“Why Do You Believe In God?” Because Atheists Have to Steal From My Worldview to Make Sense of Theirs
By Joel Settecase
Why do we do debates with non-Christians? Is it because we don’t like non-Christians? No. Is it because we want to destroy them? Also no.
But their ideas are poisonous. They're mind cancer. And they are keeping them away from the God who created them—who, every single day, pumps the blood through their veins and the air through their lungs. He is keeping them alive.
The Bible says that God loves His enemies. And I want to be like my Father in heaven. I want to love my enemies. Even people who would call themselves my enemy—I want to love them. And what's the most loving thing I can possibly do for someone who doesn’t believe yet in Jesus Christ? It’s to show them the vacuity and the emptiness—the vanity—of their worldview.
Not because I’m the world’s smartest debater. I’m surely not. Not because I’m the most intelligent man in the world. I’m surely not. Rather, it’s because I have a worldview that is rock solid. Totally true. Because it is based in the very Word of God.
How Non-Christians Steal from Christianity
Non-Christians steal from Christianity. They do it when they argue against the Christian message by using teachings from the Christian message—without acknowledging that they come from Christianity, or from the God revealed by the Bible.
Now, when you point this out, they may reply with something like, “I’m not stealing from Christianity. I’m just describing the way the world works.” But they don’t have a good reason, given their worldview, for believing that the world “just works” this way. That’s arbitrary. That’s when you make a claim without a good reason—without evidence, without explanation.
Here’s why that’s such a problem for them. If their argument were successful in disproving Christianity, they’d lose the very foundation for the tools they used in that argument.
Think about this: biblical Christianity is the foundation for the principles of science. If someone uses science to try and disprove Christianity, they’re using something that only makes sense in the biblical worldview. So what happens if they succeed? They cut off the very foundation they were standing on. Their scientific argument against Christianity becomes self-defeating—and powerless.
Cornelius Van Til—we call him the godfather of presuppositional apologetics—described this situation like this: He said the unbeliever is like a little girl standing on her father’s lap, slapping him in the face. Now I’m not the father in that scenario. God is.
But the atheist or the skeptic is like that little girl. She would never be able to slap her father in the face if she wasn’t sitting on his lap. In the same way, the non-Christian has to climb up onto—or steal from—the biblical worldview in order to try to disprove that same worldview.
Or take another example: a tree trimmer climbs up into a tree, shimmies his way out onto a branch, sits down—and then starts sawing away at the very branch he’s sitting on. That’s what the unbeliever is doing when he argues against the Christian worldview using principles and categories that only make sense within the Christian worldview. If he’s successful, he eliminates the foundation for the very arguments and categories he was using.
So How Do Non-Christians Steal from Christianity?
Let me give you three examples. Then we’ll bring on our first contender.
1. When They Accuse the Bible of Being Illogical
This one is one of the most egregious examples of stealing from Christianity. To be “illogical” is to violate the laws of logic.
If the Bible taught contradictory teachings, it would violate logic. And contradictions can’t be true. That would violate the law of non-contradiction—the second law of logic. If the Bible were illogical, it would be false. And if it were false, then the God of the Bible would not be real.
But here’s the problem. The laws of logic rely on the God of the Bible. Why? Because the God of the Bible is immaterial, unchanging, omnipresent, knowable, almighty, authoritative, objective—and triune. The laws of logic share those attributes. They are immaterial, unchanging absolutes. They exist in all possible worlds. They’re mental entities that can only exist in a mind. And they are three and one.
If there’s no God, there is no logic. And “there is no logic” is not a logically coherent thought. That’s why it’s not logically coherent to deny God.
If there’s no logic, then the accusation that the Bible is illogical becomes meaningless.
2. When They Accuse God of Violating Human Rights
The second way atheists, agnostics, and skeptics steal from Christianity is when they accuse God of violating human rights. Simple question: Where do human rights come from? Who gives them? Obviously, the Christian says, “God.” But in the atheistic scheme, there is no authority. There is no rights-giver. So rights don’t exist. You can’t appeal to something that doesn’t exist in your worldview.
3. When They Accuse the Bible of Being Anti-Science
The third way that atheists cut off the limb they’re sitting on is when they accuse Christianity of being anti-science.
Now, the principles of science are manifold. But two key ones are:
The uniformity of nature, and
Inductive reasoning.
Those make perfect sense in the Christian worldview.That’s why the first scientists were all Christians. That wasn’t a coincidence. But then an atheist comes along and tries to use science against Christianity. They’re cutting off their own feet. They’re sitting on their Father’s lap to try to slap Him in the face.
Why This All Matters
Why do we need to address this? Because the atheist knows God, but suppresses the truth in unrighteousness. How do I know that? Because the Bible tells me so.
The same Bible that tells me that logic is real, that contradictions matter…
The same Bible that tells me that science is real…
The same Bible that tells me that human rights are real…
…also tells me that we’re made in the image of God, and that every one of us has a sensus divinitatis—a sense of God.
We know God. But apart from Jesus Christ, we suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18–21).
So we need to love our atheistic friends. And the most loving thing we can do is to tell them: Be reconciled to the God you know. The God you’ve been suppressing your whole life. Repent, and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because the wages of sin is death. And Jesus Christ took those wages. He died for the sins of everyone who would ever trust in Him. And He rose again on the third day.
The same Bible that tells us about logic, science, and human rights—also tells us that.
This article was adapted by Joel Settecase and ChatGPT from the transcript of a debate stream.
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