Why do atheists deny the Creator?
One of the most striking features of the atheist mind is its propensity for analytical thinking and skepticism. It’s like having a built-in fact-checker, constantly questioning assumptions and demanding evidence.
Research has shown that atheists tend to score higher on tests of analytical thinking compared to their religious counterparts. This doesn’t mean atheists are smarter, mind you – it’s more about the style of thinking. Imagine your brain as a detective, always on the lookout for logical inconsistencies and empirical evidence. That’s the atheist mind in action.
But here’s where it gets interesting: this analytical thinking style can sometimes lead to cognitive biases of its own. For instance, the “bias blind spot” – the tendency to recognize biases in others but not in oneself – can be just as present in atheists as in religious believers. It’s a bit like having a superpower but being blind to its limitations.
NeuroLaunch, Psychology of Atheism: Exploring the Mindset Behind Non-Belief
Ancient Wisdom
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age knew it. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written,
“Eye has not seen,
nor ear heard,
nor has it entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” [Isaiah 64:4 circa 740 BC]But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit.
For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Likewise, no one knows the things of God, except the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 2:7-11 Modern English Version, the author the Apostle Paul
The text of the popular Eagles song Hotel California influences my thoughts on atheism. The horrific description of hell in the Bible also frames my ideas.
Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
“Relax,” said the night man
“We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave.
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where
‘their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’[Isaiah 66:24]And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where
‘their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’[Isaiah 66:24]And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the fire of hell, where
‘their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’[Isaiah 66:24]Mark 9:42-48 Modern English Version [worm means maggot] red lettering, the words of Jesus Christ spoken to his disciples, Peter and James and John
My Story
I was never an atheist, a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings. I was not an agnostic either. An agnostic is a person who believes that no one can know for certain about the existence of God.
Two connected events traumatized my life. The first event was the divorce of my parents. The second was a hurtful experience in our local church. I was only six years of age when these two events took place. From that day onward, I refused to attend church. There were a few occasions when classmates invited me to their churches, but those were one-off events.
I was indifferent to God and religions. I harbored no animosity toward my religious classmates and friends. Never was I disrespectful toward public prayer or events.
Over the years, some Christians would try to draw me into Christianity via their “gospel” messages. They were talking to a “hard case.” I appreciate the hard cases in the Bible, people like the apostles Paul and Peter. After human endeavors couldn’t win them to faith in Jesus Christ, God made direct contact with them. He revealed Himself.
We were married for five years when God revealed Himself to me. In brief, in August of 1974, we were in a new city, living in an apartment. Before arriving back in Texas, Honeywell made me an offer. After the move-in, I was ready to assume the new position with Honeywell. Unfortunately, that opportunity vanished because the company doctor diagnosed me with acute hypertension. My blood pressure was 196/96.
In my prior position as an engineer with an aerospace company, I received regular job offers from other defense contractors. Nevertheless, I was now in a situation that quickly deteriorated. Over the next few months we were running out of money and accumulating debt. I said to my pregnant wife, the mother of our two boys, “I don’t know what do do.” She responded, “We need to go to church.”
We attended a nearby church and attended Bible classes for young adults. The Bible teacher was a psychology student who relished teaching his new knowledge instead of teaching the Bible. Before class began one Sunday morning, a gentleman asked the teacher what he believed about the Bible. The teacher replied, “Bible believers range from “it’s just another good book” to “the inspired word of God.” After the gentleman asked, “What do you believe about the Bible?”, the teacher said he was in the middle, “halfway between the two extremes.”
Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in my chest. At the same time, there was a voice, asking, “How can this be?”
No person in the room asked that question. I was shaken from head to toe. I borrowed my wife’s red-cover, red-letter King James Bible to read. I opened to Genesis 1:1. She said, “We don’t have that much time.” She opened it to Matthew 1:1, where, for the first time in my life, I read the Bible. Over the next days, the Bible fed me. On a later Sunday evening, my two sons and pregnant wife were asleep. The text of her Bible was coming alive to me. I suddenly believed every word I read. The reality of my Savior suddenly filled me with peace. Then, it was off to bed.
The next morning, at an appointment with a Christian doctor in a neighboring city, my hypertension was miraculously gone. The doctor was treating me pro bono for a facial infection. Blood pressure had gone from 196/96 to 120/70. At my wish, he promptly wrote a letter on his letterhead and signed it. From there, that letter was taken to the Honeywell office. A few days later, I was employed. Honeywell hired a new man in Christ.
What I learned about atheists
Your personal testimony to an atheist will seem like a waste of your time. To the believers in Jesus Christ, it’s not a waste of your time. Any response to a Christian, whether positive or negative, is irrelevant to the Christian. Don’t take rejection personally. The atheist is not rejecting you, but the Creator of the Universe.
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to every man who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, with gentleness and fear.
1 Peter 3:15 Modern English Version
Over the past ten years, I’ve listened to and learned from over 100 stories of former skeptics as they described religious conversion from disbelief to belief in God. I’ve asked each former atheist, What is the best way for Christians to engage with skeptics? After all, they have an inside view of what worked and what didn’t when it came to interacting with Christians. Through my conversion research, I’ve also paid attention to the role of Christians in the lives of the skeptics that help bring them toward belief. One of the most remarkable findings is that a clear majority, 82%, were positively influenced by Christians toward becoming open to considering Christianity. Similarly, in his recent review of 32 former atheists, researcher Joel Furches also found the majority were positively influenced by Christians towards conversion. He concluded:
By far the most significant finding is the influence of a strong Christian friend in these cases. A whopping 72% of these biographies included a positive encounter with a Christian or Christians as a major turning point in the person’s opinion of Christianity.
This surprising news is encouraging for us as Christians who often find ourselves dismissed out of hand, rejected, reviled, and reduced to cultural caricatures. What seemed to make the difference? How were Christians able to diffuse the negative stereotypes, break down walls, and build plausibility of belief as something attractive and good, worthy of consideration? These skeptics’ stories and advice reveal common threads we as believers can and should learn in relation to helping others find Jesus. Here are a few insights you might find helpful as you engage with those who seem resistant to faith.
In an earlier post, Bible Study: The Most Important Verse in the Bible, you can learn about different kinds of love. The love that conquers all is unconditional love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 uses the word charity. It has the same meaning as the word love in the case of unconditional love, Greek agapē.
Some atheists occasionally read my posts and challenge me. My years as a salesman taught me valuable skills. I learned how to discern an objection (to throw in the way) from a rejection (to throw away). Atheists are welcome to read and comment on my posts. There have been instances in which I attempted to draw them into conversation. When I realize rejection, I go my way. From the point of rejection, I lift them up to God, thinking, “This one’s for you, Lord.”
John White
Rockwall, Texas
To the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Even their minds and consciences are defiled. They profess that they know God, but in their deeds they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and worthless for every good work.
Titus 1:15-16 Modern English Version
John N. White 
Drama or some sort of emotional turmoil/trauma seems to underpin every conversion story or encounter I have ever read.
Never have I encountered a conversion tale that involved hard core evidence or simple, good old fashioned common sense.
I imagine converts to other faiths have similar stories to tell.
Also, geographical location (place of birth) , culture, family and friends all play major roles in which religion one will likely follow. Such indicators strongly suggest that gods and religion are man-made.
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Thank you for reading my posts and sharing them with your atheist friends.
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I didn’t share them. Club may have as this was how I came across your blog.
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How nice of John White to write more nonsense for me to expose as the failure of a Christian.Unsurprisingly, John still can’t show his imaginary friend exists. He references an article that claims that scoring higher on analytical thinking doesn’t make someone smarter than another which is false since the ability to analyze something does make someone smarter than someone else. The ability to analyze is intelligence. “Research has shown that atheists tend to score higher on tests of analytical thinking compared to their religious counterparts.”Yep, we are looking out for logical inconsistences, evidence and lies. That John admits that theists aren’t as good as looking for these things is quite the admission that this could very well be why theists believe the nonsense they do. The article he quotes tries to claim that atheists have blind spots of bias, but alas they can’t’ show that this is true or that theists are any different or better than atheists are. It’s notable John must claim that his god’s supposed wisdom is “hidden,” which is something any cultist says. Yep, nothing has entered the heart of man about what this imaginary friend has planned since this imaginary friend doesn’t exist. Every cultist claims that they have revelation from their god and surprise, they can’t agree on what that revelation is. And as for hell, funny how Christians can’t agree about that nonsense either. It’s amusing when someone quotes Hotel California, and managed to forget that another lyric says “And I was thinkin’ to myself, “This could be heaven or this could be hell”” John of course, assumes it’s hell, but his heaven is no better. Yep, no heaven and no hell, just the sadistic delusions of losers like John and his fellow cultists. John’s story is nothing special. Many people have divorced parents. Many people have been hurt by their fellow believers. Still no evidence for his imaginary friend. He is just one more Christian who returned to the cult. And funny how he thinks he is ever so special that his imaginary friend made a personal appearance for him. Curious how that doesn’t happen to people like me who was losing her faith and praying for help. John’s lies fail. It’s also quite the story to say he lost a job because of fixable high blood pressure. A reading of 196/96 is a hypertensive crisis and requires an emergency room and often an ICU stay.
Then we get the story about how John is sure that he and his wife are the only TrueChristians™. Unsurprisingly, it is nothing new for a Christian to make up a miracle. No evidence for his claims as usual.
In my prior position as an engineer with an aerospace company, I received regular job offers from other defense contractors. Nevertheless, I was now in a situation that quickly deteriorated.
No person in the room asked that question. I was shaken from head to toe. I borrowed my wife’s red-cover, red-letter King James Bible to read. I opened to Genesis 1:1. She said, “We don’t have that much time.” She opened it to Matthew 1:1, where, for the first time in my life, I read the Bible. Over the next days, the Bible fed me. On a later Sunday evening, my two sons and pregnant wife were asleep. The text of her Bible was coming alive to me. I suddenly believed every word I read. The reality of my Savior suddenly filled me with peace. Then, it was off to bed.
Personal testimony of any theist is generally a waste of time. John wouldn’t believe with the testimony from any other form of Christian or any other theist. He wouldn’t believe for the same reasons I don’t believe him: no evidence for those claims. And the atheist is rejecting you and your imaginary friend. Curious how this imaginary friend doesn’t seem to mind. As is often the case, there is little reason to believe John when he cites a claim from another Christian that claims he has 100 stories of skeptics converting to his religion. He has no data, just baseless claims. Joel Furches is a unknown person who simply made up what he claims is a “study” on “hubpages” which is nothing more than a place where anyone can publish what they write. It is nothing new that converts do so because of interacting with cultists. The Hare Krishnas did this, the People’s temple did this, the Heaven’s gate cult did this, and nothing about this conversion is magical or shows that John’s cult is true. And finally, John tries the lie about “unconditional love” from his imaginary friend. Curious how the bible is full of conditions for this supposed love, from blind obedience, to being willing to kill children. John’s years as a salesman (I guess that aerospace engineering didn’t pan out?) have taught him how to convince people that they need what he wants to sell them. How perfect for a cult that needs to be sold to people. He doesn’t go his way; he simply runs since he can’t show that his “product” is worth the cost. It’s always fun when Christians claim it isn’t their fault when they fail, but have to insist that it’s this god’s problem now.
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Thank you for reading my post and sharing with your fellow atheists, Vel. I truly appreciate you.
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