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Christianity Worth Thinking AboutGod, Strike Me Deadby Greg KouklSunday, April 14, 1996
Some people use this as proof that God doesn't exist: They say, "God strike me dead in five minutes." Five minutes pass and God doesn't strike them dead. This is so silly to me that it hardly even deserves a response. But I will give one to show how silly it is. Let's say your atheist friend is Fred. You say, "Fred, unless you give me a thousand dollars in the next five minutes, I do not believe you exist." Now, am I justified in rejecting the existence of Fred because Fred doesn't do what I tell him to do? Doesn't that strike you as a rather stupid way of arguing against God's existence? The question really is, is it a good reason not to believe in someone because they won't do what you tell them to do? In this case, is it a good reason not to believe in the Creator of the universe because he won't jump at your command. Think about it for a moment. I can't believe in the President of the United States. Why not? Because I told him to come to dinner and he didn't come. I can't believe in a President that won't come to dinner when I tell him to. Do you see how silly that is? These kinds of questions give a bad name to atheists. There are atheists who are careful and who would never be caught dead making this kind of statement. When you hear an atheist saying something like this, you know that he's silly and small-minded. He doesn't care about being careful about his point of view and he is just saying silly things. He doesn't even take his own atheism seriously. If he did, he'd be a lot more careful than to say a stupid thing like that. Because, obviously, the existence of any conscious being is not contingent upon their obedience to my frivolous commands.
This is a transcript of a commentary from the radio show "Stand to Reason," with Gregory Koukl. It's made available to you at no charge through the faithful giving of those who support Stand to Reason. http://str.org/godstrik.htm |
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