Comparing Worldviews:
Atheism and Christianity
Why this topic?
• 1 Peter 3:15 – “but in your hearts honor
Christ the Lord as holy, always being
prepared to make a defense to anyone
who asks you for a reason for the hope that
is in you; yet do it with gentleness and
respect,”
Tonight’s Purpose
• To inform you about the differences
between Christianity and Atheism
(Naturalism) and equip you to speak to
those holding the atheistic (naturalistic)
worldview with “gentleness and respect” (1
Peter 3:15).
Why comparison?
• “Comparison is the mother of clarity.” (Os
Guinness)
• “To whom will you liken me and make me
equal, and compare me, that we may be
alike?” (Isaiah 46:5)
Defining Worldview
• “The way someone thinks about the world”
(Merriam-Webster)
• We all believe something about the world in
which we live and we all have a worldview
whether we realize it or not.
Worldview Questions
#1 What is prime reality?—the really real?
• Atheism—Matter is the only thing that exists.
– Some atheists would argue that matter has existed
eternally.
• Carl Sagan: “The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever
will be.” (Cosmos, 4)
– Most would say that the universe had a beginning
based on Einstein’s theory of General Relativity and
the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
• Stephen Hawking: “The universe has not existed forever.
Rather, the universe, and time itself, had a beginning in
the Big Bang, about 15 billion years ago.”
#1 What is prime reality?—the really real?
• Christianity—“Prime reality is the infinite,
personal God revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
This God is triune, transcendent and
immanent, omniscient, sovereign, and good.”
(UND, 28)
– Infinite—God has always existed and is the source
of all other reality.
• “Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel
and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to
you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say
to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he
said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to
you.’” (Exodus 3:13-14)
#1 What is prime reality?—the really real?
– Personal—God is a personal being and not simply a
force. He thinks and acts.
– Triune—In Christianity (not in Islam or Judaism),
God is not only personal, but triune. “Within the one
essence of the [triune] Godhead we have to
distinguish three ‘persons’ who are neither three
gods on the one side, not three parts or modes of
God on the other, but coequally and coeternally
God.” (Geoffrey Bromiley)
• God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit
(Matthew 28:19)
#1 What is prime reality?—the really real?
– Transcendent & Immanent—“God is beyond us and
our world…[but at the same time] he is with us.”
(UND, 29)
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:1-4)
#1 What is prime reality?—the really real?
– Omniscient—God is all-knowing. (Psalm 139)
– Sovereign—God rules His creation and “nothing
is beyond God’s ultimate interest, control, and
authority.” (UND, 30)
– Good—Goodness is the essence of God’s
character, expressed through his holiness and
grace.
#2 What is the nature of external reality,
that is, the world around us?
• Christianity—“External reality is the cosmos God
created ex nihilo (from nothing) to operate with a
uniformity of cause and effect in an open system.”
(UND, 31)
– God created everything out of nothing. (Genesis 1)
• “Now we see the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical
view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the
essential elements in the astronomical and biblical
accounts of Genesis are the same: the chain of events
leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply at a
definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.”
(Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers)
#2 What is the nature of external reality,
that is, the world around us?
– Uniformity of cause and effect… – The cosmos
was created to be orderly, not chaotic. (Isaiah
45:18-19)
– … in an open system – The universe is not
programmed. “God is constantly involved in the
unfolding pattern of the ongoing operation of
the universe.” (UND, 32)
• “If the course of events were determined, our
decisions would have no effect.” (UND, 32)
– The Fall (Genesis 3)
#2 What is the nature of external reality,
that is, the world around us?
• Atheism—“The cosmos exist as a
uniformity of cause and effect in a closed
system.” (UND, 70)
– The universe is not open to reordering by a
transcendent being.
• “We find insufficient evidence for belief in the
existence of a supernatural; it is either meaningless
or irrelevant to the question of survival and
fulfillment of the human race. As nontheists, we
begin with humans not God, nature not deity.”
(Humanist Manifesto II)
#3 What is a human being?
• Atheism—Human beings are matter and can
be described as complex machines resulting
from the processes of evolution.
– “Let us conclude boldly then that man is a machine,
and that in the whole universe there is but a single
substance with various modifications.” (Julien
Offray de La Mettrie)
– “Science affirms that the human species is an
emergence from natural evolutionary forces. As far
as we know, the total personality is a function of
the biological organism transacting in a social and
cultural context.” (Humanist Manifesto II)
#3 What is a human being?
• Christianity—Human beings are created in the image of
God (Genesis 1:26-27). We are like God and represent
God to the rest of creation. We are personal beings and
act according to our own character and nature.
– Because we are created in God’s image, we have personality,
reason, creativity, and morality (see Romans 2:15).
– Because of Adam’s sin, we are born with a sin nature, which
causes us to distort the image of God (Romans 5:12; Psalm
51:5).
• We have become alienated from God, from others, from nature and
even ourselves. This is the essence of fallen humanity. (Francis
Schaeffer)
– Because of Christ, we can be redeemed from sin and become
more conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 5:19, 8:29).
#4 What happens to a person at death?
• Christianity—At death, people spend eternity
with God and His people or away from God and
His people (see Matthew 25:46).
– God will create a “new earth” where He will spend
eternity with His people. In heaven and the new
earth, there will be no more sin, death, pain or
tears. (Revelation 21:1-5)
– Hell is a monument to human freedom. Hell is God’s
tribute to the freedom he gave each of us to choose
whom we would serve; it is a recognition that our
decisions have a significance that extends far down
into the reaches of foreverness. (G.K. Chesterton)
#4 What happens to a person at death?
• Atheism—Death is the end of existence.
– Bertrand Russell: “No fire, no heroism, no
intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an
individual life beyond the grave.”
– Ernest Nagel: “Human destiny [is] an episode
between two oblivions.”
– Richard Dawkins: “Religion teaches the
dangerous nonsense that death is not the end.”
#5 Why is it possible to know anything at all?
• Atheism—Human beings can know things
through reason, especially through science.
– “The fact that we human beings – who are
ourselves mere collections of fundamental
particles of nature – have come close to an
understanding of the laws governing us and our
Universe [sic] is a great triumph.” (Stephen
Hawking)
#5 Why is it possible to know anything at all?
• Christianity—“Human beings can know
both the world around them and God
himself because God has built into them the
capacity to do so and because he takes an
active role in communicating with them.”
(UND, 36)
– God communicates to us through:
• General revelation (Psalm 19:1-2; Romans 1:19-20)
• Special revelation (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21)
#5 Why is it possible to know anything at all?
– "Supposing there was no intelligence behind the
universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody
designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is
merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for
physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a
certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the
sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my
own thinking to be true?...But if I can't trust my own
thinking, of course I can't trust the arguments leading to
Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or
anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in
thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God."
(C.S. Lewis)
#6 How do we know what is right and wrong?
• Christianity—“There is an absolute standard by
which all moral judgments are measured. God
himself—his character of goodness (holiness and
love)—is the standard.” (UND, 42)
– Christian ethics is grounded in God’s character
and is revealed in Scripture, most perfectly
through Jesus Christ.
• “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was
coming into the world.” (John 1:8)
• “If there were no Moral Law, then we wouldn’t make
excuses for violating it.” (Norm Geisler)
#6 How do we know what is right and wrong?
• Atheism—Ethics is related to human beings. The
continuance of human life is valued above all else.
– “We affirm that moral values derive their source from
human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational
needing no theological or ideological sanction. Ethics
stems from human need and interest. To deny this
distorts the whole basis of life. Human life has meaning
because we create and develop our futures. Happiness
and the creative realization of human needs and
desires, individually and in shared enjoyment, are
continuous themes of humanism. We strive for the good
life, here and now.” (Humanist Manifesto II)
#7 What is the meaning of human history?
• Atheism—History is linear, but without an
overarching purpose.
– “Man was certainly not the goal of evolution,
which evidently had no goal.” (George Gaylord
Simpson)
– “Natural selection is the blind watchmaker,
blind because it does not see ahead, does not
plan consequences, has no purpose in view.”
(Richard Dawkins)
#7 What is the meaning of human history?
• Christianity—“History is linear, a meaningful
sequence of events leading to the fulfillment of
God’s purposes for humanity.” (UND, 43)
– Creation (Genesis 1-2)
– Fall (Genesis 3)
– Redemption (Genesis 4-Revelation 20)
– Restoration (Revelation 21-22)
#8 What personal, life-orienting core commitments
are consistent with this worldview?
• Christianity—To glorify God by loving Him
with everything, loving others with the love
of Christ, and seeking His kingdom above
our own.
#8 What personal, life-orienting core commitments
are consistent with this worldview?
• Atheism—There are no core commitments
common to atheists. Commitments are
chosen by individuals.
– “While naturalism provides no rational
justification to act selflessly, naturalists often
choose to serve their community or promote a
purely secular human flourishing.” (UND, 85)
– American Humanist Association
#9 Does evil exist, and if so,
how does this worldview deal with it?
• Atheism—Most atheists would say that evil does not
exist because objective morality does not exist.
Thus, there is no evil. When people perform “evil”
acts, something has gone wrong with their DNA.
– “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 to 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. DNA
neither cares nor knows. DNA just is. And we dance to its
music.” (Richard Dawkins)
#9 Does evil exist, and if so,
how does this worldview deal with it?
• Christianity—Good and evil exist (Isaiah 5:20) and
are defined by Scripture, reflecting the character of
God. God triumphs over evil through salvation and
judgment.
– Salvation through the gospel
• What is the Gospel?—The good news that sinful man (Romans
3:23) can be reconciled with a holy God (2 Corinthians 5:18)
through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
God’s Son (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; John 3:16).
• Our Response—To repent from our sins and follow Christ as
Lord and Savior (Mark 1:15; Luke 9:23).
• Evidence of Salvation—We are growing in Christ-likeness
(Philippians 2:13), resulting in good works (James 2:14-17) and
obedience to Christ’s commands (John 14:21), flowing from a
pure heart (Matthew 5:8).
#9 Does evil exist, and if so,
how does this worldview deal with it?
• Christianity—Good and evil exist (Isaiah 5:20)
and are defined by Scripture, reflecting the
character of God. God triumphs over evil
through salvation and judgment.
– Judgment through the just punishment of sin (see
Question 4)
– “If God does not exist and there is no immortality,
then all the evil acts of men go unpunished and all
the sacrifices of good men go unrewarded.”
(William Lane Craig)
A Final Word
• “If God does not exist, then you are just a
miscarriage of nature, thrust into a purposeless
universe to live a purposeless life. So if God does
not exist, that means that man and the universe
exist to no purpose—since the end of everything is
death—and that they came to be for no purpose,
since they are only blind products of chance. In
short, life is utterly without reason.” (William Lane
Craig, “The Absurdity of Life without God”)
Notes
• See wilsonsonmission.com for my notes,
which contains links to sources cited.
Suggested Books
• Christian Apologetics
– Christian Apologetics by Douglas Groothuis
– The Reason for God by Tim Keller
• Comparing Worldviews
– The Universe Next Door by James Sire
• Atheism and Christianity
– Gunning for God by John Lennox
– I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by
Norman Geisler and Frank Turek