The One Question That Stumps Atheists
Throughout my life, I have had many conversations with atheists both in person and online. Most conversations involve civil discussions regarding our opposing viewpoints. These discussions usually contain similar themes and talking points. However, there is one question I have never gotten a clear answer to…
Throughout all of these conversations, I have come across a question which completely stumps atheists. Whenever I ask this question, I never receive a clear and concise answer. Most of the time I usually get some run-around response.
Question for atheists: What evidence (if any) would persuade you to believe in God or a “higher power”? Can you provide one example?
The purpose of asking this question isn’t to “stump” the other party. I genuinely ask this question with curiosity and interest. I ask this question to attempt to get into the mind of the atheist and understand how they think. If answered, imagine how much this would aid in apologetics! However unfortunately, I have never received a clear and concise answer to the above question.
“If there was a God, he would know what evidence I needed to believe.”
The above statement is usually the answer I receive from atheists. However, this answer seems to be a way for the atheist to dodge the question. Sure God knows what evidence you would need in order to believe, but that wasn’t the question. The question is asking what evidence the individual would require in order to believe. What good is any investigation into the ultimate truth of the universe if you search blindly without any guidelines of belief?
“If there was a God, he would reveal himself to me.”
Above is another example of an answer I usually receive.
But how would the Bible respond to this statement? Romans 1:20 perfectly illustrates my personal reason(s) for believing:
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
The scriptures explain that evidence of God is found in his creation. This evidence is precisely what converted me from atheism to agnosticism before I became a Christian. After looking into topics like the fine tuning of the universe, complexity of DNA, symbiotic relationships in nature, etc., I decided that our universe was too complex and coordinated not to be designed. And logically if there is a design, there is a designer. To learn more about our designed universe check out my previous article “Does God exist? Why Atheism doesn’t make sense”.
We find a similar rebuttal to this statement in Psalm 19:1-4:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
To read more about this topic, check out my previous article “Why the Atheist World View is Illogical: Empirical Evidence Over Logic & Reason”.