“Atheism’s church without God is a blatant exchange of the truth for a lie,” says William Lane Craig, Christian philosopher, theologian and founder of ReasonableFaith.org, a Web-based ministry that provides, in the public arena, an intelligent and articulate perspective about the existence of God.
“The growing trend of spiritualized atheism, such as the Community Mission Chapel, has no objective meaning, value or purpose. The congregants may surely find a subjective value for mimicking Christian churches, but this feat is ultimately built upon a scaffolding of personal preference,” says Craig, who is available for interviews to discuss.
Community Mission Chapel, founded by Jerry Dewitt, in Lake Charles, La., is an atheist congregation that provides fellowship, songs of thankfulness and gratitude, and depicts everything a church is without actually believing in God.
“Jerry Dewitt makes a philosophically inept statement when he claims it would be egotistical to make any positive truth claim about the ultimate nature of reality,” Craig explains. “By implication, he would have to believe that all theists are egotistical for believing that God exists. There’s nothing egotistical about making objective truth claims about reality. Mr. Dewitt has grossly mischaracterized the Christian church in eschewing their theological claims and, in turn, borrows the corporate lifestyle of the church body.”
Also, according to Craig, Dewitt attempts to drive a wedge between God and science by claiming that science is closing “the gap” on God as an explanation for reality.
Craig says, “It would be a naive mistake for atheism to claim science as a defeater for God. If God is the creator of the natural world, then we can have a means of knowing about God through science. If science is the discovery of empirical truths that lead to the explanation of certain phenomena, then to learn scientific truths is to learn truths about God.”
Finally, Craig concludes, “It shouldn’t be surprising to see others trying to reconstruct the benefits Christians have with corporate and individual worship, fellowship, instruction and thankfulness. Many have traded the truth in exchange for a lie.”
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