Haters of God

In our postmodern culture, reprobate intellectualism finds the Biblical idea of God to be odious and loathsome. Recently, the hostility of unbelieving thought has intensified in the public arena through the promotion of skepticism and atheism in the books and articles of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and others. Dawkins devotes an entire chapter in his book, The God Delusion, to answering the question “Why be so hostile?” i.e. toward religion. In his 2007 debate with John Lennox in Birmingham he said that the creation verses evolution debate is a mere skirmish and that the real war is between naturalism and supernaturalism. Sam Harris commented in an interview with Sun magazine in 2006, “If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of either rape or religion, I would not hesitate to get rid of religion. I think more people are dying as a result of our religious myths than as a result of any other ideology.” Such a callous comment needs little commentary.What is the fuel of such animosity? Why is the reality of God so hateful to these men? I would like to offer a Biblical answer. In Romans, the apostle Paul lists the characteristics of a society that has rejected the authority and reality of the God of Scripture, (Romans 1:18-32), and among the long list of degrading sins is the profound phrase, “haters of God.” In other words, moral and intellectual hostility toward God is the logical consequence of our society’s advancing depravity. The Bible says that though the reality of God's existence and sovereignty are clearly seen, revealed in conscience and creation, yet men sinfully suppresses this truth. Sin has degraded man cognitively and rationally. This unbelieving mindset despises the righteousness and authority of God and seeks to justify our immoral and rebellious lives. Rationalizations to evade God's authority have given birth to all pagan religions and secular philosophies. The will of man is so corrupt that he instinctively thinks apart from God and against God. The answers of Adam and Eve to God's questions in Eden prove that a sinful rationalization was in full operation after the original moral plunge (Genesis 3:8-13). They refused to take responsibility for their own sin, shifted the blame to others, and justified themselves. Adam even blames God for his own sin; a sentiment shared by many secularists. Because the fall of man was a moral tragedy, disobedience not only characterizes what we do and say, but also everything we think. Sin has so infected the mind of man that his reasoning is both God-hating and self-deceiving; Scripture affirms this throughout its pages, (Romans 8:7; Colossians 1:21; Jeremiah 17:9; Ephesians 4:17-18). The ultimate end of rejecting the reality of God is to embrace the principal lie of idolatry, and worship the creature rather than the Creator. Atheism is the humanistic religion of naturalism making man into his own god, as in the words of Satan, “You shall be like God.” Spurning the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ, the unbelieving mind resists and rejects the call to repentance and humility before God. But God's invitation remains, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord and He will have compassion on him.”Apart from the redeeming work of Christ, man can never think rightly. Repentance means a change of mind. When a person turns from self-justifying, God-rejecting pride, and humbles himself under the Lordship of Christ, only then will he begin to think rightly. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7), and when our beginning (i.e. our starting point) is wrong, there can be no true progress or an accurate conclusion.