I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Foreword by David Limbaugh)

by Norman L. Geisler, Frank Turek, David Limbaugh (Foreword by)

Overview

Geisler and Turek argue that Christianity requires the least faith of all worldviews because it is the most reasonable. A valuable aid to those interested in examining the reasonableness of the Christian faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433517037
Publisher:	Crossway
Publication date:	03/12/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	154,773
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Norman L. Geisler (PhD, Loyola University) serves as the president of Southern Evangelical Seminary and is the author or coauthor of some sixty books, including his four-volume Systematic Theology. He has taught at the university and graduate level for nearly forty years and has spoken or debated worldwide.

Frank Turek (PhD, Southern Evangelical Seminary) serves as the vice president of Southern Evangelical Seminary. He has appeared on numerous television and radio programs.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Can We Handle the Truth?

"Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened."

— WINSTON CHURCHILL

IN THE MOVIE A Few Good Men, Tom Cruise plays a Navy lawyer who questions a Marine colonel, played by Jack Nicholson, about the murder of one of Nicholson's men. The dramatic courtroom scene turns into a shouting match as Cruise accuses Nicholson of being complicit in the murder:

Cruise: "Colonel, did you order the Code Red!"

Judge: "You don't have to answer that question!"

Nicholson: "I'll answer the question ... you want answers?"

Cruise: "I think I'm entitled to them."

Nicholson: "You want answers!"

Cruise: "I want the truth!"

Nicholson: "You can't handle the truth!"

Nicholson might as well have been yelling at all of America rather than Cruise because it seems that many in our country can't handle the truth. On one hand, we demand truth in virtually every area of our lives.

For example; we demand the truth from:

• loved ones (no one wants lies from a spouse or a child)

• doctors (we want the right medicine prescribed and the right operations performed)

• stock brokers (we demand that they tell us the truth about companies they recommend)

• courts (we want them to convict only the truly guilty)

• employers (we want them to tell us the truth and pay us fairly)

• airlines (we demand truly safe planes and truly sober pilots)

We also expect to be told the truth when we pick up a reference book, read an article, or watch a news story; we want the truth from advertisers, teachers, and politicians; we assume road signs, medicine bottles, and food labels reveal the truth. In fact, we demand the truth for almost every facet of life that affects our money, relationships, safety, or health.

On the other hand, despite our unwavering demands for truth in those areas, many of us say we aren't interested in truth when it comes to morality or religion. In fact, many downright reject the idea that any religion can be true.

As we're sure you've noticed, there's a huge contradiction here. Why do we demand truth in everything but morality and religion? Why do we say, "That's true for you but not for me," when we're talking about morality or religion, but we never even think of such nonsense when we're talking to a stock broker about our money or a doctor about our health?

Although few would admit it, our rejection of religious and moral truth is often on volitional rather than intellectual grounds — we just don't want to be held accountable to any moral standards or religious doctrine. So we blindly accept the self-defeating truth claims of politically correct intellectuals who tell us that truth does not exist; everything is relative; there are no absolutes; it's all a matter of opinion; you ought not judge; religion is about faith, not facts! Perhaps Augustine was right when he said that we love the truth when it enlightens us, but we hate it when it convicts us. Maybe we can't handle the truth.

In order to resolve our cultural schizophrenia, we need to address four questions concerning truth:

1. What is truth?

2. Can truth be known?

3. Can truths about God be known?

4. So what? Who cares about truth?

We'll cover these questions in this chapter and the next.

WHAT IS TRUTH? THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUTH

What is truth? Very simply, truth is "telling it like it is." When the Roman governor Pilate asked Jesus "What is truth?" nearly 2,000 years ago, he didn't wait for Jesus to respond. Instead, Pilate immediately acted as if he knew at least some truth. Concerning Jesus, he declared, "I find no fault in this man" (see John 18:38). By exonerating Jesus, Pilate was "telling it like it is."

Truth can also be defined as "that which corresponds to its object" or "that which describes an actual state of affairs." Pilate's judgment was true because it matched its object; it described an accurate state of affairs. Jesus really was innocent.

Contrary to what is being taught in many public schools, truth is not relative but absolute. If something is true, it's true for all people, at all times, in all places. All truth claims are absolute, narrow, and exclusive. Just think about the claim "everything is true." That's an absolute, narrow, and exclusive claim. It excludes its opposite (i.e., it claims that the statement "everything is not true" is wrong). In fact, all truths exclude their opposites. Even religious truths.

This became comically clear when a number of years ago I (Norm) debated religious humanist Michael Constantine Kolenda. Of the many atheists I debated, he was one of the few who actually read my book Christian Apologetics prior to the debate.

When it was his turn to speak, Kolenda held up my book and declared, "These Christians are very narrow-minded people. I read Dr. Geisler's book. Do you know what he believes? He believes that Christianity is true and everything opposed to it is false! These Christians are very narrow-minded people!"

Well, Kolenda had also written a book which I had read beforehand. It was titled Religion Without God (which is sort of like romance without a spouse!). When it was my turn to speak, I held up Kolenda's book and declared, "These humanists are very narrow-minded people. I read Dr. Kolenda's book. Do you know what he believes? He believes that humanism is true and everything opposed to it is false! These humanists are very narrow-minded people!"

The audience chuckled because they could see the point. Humanist truth claims are just as narrow as Christian truth claims. For if H (humanism) is true, then anything opposed to H is false. Likewise, if C (Christianity) is true, then anything opposed to C is false.

There are many other truths about truth. Here are some of them:

• Truth is discovered, not invented. It exists independent of anyone's knowledge of it. (Gravity existed prior to Newton.)

• Truth is transcultural; if something is true, it is true for all people, in all places, at all times (2+2=4 for everyone, everywhere, at every time).

• Truth is unchanging even though our beliefs about truth change. (When we began to believe the earth was round instead of flat, the truth about the earth didn't change, only our belief about the earth changed.)

• Beliefs cannot change a fact, no matter how sincerely they are held. (Someone can sincerely believe the world is flat, but that only makes that person sincerely mistaken.)

• Truth is not affected by the attitude of the one professing it. (An arrogant person does not make the truth he professes false. A humble person does not make the error he professes true.)

• All truths are absolute truths. Even truths that appear to be relative are really absolute. (For example, "I, Frank Turek, feel warm on November 20, 2003" may appear to be a relative truth, but it is actually absolutely true for everyone, everywhere that Frank Turek had the sensation of warmth on that day.)

In short, contrary beliefs are possible, but contrary truths are not possible. We can believe everything is true, but we cannot make everything true.

This seems obvious enough. But how do we deal with the modern assertion that there is no truth? A couple of cartoon characters can help us.

The Road Runner Tactic

If someone said to you, "I have one insight for you that absolutely will revolutionize your ability to quickly and clearly identify the false statements and false philosophies that permeate our culture," would you be interested? That's what we're about to do here. In fact, if we had to pick just one thinking ability as the most valuable we've learned in our many years of seminary and postgraduate education, it would be this: how to identify and refute self-defeating statements. An incident from a recent talk-radio program will demonstrate what we mean by self-defeating statements.

The program's liberal host, Jerry, was taking calls on the subject of morality. After hearing numerous callers boldly claim that a certain moral position was true, one caller blurted out, "Jerry! Jerry! There's no such thing as truth!"

I (Frank) scrambled for the phone and began to dial furiously. Busy. Busy. Busy. I wanted to get on and say, "Jerry! To the guy who said, 'there is no such thing as truth' — is that true?"

I never did get through. And Jerry, of course, agreed with the caller, never realizing that his claim could not possibly be true — because it was self-defeating.

A self-defeating statement is one that fails to meet its own standard. As we're sure you realize, the caller's statement "there is no truth" claims to be true and thus defeats itself. It's like saying, "I can't speak a word in English." If someone ever said that, you obviously would respond, "Wait a minute! Your statement must be false because you just uttered it in English!"

Self-defeating statements are made routinely in our postmodern culture, and once you sharpen your ability to detect them, you'll become an absolutely fearless defender of truth. No doubt you've heard people say things like, "All truth is relative!" and "There are no absolutes!" Now you'll be armed to refute such silly statements by simply revealing that they don't meet their own criteria. In other words, by turning a self-defeating statement on itself, you can expose it for the nonsense it is.

We call this process of turning a self-defeating statement on itself the "Road Runner" tactic because it reminds us of the cartoon characters Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. As you may remember from Saturday morning cartoons, the Coyote's one and only quest is to chase down the speedy Road Runner and make him his evening meal. But the Road Runner is simply too fast and too smart. Just when the Coyote is gaining ground, the Road Runner stops short at the cliff's edge leaving the passing Coyote momentarily suspended in midair, supported by nothing. As soon as the Coyote realizes he has no ground to stand on, he plummets to the valley floor and crashes in a heap.

Well, that's exactly what the Road Runner tactic can do to the relativists and postmodernists of our day. It helps them realize that their arguments cannot sustain their own weight. Consequently they crash to the ground in a heap. This makes you look like a super genius! Let's take the Road Runner tactic to college to show you what we mean.

The Road Runner Goes to College

The Road Runner tactic is especially needed by today's college students. Why? Because if you listen to many of our university professors, they'll tell you that there is no truth. What amazes us is that parents all over the world are literally paying thousands of dollars in college tuition so that their sons and daughters can be taught the "truth" that there is no truth, not to mention other self-defeating postmodern assertions such as: "All truth is relative" (Is that a relative truth?); " There are no absolutes" (Are you absolutely sure?); and, "It's true for you but not for me!" (Is that statement true just for you, or is it true for everyone?) "True for you but not for me" may be the mantra of our day, but it's not how the world really works. Try saying that to your bank teller, the police, or the IRS and see how far you get!

Of course these modern mantras are false because they are self-defeating. But for those who still blindly believe them, we have a few questions: If there really is no truth, then why try to learn anything? Why should any student listen to any professor? After all, the professor doesn't have the truth. What's the point of going to school, much less paying for it? And what's the point of obeying the professor's moral prohibitions against cheating on tests or plagiarizing term papers?

Ideas have consequences. Good ideas have good consequences, and bad ideas have bad consequences. Indeed, many students realize the implications of these bad postmodern ideas and behave accordingly. If we teach students that there is no right and wrong, why are we surprised when a couple of students gun down their classmates or a teenage mother leaves her baby in a trash can? Why should they act "right" when we teach them that there is no such thing as "right"?

C. S. Lewis revealed the absurdity of expecting virtue from people who are taught that no virtue exists: "In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."

The truth of the matter is this: false ideas about truth lead to false ideas about life. In many cases, these false ideas give apparent justification for what is really immoral behavior. For if you can kill the concept of truth, then you can kill the concept of any true religion or any true morality. Many in our culture have been attempting to do this, and the past forty years of religious and moral decline trumpet their success. Unfortunately, the devastating consequences of their efforts are not just true for them — they are also true for all of us.

So truth exists. It cannot be denied. Those who deny truth make the self-defeating truth claim that there is no truth. In this regard, they are a lot like Winnie the Pooh — they answer a knock at the door by saying, "No one is home!"

Now, let's see how the Road Runner tactic can help us answer the skeptical truth claim that "truth cannot be known!"

CAN TRUTH BE KNOWN? KNOCK, KNOCK ...

Evangelical Christians believe that they ought to obey Jesus' command to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19). In order to help Christians carry out this "Great Commission," D. James Kennedy created a door-to-door evangelism technique called "Evangelism Explosion" (EE). If you're a Christian, the EE technique allows you to quickly ascertain where a person is spiritually. After introducing yourself, you are to ask questions like these to the person answering the door:

1. Can I ask you a spiritual question?

And

2. If you were to die tonight and stand before God, and God were to ask you, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" what would you say?

Most people are curious enough to say yes to question 1. (If they say, "What do you mean by 'a spiritual question'?" you go ahead and ask them the second question.) As for the second question, the EE manual predicts that the non-Christian will usually give the "good works" answer. You know, something like, "God will accept me because I'm basically a good person. I haven't killed anybody; I go to church; I give to the poor ..." In that case, the EE manual tells you to respond with the gospel (literally the "good news"): that all (including you) have fallen short of God's perfect standard, and no good work can erase the fact that you've already sinned; but the good news is that you can be saved from punishment by trusting in Christ, who was punished in your place.

While this technique has been very successful, some non-Christians do not respond to the two questions as expected. For example, one evening I (Norm) decided to take EE to the streets along with a fellow member of my church. Here's how it went:

Knock, Knock.

"Who's there?" (A man came to the door.)

I stuck out my hand and said, "Hi! My name is Norm Geisler, this is my partner, Ron, and we're from the church at the end of the street."

"I'm Don," the man replied, his eyes quickly sizing us up.

Immediately I jumped into action with question 1: "Don, do you mind if we ask you a spiritual question?"

"No, go ahead," Don said boldly, apparently eager to have a Bible thumper for dessert.

I laid question 2 on him: "Don, if you were to die tonight and stand before God, and God were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into my heaven?' what would you say?"

Don snapped back, "I'd say to God, 'Why shouldn't you let me into your heaven?'"

Gulp ... he wasn't supposed to say that! I mean, that answer wasn't in the book!

After a split second of panic, I offered up a quick prayer and replied, "Don, if we knocked on your door seeking to come into your house, and you said to us, 'Why should I let you into my house?' and we responded, 'Why shouldn't you let us in?' what would you say?"

Don pointed his finger at my chest and sternly replied, "I would tell you where to go!"

I immediately shot back, "That's exactly what God is going to say to you!"

Don looked stunned for a second but then narrowed his eyes and said, "To tell you the truth: I don't believe in God. I'm an atheist."

"You're an atheist?"

"That's right!"

"Well, are you absolutely sure there is no God?" I asked him.

He paused, and said, "Well, no, I'm not absolutely sure. I guess it's possible there might be a God."

"So you're not really an atheist, then — you're an agnostic," I informed him, "because an atheist says, 'I know there is no God,' and an agnostic says 'I don't know whether there is a God.'"

"Yeah ... alright; so I guess I'm an agnostic then," he admitted.

Now this was real progress. With just one question we moved from atheism to agnosticism! But I still had to figure out what kind of agnostic Don was.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist"
by .
Copyright © 2004 Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek.
Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Foreword by David Limbaugh,
Preface: How Much Faith Do You Need to Believe This Book?,
Acknowledgments,
Introduction: Finding the Box Top to the Puzzle of Life,
1 Can We Handle the Truth?,
2 Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All?,
3 In the Beginning There Was a Great SURGE,
4 Divine Design,
5 The First Life: Natural Law or Divine Awe?,
6 New Life Forms: From the Goo to You via the Zoo?,
7 Mother Teresa vs. Hitler,
8 Miracles: Signs of God or Gullibility?,
9 Do We Have Early Testimony About Jesus?,
10 Do We Have Eyewitness Testimony About Jesus?,
11 The Top Ten Reasons We Know the New Testament Writers Told the Truth,
12 Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?,
13 Who Is Jesus: God? Or Just a Great Moral Teacher?,
14 What Did Jesus Teach About the Bible?,
15 Conclusion: The Judge, the Servant King, and the Box Top,
Appendix 1: If God, Why Evil?,
Appendix 2: Isn't That Just Your Interpretation?,
Appendix 3: Why the Jesus Seminar Doesn't Speak for Jesus,
Notes,