Dylan T. Lovan, (“Atheists say they have been threatened over their views,” Anniston Star, December 30, 2006, p. 3D), laments the plight of atheists, who are misunderstood and mistreated by “people of faith.” He cites the example of Blair Scott, whose atheist-themed bumper sticker got him a note on his windshield warning him, “You’re going to hell and you’re going to burn in a lake of fire.”

            If this incident occurred, we are sorry someone claiming to follow the Lord would write such a note. The “atheists are being threatened” movement is part of a general trend in the media to show that conservative Christians are the greatest threat our society faces. Current books The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris, and Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Dennett, all push this idea. As preposterous as it seems, militant atheists are gaining a following in our culture.

            It has long been fashionable on college campuses to claim to be an atheist, although most young people who claim to be atheists make this claim because they know “smart people are atheists,” but they have never considered the evidence. The greater problem is probably not the militant atheists, however, but the people who are “practical atheists,” who may have some rudimentary belief in God, but who live as if He does not exist.

            David explains: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Psalm 14:1-3). Don’t hate, but pity the foolish man who denies the evidence that God is.

Atheists Threatened
By Bob Prichard
www.oxfordchurchofchrist.com