Does Christianity Produce Agnostics?

Christian Post ^ | By Dan Delzell

[SeekAndFind]

While discussing religion with Stephen Colbert on the "Late Show," Ricky Gervais described himself as an "agnostic atheist." Gervais said, "No one knows if there's a God, so technically, everyone's agnostic. We don't know. An agnostic atheist is someone who doesn't know if there's a God or not, as no one does."

And from Gervais's point of view, such a statement makes perfect sense. After all, one would expect a self-proclaimed agnostic atheist to assume that even Christians don't know for a fact that God exists, right?

In reality, you can know for sure that God is real by entering into a personal relationship with the Lord. I addressed this vital issue in a previous article entitled, "Can Faith Lead to Abiding Certainty?"

Christian certainty is based upon biblical history, God's promises, empirical evidence, and divine revelation. These four pillars provide a foundation for faith that is unshakable, as I explained here: "Does Christianity Stand on Faith or Evidence?"

In order for Ricky Gervais or anyone who shares his beliefs to embrace Christianity, an honest evaluation and acceptance of the pertinent facts is required. For example, one could come to recognize the rock solid historical evidence for the Christian faith and discover that "The Mathematical Proof for Christianity Is Irrefutable."

Another helpful approach would be to consider what I call "40 Questions to Determine the True Religion." In doing so, a person could come to see the uniqueness of Christianity in light of every other religion on the planet.

But in order to experience the new birth, one must bring his sin to the cross and get intellectually honest about the message of Christ's resurrection. (see "The Messiah's Critics Couldn't Produce His Body.")

Once you start to evaluate the evidence with an open mind, you will likely run into a major roadblock within your own soul. Namely, your moral resistance to Jesus and your personal aversion to God's claim on your life. This aspect of man's nature is spelled out in the article, "Moral Resistance Resides Deeper than Intellectual Reasoning."

And this helps to explain why Ricky Gervais believes that Christians are agnostic. After all, he has not yet been personally persuaded by biblical history, God's promises, empirical evidence, and divine revelation. And so in Ricky's thinking, a Christian cannot know for sure that God exists. The fact of the matter is that Christians definitely know Christ as their Savior, and many believers experience an abiding certainty that God is real and heaven is their eternal home.

Meanwhile, atheists and agnostics commonly end up "Rejecting Jesus for All the Wrong Reasons." And this is why divine revelation is so critical. After all, "the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:14)

The Holy Spirit uses the Law to convict people of their sin and their need for the Savior. (see "How the Law Leads People to Christ.") Spiritual conversion is a miracle performed by the Holy Spirit (John 3:6) who works in man's heart through both the Law and the Gospel.

Thankfully, you don't have to twist God's arm for Him to love you. A key question for you, however, is this: Do you want to meet God? The Lord's grace is available to you today, and "God Would Love You to Know Him."

Ricky Gervais openly admits he does not know whether or not God exists. On the flip side, there are multitudes of Christians who are certain of God's existence and of Christ's love for them.

Agnostic atheists. Convinced Christians. Skeptical seekers.

At the end of the day, labels only communicate so much. What matters most is that you come to understand and embrace the purpose of Christ's death for you on the cross. And in order to base your faith on facts, you will need to wrap your mind around the salvation history of Scripture.

As you dig into the miraculous details of Christianity, don't forget to examine the empirical evidence for Christ's resurrection as well as the hundreds of messianic prophecies fulfilled by Jesus. Ultimately, you will need divine revelation from the Holy Spirit. Unless God speaks to you through His Word, you won't "get it." And you will likely assume that everyone else is flying by the seat of their pants just like you, regardless of their claim to know that God is real.

No matter where you find yourself today, there is only one approach that results in having your sins forgiven and your name written in "Heaven's Reservation Book." The apostle John put it this way: "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:13)

The only place Christians are "agnostic" is in the minds of atheists and agnostics, when they assume that their own personal uncertainty about God translates to uncertainty in the hearts of believers. Such a flawed perspective seems plausible to a person until he is converted by the power of the Holy Spirit, or until he finds himself standing before the Lord on Judgment Day.

"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." (2 Cor. 5:10) Believer, unbeliever, agnostic, atheist, you name it. Everyone will get their appointment in God's courtroom. (see "Christianity Is Judicial and Set in Stone.")

One reason Christianity doesn't produce agnostics is because "the author and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2) is not some mystical unknowable deity. Jesus Christ truly is the Son of God and the Savior of all who personally know Him. Jesus said, "I know my sheep and my sheep know me." (John 10:14)

Agnostics, on the other hand, do not know Christ. A step of faith is needed in order to move from the natural realm of agnosticism into the supernatural realm of Christianity. And until a person enters this realm, it's only natural to assume that no one really knows for sure whether or not God exists. Just ask Ricky Gervais.

[TBP]

Once in a while.

[InvisibleChurch]

poor preaching and poor teaching of the gospel would do it.

[miss marmelstein]

The man can’t find a decent dentist but I’m supposed to listen to him on God???

[Olog-hai]

An agnostic atheist is someone who doesn’t know if there’s a God or not …

That would not be what the phrase “agnostic atheist” would literally mean, no. “I don’t know that God doesn’t exist, but I believe he definitely does not exist” seems to be what that indicates. More doublethink.

[dsc]

“No one knows if there’s a God”

Wrongola, dummy.

[Boogieman]

“Once you start to evaluate the evidence with an open mind, you will likely run into a major roadblock within your own soul. Namely, your moral resistance to Jesus and your personal aversion to God’s claim on your life.”

This, in itself is a form of evidence. A sinner’s heart will struggle against the message of Christ like no other message on this earth, like a vampire avoiding sunlight.

[avenir]

Gervais said, “No one knows if there’s a God, so technically, everyone’s agnostic. We don’t know. An agnostic atheist is someone who doesn’t know if there’s a God or not, as no one does.”

Psalm 19 + Romans 1 say you’re LYING, Gervais. It’s been made plain, so you are without excuse.

[dhs12345]

There are some pretty rotten Christians and sects of the faith that are not good so yes. And corrupt leadership does more damage than anything else. Corrupted Christian leader help the devil in his aims.

[Heartlander]

What are the odds of all of this occurring as a cosmic accident?

Cosmic Constants

• Gravitational force constant
  
• Electromagnetic force constant
  
• Strong nuclear force constant
  
• Weak nuclear force constant
  
• Cosmological constant

Initial Conditions and “Brute Facts”

• Initial distribution of mass energy
  
• Ratio of masses for protons and electrons
  
• Velocity of light
  
• Mass excess of neutron over proton
• Principle of quantization
  
• Pauli Exclusion Principle

Solar System Conditions

• Near inner edge of circumstellar habitable zone
  
• Low-eccentricity orbit outside spin-orbit and giant planet resonances
  
• A few, large Jupiter-mass planetary neighbors in large circular orbits
  
• Outside spiral arm of galaxy
  
• Near co-rotation circle of galaxy, in circular orbit around galactic center
  
• Within the galactic habitable zone
  
• Human advancement occurs during the cosmic habitable age

“Local” Planetary Conditions

• Steady plate tectonics with right kind of geological interior
  
• Right amount of water in crust
  
• Sun is the right type star for life
  
• Large moon with right rotation period
  
• Stable atmosphere
  
• Proper concentration of sulfur
• Ability to create fire
  
• Right planetary mass
  
• Unique solar eclipse
  
• Cosmic shield
  
• Information rich biosphere

Human Life

• Origin of life hurdles
  
• DNA has; Functional Information - Encoder - Error Correction - Decoder
• DNA contains multi-layered information that reads both forward and backwards - DNA stores data more efficiently than anything we've created - and a majority of DNA contains metainformation
  
• Complex pieces of molecular machinery in the cell
• Human body
  
• The information enigma
  
• Morality
  
• Consciousness
  
• Free will
  
• Justice
  
• Perception
  
• Human language
  
• Recognizing art in nature
  

[Heartlander]

SEE ALSO: The Reason for God MP3s by Tim Keller

Direct links to the audio files are below, or use the RSS Feed here.

• Exclusivity: How can there be just one true religion? MP3
• Suffering: If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world? MP3
• Absolutism: Don't we all have to find truth for ourselves? MP3
• Injustice: Hasn't Christianity been an instrument for oppression? MP3
• Hell: Isn't the God of Christianity an angry Judge? MP3
• Doubt: What should I do with my doubts? MP3
• Literalism: Isn't the Bible historically unreliable and regressive? MP3

[bar sin·is·ter]

Basically, in order for our planet and ecosystem to exist to support human life, it requires the structure of the universe to exist as it does.... one small change in any of the constants, one change in the amount of matter or energy, none of this would exist....

This is not random.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Unfortunately, this is true. Chrstians don't know G-d exists. They believe He exists. As a matter of fact, credulity in chrstianity is regarded as a meritorious act.

Orthodox Jews know G-d exists because they know that over 3300 years ago their ancestors at the foot of Mt. Sinai experienced a revelation unlike any other claimed revelation in history--a public revelation to some three million people, not by some miracle working human being but by the invisible, infinite G-d (they experience was so terrifying they began crying to G-d to stop before they all died).

There is an unbroken chain of transmission that connects that generation to all Jewish generations till the end of time. And there are laws (not found in the Written Torah!) for writing Torah Scrolls that assure all kosher Torah scrolls in use in Orthodox synagogues are identical to the scrolls Moses wrote at the end of his life and to the First Great Scroll in Heaven.

[Fedora]

Gervais can’t even define what he is without contradicting himself.

[Just mythoughts]

There are ‘12’ tribes. Only one tribe was Judah. IF you were to literally recount what took place at the foot of Mt. Sinai, while Moses was off on the mountain getting the law... and the children left behind wanted to go back to Egypt... So to pacify them Aaron (from the tribe of Levi) gathered up the gold and formed the children a golden calf to worship. Talk about taking liberties with what Moses penned took place.

You won’t like this one bit, but Moses is now a Christian.

[Heartlander]

Yes – it was a rhetorical question…

[Zionist Conspirator]

There are ‘12’ tribes.

I never said otherwise. Where are you getting the notion that I did?

Only one tribe was Judah.

Sigh. I suppose this is the old "only the descendants of Judah should be called 'Jews'" argument. The name of Judah is from the Hebrew "to thank, to gratefully acknowledge. All Israelites may be called Jews because each and every Jew consciously or subconsciously is an acknowledgement of G-d.

IF you were to literally recount what took place at the foot of Mt. Sinai, while Moses was off on the mountain getting the law... and the children left behind wanted to go back to Egypt... So to pacify them Aaron (from the tribe of Levi) gathered up the gold and formed the children a golden calf to worship. Talk about taking liberties with what Moses penned took place.

You seem to be conflating the movie with The Book. If you read Exodus 19 and 20 you will see that all the Jews and others gathered around Mt. Sinai heard the voice of G-d. They were so stricken with fear that they began screaming for G-d to stop. After the first two utterances (given in first person) G-d had to relay the remaining eight (given in third person) via Moses because they people simply could not continue to experience such a revelation of G-d and live.

It was only after this mass revelation that Moses went to the top of the mountain to receive the Two Tablets, and during which time the people built the golden calf. You should really read your Bible more.

You won’t like this one bit, but Moses is now a Christian.

This is what you believe. I know he is not.

I've been on this forum for eighteen years and for all that time have never read a rational argument from a chrstian as to why the religion is true. All chrstian apologetics on this forum reduce to constant repetition of chrstian claims and beliefs without one argument for external proof.

[Dallas59]

I don’t worry about it. It’s a personal decision and can’t be forced.

[TheTimeOfMan]

This Christian knows G-d exists. I have been directly in his presence at the foot of the incredibly large throne. It was both love indescribable and absolute terror at His power.

Unfortunately that doesn’t help you.

Have you read the Christian books? I know several orthodox Jews who have accepted Yeshua (Jesus for some Christians here) as messiah. They all stated they completely avoided reading the new covenant books because they believed they were filled with anti-Jewish hate and blasphemy. In reality they are Jewish books written by Jewish men. I would encourage you to at least read through the first book or two - especially in one of the translations done by former rabbis. Keep an open mind.

I KNOW we serve the same G-d. Please do not judge Christianity by the behavior of Christians - or by the actions, particularly historical, of those who were Christian in name only. Instead - go to the books themselves.

[metmom]

While discussing religion with Stephen Colbert on the "Late Show," Ricky Gervais described himself as an "agnostic atheist." Gervais said, "No one knows if there's a God, so technically, everyone's agnostic. We don't know. An agnostic atheist is someone who doesn't know if there's a God or not, as no one does."

If the guy ever had an encounter with God, he would know.