A Rebuttal to a Rebuttal to “If You Don’t Believe the Christian God Exists, Why Do You Oppose Christianity So Much?”

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When talking with an atheist, a Christian will sometimes ask, essentially: “If you don’t believe God exists, why do you oppose Christianity so zealously?” Often, the atheist will respond, also essentially: “Because Christians keep trying to impose their beliefs and values on us. If adherents of another religion tried to impose their beliefs and values on you, you would fervently campaign against their religion too. It doesn’t mean you believe that religion’s god (or gods) actually exists. It just means you don’t like the beliefs and values that are being forced down your throat.” The Christian who asks the atheist that question is likely assuming what the Bible teaches, in Romans 1:18-32, about how all men [1] know God exists but suppress that knowledge through their unrighteousness. And the atheist, also likely aware of that Biblical doctrine, probably thinks his response is a refutation of that teaching. But is it really? Let’s think about it!

First, whatever an atheist means by Christians “forcing their beliefs on people” depends on the context in which the charge is made. Sometimes, it is made in the context of a Christian proclaiming the Gospel and calling on all his hearers to repent and believe in Christ alone. In that case, the Christian is NOT forcing his beliefs on others; he is simply making them known to others and trying to persuade others to adopt them, and his hearers are perfectly free to accept or reject what he is saying. Sometimes, the accusation is made in the context of Christians advocating that the Bible’s political philosophy be the political philosophy that underlies how a nation should govern itself. In that case, 1) it just means the Bible should determine how crimes committed by men against their fellow man should be punished, not crimes against God [2], and 2) governance is, inevitably, a certain morality being imposed on a whole population, so the charge of “forcing your morality on others” is an accusation applicable to all political philosophies and ideologies without exception, not just Christian or otherwise “religious” ones. And maybe the charge is made in other contexts, like a Christian business owner requiring his employees to externally abide by a Biblical code of conduct. Again, it depends. But it’s time to move on from that to the main point of this post!

Second, I will give my rebuttal to this common atheist rebuttal. It’s connected to my point about how you can accuse any political ideology of imposing a moral system on people. When an atheist says, in effect: “I don’t spend so much of my time talking about and opposing Christianity because I actually believe the Biblical God exists, but because I don’t like Christians imposing their beliefs on me!”, there is an unanswered question underlying this response: why do you specifically not like Christian beliefs and values being imposed on you? Because every true believer of every belief-system “imposes their beliefs on others” by evangelizing and proselytizing for their beliefs and, if they are politically active, advocating for policies based on their belief-systems. A person’s beliefs are, by definition, the things a person holds to be true (and, consequently, what is morally right and wrong), so this is, really, a “Duh!” observation. Clearly, atheists don’t show outrage when their respective belief-systems are being, practically, evangelized and proselytized or used as the basis for public policy. So, when we think about it, it’s not that atheists are opposed to the general principle of “imposing your beliefs on others” in the senses described here. Rather, they are just opposed to Christianity and other belief-systems they label as “religions” being proselytized or used as the basis for policy. Given how atheists often appear to perceive “religious” as “whatever doesn’t conform to my standard of truth and/or rationality,” they’re actually just upset at belief-systems that are not their own being imposed on them (and perhaps on others too). And, just to clarify here, I’m not saying that atheism itself is the belief-system of atheists. I’m just saying that even atheists have their own belief-systems, even if they are not “religions” (at least as we typically conceive of religions). And, finally, this brings us back to the Biblical teaching that all people, both Christians and unbelievers, know that God exists but suppress that truth by their unrighteousness. As I said before, I think atheists think they are disproving, or at least giving good reasons to doubt, this doctrine by asserting “We don’t focus on opposing Christianity so much because we, deep down, believe the Christian God exists, but because we just don’t like how Christians are imposing Christianity on us!” Well, demonstrating how atheists are inconsistent in their professed principle of “No one’s beliefs should be imposed on anyone” (again, “imposed” in the senses I’ve described in this post), we see that the Bible’s teaching of how all people know God exists but, apart from Christ, are at enmity with Him (Romans 8:7) is confirmed!

[1] “men” as in “mankind,” including both men and women

[2] Going into depth about how I arrive at that conclusion will distract from the main point of this post, and so that is a discussion for another time. So, I’ll do that for my next post.