That kind of hatred always makes me think “The lady doth protest too much.” If a person didn’t have some latent fear that God might be real, he wouldn’t be so hostile toward the idea. After all, I don’t believe in the Loch Ness monster, but I don’t fly off the handle when someone says they do believe in the Loch Ness monster. Why would I care what they believe? And I certainly wouldn’t insult or swear at a person just because I thought he was wrong about the Loch Ness monster. So when a self-proclaimed atheist flips out at the mention of religion, I always suspect there’s more going on than meets the eye.
I agree entirely. In my own anger I’ve found that the most common reason I tend to fly off the handle about another’s ideas is that they have implications I don’t like. When I get very full of myself and think I know everything [which happens far to often], I internally interpret “what I don’t like” as “what I know is false”.
Suppose I believed in the Loch Ness monster. In truth, I think it is safe to suggest that neither you nor I has sufficient evidence either for or against our belief. The data is simply insufficient.
Yet you could easily begin an argument with me, saying that my belief is “just wishful thinking”, perhaps, without support. I could just as easily argue that your disbelief is just another example of pessimistic doubt. Neither of us has any scientific basis, but based on our arguments, we could easily begin to imagine examples to prove our positions.
The atheist’s view, I think, is that to introduce the living God into their conception of the universe would imply a limitation to their freedom of will. There would be a new ‘requirement’ in their life, in their heart - new expectations that they themselves did not invent. Because they have spent so much energy to try to find a complete view of Truth which would
not limit their sense of freedom, they cannot, at this point, even fathom altering that view.
Being wrong, to them, has too significant a consequence: it would be death to their philosophy, which is at this point all they know or believe they can trust. To the secular, death is the endpoint; it is the ultimate thing they “don’t like”.
In that sense, and perhaps in that sense alone, I am able to see how all of us are susceptible to that kind of thinking; the fear of death is universal. To overcome it requires faith - faith in the Resurrection of Christ, faith in the grace of God.
Imagine what it must feel like to mistakenly believe that to arrive at that faith will kill you! I can see how someone might get a bit angry over that idea…
