In the past few years I’ve been getting a lot of questions from Atheists. Now, when I say Atheist and I say questions, I think I first need to qualify the connotations behind both of these words.
By Atheist I mean anyone who does not hold to the historic Christian faith as described in the Bible and articulated by the first four ecumenical councils. In recent weeks I’ve been running the gamut of Atheism. I’ve received emails from your typical garden variety Atheist to your militant “apologetic” Atheist.
When it comes to questions you may come across different agendas behind the question as well as the questioner. Some questions are asked in all sincerity while others are a set of rhetorical leadings to trap the one questioned into an illogical straw man that can be easily refuted.
I noticed three different kinds of Atheist over the years. Each one must be dealt with and answered in a different way. To broad brush all three of them would leave you open to criticism on a variety of issues. Most notably, this would leave you open to an Argumentum ad homonym (basically name calling) and ad Homonym tu Quoque (the “you too” argument). In order to guard oneself against this type of rebuttal one must be prepared to be as thorough as possible.
The word Atheist (theism- God-belief + A – no/not/without) is used of those who deny that there is a God. Agnostic (gnostic- knowledge + A – no/not/without) is used of those who acknowledge something beyond themselves, but are not regulated to anything but their own subjective understanding. Usually the attributes they ascribe to their god fall far below the attributes of the Judeo-Christian understanding of God and would bring one to the conclusion that, they too in fact, do not believe in God. The Latin term for agnostic is ignoramus where we derive our English word ignorant. To call an agnostic ignorant is not an insult, per say, but a way of identifying them within the common vernacular. Since this would be seen as negative in our 21st century American culture, it would be more accurate, consistent, and politically correct to refer to anyone who denies the Triune God of the Bible as an Atheist. Let us now turn our attention to the three main types of Atheist.
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