When Bill Nye debated with Ken Ham, the question was not supposed to be simply creation vs. evolution, but actually whether the creation model of origins is viable in today’s scientific era. To me, that means, are we effective? So Ken Ham shared examples of Bible-believing scientists who have contributed much to modern science. One of them was a top-notch inventor. Rather than admitting their equality in intellect, Bill Nye dismissed them. He talked about being reasonable, but he had no reasons for dismissing them. It was totally subjective. He thought, anyone who believes the Bible must not be smart. There is no substance in that; he had no substantial, concrete reason. Yet Ken Ham did show something objective, that these excellent scientists have made real contributions.
My own uncle is a nuclear physicist, and he has contributed much because of his knowledge. And he is a Bible-believer.
I’m specifically saying Bible-believers rather than Christians because progressive Christianity has moved away from the Bible. But still, even among people without a Biblical belief (among those who simply believe in some kind of Creator), there are scientists, and that also goes to show that it’s not simply atheists taking the lead. On livescience.com, one article says that the majority of scientists believe in God (that doesn’t mean they’re all following Jesus and going to heaven, but they’re not atheists either). A large portion might believe in a Creator and evolution, but what I’m saying is that atheism in itself is not substantial.
There are people who come to chat at the ministry I’m part of, who are only there to put us down. They want to feel they have the upper hand, even when it’s not true. It’s like the emperor with no clothes, and actually worse, because in that story, the emperor wasn’t mocking others. At first I thought maybe I was misinterpreting their words and judging them, until I saw a video by Richard Dawkins where he told a large gathering of atheists to mock believers.
By the way, Christians can be proud also, as well as anyone with any belief system, and that is also wrong.
Pride can hinder us from the truth in two ways: (1) when we are so full of ourselves that we dismiss everything, we are going to miss things; and (2) when we are proud, God resists us (James 4:6; Proverbs 3:34).
Here’s the weird thing about pride. Any of us can claim to be smarter than others, regardless of our IQ. When we are in that puffed-up state, we can’t see outside ourselves, and that’s especially true with mocking, because it’s not grounded; it’s fluff.
Those who are humble, serious, and sincere are able to engage in meaningful conversations; and here’s the thing: it actually shows other people that their minds are working. Now when someone comes to me and asks a question, and I give a real answer, and the person laughs it off, I don’t think that person is very smart. It doesn’t show smartness but only rudeness. It’s one thing to talk about goodness when you’re thinking of donating to orphans, but what about that verbal bullying? I could verbally bully people and laugh at them, but I don’t want to, because I actually do have love in my heart and don’t care to belittle others. I know there are intelligent believers and non-believers (again, on a spectrum of beliefs), and I can see that evidentially, and won’t simply dismiss people.
Again, I don’t mean to say that no Christians are proud toward non-believers, but when we are truly following Jesus, we will have real love for people, and we’ll be humble, and we’ll be serious; we’ll be in our right minds.
Thinking we’re smarter doesn’t mean we are smarter.
Another problem is bitterness against Christianity, because of bad examples. Some atheists are passionate for their cause because they have been disillusioned by church leaders and others who misrepresented Jesus. As a result, emotional or accusatory arguments are made against all of Christianity as a whole.
Although there are hypocrites in church, it doesn’t mean that Christianity is false. As Frank Turek said, "When someone plays Beethoven poorly, who do you blame? You don’t blame Beethoven; you blame the player."
Maybe the issue is not the immoral lifestyle of a pastor, and maybe it’s not physical or verbal abuse, but rather spiritually damaging teachings that represent God as someone who wants to punish. Although that can seriously impact the way we read Scripture, we need to look at Scripture as a whole and cling to the fact that God does not enjoy punishing anyone (Ezekiel 18:23 and 32; Lamentations 3:33; 2 Peter 3:9). It can take years to undo false impressions, but we should never lose sight of God’s patience and willingness to forgive literally anyone who comes to Him through Jesus (Revelation 22:17).
Jinger Duggar Vuolo explains that some people “deconstruct” after being raised in spiritually damaging beliefs, while it makes more sense to “disentangle truth from error.” Her own experience was that she was raised in fear-based teachings, but later came to a better perspective of God as she read His Word for herself.
Belief in God, and specifically Christianity, does not have anything to do with intellect; any objections to this are completely subjective. By leaving pride and bitterness behind, and seeking God on His terms, anyone can find Him. And that is not a blind faith, but one that is grounded in truth.