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God and the tooth fairy
Some atheists propose that belief in God is no different than believing
in the tooth fairy, Peter Pan, Santa Claus or unicorns. However, I see a
great difference between believing in God and believing in such childhood
fantasies as the tooth fairy and Santa Claus.
For one thing, once children mature into adulthood, they don’t continue
to believe in them. On their own, children grow to see them as imaginary.
Another difference is that no adult suddenly starts believing in them. But
that is not true of belief in God. Many people who have never before
believed in God do come to faith as adults.
- C.S. Lewis, the Oxford professor and world famous author, attended the
Anglican Church as a child, but became an atheist. Later in adulthood,
after more experience in life, he began to believe in God and wrote
several enduring bestsellers defending and explaining Christianity.
- The popular author, Lee Strobel, abandoned atheism as an adult,
eventually authoring such books such as The Case for Faith, The Case
for Christ, and The Case for Easter.
- The well-known geneticist, Francis Collins, a winner of a prize for his work on the Human Genome project, came to believe in
God as an adult.
- Alister McGrath left atheism and became a world-class theologian.
- Not long ago, a leading atheist philosopher in his 80s, Anthony Flew,
began believing in God.
- And every day, countless other adults we have never heard of start
believing in God. That cannot be said of the tooth fairy, Peter Pan, Santa
Claus, or unicorns.
So whatever might be said about belief in God, it is certainly not the
same as believing in the tooth fairy, Peter Pan, Santa Claus or unicorns.
Adults choose to believe in God because they believe God has met them in
ways that defy conventional explanation. Their experience is real,
regardless of human limitations in expressing or measuring it.
The truth is, God is neither discoverable nor measurable by humans. But
God does reveal himself to humanity, and he does it perfectly in Jesus
Christ. “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father,” Jesus said.
The evidence of God’s existence is in a transformed heart, a heart
aligned with Jesus, turned outward in love for others instead of inward
toward selfish personal indulgence. That’s a heart of faith, the faith
Hebrews 11:1 calls, “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.”
When an atheist becomes a believer, there are no scientific instruments
or arguments to explain it. There is simply a new life, a life that bursts
out of spiritual darkness into spiritual light.
I like to think there are two kinds of atheists: those who have become
believers, and those who yet will.
I’m Joseph Tkach, speaking of life.
Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say that I
am?" We have a free booklet, A Brief Introduction to Trinitarian Theology,
to help you answer that question. In the United States, to request your free
copy, see www.wcg.org/lit Or call us
toll-free at 1-800-423-4444.
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