The 1.6% Solution

1.6% of the North American population says that if God would just give them a sign, a miracle, or have Jesus appear in front of them, then they would believe.

This is the worst of all possible lies, for it is a lie that they tell themselves.

Jesus said, “Even when I rise from the dead, many of you will not believe.” Disbelief is an a priori decision to ignore any evidence that contradicts one’s decision to not believe, in this case to not believe in the possible existence of the supernatural. Therefore atheists don’t believe in miracles - period.

If Jesus suddenly appeared in front of them, this portion of the population, to a person, would say there must be a naturalistic explanation for what had just taken place. If a material explanation was not immediately forthcoming, they would say that at some point in the future a material explanation would be discovered.

These people say that all they want is a sign of God’s presence, of His acting in nature or upon nature. That is a lie. That is the last thing that these people want.

The existence of a life supporting universe is exactly the kind of sign they say they want. The coming into being of this universe from nothing is a working definition of a miracle. Not only were space, time and matter brought into existence out of nothing. The Laws of Physics and the fine tuning of that matter were put into place in an instant, i.e., Planck time 10 ^ -43 seconds. These laws - hundreds of them, right down to the exact number of neutrinos did not evolve or settle into place. They were put in place at the Singularity. The reaction of this population? This is not acceptable as evidence of God’s existence.

A 1,000 encyclopaedic equivalent volume of specified, complex, coded information was present in the first cell along with a separately evolved (for those so inclined) decoding mechanism for the information that governs all of life. Prior to this nothing “living” existed. Even though these people say that without observation and verification nothing can be believed, and even though consistent observation and verification shows that Intelligence is the ONLY source from which specified, complex coded information arises, these people say that in this case, it just happened. The reaction of this population? The presence of this information in the first living cell is not acceptable as evidence of God’s existence.

Whether it’s the Christian killer Paul or me or any other born again Christian, we are absolutely new creations.
Our motives have gone from living for self to living for God.
Our priorities have been taken from denying or ignoring the existence of God to worshipping Him.

Many atheists say, “I couldn’t believe in God even if I wanted to.” Neither could we. In fact, without the working of God in our lives we couldn’t even WANT to believe in Him let alone dedicate our lives to the worship and serving of Him. None of this has been through our own effort or striving. It is from beginning to end the work of Creator God. The reaction of this population? This presence of the very Spirit of Creator God in our lives is not acceptable as evidence of God’s existence.

All they want, these people say, is proof, but with an a priori rejection of the supernatural, no evidence is acceptable. And yet, these people continue to state this implausible position because if they didn’t, their faith system would collapse.