On April 1, 2016, the following message was posted on our signboard:
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APRIL 1: NATIONAL ATHEIST’S DAY! |
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April First, like any other first day of the month, ushers in a new month. It demands that we turn the page on our calendar. But when that first day comes in the month of April, it takes on a special meaning: April Fools Day!
Now, that’s not a religious holiday. We just wrapped up the season of Lent and celebrated the wonder of Easter. We celebrate these Holy Days because the Bible speaks about them. In fact, to say that the Bible “speaks about” Easter is a gross understatement!
Because it “speaks to us” about them, the Bible prompts us to observe many other special days such as Christmas, Pentecost, and April Fools Day.
April Fools Day?!? That’s not in the Bible!
Well, in a very real way, the Bible does warn us about April Fools Day. Take a look at Psalm 53:1-3…
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.“
They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.
God looks down from heaven on the sons of men
to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.
Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good…
We are living in a Day which isn’t immune from some serious foolishness! Here are some other things the Bible says about Fools…
Doesn’t that sound like our own day and age? People don’t seek wisdom as much as they seek to have their own opinion accepted. If there are things we don’t understand, we tend to accept the little we do understand as fact. Then we spread our own misunderstanding by encouraging others to believe our wrong conclusions.
What do we trust in? Do we trust in God’s wisdom or in our own Human Reason?
Atheism… Foolishness?
Let’s return to Psalm 53:1. This verse tells us that if you adhere to atheism, you’re being foolish! The common thread running through all of the Foolish things listed above is that the Fool bases reality totally upon human understanding. In other words, if something can’t be explained by science or human wisdom, it must not be true. The Fool comes to one of the following conclusions:
- I’ve studied this and I understand the science. I’m convinced- it’s true!
- I don’t understand it myself, but people I trust believe, it so it must be true.
- I’ve tried. I can’t understand it and nobody can explain it. Therefore it must not be true.
The Apostle Paul wrote quite a bit about this in his letter to the Romans (1:18-25)…
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. NIV
Science can’t explain our almighty all knowing Creator-God. And yet, in some way that we can’t understand, God has placed knowledge about Himself in us. We have no excuse, even if we have no explanation.
How’d That Happen???
Take a look at the vastness of the stars. Or take a look at the intricacy of a butterfly. Science wants us to believe that because nature has been trying so long, the wonders of creation were bound to happen eventually. If you flip a coin you have a 50/50 chance of it coming up heads. But, in theory, your odds are just a tad less; the coin could land on its edge. It might be a 1 in a million chance, but if you keep flipping it for a million years, it will eventually land on its edge. Is that how the world came into being?
We try to explain creation by believing that time is able to beat the odds. If someone attributes creation to God, the person of “reason” assumes that God is a superstitious figment of imagination. We only resort to God when we haven’t yet discovered the “true” scientific cause.
But, how do we know that we humans are actually capable of understanding things we haven’t discovered? Are our minds and our senses able to understand what is currently not understood? Is it logical (or reasonable) to assume that we humans are able to understand everything?
If you believe that we do have that capability, that we can explain everything without “resorting” to God, then take another look at the verses scrolling above. If you believe that it all happened without God: maybe you should wish yourself a happy “April Fools Day!”
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Just one atheist? Which one? Me?