[Biligual English & Chinese ; 中英文双语]
GOD'S NOT DEAD
What divides us is not science, we are both committed to science, but our worldviews. No one wants to base their life on a delusion, but which is a delusion? Christianity or atheism? —JOHN LENNOX¹
When a Man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes anything. —ATTRIBUTED TO G. K. CHESTERTON²
I WAS IN MY THIRD YEAR OF COLLEGE WHEN MY ATHEIST older brother, Ben, decided to try to talk me out of my Christian faith. I probably looked like an easy target. I had not been a Christian that long, and Ben was in his third year of law school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He was at the top of his class, already had a master's degree in counseling, and had been sharpening his disdain for Christianity for a while.
We arranged to meet over a weekend at our parents' house in Dallas. Ben prepared as if he was going to be trying a legal case, studying the Bible to get the ammunition he needed to blow me out of my new faith. He told one of his classmates, “I'm going home to get my little brother out of this born-again thing." He showed up with his prepared questions and finely tuned challenges, anticipating anything I might say. He was confident could get me to abandon this whole notion of faith in God and belief in Jesus Christ.
I'd like to tell you that I had brilliant, learned answers for everything he brought up. But I never had the chance to respond. As I listened to and addressed Ben's doubts simply, the truth of God's Word began soften his heart. I could see was doubting his doubts. There was finally a moment when I told him, “Ben, it's not what you don't know about God that's keeping you from believing; it’s what you do know. You know He is real and you know He is holy [meaning pure]." The apostle Paul wrote that people "suppress the truth unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). The reason? They don’t like God's rules. The problem with this is that it's like trying to hold a beach ball under the water: the harder you push truth down, the more forcefully it resurfaces. This was definitely what my brother was doing. He was trying to escape from the pangs of conscience that were convicting him of his behavior.
At the end of the day—the day on which he intended to talk me out of my faith—I baptized Ben in a swimming pool. Not long after he came up out of the water he said, “I don't think you answered all my questions, but I think I was asking the wrong questions.” Today, Ben is a successful trial attorney in Austin, Texas, and a formidable witness for Christ.
That weekend thirty years ago was a turning point for both Ben and me. He became a believer in Jesus Christ while he was trying to talk me out of “this born-again thing.” And since that day, I’ve devoted my life to getting people out of "this atheist thing." I work primarily among university students around the world, and I have been joined by thousands of others who have found that faith in God is both spiritually revitalizing and intellectually satisfying. We’ve also seen the opposite: that atheism doesn't satisfy a man's heart or mind.
THE END OF FAITH?
More than forty years ago, the cover of Time magazine asked, “Is God Dead?"³ The writers were reflecting upon the famous claim made by nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that God is dead. Other voices from that century raised the same issue in different words. Followers of Charles Darwin had suggested that belief in God would soon disappear from a scientifically progressive society. Karl Marx had said that religion is a drug, “the opium of the people.” ⁴ In 1999, The Economist magazine published an obituary for God.⁵
第1章
上帝没死
我们之间的分歧不是科学，我们都致力于科学，而是我们的世界观。 没有人愿意把自己的生活建立在妄想之上，但什么是妄想呢？ 基督教还是无神论？ ——约翰·伦诺克斯¹
当一个人不再相信上帝时，他就什么都不相信了，他什么都相信。 ——G. K. CHESTERTON²
当我读大学三年级时，我的无神论者哥哥本决定试图说服我放弃基督教信仰。 我可能看起来很容易成为目标。 我成为基督徒的时间不长，而本当时正在达拉斯南卫理公会大学法学院读三年级。 他在班上名列前茅，已经获得了咨询硕士学位，一段时间以来，他对基督教的蔑视越来越强烈。
我们安排周末在达拉斯父母家见面。 本做好了准备，就好像他要审理一场法律案件一样，研究圣经以获得他需要的弹药来打击我的新信仰。 他告诉他的一位同学，“我要回家让我的弟弟摆脱重生的困境。”他带着准备好的问题和精心设计的挑战出现了，期待着我可能说的任何话。他有信心能够得到 我放弃了对上帝和耶稣基督的信仰的整个观念。
我想告诉你，对于他提出的所有问题，我都有精彩而博学的答案。 但我一直没有机会回应。 当我倾听并简单地解决本的疑虑时，神的话语的真理开始软化他的心。 我看得出他对他的怀疑表示怀疑。 终于有一天，我告诉他：“本，阻止你相信的并不是你对上帝的不了解；而是你对上帝的不了解。” 这就是你所知道的。 你们知道他是真实的，也知道他是圣洁的。”使徒保罗写道，人们“压制真理不义”（罗马书1:18）。 原因？ 他们不喜欢上帝的规则。 这样做的问题在于，这就像试图将沙滩球放在水下：你越用力地把真相压下去，它就越有力地重新浮出水面。 这绝对是我哥哥正在做的事情。 他试图逃避良心的谴责，良心谴责他的行为。
那天结束时——他打算说服我放弃信仰的那一天——我在游泳池里为本施洗。 他从水里出来后不久，他说：“我认为你没有回答我所有的问题，但我认为我问了错误的问题。” 如今，本是德克萨斯州奥斯汀市一名成功的出庭律师，也是一位令人敬畏的基督见证人。
三十年前的那个周末对本和我来说都是一个转折点。 当他试图说服我放弃“重生的事”时，他成为了耶稣基督的信徒。 从那天起，我毕生致力于让人们摆脱“这种无神论的事情”。 我主要在世界各地的大学生中工作，成千上万的其他人也和我一样发现对上帝的信仰既能在精神上振兴，又能在智力上得到满足。 我们也看到了相反的情况：无神论不能满足人的内心或思想。
信仰的终结？
四十多年前，《时代》杂志的封面问道：“上帝死了吗？”³ 作者们正在反思十九世纪德国哲学家弗里德里希·尼采的著名主张，即上帝已死。那个世纪的其他声音也提出了同样的观点 查尔斯·达尔文的追随者曾表示，对上帝的信仰很快就会从科学进步的社会中消失。卡尔·马克思曾说过，宗教是一种毒品，“人民的鸦片”。 ⁴ 1999 年，《经济学人》杂志发表了上帝的讣告。⁵
But a funny thing happened on the way to the funeral. In 2009, the senior editor of The Economist cowrote the book God Is Back,⁶ which served as a retraction of the 1999 article. Christianity is experiencing astounding growth in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In Europe, where there has been generations of religious decline, there are encouraging signs of spiritual growth, particularly in places such as London, Berlin, and Dublin that have a deep history of faith in God. This is due to an intellectual renaissance as well as a spiritual one. People are awakening from the dogmatic slumbers of secularism and naturalism. And in America the overwhelming majority still acknowledge the existence of God, and the nation is beginning to witness a spiritual awakening among youth. In spite of the fact that God has been virtually banished from the classroom, university and high school students are questioning what they've been taught – the naturalistic dogma that the universe and life are merely the product of blind, random forces—and they are acknowledging that there is rational grounds for believing in a Creator. The thick fog of unbelief that has hovered over academia is starting to burn off as more and more evidence for an intelligent Creator surfaces.
With this rise in faith worldwide has come a corresponding response. Over the last decade the secularist camp set out to stem the tide of renewed faith. The term new atheists has been given to a group of skeptics who have sought to revive the arguments against God and repackage them for a new generation. Ironically, very little is new about these atheistic arguments. In fact, the success of their claims is mostly due to the fact that the theistic responses to their claims—which are the truth about God—have not been widely circulated.
A generation ago, C. S. Lewis composed a set of lectures that were broadcast over the BBC and were transcribed and published as Mere Christianity. Formerly an atheist, Lewis realized that he had to ignore too much evidence to maintain his unbelief:
If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest one, contain least some hint of truth. When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most. ⁷
The arguments atheists use against God quickly disappear like a mirage when they are answered by learned believers such as Lewis. Atheists claim that the universe isn't what you would expect if a supernatural God existed. All this death and suffering, they say, are plain evidence that a loving, intelligent God could not behind it all. The truth is that God has created a world where free moral agents able to have real choices do good or evil. If God had created a world without that fundamental choice and option to do evil, then we wouldn't be having this discussion. God made world where choices are real and humanity is affected by the choices of other humans. Drunk drivers kill innocent people. Some murder and steal from their fellow men. Though God gave clear commandments for humanity, we have for the most part ignored these directives. The mess that results is not God's fault. It's ours.
We are called to follow God and love Him with all our hearts and minds. This means we have to think and investigate. Truth is another word for reality. When something is true, it's true everywhere. The multiplication tables are just as true in China as they are in America. Gravity works in Africa the same way it does in Asia. The fact that there are moral truths that are true everywhere points to a transcendent morality that we did not invent and from which we cannot escape.⁸
As Creator, God placed not only natural laws in earth but also spiritual laws. For instance, lying is wrong everywhere. So is stealing. Cruelty to children is wrong regardless of what culture you're in or country you're from. When these laws are broken, people are broken. Not only does violating these spiritual laws separate us from God, but it causes pain in our lives and the lives of those around us. The big question becomes, what can be done about our condition? When we break these spiritual laws, whom can we call for help? How can we reconciled to God as well as break free from this cycle of pain and dysfunction?
IS ATHEISM A RELIGION?
Within every human is a desire for God. We sometimes attempt to satisfy this hunger by practicing a religion, by having faith in something. Atheism, in all its railings against God, also has intrinsic beliefs, dogmas, and tenets that supposedly can't be challenged. It is itself a belief system with all the markings of a religion. In an issue entitled "Forget the Church. Follow Jesus,” Newsweek magazine agreed, calling atheism a “belief.” ⁹ Atheism as a religion (a set of beliefs) is just as intolerant and closed-minded as the claims made against any faith system it assails.
With the fervor of the religious fundamentalists, these new atheists reject any competing ideas not just from religion, but also from philosophy. Stephen Hawking, in his book The Grand Design, declared that “philosophy is dead.”¹⁰ However Daniel Dennett, one of the so-called Four Horsemen of Atheism, has admited, "There is no such thing as philosophy-free science; there is only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination."¹¹ Therefore, in their minds, science becomes the only source of truth; like a ruthless dictator in a third-world country, atheists must eliminate all competition. No deviations from the atheistic, Darwinian dogma tolerated. Want to lose credibility in these secular citadels? Merely suggest that there might be something beyond nature that's responsible for our existence. This skeptical overreaction is simply. . . unreasonable.
DELUSION OF DISBELIEF
In his book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins asserts that God must be a delusion because God couldn't exist. Dawkins, who is perhaps the world's most famous atheist, makes the claim that though the universe appears to be
designed, it couldn't have been because we are still left with the question "Who designed the Designer?" This itself an example of the irrational, unyielding position of the atheistic mind. The truth you don't have to have an explanation for every explanation. Such a demand sets up an infinite regress where nothing would knowable and science and reason would all break down (granted, that is a worse-case scenario).
If you were walking through the woods and found a turtle on top of a fence post, you could rationally conclude that it didn't get there by itself. Someone put it there. Even if you didn't have an explanation for who did it, you would be reasonable in assuming that time and chance wouldn't eventually place a turtle on a fence post.
Sigmund Freud spoke of religious belief as a wish-fulfillment, the desire to have some “father-figure in the sky" who can straighten things out for us and talk to us when we are lonely. David Aikman, a former senior correspondent for Time and author of The Delusion of Disbelief, put atheism E same category as religion, saying, “Atheism itself a delusion," the ultimate wish-fulfillment.¹² There are real reasons why unbelievers don't want God to exist or at least seek to reduce Him to a blind impersonal force. No God = no accountability. No God = no real morals. "If God dead," said Malcolm Muggeridge, “somebody is going to have to take his place,” ¹³ and that somebody else is usually man himself.
Think about it: more than 90 percent of the planet believes that God exists. To maintain that those who believe in God are deluded means atheists (or radical skeptics as I call them) believe the majority of the world is under some kind of mass delusion. order to maintain this position from an objective intellectual standpoint, they would have to dismiss all evidence of God and then explain how everything we see around arose on its own -by chance.
The taunt of the skeptic is that those of us who have faith have no real proof for that faith. Skeptics say it's all based on feelings or delusions or due to our religious upbringings. One of the standard lines from atheists sounds like this: "When I'm asked to prove god doesn't exist, I ask believers to prove there are no fire-breathing dragons living in the center of the earth." Some the other analogies commonly used are the tooth fairy and Richard Dawkins's personal favorite, the "Flying Spaghetti Monster."¹⁴ They sit back as if this alone justifies their disbelief, but they are wrong.
但在去葬礼的路上发生了一件有趣的事情。 2009 年，《经济学人》的高级编辑合着了《上帝回来了》一书，该书是对 1999 年文章的撤回。 基督教在非洲、亚洲和拉丁美洲正在经历惊人的增长。 在欧洲，宗教经历了几代人的衰落，但也出现了令人鼓舞的精神成长迹象，特别是在伦敦、柏林和都柏林等有着深厚信仰上帝历史的地方。 这是由于知识的复兴和精神的复兴。 人们正在从世俗主义和自然主义的教条沉睡中醒来。 在美国，绝大多数人仍然承认上帝的存在，这个国家开始见证年轻人的精神觉醒。 尽管上帝实际上已被从课堂上驱逐出去，但大学生和高中生仍在质疑他们所学到的知识——认为宇宙和生命仅仅是盲目、随机力量的产物的自然主义教条——而他们 承认相信造物主有合理的理由。 随着越来越多的证据浮出水面，学术界笼罩在不信的浓雾开始消散。
随着全世界信仰的兴起，也产生了相应的反应。 在过去的十年里，世俗主义阵营开始遏制信仰复兴的浪潮。 “新无神论者”一词指的是一群怀疑论者，他们试图复兴反对上帝的论点，并为新一代重新包装它们。 讽刺的是，这些无神论论点并没有什么新鲜之处。 事实上，他们的主张之所以成功，主要是因为他们的主张——关于上帝的真理——的有神论回应并没有得到广泛传播。
一代人之前，C.S.刘易斯（C.S.Lewis）创作了一系列讲座，通过英国广播公司（BBC）播出，并被转录并出版为《纯粹的基督教》。 刘易斯以前是一名无神论者，他意识到他必须忽略太多证据才能维持他的不信：
如果你是一个无神论者，你确实必须相信全世界所有宗教的要点只是一个巨大的错误。 如果你是一名基督徒，你可以自由地认为所有这些宗教，即使是最奇怪的宗教，也至少包含一些真理的暗示。 当我还是一个无神论者时，我必须努力说服自己，大多数人类在对他们最重要的问题上一直都是错误的。 ⁷
当无神论者反对上帝的论点得到像刘易斯这样博学的信徒的回答时，它们很快就像海市蜃楼一样消失了。 无神论者声称，如果存在超自然的上帝，宇宙就不是你所想象的那样。 他们说，所有这些死亡和痛苦都是显而易见的证据，表明慈爱、智慧的上帝不可能支持这一切。 事实是，上帝创造了一个世界，让道德自由的人能够真正选择行善或作恶。 如果上帝创造的世界没有作恶的基本选择和选择，那么我们就不会进行这次讨论。 上帝创造了一个选择是真实的世界，而人类会受到其他人类选择的影响。 醉酒司机杀害无辜者。 有些人谋杀并偷窃同胞。 尽管上帝给了人类明确的诫命，但我们在很大程度上忽视了这些指令。 造成的混乱并不是上帝的错。 这是我们的。
我们被呼召要全心全意地跟随神并爱他。 这意味着我们必须思考和调查。 真理是现实的另一种说法。 当某件事是真的时，它在任何地方都是真的。 乘法表在中国和在美国都一样正确。 重力在非洲的作用与在亚洲的作用相同。 存在无处不在的道德真理这一事实表明了一种超越的道德，这种道德不是我们发明的，也是我们无法逃避的。⁸
作为创造者，上帝不仅在地球上放置了自然法则，而且还放置了精神法则。 例如，撒谎在任何地方都是错误的。 偷窃也是如此。 无论您来自哪种文化或来自哪个国家，虐待儿童都是错误的。 当这些法律被打破时，人们就会被打破。 违反这些精神律法不仅会使我们与上帝隔绝，还会给我们和周围人的生活带来痛苦。 最大的问题是，我们能对我们的情况做些什么呢？ 当我们违反这些精神法则时，我们可以向谁求助呢？ 我们怎样才能与神和解并摆脱这个痛苦和功能障碍的循环呢？
无神论是宗教吗？
每个人内心都有对神的渴望。 有时，我们试图通过信奉某种宗教、对某事抱有信仰来满足这种渴望。 无神论在对上帝的所有攻击中，也有其内在的信仰、教条和信条，据说这些是不容挑战的。 它本身就是一个具有宗教所有特征的信仰体系。 在题为“忘记教会，跟随耶稣”的一期中，《新闻周刊》杂志表示同意，称无神论是一种“信仰”。 ⁹
无神论作为一种宗教（一套信仰）与它所攻击的任何信仰体系的主张一样不宽容和思想封闭。
在宗教原教旨主义者的热情下，这些新的无神论者不仅拒绝宗教，而且拒绝哲学的任何竞争观念。 史蒂芬·霍金在他的《大设计》一书中宣称“哲学已死。”然而，所谓无神论四骑士之一的丹尼尔·丹尼特也承认：“不存在脱离哲学的科学；那里存在着哲学。” 科学只是其哲学包袱未经检验就被带上船的科学。”因此，在他们看来，科学成为真理的唯一来源； 就像第三世界国家的无情独裁者一样，无神论者必须消除所有竞争。 不能容忍任何背离无神论、达尔文教条的行为。 想在这些世俗城堡中失去信誉吗？ 只是暗示可能有一些超越自然的东西导致了我们的存在。 这种怀疑的过度反应很简单。 。 。 不合理。
不信的妄想
理查德·道金斯在他的《上帝错觉》一书中断言，上帝一定是一个错觉，因为上帝不可能存在。 道金斯也许是世界上最著名的无神论者，他声称虽然宇宙看起来是
设计，它不可能是因为我们仍然留下一个问题“谁设计了设计师？” 这本身就是无神论者非理性、不屈不挠立场的一个例子。 事实上，你不必对每一个解释都有解释。 这样的要求造成了无限的倒退，没有什么是可知的，科学和理性都将崩溃（当然，这是最糟糕的情况）。
如果你穿过树林，发现一只乌龟站在栅栏柱上，你可以理性地得出结论，它不是自己到达那里的。 有人把它放在那里。 即使您没有解释是谁干的，您也可以合理地假设时间和机会最终不会将乌龟放在栅栏柱上。
西格蒙德·弗洛伊德将宗教信仰视为一种愿望的满足，渴望有一个“天上的父亲形象”，可以为我们解决问题，并在我们孤独时与我们交谈。大卫·艾克曼，《时代》杂志前高级记者 和《怀疑的错觉》一书的作者，将无神论 E 与宗教归为一类，他说，“无神论本身就是一种错觉”，是最终的愿望实现。 将他降低为盲目的非人格力量。 没有上帝，就没有责任。 没有上帝——没有真正的道德。 “如果上帝死了，”马尔科姆·马格里奇说，“就必须有人取代他的位置，”“而其他人通常就是人自己。
想想看：地球上 90% 以上的人相信上帝存在。 坚持认为那些相信上帝的人受到了欺骗，意味着无神论者（或者我所说的激进怀疑论者）相信世界上的大多数人都处于某种大众的欺骗之下。 为了从客观的知识分子的角度维持这一立场，他们必须驳回所有关于上帝的证据，然后解释我们周围看到的一切是如何偶然产生的。
怀疑论者的嘲讽是，我们这些有信仰的人没有真正的证据来证明这种信仰。 怀疑论者说，这一切都是基于感觉或妄想，或者是由于我们的宗教成长。 无神论者的标准台词之一听起来像这样：“当我被要求证明上帝不存在时，我要求信徒证明地心不存在喷火龙。” 其他一些常用的类比是牙仙子和理查德·道金斯个人最喜欢的“飞行意大利面条怪物”。
There are no good reasons to believe in a Flying Spaghetti Monster, the tooth fairy, or fire-breathing dragons in the center of the earth. There are good reasons to believe in God.
The real question is, how much proof is enough proof to convince you that God is real? Most of the time atheists haven't thought about what it would actually take to get them to believe. When Dawkins was asked this during a public debate, he said, “That's a very difficult and interesting question because, I mean, I used to think that if somehow, you know, great big giant, nine-hundred-foot-high Jesus with a voice like Paul Robeson suddenly strode in and said I exist. Here I am,' but even that, I actually sometimes wonder whether that would . ¹⁵ He doesn't appear have given much thought to this trivial answer. In fact, if someone else claimed to see a nine-hundred-foot Jesus, he or she would be ridiculed. The truth is, if your mind is made up about what you don't believe and won't believe, then no amount of evidence will convince you. You will dismiss even the most devastating testimony against your position.
I have been challenged repeatedly on university campuses: “You're going to have to prove to me that God exists and Christianity is true.” My response? “If I do, will you believe in Him and follow Christ?” When they say no, I respond, “Your problem is not a lack of information. If you have all your questions answered and still don't believe, then your real problem is spiritual, not intellectual."
WAR OF THE WORLDVIEWS
No one comes to these discussions completely neutral or objective. In other words, reason isn't always reasonable. Our reason can be compromised by our own selfish motives. People who act corruptly or destructively may think they have reasons that justify their actions. On top that, they have a way in which they view the world. Their worldview consists of a set of presuppositions that bias reason.
The theistic worldview centers on God. Theos is the Greek word meaning "god," therefore a theist believes in God and sees God as the creator and sustainer of life and the God around us. The physical laws, the constants in nature, and the complexity of life all point to a rational intelligence. Theists push that logic, believing this intelligence isn't merely an impersonal force but is conscious and relational humans are conscious and relational beings. Just as we desire intimacy, trust, and love from the relationships we value, so does our Creator.
The atheist worldview, also described as naturalistic, centers on nature. A- is the Greek prefix meaning “absence," therefore an atheist believes in the absence of God. Everything can be explained by natural causes and effects. As the lead singer for Bad Religion stated in his book Anarchy Evolution:
If people ask me about my worldview, I say that I am a naturalist. When most people hear that word, they think of someone who spends a lot of time outdoors watching birds and admiring landscapes and suppose that description applies to me. But think of naturalism as a philosophy rather than a lifestyle. From a philosophical perspective, naturalists believe that the physical universe is the universe. In other words, there are no supernatural entities or forces acting on nature, because there is no empirical evidence for anything beyond or outside of nature.
This worldview eliminates the possibility of God from the outset; therefore, no evidence for an intelligent Creator will ever be convincing. The pretense of many atheists is that somehow they don't really possess any of these presuppositions. They project this air of objectivity, arguing with Socrates, "Scientists follow the evidence wherever it leads."¹⁷ Unless, of course, it leads to God. To say that nothing exists outside the physical world is a statement of faith. There is no way that anyone can prove that is true. Atheism and other worldviews are just ideas-big ideas-and history has proven, ideas have consequences. For example, the naturalistic worldview stemming from Darwinian evolution has had disastrous repercussions when applied philosophically and ethically: millions died at the hands of atheist Communists and Nazis during the twentieth century.
没有充分的理由相信地球中心存在飞天面条怪、牙仙子或喷火龙。 我们有充分的理由相信上帝。
真正的问题是，有多少证据足以让你相信上帝是真实的？ 大多数时候，无神论者并没有考虑过到底需要什么才能让他们相信。 当道金斯在公开辩论中被问到这个问题时，他说：“这是一个非常困难和有趣的问题，因为，我的意思是，我曾经认为，如果不知何故，伟大的巨人，九百英尺高的耶稣与 一个像保罗·罗伯逊这样的声音突然大步走进来，说我存在。 我在这里，”但即便如此，我有时实际上也想知道这是否会……。 15 他似乎并没有对这个微不足道的答案给予太多思考。 事实上，如果其他人声称看到了九百英尺高的耶稣，他或她会受到嘲笑。 事实是，如果你下定决心不相信和不会相信什么，那么再多的证据也无法说服你。 即使是针对你立场的最具毁灭性的证词，你也会予以驳回。
我在大学校园里多次受到挑战：“你必须向我证明上帝存在，基督教是真实的。” 我的回复？ “如果我这样做，你会相信他并跟随基督吗？” 当他们拒绝时，我回答说：“你的问题不是缺乏信息。 如果你所有的问题都得到解答，但仍然不相信，那么你真正的问题是精神上的，而不是智力上的。”
世界观之战
没有人在这些讨论中完全中立或客观。 换句话说，理性并不总是合理的。 我们的理性可能会因我们自己的自私动机而受到损害。 腐败或破坏性行为的人可能认为他们有理由证明他们的行为是正当的。 最重要的是，他们有自己看待世界的方式。 他们的世界观由一组偏见理性的预设组成。
有神论的世界观以上帝为中心。 Theos 是希腊语，意思是“上帝”，因此有神论者相信上帝，并将上帝视为生命的创造者和维持者以及我们周围的上帝。 物理定律、自然界的常数以及生命的复杂性都指向理性智能。 有神论者推崇这种逻辑，认为这种智能不仅仅是一种非人格的力量，而且是有意识的、有关系的人类是有意识的、有关系的存在。 正如我们渴望从我们珍视的关系中获得亲密、信任和爱一样，我们的创造者也是如此。
无神论世界观，也被称为自然主义世界观，以自然为中心。 A-是希腊语前缀，意思是“缺席”，因此无神论者相信上帝不存在。一切都可以用自然因果来解释。正如“坏宗教”的主唱在他的《无政府主义进化论》一书中所说：
如果人们问我的世界观，我会说我是一个自然主义者。 当大多数人听到这个词时，他们会想到一个花大量时间在户外观鸟、欣赏风景的人，并认为这个描述适用于我。 但将自然主义视为一种哲学而不是一种生活方式。 从哲学的角度来看，自然主义者认为物质宇宙就是宇宙。 换句话说，不存在作用于自然的超自然实体或力量，因为没有经验证据证明任何超越自然或之外的事物。
这种世界观从一开始就排除了上帝存在的可能性。 因此，没有任何证据能够证明存在一位智慧的造物主。 许多无神论者假装自己并不真正拥有这些预设。 他们表现出这种客观性，与苏格拉底争论，“科学家追随证据，无论它通向哪里。”当然，除非它通向上帝。 说物质世界之外没有任何东西存在是一种信仰的声明。 没有人能够证明这是真的。 无神论和其他世界观只是想法——伟大的想法——历史已经证明，想法会产生后果。 例如，源于达尔文进化论的自然主义世界观在哲学和伦理上应用时产生了灾难性的影响：在二十世纪，数百万人死于无神论共产党人和纳粹分子手中。
“IMAGINE THERE’S NO HEAVEN”
If there is an anthem of unbelief, it is no doubt the song “Imagine” written by the late John Lennon: “Imagine there's no heaven . . ." ¹⁸ What if Lennon's song were true? Would the world be a better place if there were no God? Let's imagine.
If there is no heaven, then there is no God. If there is no God in heaven, then this life is all there is: when you're dead, you're dead. What John Lennon imagined, Vladimir Lenin had already built in the communist state of Russia. The godless world of that Lenin was a living nightmare of torture, genocide, and darkness. The twentieth century was the bloodiest century in history, thanks to the atheistic regimes of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao Zedong.
If God is dead, then man is dead as well. Utopian dreams of humanistic paradise seem ideal until one fatal fact is recalled: man is the true cause of evil. Without the restraint of God and His law, humanity is free to act out any impulse, desire, or passion. Nothing would be ultimately right or wrong. Imagine an announcement was made in any major city of the world that the police were taking the week off. No crimes would be prosecuted, no laws enforced. What do you imagine would be the result? Peace and tranquility or lawlessness and chaos?
If there is no heaven, then there is no reward for any good deed done. Why sacrifice your life for your country or any other cause? If there is no hell, then there is no ultimate punishment for any crime. In other words, the terrorists who commit atrocities against their fellow men will, in the end, get away with it.
The experiment build a society without God has been tried. It has failed. At the same time religion without God is equally disastrous. The prophets of old warned that people could worship with their lips while their hearts were far away from God. The warning is echoed in the writings of the New Testament, saying some people will be seen “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). Looking back over our shoulders into history, it doesn't take long to realize that some Christians have given the critics of faith a lot of ammunition. Most of the failures resulted from disobeying the commands of Christ to love, serve, and forgive. Jesus was totally against powerless, compassionless religion and called it hypocrisy; but make no mistake: religion has no corner on the market of hypocrisy.
UN-MAHERED
During the last century, arrogance and ignorance hurt Christianity in public discourse with skeptics. In this century, however, the roles have been reversed. One of atheists' favorite tactics is to use mockery and ridicule to attempt to discredit anything of a religious nature, particularly Christianity. Any baseless claim is given credibility if it serves to undermine faith in God. If believers aren't prepared, they can be wrongly influenced to think their faith is misplaced.
A student once told me he had heard this question in a philosophy class: If God is all-powerful, could He make a rock so big He couldn't move it? He told me that when he couldn't come up with the answer, he eventually backslid. My thought was, If one riddle shook your faith, then you didn't have far to slide. We shouldn’t abandon truth when these godless-evangelists unbelief shout their confident lies at us. The question actually violates logic's "law non-contradiction.” And the answer to the philosopher's riddle is simple: because God is all-powerful, He could not create anything He could not handle.
Other challenges are much more absurd. Late-night comic and professional cynic Bill Maher (pronounced like the verb mar) regularly uses ridicule to denounce religion. Most of his arguments are what philosophy calls straw men: false pictures of something that have been created only so they can be easily confuted. Maher often takes the worst parts of anything associated with religion (suicide bombers, priests who abuse children, and especially anyone who refuses to accept evolution as fact) and paints them all in the worst possible light. He then announces, “Religion must die.”¹⁹
While many bad things have been done in the name of religion, and even in the name of Jesus Christ, an honest inquiry can quickly separate truth from error, fact from fiction. False claims must be challenged and seen for what they are—vain imaginations. Fanaticism is a human problem, not a religion problem. Don't believe it? Just watch any sporting event, rock concert, or political rally. Atheist fanatics are just as unreasonable as their religious counterparts. Just as you don't dismiss politics because there are bad politicians or commerce because there are bad businesses, you certainly must know how to separate the precious from the worthless when it comes to God and faith.
Again, Jesus Christ stands apart from man-made philosophy and religion. He was the original critic of empty religious practices and shallow lives. With a little effort, you can have a faith that is “un-mahered,” one that is free from defects or stains. This kind of faith begins with a rock-solid knowledge that God is indeed real. The false notions of the age must be examined like the one-hundred-dollar bill a cashier examines as potential counterfeit. We must not be misled by phony arguments or phony lives. Remember, it isn’t enough simply to know God is real. Even the demons believe in God and tremble. We must be able to demonstrate and articulate God's truth in a way the people around us can clearly understand.
WHAT 9/11 TAUGHT US
Just days after the attacks I drove with some friends to New York to see how we could serve that great city in its unprecedented time of crisis. It didn't take long to realize that we needed to plant a church the heart of New York City to minister to the spiritual needs of as many as possible on a consistent basis. Within a month we were flying every Sunday night from Nashville to New York and holding Sunday night services. Today that church, Morning Star New York, consists of three congregations.
After we had been flying in for a few weeks for the Sunday night meetings, the owner of one of my favorite restaurants was thanking us for our commitment to help his city. I recounted incident that occurred in his restaurant my book Finding Faith Ground Zero. Sandy, the owner of Carnegie Deli, called me over to a table of TV-network executives for an introduction. He said, "Reverend [I really don't like it when people call me that!], these men are having to burn their furniture because of anthrax poisoned letters they have been receiving. They need answers about what's going on."
音乐会或政治集会。 无神论狂热分子和他们的宗教狂热分子一样不讲道理。 正如你不会因为有糟糕的政客而忽视政治，也不会因为有糟糕的企业而忽视商业一样，当谈到上帝和信仰时，你当然必须知道如何区分珍贵的和无价值的。
耶稣基督再次与人造哲学和宗教区分开来。 他是空洞的宗教活动和肤浅的生活的最初批评者。 只要付出一点努力，你就可以拥有一种“无瑕疵”的信仰，一种没有缺陷或污点的信仰。 这种信仰始于坚如磐石的知识，即上帝确实是真实的。 必须像收银员检查一百美元钞票是否可能是假币一样检查这个时代的错误观念。 我们决不能被虚假的论点或虚假的生活所误导。 请记住，仅仅知道上帝是真实的还不够。 即使是恶魔也相信上帝并颤抖。 我们必须能够以周围的人可以清楚理解的方式展示和阐明上帝的真理。
9/11 给我们带来了什么教训
袭击发生几天后，我和一些朋友开车去了纽约，看看我们如何在这座前所未有的危机时期为这座伟大的城市提供服务。 没过多久我们就意识到，我们需要在纽约市中心建立一座教堂，以持续满足尽可能多的人的精神需求。 一个月内，我们每周日晚上从纳什维尔飞往纽约，并举办周日晚上的服务。 今天，纽约晨星教会由三个教会组成。
在我们飞来几周参加周日晚上的会议之后，我最喜欢的一家餐厅的老板感谢我们致力于帮助他的城市。 我在《寻找信仰归零地》一书中讲述了在他的餐厅发生的事件。 卡内基熟食店的老板桑迪把我叫到一桌电视网络高管面前进行介绍。 他说：“牧师[我真的不喜欢人们这样称呼我！]，这些人因为收到炭疽中毒信件而不得不烧毁家具。他们需要知道到底发生了什么。”
I sat down at the table with these very important media leaders and paused to consider what I could say that might make an impact for Christ in a wise and believable way. I said, “Well, if there's anything 9/11 taught us, it's that all religions are not the same. The god that told those men to get in airplanes and come to this city and hurt people is not the same God that inspired us to get into airplanes each week and come here and help people."²⁰
There is no way you can group every religious belief and practice together and then smugly denounce religion as a whole. All beliefs are not equal. Some are true, and others are false. History has proven that ideas— religious, philosophical, or scientific—have consequences.
BREAKING NEWS
The greatest idea in history, the one that has produced the most significant and enduring benefit to humanity, is Jesus Christ. God's idea to come to earth as a human, undeniably demonstrating the power of truth, has given us the ultimate message of hope, called the gospel or good news. God's good news is as current as any breaking news you'll see or hear today on any news channel. It is so encouraging I will refer to it as often as I can so its message is not missed or misunderstood. The good news announces that God became man in Jesus Christ, He lived the life we should have lived, and in our place He died the death we should have died. Three days later He came back to life to verify His identity as the Son of God, and now He offers full pardon and forgiveness all who will believe and turn from the darkness of sin and the futility of trying to save themselves. Those who turn and put their trust in Him will never be ashamed.
This message of hope, this good news, is true no matter what country or culture you're from. Christ came to deal with the legal consequences of humanity breaking God's law once and for all. Far from wanting us to be religious, He calls us simply to love Him and love others. The gospel changes us from the inside out. That is why many are quick to say that Christ didn't call us into religion but into relationship, relationship with Him and with one another.
我与这些非常重要的媒体领袖坐在一起，停下来思考我能说些什么，可以以明智和可信的方式对基督产生影响。 我说：“好吧，如果说 9/11 事件教会了我们什么的话，那就是所有宗教都不相同。 那个告诉那些人乘坐飞机来到这座城市伤害人们的上帝与激励我们每周乘坐飞机来到这里帮助人们的上帝不同。”²⁰
你不可能把每一种宗教信仰和实践都归为一类，然后沾沾自喜地谴责整个宗教。 所有的信仰都不相同。 有些是真的，有些是假的。 历史已经证明，宗教、哲学或科学的思想都会产生影响。
爆炸新闻
历史上最伟大的思想，为人类带来最重要和最持久利益的思想，就是耶稣基督。 上帝以人类的身份来到地球，无可否认地展示了真理的力量，给了我们最终的希望信息，称为福音或好消息。 上帝的好消息与您今天在任何新闻频道上看到或听到的突发新闻一样及时。 它是如此令人鼓舞，我会尽可能经常参考它，这样它的信息就不会被遗漏或误解。 好消息宣布神在耶稣基督里成为人，他过着我们应该过的生活，并且代替我们死了我们应该死的死。 三天后，他复活了，证实了他作为上帝儿子的身份，现在他向所有愿意相信并从罪恶的黑暗和徒劳的自救中回转的人提供完全的赦免和饶恕。 那些回转并信赖他的人将永远不会感到羞耻。
无论您来自哪个国家或文化，这个希望的信息、这个好消息都是真实的。 基督来是为了一劳永逸地处理人类违反上帝律法的法律后果。 他根本不希望我们有宗教信仰，他只是呼召我们爱他、爱别人。 福音从内到外改变我们。 这就是为什么许多人很快就会说基督并没有呼召我们进入宗教，而是呼召我们进入关系，与他以及彼此之间的关系。
WHY GOD’S EXISTENCE MATTERS
Once in Argentina at the University of Buenos Aires, I spent time talking to five young students who identified themselves as atheists. I spent a lot of time asking questions about the reasons for their atheism. Thanks to a good translator, Phillip Steele, I was able to understand the details of their disbelief. As I listened intently, a young man carrying a guitar with him asked me, “Why should we even be concerned with the question, 'Does God exist?' Does it really matter?"
I asked him, “Have you ever written a song?”
His facial expression changed instantly as it seemed I was changing the subject from God and to something he really wanted to talk about. He said yes, then I asked, “Why did you want to write a song?” He raised his hand to emphasize his passion. “I wanted to share my
feelings with others, to create something they could enjoy as well express my heart and my thoughts.”
“What would you do if you wrote a song for those noble reasons and someone either denied you wrote the song or mistakenly gave credit to someone else for writing it instead of you? Would that bother you?"
Looking like he knew I was going to make a bigger point, he agreed, “Yes, I would be upset if I didn't get recognized as the author of the song I wrote.
I paused for just a moment. “What if you created a planet?”
You could see the evidence of the connection between the two thoughts on his face.
God deserves the recognition for all He has created. Knowing that a Creator exists changes everything in our outlook and worldview. It should inspire us to honor Him more than we would honor any woman or man for any human achievement. It should also cause us to seek Him, to earnestly desire a relationship with Him.
The reality of God as Creator compels us to investigate the world He created with greater confidence and to understand His nature and character. All the beauty, grandeur, and provision on the planet should produce a gratitude that overwhelms us. This is the spirit of Jesus's evangelism that sends us out with a message of love, hope, and reconciliation, not hate and division.
为什么神的存在很重要
到达阿根廷布宜诺斯艾利斯大学后，我花了一些时间与五名自称无神论者的年轻学生交谈。 我花了很多时间询问他们无神论的原因。 感谢一位优秀的翻译，菲利普·斯蒂尔，我能够理解他们怀疑的细节。 当我专心聆听时，一位随身携带吉他的年轻人问我：“我们为什么要关心‘上帝存在吗？’这个问题？” 真的有关系吗？”
我问他：“你写过歌吗？”
他的面部表情立即发生了变化，因为似乎我正在将话题从上帝转移到他真正想谈论的事情上。 他说是的，然后我问：“你为什么想写一首歌？” 他举起手来强调他的热情。 “我想与他人分享我的感受，创造一些他们可以享受的东西，同时表达我的内心和想法。”
“如果你出于这些崇高的原因写了一首歌，而有人否认你写了这首歌，或者错误地将功劳归功于其他人而不是你，你会怎么做？ 这会让你烦恼吗？”
他看起来好像知道我要表达更大的观点，他同意道：“是的，如果我没有被认为是我写的歌曲的作者，我会感到沮丧。
我停顿了一会儿。 “如果你创造了一个星球呢？”
你可以在他的脸上看到这两种想法之间的联系。
上帝所创造的一切都值得被认可。 知道造物主的存在会改变我们的观点和世界观。 它应该激励我们尊敬他，胜过我们尊敬任何女人或男人的任何人类成就。 它还应该促使我们寻求他，热切地渴望与他建立关系。
上帝作为创造者的现实迫使我们以更大的信心调查他所创造的世界，并了解他的本质和性格。 地球上所有的美丽、宏伟和供给都应该让我们心存感激。 这就是耶稣传福音的精神，它向我们发出爱、希望与和解的信息，而不是仇恨与分裂。
SUMMARY
When you hear “God is back," that obviously doesn't mean He actually went anywhere. Faith in God is back. Not a blind, unreasonable faith, but one that is well grounded in evidence. The grounded evidence is the basis to communicate that faith in a straightforward, clear manner. If nothing else, the writings of the new atheists have succeeded in awakening millions of Christians from their dogmatic slumbers.
This book is one of the many works that have been inspired by the audacity and arrogance of some of these skeptical writers who have decided to take their personal battle and hatred of religion public. When I was doing my doctoral work at Fuller Theological Seminary, my mentor Dan Shaw would constantly advise me to keep my writing from sounding “preachy.” The goal was to produce a doctoral thesis based on empirical data and research with personal opinions and preachments at a minimum. While I still endeavor to present sound, rational arguments for the existence of God based on the best explanation of the evidence, I also want to offer the encouragement and hope that real faith in God produces. Let’s now turn to the reasons to believe in the existence of God—starting with reason itself.
概括
当你听到“神回来了”时，这显然并不意味着他实际上去了任何地方。对神的信心回来了。不是盲目的、不合理的信仰，而是有充分证据的信仰。有根据的证据是沟通的基础 如果不出意外的话，新无神论者的著作已经成功地将数百万基督徒从教条主义的沉睡中唤醒。
本书是受到一些持怀疑态度的作家的大胆和傲慢启发的众多作品之一，他们决定将个人的斗争和对宗教的仇恨公之于众。 当我在富勒神学院攻读博士学位时，我的导师丹·肖经常建议我不要让我的文章听起来“说教”。 目标是在实证数据和研究的基础上撰写博士论文，并至少包含个人观点和说教。 虽然我仍然努力基于对证据的最佳解释来提出关于上帝存在的合理、合理的论据，但我也想提供对上帝的真正信仰所产生的鼓励和希望。 现在让我们转向相信上帝存在的理由——从理性本身开始。
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