What lies at the heart of atheism is a distrust in anything that I cannot see. Like newborns, whose reality is only as far as their eyes can see (all else that leaves the immediate room in the child’s infant mind do not exist), so atheism prescribes the same kind of malady upon all of its patients. It is an unfortunate idealization of skepticism in the worst way. Older children and adults know that simply because we cannot see Italy or New York City or the Grand Canyon in our immediate, everyday life does by no means negate the legitimacy of its existence in this reality. We trust in a greater reality than our own: the reality of not only our life, but life itself; not only our world, but the world itself. We trust that when grandma and Aunt Judy tell us of the experiences they had overseas in continents we have only ever heard of, that they are indeed telling the truth, that their experiences were valid, and that we can trust in their account. How strange, for us to condemn them as liars, to demand that we will not believe that Naples exists until we step foot upon it ourselves and see it with our own eyes. Yet the atheist contradictions go far beyond this analogy.
The atheist believes and trusts something, just as every human must believe and trust something. If they were not exercising faith, they would not believe 90% of what science tells them, simply because they had not seen it nor experienced it for themselves. They trust that what science tells them about the fossil record, about the data and analysis they have conducted, and the theories that they perpetuate are undeniably true. But they are mistaken. Most of what science has told us has not, and cannot be ultimately proven, and so faith is required, even if it is only to make up for the remaining 5% of what cannot be proven. Let us not be mistaken, there is no life without faith. Life requires faith in what cannot be seen or proven.
Humans are naturally religious and seek out greater causes and forces of life other than ourselves. Again, do not be mistaken. The atheist is not more intelligent, more evolved, or more grounded in reality than you, simply because they are epicureanists and reject the idea that there is anything greater than taste, touch, and see. In reality, they concede to their adolescent doubts in fairytales, magic, and other realities, and claim the only pantheon is that of science, doubt, and hedonism. Like newborns, the only objective reality that can be trusted for them is what they can see; everything else requires faith, which to them, is the most disfavorable quality anyone could be asked to pursue.
All of this stems from disillusionment with the faith of a child, with the uncanny ability a child has to believe in the supernatural, the fantastic, the fairy. We are, clearly, as humans, bred for the spectacular, but as we grow older, the gap between what we want to believe in and what we can see, taste, and touch with our senses grows wider, and either greater faith or greater skepticism must bridge the chasm. Many, finding faith to surely lead to greater disappointment and disenchantment, choose the road of skepticism, doubt, and ultimately, denial of the greater reality, which in turn, denies the very substance and force that created this one, the one we know as God. Yet the atheist should realize that even science will let you down, for if it were a static and resolute force of knowledge and certainty, we could trust in it without fear of disappointment. Yet any scientist will tell you that theories and “facts” are constantly evolving, changing, and even being discarded. Science is young, and has much growing to do. What we believed about the universe 100 years ago is infant-like to what we believe now. What we believe now will surely be minute in comparison to the discoveries in ten, twenty, and fifty years. We are constantly finding greater forces and greater realities at play. The earth is but a speck in a vast sea of knowledge and facts. Simply finding one of those that we do not yet know about could throw the whole lot of what we think we know now into the waste pile.
My point is this: there is no person, atheist or theist, scientist or theologian, that has all the pieces. Even the apostle Paul would admit in his letter to the Corinthians, that we “see in part”. Not even the dogmatic, spiritual Christian should declare that he has all of the answers. Indeed, all of us who believe will enter into eternity and likely find out that we were wrong about half of what we thought was true. Do not mistake me saying this as reason to doubt everything, for every person must have by nature certain things that they believe are undeniable. Humans must have some sort of dogma they hold to or they will self-implode. Structure and definition are integrous to the human mind, soul, and spirit.
Therefore, let us continue to have faith.
Without faith we are inhuman.
Without faith we are weak, dependent on substance and statistic.
Without faith we can accomplish nothing.
Keep pressing on.
the unworthy wanderer 