The ironic truth is that the group that decided to put this rally on, and everyone who publicized it, and the speakers, and all the attendees, have unintentionally drawn attention to a major evidence that suggests that atheism is false, and God in fact exists! Everyone is talking about it, though not everyone has examined it. The Reason Rally is promoting the existence, and importance of… well, reason. Without even knowing it by acknowledging the existence of reason they have given up tremendous ground to those who believe that God does exist. There is no way to sufficiently explain the existence of reason, without first acknowledging a transcendent, self existent, rational Mind, God.
I realize this is quite the claim, but lets think about it for a moment. How does rationality come from non rationality? In other words, most atheist would argue that there is nothing super-natural in the universe, that everything can be explained by natural/physical causes. How then, can rationality be explained?
Now before you say, “It evolved” think for a second about what the universe was like in the beginning. If you believe in science, like I do, you believe that the universe came into existence before biological life came into existence. So the belief is that before this point reason did not exist, but that the lifeless chemicals of the universe somehow reacted with each other and evolved and eventually created reason in humans. Here’s where I no longer agree. I have a few questions:
1. What is the chemical composition of reason?
2. How much does reason weigh?
3. What does reason smell like?
These are obviously all nonsense questions in the real world because reason does exist, but is IMMATERIAL. It has no chemical composition, mass, or smell because it is not physical, and yet it exists. Its very existence violates the worldview of the majority of the speakers, organizers and attendees of the Reason Rally. Furthermore, chemicals cannot analyze things to establish if they are true or not, all they do is react to each other. That’s clearly not what’s going on when we reason.
1. What is the chemical composition of reason?
2. How much does reason weigh?
3. What does reason smell like?
These are obviously all nonsense questions in the real world because reason does exist, but is IMMATERIAL. It has no chemical composition, mass, or smell because it is not physical, and yet it exists. Its very existence violates the worldview of the majority of the speakers, organizers and attendees of the Reason Rally. Furthermore, chemicals cannot analyze things to establish if they are true or not, all they do is react to each other. That’s clearly not what’s going on when we reason.
So the atheist, if he is to be consistent, must reject the existence of reason. He cannot do that, because then why should I believe an argument that does not stand to reason? So instead, the atheist must intentionally choose to be inconsistent and irrational. They must assume God exists, to argue that He does not exist. They take a seat in His lap, in order to slap Him in the face.
Now Christians do have a way to ground the existence of reason in a consistent way. The God who is there is the Mind that is self-existent. He is eternal. He is the architect of reason, logic and truth. This is the God we believe in. We are able to reason because we are specially created in the very image of this Great Mind, God. (Borrowed from Frank Turek)
So you can see that promotion of the Reason Rally inadvertently promotes a good reason to affirm the existence of God. No matter what Dawkins, PZ Myers or Bill Maher say they believe, they continue to use and promote a tool that can only be explained by the existence of God. It is by definition an irrational position.
Now as far as the stated goals for the event itself, as a Christian, I can and do stand in solidarity with my secular countrymen. The stated goals being:
1. To encourage secular Americans to “come out of the closet”.
2. To dispel stereotypes.
3. Legislative Equality.
I can affirm each one of these, even though I don’t really think they are big problems. (The possible exception being goal #2. I do think the word atheist does have a certain stereotype attached to it.) I want to know who the atheists around me are and I want to reason with them. I want them to have legislative equality and I want to love them as neighbors. I also want them to meet Jesus. All of these are consistent for a Christian.
I want to take the organizers at their word that these in fact are their goals, though I do have my suspicions. The Reason Rally, in my opinion, tipped their hand when they invited the Westboro Baptist Church, (the “god hates f-gs” nuts) to the event. The ugly truth was revealed. This isn’t about reason at all. This is about the speakers and organizers of the event just wanting a forum to bash religion in a public and loud manner.
I do not believe that the attendees share this same agenda. I think they truly are going to be there for the stated goals. It is these people that I am interested in and stand in solidarity with, even as I try to get them to see the truth that can be found in Jesus Christ.
Please pray for me this Saturday. And please pray over the Reason Rally.
“Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” - Colossians 4 : 5-6
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