That's what someone stated in a question posed to Billy Graham, and I'm sure something a fair share of our readers have said at one time of another. I present Rev. Graham's answer here for your consideration.
From the Christian Post:
Q: I want to make myself clear: I have no interest in God or religion, and I don't care who knows it. As far as I'm concerned, God doesn't exist, and this life is all there is. Don't even bother to write me back, because I'm not interested. - G.P.
A: To be frank, it sounds to me as if down inside you actually do know that God exists; otherwise, why would you be fighting so strenuously against Him and trying to keep Him out of your life? Or why would you even bother to write me?
After all, why fight against something (or Someone) that doesn't even exist (as you claim)? If you were really convinced God didn't exist, the logical thing for you to do would be to ignore Him. But you aren't ignoring Him - and the more you fight against God, the more you are in danger of persuading yourself that He actually does exist.
Have you ever honestly asked yourself why you don't believe in God? I'm sure you could list many "reasons" why you've rejected Him; most professed atheists can. But are they the real reason? I doubt it. I suspect the real reason you've rejected God is because you want to be free to run your own life - and you know that won't be possible once you admit God exists.
You may have rejected God - but He has not rejected you! He loves you and yearns for you to come to Him and discover the peace and hope that come from knowing Christ. Jesus was God in human flesh, and He came to show us what God is like. The Bible says, "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only (Son), who is at the Father's side, has made him known" (John 1:18).
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Hi, I found your blog when looking a little into the history of SBNN I can honestly say that it was a surprise that a Christian site took first place in Google :-)
ReplyDeleteSo let me first say I wholly support and stand by you on the values of being SBNN, we are indeed all equal, being gay is not a disease or choice and heterosexual people can still be very heterosexual while being tolerant, accepting and open to gay people.
So let me get to this post now ... :-)
A very brief history of me, I've been brought up without religion (but with understanding and acceptance, case in point my wife is a church going Catholic). I have a very clear view of my life and just to be brief lets say that my life is A-OKAY.
Now why do I like G.P. say publicly to anyone even remotely interested that I'm an atheist and that I have no belief in any god?
Well, because a lot of decisions are being made that affect my life based on a belief in god that I do not agree with, it is similar to the gay community wanting to have their voice heard, we want to be considered and we want people to think about what they are saying when they talk about and make decisions based on their god helping them or their god doing things.
We are not "fighting" against god, we are speaking up against an unquestioned assumption that everyone beliefs in a god (like there used to be an unquestioned assumption that everyone was straight)
I personally am an atheist who not only does not have a belief in a god(s) (the basic atheist definition) I go a bit further in that I'm quite sure that no god exists and I believe current scientific understanding proves this beyond a reasonable doubt (gnostic atheist).
But even with that addition I and any atheist I know would accept the existence of a god if there was sufficient evidence for it, but there is none, and a lot of us have read the bible, even I did so in my twenties to see what it was all about it does not offer any proof (on the contrary), we've been preached to, most of us have looked at the teachings of a lot of different religions and everything comes short of actual proof we usually also have reflected on our existence, the universe and such and I must say the religious explanations pale in comparison to the current understandings and it is another reason for us to speak out, understanding science even as a lay person is so much more rewarding, humbling and beautiful than any religious (fantasy).
So it is not that I reject god (never had a belief in it in the first place) it's that I don't find the proposition of a god believable.
There quite a comment, hope it doesn't come over preachy (pun intended ;) )