WHY THE AVERSION TO GOD?

I am amazed. At a spiritual discussion group, which I regularly attend, everyone believes in some kind of “god.” Pantheism is popular. God is everything. Therefore, he is even inseparable from our worst motives and deeds. I therefore asked one participant if he thought that rape was evil since that too is part of god. He answered that everything is god; we just have a wrong understanding of “evil.” “Why then should we resist our evil motives?” I wanted to say.

However, it seems that most believe in a “god” who is somewhat distinct from us. However, they admit that they don’t know what “it” is and express confusion about “it.” They tend to believe that god is an impersonal energy. This led me to ask:

·       Why would you believe in a god incapable of accounting for existence, beauty, morality, life, consciousness and everything else? My God loves and forgives me. He is with me always directing my steps and working even my failures and rejections for a good purpose. He hears my prayers and takes care of me. An impersonal energy like gravity can do none of these things. It can only draw other objects to itself.

Inevitably, I am told, “I have my issues with your kind of god.” But why? Why do people run from the only Savior, the only answer for their problems, and the only One who is intellectually satisfying?

We cannot look into the heart of others, and so I have to take my cues primarily from the Bible. Jesus told His biological brethren that:

·       “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.” (John 7:7)

Well, why, if He does exist, can’t the world just laugh-Him-off? Why did they have to hate and kill Jesus? While it is true that He had been disrupting their program, I think that there are deeper reasons, reasons that arise from the very core of their being. It is for this reason that the world also hates us (John 15:18-20; 2 Corinthians 2:14-16; John 3:19-20). We too remind them of their just and deserved condemnation:

·       Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:32)

How do they know that they face God’s judgment? This truth is wired into all of us so that we are “without excuse” (Romans 1:20):

·       For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:14-16)

Consequently, the world is confused and agitated, and no amount of success or popularity can penetrate into the heart of their problem. While one part of them is endlessly seeking answers, therapy, affirmation, and healing, the other part knows that there is something terribly wrong, and it threatens to overwhelm them. Consequently, they fill themselves with drugs, distractions, and carnal pleasures.

A small number will even concede that they do not like a holy and righteous God and would prefer that He doesn’t exist. This is true even of those who claim to be impartial, even of scientists. Todd C. Scott admitted:

·       Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such a hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic [mindless and purpose-less].

Richard Lewontin also confessed the bias of present-day science:

·       We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs. . . in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated commitment to materialism. . . . we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.

Why this powerful bias against the God of the Bible? Don Batten of Creation Ministries International had observed:

·       “Recently, I have had a lot of conversations with atheists. Many express a strong hatred of God. I have been at a loss to explain this. How can you hate someone you don’t believe in? Why the hostility? If God does not exist, shouldn’t atheists just relax and seek a good time before they become plant food? Why should it matter if people believe in God? Nothing matters if atheism is true.” https://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism_and_hatred_of_God

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), author of The Brave New World, provided a reason for his anti-Christian stance:

·       I had motive for not wanting the world to have a meaning … the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and political. (Huxley, A., Ends and Means, 1937, pp. 270)

Nevertheless, rejecting the righteous God is no escape from Him. Instead, they appear to be obsessed with Him and insult any who believe in Him. Although atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel has even expressed respect for Intelligent Design, he had also observed that no one can be impartial about God:

·       I am talking of...the fear of religion itself. I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true...It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God. I don't want the universe to be like that...I am curious whether there is anyone who is genuinely indifferent as to whether there is a God. (The Last Word, Oxford University Press, 1997, 130)

Why does Nagel not want there to be a Savior? I think that it gets back to the fact that humanity senses its impending judgment and hates the Judge. Consequently, the Bible often acknowledges that God is a terror to those who have rejected His mercy:

·       Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17; Malachi 3:2; Isaiah 33:14-15; 2:20-22; Psalm 1:5)

However, there is a better solution than to refuse the mercy of God – to receive it and the forgiveness and cleansing, which He has provided!