Kinds of Unbelievers
The Atheist, The Theist, The Rationalist The Agnostic, The Scientist , By DR. A, C. DIXON
"Come now and let us reason together, saith Jehovah.”— Is. 1:18.
environment that I could not help in ferring a design which compelled me to believe in a Designer, which is equal to saying, I was compelled to believe in God. Any atheist who believes in his own. personality must believe in a personal God or stultify himself; and hence the Bible says “ The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.” He must refuse to let his intellectual ma chinery work, if he denies the existence of God. Cafi the Theist and the Christian find any common ground? Yes; both be lieve in God. And any one who be lieves in God, if he will study the proofs in favor of the deity of Christ, must be convinced that He is God. The Bible which reveals Christ’s deity car ries such credentials to its inspiration that, if the theist will think, he must be convinced that it is an inspired Book. Either good men or bad men Wrote it. If good men wrote it, it is, of course, true, for we cannot imagine good men deceiving the world with falsehoods. If bad men wrote it, we have the spectacle of the best book ever written, which has produced the highest civilization the world has ever seen, written by a set of liars, who write their own death sentence, for nothing in the book is more severely denounced than deception. Good men must have written it, and, as it claims to be the word of God, its claim is established. Can we find a commmon ground with the Rationalist? Yes; for Christians be lieve in following reason so far as it can lead us. God invites us to use
HERE are five classes of un believers. (1) The Atheist, who says there is no God. (2) The Theist, who says that he believes in God, hut not in the deity of
Christ and other fundamentals of Christianity. (3) The Rationalist, who says that he follows reason rather than revelation. (4) The Agnostic, who says that he' cannot find God in na ture and, therefore, neither affirms nor denies His existence. (5 ) The Scientist, who says that the teachings of modern science have made it im possible for him to believe. I want to have a heart-to-heart talk with each one of these classes. The man who says that he does not believe in the existence of God is mis taken. Robert Hal] In a great sermon, proves that atheism is an intellectual impossibility, that every man of sbund mind believes in God in spite of him self. Can we find a common ground with the Atheist? I think we can, for Christian and atheist' both believe in personality. They believe in them selves. The atheist believes in him self. Then he must believe in God, for, as he studies his own hand or eye, or foot, he sees proofs of design. There is beautiful adaptation. And intelligent design compels us to believe in a de signer. He sees design all about him. As I studied the growth o f an Arizona desert, I saw such proofs of design in the adaptation of vegetation to desert
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