honest atheists will be haunted by ghosts

This connects very nicely to Kyle's sermon on Sunday-- about the evidence of God's presence in the universe.

From Robert Velarde in the Christian Research Journal-- as first published in an edited form on his blog...


Many years ago I came across a phrase in an article by Dallas Willard. In part he wrote, "we now have an ontologically haunted universe. It is haunted by unnerving possibilities."...

In a general sense, as I use it, the phrase "haunted universe" means that apologetic arguments by Christians can cause intellectual tensions for atheists. These tensions can fester, bothering the atheist because their worldview becomes haunted by ideas that favor the existence of God.

What "ghosts" or arguments can Christian apologists provide to "haunt" the universe of the atheist? There are many, but I will briefly present six.

Ghost #1: Cosmology...what caused the universe?...the Big Bang, if accepted, is an event. But what caused the event?

Ghost #2: Design...Is the universe fine-tuned? Is it designed?...

Ghost #3: Morality. Do moral standards exist? If so, where do they come from? If they are mere inventions of beings who themselves are the result of time and chance then there are no real standards of right and wrong....

Ghost #4: Evil and Suffering. Atheists often appeal to the reality of evil and suffering as an argument against God....[But] where does the atheist get the idea of evil?...

Ghost #5: The Intelligent Christian. Another "ghost" that may haunt the universe of the atheist is that of the intelligent Christian.... When I was an atheist...I was haunted by a dilemma: How could seemingly intelligent people embrace Christianity?

Ghost #6: Atheism as Nihilism. As I have argued elsewhere...followed logically, atheism ultimately leads to the despair of nihilism....This is why traditionally it is Christians who help the needy, establish hospitals, care for the hurting...

In the CRJ article, he adds four more:

-Reason and Intelligibility: Why do we have the reason-- or think that we do?

-Pascal's Anthropological Argument: Christianity as the best explanation for both greatness and great wretchedness in people

-Explaining Christ: Lord, Liar, Lunatic in interpreting His place in History

-Christianity's (tremendous net) Positive Influence