Answering the Objections of Atheists, Agnostics, and Skeptics

by Ron Rhodes

Many arguments from atheists, agnostics, and skeptics are difficult, or at least intimidating, for most Christians to answer. With clear reasoning and understandable language Ron Rhodes provides readers with the explanations and scriptural background they need to respond to common arguments against faith With this resource, Christians will be able to confidently respond to logical arguments against the foundations of Christianity.

Genres: Christian

304 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2006

Reviews

[Rod Horncastle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun effort that responds to the many objections of Atheists and others.

Personally, I love objections and attacks - doubts are entertaining as well. Nobody should blindly believe something. But searching for truth is not as obvious as some people assume. AS this book shows: most folks are only critical of OTHER PEOPLE'S BELIEFS - they seldom test their own.

Often I ask atheists how skeptical they are of Atheism. I ask them how many questions and challenges they applied to their Atheism? All I get back are blank stares and the occasional, "Why would I do that?"
Which proves my point: I have thousands of questions for the "worldview" and assumed default position of Atheism.

Years ago I decided that I really needed to challenge my Christianity and Biblical beliefs. So I did. I came up with tons of questions that needed answering. (I answered them. Nothing new really - lots of scholars over the last 19 centuries have dealt with most of these issues). Then I went about collecting questions from Atheists, Muslims, Witches, Cults, Scientists. I found the answers to their Christian objections to be pretty widespread . I no longer care who has the best Answers. All I want are the questions.

This book basically does the same thing. Takes questions and attacks and gives possible answers. Some people assume that if they don't like OR ACCEPT an answer =--- then that removes it. NO, some people are stubborn and clueless. (Similar to flat Earther's and those who dismiss the Moon Landing.) And as i've experienced with numerous atheists: Some questions take longer than 10 seconds to respond to. (like explaining calculus to a 4 year old.)
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Here's some insightful objections from this book.

Objection: God Does Not Exist.

Fair enough - but how does an atheist arrive at that assumption? Because they haven't seen Him, Smelled Him? Felt Him? Sensed Him?
There are many ways to look for a God or His behavior: What are His claims? Has He successfully interrupted our world and reality? Has He left something behind? Do we see His logic or philosophy? Does He have a best selling book throughout history? Has He achieved something beyond human intelligence or comprehension? Does He have a church on every corner? Does His disciples and followers behave exactly the way He said they would "6000 years ago"?
Just because something isn't stupidly obvious doesn't mean it isn't clearly observed to be mucking about and leaving footprints in our history and future. If a God makes claims and throws out common sense and wisdom: That counts as data to be looked into.

As Ron Rhodes says "Its almost impossible to prove that God doesn't exist, hasn't existed, and can never exist." so we need to be cautious.

Similar to comparing this to the Tooth Fairy: There is no Tooth Fairy church, NO bestsellers, No Tooth Fairy hospitals or Soup Kitchens, No cross-references with known Empires, or even future prophecies or a meaning and purpose of a Toot Fairy deity. We got nothing. Where-as - we know a great deal about the Christian God... and cults and other religions can't stop from borrowing or warping any bit of info about This Christian God. People can't even stop hating this Christian God.

Oh well, here's some more objections:

Objection: Belief in God ought to be rejected because it is based on faith, not reason.

I wish life was that simple. The Bible gives us thousands of REASONS to think there might be a Christian God. I don't believe in monkey gods stealing other gods wives... I have to sort through thousands of years of Christian history, and morality, and philosophy, and cultures... There's a reason i'm not a Lutheran, or Anglican, or Catholic, or Pentecostal. Lots of REASONING. My Mom and I are both Christians ---- yet believe a few different things. Lots of Reasons indeed.

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Objection: If there really is a God, why isn't His existence more overtly clear to people?

Ron Rhodes gives added detail and quotes to thicken the argument (often quotes an atheist or academic to hit the objection home).
But then Ron attempts to deal with the objection from a few different angles - and scholars.

I apologize to any atheists that actually attempt to read this book: but you actually have to THINK. It's easy to stick your emotional biased head in the sand and cry "NO, No, no!". But these are adult questions that involve some serious study and Cosmic values. Yes, even lots of Good science and philosophy.

Atheists keep demanding that God be less of a god and more like a human Emperor (isn't that what some Romans did as well?). But God is a God. Step back and allow Him to function on His own terms. The Bible explains these in great detail (A thousand pages even). Reducing a deity to a human earthling AND ITS LIMITATIONS is not very rational. Judge a god on its own terms.
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Here's some chapters:
Why isn't the evidence overtly clear?
Naturalism Versus the Possibility of Miracles?
Evolution: A flawed Theory?
The Intelligent Design of the Universe?
Morality and the Absolutely Moral Lawgiver?
The Reliability of the Bible?
The evidence for Jesus?
God and the Problem of Evil?
The Character Assassination Of God?

So why did I give this book only three stars? Honestly, I didn't like all of Ron Rhodes answers. Some are very 2006. I've seen a lot change in the last 10 years. The questions have evolved and require we get to the heart of atheistic attacks. There is no even playing field. We aren't even using the same deck of cards.
Some people demand academic answers to their Street questions. They also demand moral answers to their worldview that has no objective morality. They also demand somewhat logical answers to their emotional outbreaks.

The Times They are a Changing. Certain liberal Christian views can't even begin to answer some of these questions. The same goes for Charismatic views, and don't get me started on Non-Calvinistic Biblical doctrine.
Arguing with smart atheists made me the Calvinistic Reformed mostly Biblically literal Christian that I am. (Yes, the poetic parts of the Bible are still poetic, The prophetic parts are still prophetic)

It's a great book for Christians to begin their apologetic longings with.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book as a nominal Christian, thinking that I could use arguments to win people to Christ before I knew what the Gospel was, unfortunately the book didn't give a thorough definition of the Gospel and assumed the reader already knew it, but it would have been better if the author would have given a more thorough definition of the Gospel. This book represents a classical approach to apologetics, so it answers unbelievers on an alleged common ground, but this doesn't get to the root of the issue, the unbeliever's moral suppression of the truth (Romans 1:18-36). Read Bahnsen's Always Ready and some books from James White for a better and biblical approach to apologetics that stands on the authority of God's word and follows the apostolic method for apologetics rather than Aristotle.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE WELL-KNOWN APOLOGIST PROVIDES SUCCINCT ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS

Ron Rhodes is currently President of "Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries," and sometimes teaches cult apologetics at various seminaries. He was formerly Editor/Associate Editor of the Christian Research Institute's Journal and Newsletter, and a frequent guest on the "Bible Answer Man" radio program.

He wrote in the “Acknowledgements” section of this 2006 book, “a good number of [my e-mails] have been from Christians asking for help on answering various objections or arguments raised by atheists, agnostics, and skeptics… I have also received a healthy share of e-mails from atheists, agnostics, and skeptics. Some wrote merely to belittle my Christian beliefs. Others wrote in an attempt to bait me into an argument, which, from the tone of their e-mails, they seemed quite sure they would win. Still others wrote because they were sincerely seeking after the truth. It is this latter group that I enjoyed interacting with the most… I hope to see each of you in heaven one day.”

He asserts, “many people become atheists because doing so relieves them from having to pay attention to the moral commandments made by a holy God. The problem is, though human beings are absolutely free to believe as they wish during their short mortal lives, ALL will face God at a future judgment, and ALL will be held responsible. Those who enter eternity without Christ will spend eternity apart from Christ. That is why I have a sense of urgency in my heart in seeking to answer the objections of atheists, agnostics, and skeptics.” (Pg. 27)

He points out, “Scientists tell us that our sun is burning off its own mass at a rate of four million tons per second… Here is the point to remember: If the sun is continually burning off its mass, and its available energy is continually being depleted, then there must have been a time when the sun (and all the other stars) were initially created and infused with all this energy. Since our universe is not yet dead, and since it will one day be dead (when all the energy runs out), it is obvious that the universe must have had a beginning.” (Pg. 52)

He states, “There is no question, even among creationists, that microevolution has taken place, for all the different races of human beings have descended from a single common human ancestor (Adam). Likewise, all kinds of dogs have ‘microevolved’ from the original dog species created by God. In no case, however, has macroevolution ever been observed by scientists. This is in keeping with the fact that the genetic pool of DNA in each species sets parameters beyond which the species simply cannot evolve (that is, dogs can take on new characteristics, but they cannot evolve into cats, for dog DNA always remains dog DNA, just as cat DNA always remains cat DNA).” (Pg. 79)

He points out, “Christians do not argue that one must believe in God in order to live a moral life. Nor do Christians argue that it is impossible to recognize moral values without believing in God. Nor do Christians argue that it is impossible to construct a system of ethics without God. What Christians DO challenge … is the claim that atheists can hold to objective rights and wrongs without having a basis or foundation for such a belief or worldview. Ultimately, for the atheist, all morals are based on social conventions. It could just have easily been decided that cars should go on a red light and stop on a green light. The ‘right choice’ is subjectively determined by society. There is no ULTIMATE ground or basis for either green or red meaning ‘go.’ And so it is with ALL ethics in the atheist worldview.” (Pg. 117)

He explains, “Christians believe that moral law is rooted in the INTRINSIC morality of God Himself… Love is rooted in the INTRINSIC love of God Himself. Hence, morality, goodness, and love are not beyond God, nor are they arbitrary choices on His part, but these are a part of His very nature, and hence what He commands must be in keeping with that nature. It is impossible for God to ‘will’ something that is not in accordance with His nature. Because of God’s intrinsic love, goodness, and morality, He simply cannot ‘will’ anything arbitrarily.” (Pg. 120-121)

He states about the order [Joshua 6:21] to exterminate the Canaanites, he argues, “The Canaanites were not acting blindly. They had heard of the God of the Israelites, and knew what was expected of them, but they defied Him and continued in their sinful ways. Hence, they were ripe for judgment. Further, let us not forget that God is absolutely sovereign over the affairs of life and death. God is the One who creates life, and He maintains the right to take life when circumstances call for it. You and I do not have the right to take another’s life because we did not create that life. God, however, is the Creator, and as the Creator, He sovereignly rules over the creation. When people rebel against Him, God as the divine Judge retains the right to end their lives.” (Pg. 255)

This book will be of keen interest to students of Christian apologetics.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been many years since picking up an apologetics book. It is good to broach these subjects every once in a while to be familiar with objections to our faith and some reasonable defences. I felt some subjects were dealt with very adequately and others were just okay. I did like how he sourced when bringing up objections to the faith. These sources were from atheistic sites and authors and I liked checking out his notes and bibliography. In some areas I had doctrinal differences from the author and one particular area from Chapter 2 sounded close to a salvation by works though I know the author wouldn't acknowledge this personally. These kinds of books are hard for me because I think a discussion with someone is much better. A book is more like a monologue and is not diverse or will broaden out to another person's objections. For an apologetics book I would rate this as ok or average but didn't necessarily feel better equipped now or like I had a breakthrough in better defending myself. But it is a tool I may refer to for future conversations when the opportunity arises.

[Roxane Lapa · Rating 4 out of 5]

GENRE:
Non-fiction Christian Apologetics

BASIC SYNOPSIS
This is a book aimed at Christians and regards arguments that sceptics tend to raise.

MY THOUGHTS
This is a book I chose to read during the editing phase of my own book 'Answering The Atheist'. I'm glad I did as I ended up including a quote from it in my 1st and 7th chapters. This was a great book. It wasn’t an easy read, or particularly well ordered, but it had a lot of meat and a few amazing nuggets.