Mailbag: Atheism & Hope

From: "Lance"
Subject: I don't understand...

I stumbled onto your website and looked around a bit. Obviously, it didn't take long to figure out that you are an atheist. ... But in thinking about my own life, and what I believe God has done for me, I just want to ask you a question which I'm sure you will be glad to answer. It is this: If you don't believe in God, if you don't believe that we were created by Him for a greater purpose than satisfying ourselves and for more than just living a finite life on this earth, what hope do you have?

What hope do I have? That upon what one means by "hope." Hope for tomorrow? Next year? Next century?

I have "hope" only in the sense that I have confidence based upon previous experiences.

Seriously. I'm not trying to sound condescending or anything. I honestly want to know what you think. I have a great hope in Jesus Christ, based not on perfect scientifically minded human thought, but on faith. What do I have to lose by believing in Him and in believing that I will have eternal life because of what He did for me? And what do you have to gain by not believing in Him?

This is just one more use of Pascal's Wager - it's an old argument that atheists hear lots of times. It's not a very good argument, but why does it get used so often? What kind of god would be satisfied with people believing simply as a consequence of this sort of cost/benefit analysis?

Please don't take offense when I say that I will be praying for you every day. Of course, that shouldn't bother you, but anyways, I truly hope that God will reveal himself to you. He loves you very much--more than you could possibly imagine.

This god has had a multitude of opportunities to reveal itself to me - including when I was a christian myself. Didn't happen. So, either this god doesn't exist or doesn't actually care whether or not I believe in it. Either way, why would someone else care if I believed in it?

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