A Christian's Guide to Refuting Modern Atheism

by Kyle Butt

The atheistic community’s numbers are on the rise in the U.S. due to its fervent, evangelistic tactics among our nation’s impressionable youth. Christians have been called to “always be ready to give a defense to anyone” who would challenge the existence of God and the Faith of His Son Jesus Christ. There is a God, and His Word is the only truth that can make people free. The skeptical attacks against God, the Bible, and Jesus Christ fail on every front. It is high time that Christians recognize the threat of modern atheism, and equip themselves to face it.

269 pages, Paperback

Published January 16, 2015

Reviews

[Danielle. · Rating 5 out of 5]

After watching the full Dan Barker/Kyle Butt debate of the existence of the God of the Bible on YouTube, I became interested in reading Kyle's book on the expanded study of his debate with one of the leading contemporary atheists. Kyle offers a reasoned, logical explanation on not only the existence of God, but on his refutations to Dan's criticisms and comments on the inerrant Word of God.

It is understandable that an argument can be weakened in formal debates due to the constraints of time, and it's the reason for which Kyle has thoroughly presented both his rebuttal and Dan's accusations against God from his atheistic books "Loosing Faith in Faith" and "Godless." It was interesting reading about both of their view points. Of course, as a Christian I side with Kyle; but not because he's a fellow Christian, but because our foundation and faith is on the God-breathed text--the bible.

Part 2 of this book, Kyle answers the commonly asked questions and explains the supposed contradictions and comments from skeptics, atheists and theists alike in his topics:

- The Problem of Evil
- Does God's Existence Rest Upon Human Consensus?
- Is There a Need for a Belief in God?
- The Immutability of God
- Do Children Inherit the Sin of Their Parents?
- Does God "Create" Evil?
- Does God Tempt People?
- Defending the Bible's Position on Slavery
- Did Jesus Come to Bring Peace--or Turmoil?
- Seeing God "Face to Face"
- Is God Immoral for Killing Innocent Children?
- The Goodness of God and an Eternal Hell
- Defending the Bible's Position on Prayer
- Darwin, Evolution, and Racism
and many, many others.

Almost each of the topics are divided into sub-topics for clear and coherent understanding and explanation on the Word of God.

Part 1 of this book is the entire 2-hour debate in writing. I was quite entertained. The "Questions from the Audience", however, was a little dry and sloppy from both Dan and Kyle.

I was disappointed in Dan's given arguments. His opening 15 minute speech was focused on alleged bible contradictions. He gave 14 scriptures to "prove" that God does not exist (knowing that time cannot allow to explain all 14). Kyle Butt caught this debate tactic to win the audience, as he explained, "What you heard from Dan Barker is a litany of alleged bible contradictions . . .you can see that in a 15-minute or 10-minute debate, he is not wanting answers. There is no possible way to answer that many ideas in a 10 minute rebuttal. So what is he wanting to do? I think what he's trying to do is overwhelm you . . . And you cannot blame Dan for that. It's a very good, very popular debate tactic" (p. 19).

A very good tactic indeed. But Kyle refuted a couple of them in order to show either Dan's poor biblical scholarship (as Dan claimed he thoroughly studied) or his deliberate dishonesty in promotion of the atheist philosophy. By refuting some of these alleged contradictions given by Dan, Kyle showed the audience (and his readers in his expanded explanations) not to immediately take Dan's assertions and believe them. He showed the bible cannot be read at face value (as many atheists, skeptics, and even theists do), but has to be read on both a historical and biblical context. He showed also the meaning of eisegesis and exegesis of studying God's Word.

One example of the supposed contradiction Dan used: "Jesus said, 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.' And when he was born, 'On earth peace, and goodwill towards man.' However, Jesus himself said, 'Think not that I come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace but a sword.' The God of the bible is peaceful. The God of the bible is not peaceful. He does not exist" (pg 10).

At face value it looks like Christ contradicted Himself. However what Christ meant when He said "but a sword" is that though He has come to bring peace and salvation to the world, many people will not accept Him. They will hate Him and His teachings. Christ said that mothers will be against their daughters, fathers against their sons, etc. showing that those who oppose Christ will immediately separate themselves from those who don't. Not only that, but, historically, think about the persecution of Christians during the first and second centuries in the Roman Empire. Those who uttered the name "Christ" were burned, stoned, cast into prison, cut in half, etc. Thus, the saying of Christ rings true: "19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed" (John 3:19,20).

While Kyle argued from rationality, Dan was arguing on an emotional appeal. I was quite disappointed at several of Mr Barker's statements (NOTE: the quotations aren't verbatim, just summarized):
1) "You sit there and quote scriptures like that proves God, and it doesn't." Yet, ironically, he tried to disprove God by using the scriptures.
2) "The bible is unhistorical and contradictory." I marvelled at this one. Especially the unhistorical bit. Scholars and Historians over the last hundreds of years have admitted the historicity of the Bible through their archaeological finds and events occurring in history found in the inspired book. Also the alleged discrepancies have been explained.
3) "If God created me, who created God?" While a fantastic question posed, I would have assumed as him being a huge fan of science might have obtained the answer.

“Einstein introduced his revolutionary General Theory of Relativity. In this, space and time were no longer Absolute, no longer a fixed background to events. Instead, they were dynamical quantities that were shaped by the matter and energy in the universe. They were defined only within the universe, so it made no sense to talk of a time before the universe began.” – Stephen Hawking, Origin of the Universe.

Einstein and Hawking stated the undeniable fact that time started when the universe began and that it would be silly to suggest that time started before the universe came into existence. Therefore, we can come to the conclusion that the things before which are not bound to the universe, space and time are eternal since everything bound by time are temporal because it has a beginning and an end just like time itself (Hawking, A Briefer History of Time, p 68). . The fathers of science state that space and time are physical constructs; thus, all tangible/material objects are bound under it. This scientific rule does not apply to the living God. For one thing, He most certainly isn’t a physical being, but spirit (John 4:24). Second, God created the universe (Genesis 1:1) and therefore created time. He is not bound to His own creation. He is eternal with no beginning or end. No one created Him, which is why He is called Almighty, which is why He goes beyond the natural into supernatural. He exists–and has existed–beyond the measurable scope of time. Before the creation of the world, before Dan and I were born, God says, “I AM” (Psalm 90:2; Exodus 3:14).

I enjoyed this book and recommend EVERYONE to read this.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kyle spends time reviewing the debate between himself and Dan Barker, a well-known atheistic debater. His arguments are logical and well-founded, effectively explaining both his answers and issues that weren't covered in the debate for reasons of time. I would suggest this book to others who are interested in the existence of the God of the Bible.

[Lynn Alan Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great debate between Kyle Butt and Dan Barker. It is very comparable to the debates that Bro. Thomas Warren had between Anthony Flew and Wallace Matson on the existence of God.