What is Man?

During research a for a project I’m working on, I ran across the blog of a woman who had recently become an atheist. Her joy at this recent “conversion” illustrates in crystal clarity the true philosophy of atheism.

I finally and irrevocably cast out the pretend demon god that controlled my mind. I am discovering life without the surveillance cameras that were implanted in my brain at a very young age. For in him, I NO LONGER live and move and have my being. I AM FREE!

My brain belongs to me!

For the first time in my life; my heart, mind, thoughts, acts, vision, passion, strength, weakness, virtue, failure, limits and talent all belong to me.

TO ME!

It is all mine!

MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE!

This strikes a chord with me because, in the past, I pondered becoming an atheist for the same reasons that this lady expresses. It just seemed like freedom. I could do everything I ever wanted to do. I could create that long term art project I’ve always wanted to do. I could sleep in on Sundays. I could stay in the military. All the things that I put aside for the sake of the World After this World, I could pick up again. No more evangelizing, no more Bible reading, no more quiet time, no more scripture memorization, no more restrictive moral compass. I could engage in baser behavior, curse, look at pornography, watch any movie I wanted, all without guilt.

Interestingly, there were a couple of caveats. I would have to become more crafty and conniving… I new that in a world where I was in control, everyone else was too, and my idea of morality might not apply to anyone else. Why be meek when the best way to get what you want is to force it? If everyone else played that game, I’d have to play it as well. The other point was that I never actually thought about not believing in God, I merely wanted to de-personalize him, reduce him to something abstract and unknowable. He could exist as long as he didn’t tell me what to do. [Some might say that this qualifies my thoughts as agnostic and not atheistic, but since it is impossible to prove the non-existence of  a supreme being, I do not believe that a philosophically viable form of atheism that pure is attainable.]   

For me, the ultimate end of atheism was to be my own god, deciding for myself what was right and wrong, good for me or bad for me. In Genesis 3:1,5 we see this desire expressed by the serpent: “He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden? For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God…’"

But here is the problem.

“You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God… I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.” (Isaiah 14:13-15)

It just doesn’t work forever. If you manage to get everything you want, it’s still so temporary. I’m halfway to decay. And after that, what? I had a professor tell me once, “I hope that if there’s a good place, I go to it, and if there’s a bad place, I don’t, but I don’t think there’s anything after death.” I’m not satisfied with a purposeless, self-gratifying existence, one dominated by “MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE,” for (hopefully) 75 years or so, and then nothing. But even worse, if the biblical God is a reality, the grave is the beginning of eternity. For those who reject Jesus Christ, a never-forever life, all to one’s self, for those who accept His Gift, an ever-forever life, all to Him.