cor. 13:12)

Think of this post as a turtle. Now the words are the shell that protects the turtle and the pictures are his legs, propelling him along his way, slowly but surely. The links are his eyes, which allow him to see. Yeah, I don't know where I'm going with that, but it made exactly as much sense as that random spewing of words up there.

As atheists look up the mountain to Christians, it is impossible for them to know what Christians know unless they first believe in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

My socks are the source of mass in the universe. It's not the god particle, or some obscure interaction between forces, it's my socks. But that's ridiculous! you protest. No, it's true. Fine, prove it, you say. Once you believe that my socks are the source of mass, you'll see how true it is. O_o, you say. *.*, you continue >.<, and then you walk away.

It is dangerous to suggest to a believer that doubt and skepticism are a God-ordained aspect of faith. Those believers who are weak in faith can be pulled even further from any assurance of their salvation if they accept that premise. That is one step closer to having no faith in Christ.

Once you've admitted that thinking is something people shouldn't be doing, just accept the fact that it's a freakin' lie.

As believers look down the mountain at atheists and unbelievers, we are never to "look down on them" in terms of viewing ourselves as being superior. What is superior is the sanctified reason that God gives us in His Word.

We're not superior, but, yeah, we so totally are.

*If I ever actually got to meet Fred, I would probably squee.