COMPELLING TRUTH

Seven in Heaven and The Insecurity of Atheism

A while back on another blog, I wrote about the insecurity of atheists, and now I'm wondering if this just needs to be an ongoing series as examples keep coming in. The most recent illustration is the protest atheists kicked up over the "Seven in Heaven" road sign put in place to honor seven fallen firefighters who died on 9/11. If you're unfamiliar with the issue, you can read a quick article about it here.

It's always been curious to me why atheists don't rail against other things they consider to not match up with reality. They don't protest against Santa Claus, Indiana or sue over the Valhalla golf course in my city. Why just religious things, and in particular, why Christianity? I'm still waiting for a brave atheist contingent to publicly state they think Mohammad was a fraud.

What caught my eye in the article above are a couple of the statements made by Ken Bronstein, president of New York City Atheists. The first was, "We've concluded as atheists there is no heaven and there's no hell." Second, referring to the street sign, Bronstein says, "It implies that heaven actually exists."

So he's concluded there is no heaven or hell? May I ask at how he empirically arrived at his conclusion? Since the naturalistic atheist has no other means at his/her disposal to arrive at truth and frame their epistemology, how did Burstein prove there's no heaven or hell?

Answer: he didn't.

Intellectually honest atheists will admit they cannot prove that God doesn't exist (and then, by extension, that Heaven doesn't exist). Much as I dislike the swagger and acid tongue of Richard Dawkins, at least he admits as much.

Why? Because, as Dr. Mortimer Adler points out in his book Truth in Religion, "An affirmative existential proposition can be proved, but a negative existential proposition — one that denies the existence of some thing — cannot be proved." Oh, I've seen some atheists try and twist out of this reality, but in the end, they just end up looking bad.

No, the fact is Mr. Bronstein can't prove there's no Heaven. That being true, and with the possibility of such a place being real, it's perfectly okay for the New York firefighters to keep their street sign.

One other thing: To all the atheists, whose fear and insecurity drive them to such rage and hate toward anything Christian, if you really believe God doesn't exist then don't be mad at us, pity us. The Apostle Paul sums up our position if Christ isn't the Son of God and wasn't raised from the dead this way:

For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied" 1 Corinthians 15:16-19; (emphasis added)

So instead of lawsuits and anger, why not feel sorry for us and let us keep our sign?

And again, let me know when you go on the aggressive attack against Islam.

comments powered by Disqus

Published 7-15-11