… I owe someone $100.

The Answers in Genesis guy actually replied

For Bodie Hodge.

Dear Sir,

I was discussing Evolution with a friend of mine. He sent a statement I made to your site. Mr. Bodie Hodge answered it. He wrote,

“Thank you for contacting Answers in Genesis. Atheists have no basis by which to tell the truth so always be leery of their claims. See, in their view, there is no God, thus, there is no right and wrong, so murder, rape, lying cheating, etc. are neither right nor wrong in their view.  If it is, then they compromise their atheism.”

Sir, you do not know me. You’ve never met me. How dare you suggest my friend of almost a decade trust your word over mine.  I have never heard of anything more arrogant, condescending and insulting in my entire life.

Where did I tell him to trust my word over yours?  I merely stated the argument that atheist have no basis for morality – which is true.  I also stated one should be leery of atheists’ claims due to the fact they have no basis for absolute truth. Atheists have no basis not to lie. 

Besides, I’m wouldn’t ask him to trust me over you but would encourage him to trust a perfect God’s Word over yours.  I want to encourage you to trust God’s Word as well.  After all you and I are not perfect beings like God is. 

I am a pacifist.

As per the argument, you have no basis for it. 

I have raised my hand in violence twice — both times in self-defense when my life depended on it.

But you have no basis not to be violent.

I do not murder, nor do I feel the need to so.

But you have no basis not to murder.

I do not rob, burgle, swindle, or hustle. I have never even felt the slightest urge to rape.

You have no basis for these beliefs either.  An atheist can say the opposite such as mass murder Jeffrey Dahmer:

‘If a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then—then what’s the point of trying to modify your behaviour to keep it within acceptable ranges? That’s how I thought anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution as truth, that we all just came from the slime. When we, when we died, you know, that was it, there is nothing…’

Jeffrey Dahmer, in an interview with Stone Phillips, Dateline NBC, Nov. 29, 1994.

My morality does not come from your God;

I know it doesn’t.  But you still align yourself with many of the morals from the Bible such as not murdering, not raping, not stealing, etc.  

it comes from the rational observation that life is short and precious and we all deserve the most rewarding experience we can get.

Rapists can say this to defend their position.  They are just trying to get the most rewarding experience they can get.  After all, according to atheism, people are nothing but evolved pond scum, so why would one consider them any more important than a dead fly?

Besides, what makes you think logic exists for rational thought?  If people are nothing but rearranged pond scum then our thoughts are nothing but accidental chemical reactions in the brain for both a rational and irrational thoughts.  They are both identical in an atheistic framework. You need to prove that logic exists and yields an absolute truth before you can appeal to rational thought. 

As a Christian, I have a basis for logic and morals.   My axiom/presupposition is that a logical God exists and His Word is true, thus being made in His image, there is a basis for logic and morality. 

If you really value life as you seem to when you said ‘that life is short and precious’ then why are you so against the possibility of eternal life? If you truly value life, then you will seek eternal life through Jesus Christ.  

Therefore, rape, murder, theft and other crimes are crimes because they violate someone else’s rights of life, liberty and the persuit of happiness.

This is just your opinion.  As I said before, you have no basis for morality; hence what beliefs you believe are ‘good’ is based on your opinion that you can’t violate other peoples rights. Who are you to try to force your opinion what is ‘good’ onto everyone else?  You are not God.

Even though you may think people have a right to life and liberty other atheists can say just as easily that people don’t have a right to life or liberty such as Hitler and Stalin.

If you are really an atheist, then you shouldn’t have a problem with Hitler, Stalin and Dahmer because they, like you, set their owns rules of morality.  As atheists, with no basis for morality, they can set it however they want, just like you did. 

However, I think you would have a problem with some of these people’s moralities.  This indicates that you have probably compromised your atheism with another religion – perhaps Christianity (which is why you think people have value and rights). 

I must say this again. HOW DARE YOU? Tell this man I have built a friendship with over the course of nearly a decade not to trust me?

I still don’t see where I said this about you.   I told him to be leery of atheistic thought, hence why I said ‘leery of their claims’. 

I can only attribute your arrogance to the complete and ignorant misunderstanding of the teachings of Jesus.

Where have I violated and misunderstood the teachings of Jesus?  Jesus himself was known for arguing with a condescending attitude to those who were enemies of the Gospel.  For example, the challenge-riposte method, including examples of where Jesus was condescending to enemies of the Gospel, was very effective and the audience was able to see through Jesus’ opponents.  Here is a great segment on this: 

Jesus attitude towards leaders such as the Pharisees, was very condescending even asking questions like ‘Have you not read’ which is clearly an insult to those who claimed to be highly educated in the Scriptures (Matthew 12). 

Even Elijah was known for doing such things like taunting ungodly leaders such as the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:27). It is encouraging for many creationists to see atheists’ intelligence put in its place, since they (creationists) are fed up with liberal attacks on the intelligence of Christians. 

Jesus, Elijah, the Apostles, etc. were very direct and quite condescending while rebuking those who were enemies of God and His Word.  Who are we to say they were wrong, and neglect their example?  Jesus, being God, is the epitome of love and since He did this, who are we to say this method is unloving?   

Sadly, people mistakenly think that love means tolerating others’ unbiblical views.  This is not loving at all, but extremely unloving since it disrespects God and His Word for the sake of a false belief. 

We are commanded to first love God, this includes God’s Word since it comes with the authority of God Himself (Matthew 22:37; John 1:1-3, John 14:15-21). Then, we are to love our neighbors after we first love God (Matthew 22:38-39). 

At Answers in Genesis, we love God and love God’s Word.  There is no reason to deny this love, for the sake of our neighbors who don’t love God’s Word and treat it with a very low view.  We will love God first and this means loving His Word.  If others get upset with us for preaching that their view doesn’t align with the clear teachings of Scripture, then they should remember Jesus made those who claimed to follow the Scriptures so mad, that they plotted to kill him (Matthew 12:14).

The Bible says that divisions are caused by those who do not follow what has been clearly taught in God’s Word (Romans 16:17).  When Jesus came to earth, He called people back to God’s Word and many, even today, refuse to do so by mixing it with other religious views including ideas like ‘millions of years’, thus there were/are divisions.  Jesus knew there would be divisions because of this. 

Luke 12:51-52

Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. ⁵²From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.

If the body of Christ is to unite, as we would like to see, they must do so by returning to the clear teachings in Scripture as opposed to mixing secular ideas with the Bible.  We are bold about this while encouraging people to return to the Bible’s clear teachings, whether a compromised Christian or non-Christian.  We have no problem using Jesus or Elijah methods as a means of demolishing unbiblical arguments because we want them to return to Bible. 

Psalm 118

 It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

Jesus came to seek and save those who were lost, but people need to realize that Jesus Christ, the creator, will judge people with eternal life or eternal death (2 Timothy 4:1).  So even if I were being condescending, I have a strong basis to do so.  However, just for the record, I am being quite sincere in this letter. 

Before you go putting slivers in other people’s eyes, why don’t you get a crane and pull the log out of your own?

Again, where have I erred in my argument?

Friendly discussion and debate on controvercial topics is one thing. Absoultely dismissing another’s opinion because he does not share your religious views is bigoted, arrogant and stupid.

And you dare to call yourself a Christian. Shame on you.

Then why do you do dismiss other’s opinions that don’t align with your atheistic religious view? You did not consider the biblical worldview, God’s perfect infallible opinion. 

From a Christian perspective, if your opinion doesn’t agree with God’s Word, then why would we consider it?  It would be unchristian to do so.  We are commanded:

2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

1 Peter 2:15

For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.

You view denies there is a God, so why should I listen to it?

Psalm 14:1

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.

I have no reason to be led astray by man’s opinions and their traditions:

Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Sincerely,

John Wick

John, I do want to encourage you though. The goal isn’t to win or lose an argument, but to help people get saved.  I’m sure you’ve heard the ‘good news’ of Jesus Christ before, but I’m not sure if you understand what this means. 

The ‘good news’ of being saved goes back to the ‘bad news’ in Genesis.  God originally created perfect world (Genesis 1:31), there was no death and suffering.  Then man sinned against a perfect and holy God (Genesis 3).  God cursed the animals and the ground because of man and sentenced them to die (Genesis 3).  It is man’s fault that sin and death entered the world.  Because of this, we are all sinners as a result and in need of a savior. 

Romans 5:12
[ Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ ] Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—

Man was sentenced to two deaths ‘die-die’ in the original Hebrew in Genesis 2:17.  We die both physically and spiritually.  When man sinned, God sacrificed animals (Genesis 3:21 – coats of skins) to cover their sin because God said that sin is punishable by death (Genesis 2:17):

Hebrews 9:22
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

But God loved us enough to take that punishment upon Himself.  He stepped into His creation as a man, Jesus Christ, to live and suffer and die a painful death to be the final sacrifice to cover our sins. 

John 3:16

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For those who accept Jesus Christ, they will be saved and there will be a new heaven and new earth (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1), and will one day see a perfect world again with no pain and sorrow (Revelation 21:4) – for the curse will be removed (Revelation 22:3).  

I want to encourage you to consider this and question the very basis for your atheism.  It comes down to either trusting a perfect God or trusting fallible man’s ideas. We both know men aren’t perfect…

Kind regards in Christ

Bodie