Customer Reviews

If There's a God, Why Are There Atheists?

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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R.C. Sproul has written a powerful book that presents a multifaceted case for why people reject God. This book initially came out in 1978, but in many ways, its analysis is still quite pertinent and compelling today. This is a book that has stood the test of time.

Before commenting on the book's many positive qualities, I'd like to comment on why I noted a concern about the book title in my review title above. A reasonable person, I think, would look at the title of the book and possibly conclude that the contents would represent a sweeping commentary on the existence of atheists, why God allows it, why God doesn't supposedly make Himself crystal clear, etc. This book does not address these kind of issues. After reading this book, I found the book's subtitle to be much more in line with what the book addresses, "The Surprising Look at the Psychology of Atheism". Therefore, anyone wishing to read this book should understand that it's the subtitle, rather than the title, that really explains what the book will be addressing.

Having said all that, once it's made clear that this book is an attempt to focus almost exclusively on the psychology of atheism, I felt that Sproul did an outstanding job of doing this. One of the main purposes of the book, first of all, is to refute the notion that Christians believe in a God of wishful thinking as a crutch-like mechanism, and then to show how atheism's rejection of the Christian God is based much more on wishful thinking and bias than the Christian's position. Within this context, I felt that Sproul's multifaceted examination of the "God question" was simply outstanding. Whether it's the equating of freedom with autonomy, to a fear of God's holiness, to an examination of the thoughts of prominent atheist psychologists and atheologians, Sproul mounts a formidable case against many of the fundamental benchmarks upon which atheism derives. Sproul likewise offers outstanding exegesis of relevant Biblical passages that speak to the very issues that atheists have long opined about. I found much of Sproul's analysis to be even handed and fresh, offering a very unique perspective on the ongoing debate over the existence of God and what motivates human beings either to accept or reject Christianity.

In addition to my critique of the title of the book, the one other mini-concern I had about the book was that Sproul could have done a better job in his conclusion of summing up the major arguments he made throughout the book. This book had the potential to produce a very dramatic conclusion, but I found this to be lacking by what I thought was a conclusion that didn't do a good job of wrapping things up and tying the major tenets of the book together. As a result, the reader will have to work harder than they probably should have to in order to draw a comprehensive summary from this book.

But in the end, I felt that the material and analysis was simply too good to demote the book below a 5 star rating. His analysis is excellent, and while readers who have little interest in the inner workings of psychology scholarship may find parts of the book a bit dry, it is nonetheless a powerful resource that effectively shows the psychological origins of disbelief. This is very helpful for the Christian. Understanding the origins of disbelief in terms of psychology can have a very positive impact on our ability to better talk to atheists on their terms about what their objections are. The disbelief of an atheist is not totally based on intellectual or philosophical objections, contrary to what many atheists assert. In many cases, their disbelief ultimately boils down to emotional objections to the holiness of God, their need for a Savior, and the existence of moral absolutes that atheism has no basis for adequately explaining. Knowing this up front will equip Christians to be more loving and understanding towards the atheist mindset, which should greatly help our ability to witness to them.

If There's a God, Why Are there Atheists? is theologian R.C. Sproul's revised version of his book The Psychology of Atheism. In it, Sproul explores the psychological motives for atheism, and deals with the arguments of Freud, Marx, Feuerbach and Nietzsche.

This book is divided into two sections. In the first, "The Battlefield: Belief and Unbelief", Sproul introduces the debate over theism, the tension of disagreement, and the psychology of theism. Sproul is thoroughly fair and balanced here; one could hardly tell that he is a Christian. He discusses the arguments of Freud, Marx, Feuerbach and Nietzsche, and makes this interesting point: these men never argued against the existence of God. Rather, they presumed that God does not exist and built their arguments against religion on that assumption.

In part two, "The Psychology of Unbelief", Sproul discusses the Judeo-Christian God. Such an omnipotent and holy God, he argues, is not one we would seek out to gratify our psychological needs. Sproul also delves into religion as man's flight from God rather than his quest for God, and how because of original sin, people are naturally God's enemies.

If There's a God, Why Are there Atheists? is a rather short book (150 pages) and is a quick, mostly engaging read. Only in a few places does it drag. In it, Sproul makes some insightful, thought-provoking points. Recommended to believers interested in the subject or dealing with doubt, and to open-minded unbelievers.

RECOMMENDED

If There's a God, Why Are there Atheists? is theologian R.C. Sproul's revised version of his book The Psychology of Atheism. In it, Sproul explores the psychological motives for atheism, and deals with the arguments of Freud, Marx, Feuerbach and Nietzsche.

This book is divided into two sections. In the first, "The Battlefield: Belief and Unbelief", Sproul introduces the debate over theism, the tension of disagreement, and the psychology of theism. Sproul is thoroughly fair and balanced here; one could hardly tell that he is a Christian. He discusses the arguments of Freud, Marx, Feuerbach and Nietzsche, and makes this interesting point: these men never argued against the existence of God. Rather, they presumed that God does not exist and built their arguments against religion on that assumption.

In part two, "The Psychology of Unbelief", Sproul discusses the Judeo-Christian God. Such an omnipotent and holy God, he argues, is not one we would seek out to gratify our psychological needs. Sproul also delves into religion as man's flight from God rather than his quest for God, and how because of original sin, people are naturally God's enemies.

If There's a God, Why Are there Atheists? is a rather short book (150 pages) and is a quick, mostly engaging read. Only in a few places does it drag. In it, Sproul makes some insightful, thought-provoking points. Recommended to believers interested in the subject or dealing with doubt, and to open-minded unbelievers.

RECOMMENDED

The reason why there are atheists, from the Christian perspective, is that men hate God and what to live a life as their own masters. There is nothing worse than being faced with the real God. Therefore, if we are to have God, natural man will try to dress him up in our image.

The book is not meant to address alternative theories and it is not designed to prove that God exists. It exists to turn the tables on the most common objection to Christianity by atheists: it is a crutch. Well, the crutch is on the other side as well. Before evolution, the atheists jumped on spontaneous generation. It was joyous because they no longer had to explain the world without a Creator. Spontaneous generation has long since passed, but the lesson should be learned. Men will leap on anything if they can avoid God.

So if we want to debate the existance of God, let's do so...but with the knowledge that bias exists on the atheist side as well.

It's a shame such a wonderful little book is no longer in print. I think the average reader may struggle somewhat with Sprouls use of philosophical figures, and it would be helpful to have an elemental knowledge of the history of philosophy such as a reading of a popular book such as Will Durant's A History of Philosophy or one of the more up to date versions. With this in mind the reader with such a base will find Sprouls reading insightful. Sproul chose a unusual order to his book by first producing a synopsis of various atheistic philosophy's. Sproul does go through a considerable amount of trouble to establish a solid backround introducing how the philosphy of atheism developed, specifically what the difference between theism (and the types of theism) and atheism, the logical foundation of the "Tension of Disagreement". Sproul then provides a very brief synopsis of the primary arguments for atheism, specifically those of Marx ("egoism and fantasy"), Feuerbach ("religion as a dream of the human mind"), Nietsche ("man's fear of facing struggles. . .[thus]keeping the superman in check"), and Freud ("restictions of civilization as critical factors in the emergence of religion"). Sproul briefly discounts these theories as logical false, and then explains how this is in fact unsound logic.

Sproul next step is to provide an interesting alternative point of view pointing out why man fears to believe in God. This is actually the most fascinating part of the book. I found most fascinating his analysis of man's 'trauma' in the face of God. To Sproul's credit he avoids a preachy attitude by not explaining how one can overcome the various problems man has with a God.

I feel Sproul's weakness in his book is in what he didn't mention. Specifically, most notable in it's absence is the deafening silence addressing the consequence in the modern scientific, philosophical, and theological community of the rise in Darwin's theory of evolution. One can onl! y ask is Sproul ignorant of this problem with why there are atheists? Clearly, Darwin's theory provides a rational alternative to belief in Deity as witnessed by the plethura of significant thinkers who accept this theory as fact. In my opinion this is a serious flaw in this tome.

Kept within the limitations to which this addresses, Sproul's book is a great introduction to those issues isolated in the first half of the book. However, the reader should not feel this book will provide in full an answer to why there are atheists.

This book is not about proving the existence of God. A counter question to if there is no God, why are there Christians? Many an Atheist theory exist that man invents God, so man can cope better with the uncertainty that comes while living on this earth. R.C. Sproul does discuss this issue in the book, but only to introduce the theme of this work. People do not believe in the God described in the Bible because they do not like that God. Some choose to believe in a different god while others choose to deny the existence of a supernatural being altogether. The focus of this book is the reasons man would choose to deny God's existence altogether. Dr. Sproul is a student of philosophy proper along with theology. Epistemology, the discernment of the truth. Do some Christians use poor arguments to back up their emotional response that God does exist? The answer is yes. R.C. Sproul argues that there are emotional reasons why an atheist ignores evidence and uses faulty logic to come to the conclusion that God does not exist. Man does not want to believe in an omnipotent being that can perceive a person's everymove(Sproul uses the phrase the universal viewer), read a person's every thought, as creator has the right to judge, a creator that hates sin and demands sin to be punished. Some choose to recast God, others choose not to believe altogether. Man wants to be autonomous- he does not want to be answerable to anyone.

Also in the book is the presentation of the thoughts Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Ludwig Feurbach, and Friedrich Nietzche. R.C. Sproul does appreciate their arguments, their insight into human nature, and states where these great thinkers went wrong in their thoughts about God.