God vs. atheism

Is theism virtually universal or touch-and-go? Recent decades give us considerable evidence for abundance: Look at the survival of belief despite totalitarian efforts in China and the former Soviet Union, and the research indicating that people on scattered Pacific islands as well as in ancient China worshipped a “high god.” (See Don Richardson’s Eternity in Their Hearts and Chan Kei Thong’s Faith of Our Fathers: God in Ancient China.)

Tim Whitmarsh’s Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World (Knopf, 2015) has a different perspective. He readably argues that theism has always faced competition: Seeing atheism as a modern invention is a myth nurtured by both atheists who “wish to present skepticism toward the supernatural as the result of science’s progressive eclipse of religion, and the religious wish to see it as a pathological symptom of a decadent Western world.”

Christians could charge the book subtitle with exaggeration, since Whitmarsh admits that his book is only about ancient Greece. Nevertheless, the Apostle Paul would find no reason to doubt Whitmarsh’s conclusion: Paul told the Romans (and us) that men know the truth but “by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” The atheists and polytheists Paul encountered were “without excuse, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.”

Recent scientific advances give us even less excuse, for the more we learn about the complexity of cells and the necessity of intelligent design, the more we rationally see that the only explanation for our existence is God’s eternal power. Whitmarsh’s book, with his apparent hostility toward Christianity, is helpful for a Christian apologetic: The suppressive pathology of atheism has always been with us, and the more we know the more we should believe.

Or, to put it bluntly, atheism is old-fashioned cranky arrogance. It’s always fought against God-centered trust and always will, until Christ returns.

Traveling companions

Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World’s Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley (Simon & Schuster, 2016) is a light and speculative read about why the residents of some tiny towns produced ideas that still influence us. Timothy Mahoney’s Patterns of Evidence: Exodus (Thinking Man Media, 2015) is a loosely written but important tale of how he found evidence that shows the historicity of the second book of the Bible.

Mark Molesky’s This Gulf of Fire (Knopf, 2015) comprehensively covers the huge earthquake/tsunami/conflagration that destroyed Lisbon, Portugal, in 1755; influenced the thought of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Kant; and launched the careers of village atheists who saw the disaster as evidence for disbelief. Lou Ureneck’s The Great Fire (Ecco, 2015) is a loosely written but detailed account of how New York minister Asa Jennings in 1922 rescued refugees following the Muslim burning and ethnic cleansing of largely Christian Smyrna, the city in western Turkey now known as Izmir.

Ben Mezrich’s Once Upon a Time in Russia: The Rise of the Oligarchs (Atria, 2015) vividly describes Russia’s betrayal-filled past 25 years. In Red Notice (Simon & Schuster, 2015), Bill Browder—grandson of the Communist Party USA’s leader in the 1930s—skillfully narrates his tale of making money by seeing opportunities in Russia’s crony capitalism, and then running afoul of Vladimir Putin. Oleg Kashin’s Fardwor, Russia! (Restless, 2016) satirizes bureaucratic life under Putin.

Despite the silly title, Darrin and Amie Patrick’s The Dude’s Guide to Marriage: Ten Skills Every Husband Must Develop to Love His Wife Well (Thomas Nelson, 2015) isn’t a silly book. The maxims it offers in 10 chapters with titles like “Listen,” “Provide,” “Serve,” and “Pursue” are sensible: “A wise husband knows that winning an argument with his wife is not as important as winning her heart. … You are going to fight. Are you going to fight well? … When husbands don’t take their roles as providers seriously, many wives feel that they are bearing a double burden. … When women aren’t intentionally and consistently pursued by their husbands, they tend to look for something to fill that void.” —M.O.