Engaging Objections to Christian Faith Through Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science

Thanks to D.A.

Appreciated his sharing.
The following is a response to an atheist, DA, who shared his reasons why he is not a Christian. I am attempting to provide a gracious Christian response to the issues he raised, not to attack him. My hope is that we can learn from the issues he raised.

Definitions

DA defined atheism as a lack of belief.
Of course, people are free to define themselves as they wish.
On this understanding, the question still remains whether the proposition “God exists” is true or false.
This shifts the issue to psychology; for instance, if someone said I lack the belief that there is a difference between the so-called colors of green and red. Now, we need to consider whether one’s cognitive faculties are working properly.
Often, this position is taken to avoid the burden of proof (the epistemic responsibility to demonstrate that one’s position is the case).

Definitions (2)

DA stated that atheism, the “a” prefix means “not,” such as in asymmetrical.
But asymmetrical is usually taken to mean “that two sides or halves of something are not the same size, shape, or arrangement” (Gemini).
Not that one lacks a belief that a particular object is symmetrical.

Note: There Are Two Forms of Agnosticism

A hard agnosticism says you can’t know.
A soft form, humbly (or ignorantly) says I don’t know, but others might.

DA identifies as a Secular Humanist

Note, this term can be used in different ways, and in some senses, Christians can encourage parts of it. Also, I just want to explain some of the significance of the position.
Secular “from Late Latin saecularis: worldly, secular, pertaining to a generation or age” www.etymonline.com/search?q=secular
The term humanist can be used in a variety of ways:
- Ancients: that humanity was the measure of all things.
- Christians: that human beings have the intellectual and moral capacity to better themselves.
- Modern: that it is just humanity without reference to God.

DA mentioned Negative Experiences from Church

Christians have to apologize for this, do better, and point to Christ.
They should know we are Christians by our love.
Book: Dave Burchett, When Bad Christians Happen to Good People (WaterBrook Press, 2001).

DA Says that YEC Hurts the Church

The Positions	Biological Macroevolution	Cosmic Evolution
Young Earth Creation http://creation.com/ https://answersingenesis.org	No	No
Progressive Creationist / Old Earth Creation http://www.reasons.org/	No	Yes
Evolutionary Creation / Theistic Evolution http://biologos.org/	Yes	Yes

DA says there is a Lack of Evidence for the Supernatural Realm

We can point him to some of the evidence for God, including:

“God is the best explanation why anything at all exists.
…of the origin of the universe.
…of the applicability of mathematics to the physical world.
…of the fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life.
…of intentional states of consciousness.
…of objective moral values and duties.
The very possibility of God’s existence implies that God exists.
God can be personally known and experienced.”

www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/popular-writings/existence-nature-of-god/does-god-exist1/

Also, Jesus, especially his resurrection

DA Needs to Show Why these Arguments Fail

https://whychristianity.org.au/resources/
See the 93 or so resources on the topic in the bibliography on natural theology.

DA Says We Should See More Miracles

He should interact with some of the following evidence for miracles:
Romez, Clarissa, David Zaritzky, and Joshua W. Brown. “Case Report of Gastroparesis Healing: 16 Years of a Chronic Syndrome Resolved After Proximal Intercessory Prayer.” Complementary Therapies in Medicine 43 (2019): 289–294. 10.1016/j.ctim.2019.03.004
Romez, Clarissa, Kenn Freedman, David Zaritzky, and Joshua W. Brown. “Case Report of Instantaneous Resolution of Juvenile Macular Degeneration Blindness After Proximal Intercessory Prayer.” Explore 17, no. 1 (2021): 79–83. 10.1016/j.ctim.2019.03.004
Keener, Craig S. Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts. 2 vols. Baker, 2011.
Keener, Craig S. Miracles Today: The Supernatural Work of God in the Modern World. Baker, 2021.

Keener, Craig S. “History, Philosophy, and Miracles.” Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care 17, no. 2 (2024): 201–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/19397909241274415
Visit places like Victory Life Church in Perth (which has healing services).

DA Raised the Issue of Divine Hiddenness and Non-Resistant Non-Believers

Response: Perhaps the non-believer isn’t ready to have a personal relationship with God, and so if God were to make himself known at this point in time, it would only cause the individual to move further away from God.
An illustration might be something like Elizabeth and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth was under the impression that Darcy had done all these bad things, and so, when Mr Darcy proposes, she flatly rejects him. But once Elizabeth comes to see the real situation, she perceives the same old Mr Darcy in a very different light.

Noseeum

When does the absence of evidence become evidence of absence? When is the inference from “I see none” to “there is none” valid? The Evidence Expectation Criterion: If an object O existed, then we would expect there to be evidence for it. WLC, https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/is-god-imaginary/
For instance, we would expect to see an elephant in a room, but not necessarily an ant.
Or in Harry Potter, Ron should expect to be able to find Dumbledore somewhere, but should he be able to find J. K. Rowling?

Show Me A Sign That I Might Believe

“In his book, Contact, Carl Sagan satirically asks why God doesn’t place a glowing cross in the sky at night to serve as irrefutable proof of Jesus’ resurrection?” https://probe.org/why-isnt-the-evidence-clearer/
This wrongly assumes that God’s chief goal is to make his existence known (rather, it is to have a relationship with Him, and God making his existence in one’s face could actually have a negative outcome).

Blaise Pascal, Pensees, 1660

“If there were no obscurity, man would not be sensible of his corruption; if there were no light, man would not hope for a remedy. Thus, it is not only fair, but advantageous to us, that God be partly hidden and partly revealed; since it is equally dangerous to man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness, and to know his own wretchedness without knowing God.”

Miracles Do Not Necessarily Draw One Closer to God

Demons know God is (James 2:19) and yet remain in opposition to God.
Throughout the Bible we see that many who see miracles of God do not necessarily draw closer to God through them (John 6:30; 7:4–5, 17; 10:24–26; 14:22–23; Matt 12:39; 16:4; Mark 8:12). For instance, the Israelites, who witnessed the miracles in Egypt, and miraculously sustained in the wilderness by manna and the pillar of fire still repeatedly rebelled against God. Nor did the miracles performed through Elijah and Elisha cause the Northern Kingdom to turn back to Yahweh.
In Luke 16:19–31, the rich man asks for Lazarus to be sent back from the dead to warn the others, yet Jesus states that if one will not believe the scriptures, they will not believe even if someone were to come back from the grave.

DA would be Happy If there were a God

Glad to hear, so draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Not all atheists are of this disposition:
“I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that. My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time. One of the tendencies it supports is the ludicrous overuse of evolutionary biology to explain everything about human life, including everything about the human mind …. This is a somewhat ridiculous situation …. [I]t is just as irrational to be influenced in one’s beliefs by the hope that God does not exist as by the hope that God does exist.” Nagel, Thomas, The Last Word, pp. 130–131, Oxford University Press, 1997.

DA says if There Were a God, There Should Only Be One Religion, but There Are Many Religions, so there isn’t the Christian God

Christians believe we live in a fallen world and so expect people to turn away from God in various ways.
The role of free will.
Cosmic warfare (2 Cor 4:4)
There are various arguments for Christianity as reason why one should consider Christianity over other alternatives.

DA raised The Problem of Evil

Every worldview needs to answer why there is suffering as well.
Atheism usually holds that morality is subjective, which undercuts the objection. Is this a better response than Christianity?

Dawkins, River out of Eden

“In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.”

William Lane Craig’s Response to the Problem of Evil

We are not in a good position to assess the probability of whether God has morally sufficient reasons for the evils that occur.
The Christian faith entails doctrines that increase the probability of the co-existence of God and evil.

a. The chief purpose of life is not happiness, but the knowledge of God.

b. Mankind is in a state of rebellion against God and His purpose.

c. The knowledge of God spills over into eternal life.

d. The knowledge of God is an incommensurable good.

Relative to the full scope of the evidence, God’s existence is probable.

Suffering and Evil: The Logical Problem drcraigvideos. Sep 1, 2017. https://youtu.be/k64YJYBUFLM

Doesn’t Find Near-Death Experiences Convincing

Yes, he only had a brief time to present, but he needs to interact with the literature on this:

Eckstein, Michael J., and John S. Knox. Seeing the Light: Evidence and Distractions of Near-Death Experiences. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2023.
Kay, Randy. Heaven Encounters: 140 Near-Death Experiences Revealing the Afterlife. Charisma House, 2026.
Miller, J. Steve. Deathbed Experiences as Evidence for an Afterlife. Wisdom Creek, 2021.
Miller, J. Steve. Is Christianity Compatible with Deathbed and near-Death Experiences?: The Surprising Presence of Jesus, Scarcity of Anti-Christian Elements, And Compatibility with Historic Christian Teachings. Wisdom Creek Press, 2023.
Miller, J. Steve. Near-Death Experiences as Evidence for the Existence of God and Heaven: A Brief Introduction in Plain Language. Wisdom Creek Press, 2012.
Rivas, Titus, Anny Dirven, and Rudolf H. Smit. The Self Does Not Die: Verified Paranormal Phenomena from Near-Death Experiences, 2^nd ed., edited by Robert G. Mays and Janice Miner Holden. Translated by Wanda J. Boeke. International Association for Near-Death Studies, 2023.
Strobel, Lee. Seeing the Supernatural: Investigating Angels, Demons, Mystical Dreams, Near-Death Encounters, and Other Mysteries of the Unseen World. Zondervan, 2007.
Hanegraaff, Hank. AfterLife: What You Need to Know About Heaven, the Hereafter & Near-Death Experiences. Worthy Books, 2013.
Long, Jeffrey, and Paul Perry. God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience. HarperOne, 2016.

DA Thinks the Moral Argument Implies Non-Believers are Not Moral People

This confuses moral ontology with moral epistemology.

See https://www.reasonablefaith.org/moral/

CS Lewis

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it? A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal; a fish would not feel wet. Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, my argument against God collapsed too – for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist – in other words, that the whole reality was senseless – I found I was forced to assume that one part or reality – namely my idea of justice – was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning; just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never have known that it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning (Mere Christianity, 1952, pg 31).

Tom Holland, Dominion

“If secular humanism derives not from reason or from science, but from the distinctive course of Christianity’s evolution – a course that, in the opinion of growing numbers in Europe and America, has left God dead – then how are its values anything more than the shadow of a corpse? What are the foundations of its morality, if not a myth?” (p. 540).

Another Version of the Moral Argument

“1. There are objective moral facts.

2. God provides the best explanation of the existence of objective moral facts.

3. Therefore, (probably) God exists.”

Evans, C. Stephen and David Baggett, “Moral Arguments for the Existence of God,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2022), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2022/entries/moral-arguments-god/.

DA Implied That Empathy Can Slowly Evolve

Which is compatible with Christianity. God could have used evolution.
Note, just because sight may have evolved via the evolution of the eye, does that mean there is no objective world to be observed?

DA says the Social Contract Theory Can Explain Morality for a More Complex Society

Social contract theory requires an objective moral framework in which the social contract tries to get closer to, or it collapses into an arbitrary authoritarian system.

DA says Utilitarianism (What is Best for the Most People) Shows Why Slavery Doesn’t Work Because Some Would Be Unhappy

A problem for utilitarianism is that the ends could justify the means if, in fact, the majority were happy enslaving a minority. So, I think it is an inadequate moral theory.

DA Said Christians and Atheists Can Agree on Mainstream Science

Good, so we can work together for the good in this regard.
But this means the issue is not scientific (and the other reasons were all philosophical).

DA said that only Divine Intervention Will Make Him Change His Mind

Is this a fair standard?
What then of being a non-resistant non-believer?
It has been said that terhaps “we can truly come to know God only if we acknowledge our unworthiness of knowing God.” (Moser, Paul. K. Why Isn’t God More Obvious? Finding the God Who Hides and Seeks. RZIM, 2000, 29).

DA Doesn’t Think There is an Ultimate Purpose to Life

This is practically unlivable, as then there is no point to anything.
We all live as if there is an objective meaning to life, and Christianity provides a basis for that in a good God.

I also think it is worth talking about Jesus’ Resurrection (even though this was brought up by DA)

The story developed as a legend over time, a mere myth
The disciples didn’t experience anything but claimed they did (false claims or no experience hypothesis)
All experiences of Jesus were intra-mental (hallucination theory)
What the disciples experienced was extra-mental, but was not actually Jesus (mistaken identity theory)
The disciples extra-mentally experienced Jesus, but Jesus didn’t actually die on the cross, just fainted and revived naturally in the tomb (swoon theory) [or Jesus escaped, someone else was crucified, and Jesus later showed himself to the disciples].
They experienced Jesus, who had died and was back from the dead (resurrection hypothesis)

Conclusion

Thank you for D.A. and his thoughts.
Christians need to listen and be prepared to respectfully give an answer for the hope we have in Christ.
There are lots of good reasons to trust in Christ.
There isn’t necessarily one approach, but have the tools and then tailor it to the person.

A Book Recommendation

Ortlund, Gavin. Why Christianity Makes Sense: A Book About Jesus, the Mysteries of the World, and the Longings in Your Heart. HarperCollins, 2026.

Intro: The Ache Within
Part I: Religion deserves curiosity
1. Absurdity: Is Life Without God Worth It?
2. Enchantment: What If Jesus Rose from the Dead?
Part II: God Is Plausible
3. Contingency: Why Is There Anything?
4. Fine-Tuning: Is Our Universe Designed?
5. Morality: Do Good and Evil Point to God?
Part III: Jesus Is Compelling
6. Jesus: Did a Man Really Claim to Be God?
7. Resurrection: Hod Did the Christian Movement Start?
8. Prophecy: Is the Bible’s Story Coherent?
Part IV: The Bible Is Good for Humanity
9. Slavery: Does the Bible Support Human Dignity?
10. Violence: Did God Command Genocide?
Part V: Faith Is Worth the Wager
11. Hiddenness: Why Isn’t God More Obvious?
12. Wagering: How Do We Decide Without Certainty?
Conclusion: Now What?

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