"The fool has said in his heart, 'there is no God'. They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one." Psalm 14:1-3
In my last post I explained why atheism is foolish. It is a negative belief system that has killed far more people in history than all religious zealots combined. It is also a belief system that cannot be proven any more than a religious one. An atheist cannot say with certainty, "There is no God". That is a statement of faith. He cannot prove God doesn't exist any more than a Christian can prove that He does. The best that an atheist can accurately say is "I don't think or believe there is a God", and that is agnosticism.
In this post I want to further explain why atheism is foolish, and it has to do with the issue of being "good".
Atheists today are working very hard to prove that they are "good" people. Even though history shouts against this, and logically, atheism leads to moral relativism and all kinds of bad behavior, atheists nevertheless claim that they are "good" people.
Now the first problem with this argument is that God says "there is no one who does good, not even one." But, of course, to accept this as true one has to accept that there is a God, and that the Bible is His inerrant Word. So, even though I believe that this is true simply because the Creator God has said it, let's look at this issue rationally, logically and practically.
Do people who are atheists do "good"? I would say 'yes' from a human perspective. I have no doubt that atheists at times do very good things by human standards. Some are wonderful parents. Some are very nice neighbors. Some are honest business people, just to give a few examples. However, why are they "good"? I would say that it has nothing whatsoever to do with being an atheist. Atheism as a system does not logically lead to goodness. Rather, some atheists do good because they were raised according to Judeo-Christian ethics and they continue to live by them even though those ethics are contrary to the tenets of atheism. Some atheists do good out of self-interest. They treat others well because they want to be treated well. Other atheists do good because of the legal and practical consequences of not doing good. They are afraid of getting caught. Still other atheists are proud. They do good to prove that they are just as good, if not better than all the religious folks. Whether it is social conditioning, self-interest, fear or pride, all the goodness done by atheists, and everyone else for that matter, is ultimately not because people are intrinsically good, but because of other much less noble reasons that are not to our credit. That is why God has said, "there is no one who does good." From His perspective, people are not intrinsically good. We are all selfish, sinful and proud! Not just atheists, all of us! That is why Christ had to come and die; to pay for what we have all done wrong in the eyes of a holy God. Christians are not any better or any more deserving of God's love and forgiveness than atheists. It's all grace. The difference is that Christians realize we are not "good" and so we have put our trust in the only person who was ever truly, completely good...the Lord Jesus Christ!
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