An Email from an Agnostic

This week I received an email containing the following message.

Hello,

I am an agnostic searching for the truth.

Your site is giving me entirely new insights and may even – just possibly – be putting the Bible text “seek, and you shall find” into effect.

For years I was an atheist and had no desire whatsoever to explore religion. I did attend a Catholic school, but I never did anything with it. From childhood onward, what I was taught in religion class seemed like pure nonsense to me.

After several in-depth conversations with Christians, I began looking more closely into the subject and realized that it was actually extraordinarily fascinating.

The Christian claims:

God is the Creator of heaven and earth. He is:

– All-powerful
– All-good
– Infinitely loving
– Infinitely just
– Infinitely merciful

In short, He is perfect and possesses every good quality in perfection.

At first, that sounded good.

I attended a Catholic school, so I know at least a little about this tradition.

Then I began studying the Bible. Genesis already contained so many strange and improbable things that I concluded: This cannot be the truth. That does not mean the stories in the Bible are not worthwhile. But these things could never actually have happened.

Still, I continued searching and read many articles online, both from Christian and atheist perspectives.

The result was that the more I learned about God and the better I came to know Him, the more unpleasant I began to find Him. To me, He was a cruel ruler who repeatedly punished people in the Old Testament because they were sinners. The terrible thing is that these people could not help being sinful. It happened through no fault of their own.

But, as I learned, the most gruesome and grotesque crime against humankind was yet to come: hell. Many people would escape this fate, but most people who have ever lived would be tormented and tortured forever if they did not – or could not – believe that what the Gospels say about Jesus Christ actually happened.

The absence of this faith is, by definition, grounds for this fate – for every unbeliever. This means that Hitler and Gandhi will suffer the same fate: endless torture and torment.

And the Christian claims: God is love.

The troubling thing is that such a God could theoretically exist. In that case, however, people are mistaken about all His other attributes. If He is only all-powerful, while the fate of most people is hell, then those other attributes do not apply. This is not impossible: an all-powerful, evil God.

If He existed as I had come to know Him, my only reason for believing would be fear – the fear of having to suffer forever. But then I would be found out, because He can see into my heart. He would see that I feared Him but did not love Him. After all, how could I love someone who would send most of my friends and family to a dreadful place like hell? That is impossible for a human being with any capacity for love.

I sincerely hoped that this dreadful supreme being did not exist. As a fictional character, He was an extraordinarily fascinating subject of study; as a reality, He would be a horror. Yet I have no certainty whether He is fictional or the appalling truth.

Then I came across your site. If what is presented here is the true “good news,” my feelings toward God are entirely different. I genuinely feel pity and compassion for Him. Because if this is true, then the overwhelming majority of His followers throughout history have done Him a grave injustice. They effectively deny His love – for all people, including unbelievers – His justice, His lovingkindness and, if He wills all people to be saved, His omnipotence.

That must be terrible for God. I had an enormous list of reasons never to worship this Christian God, because it would be impossible for me to love Him. The God I see described here truly does possess all these attributes, and even the suffering in the present world can be explained.

The doctrine of hell is one of the greatest reasons people either do not convert or no longer want to be Christians. And many Christians are also false Christians because they converted only out of fear of hell – not out of love.

After reading this site, many of my questions now have logically coherent answers that do not contradict the attributes ascribed to God.

Still, some questions remain that prevent me from coming to faith.

May I occasionally ask them through this email address?

Because if this might be the truth, then I can see God as potentially a far more likable Being than most Christians would have me believe!

Kind regards,
….

I wrote back as follows:

Dear Mr. …,

What an extraordinarily fascinating account I had the privilege of receiving from you! But I sense more than an account in it. It is the story of a search. It also offers a striking insight into the psychology behind atheism.

Any person endowed with logic can recognize that everything in creation bears the marks of intelligent design. Whether we study a microscopic cell in the human body or cut open a kiwi fruit; whether we consider the functioning of the brain, the heartbeat, digestion, reproduction, or the navigation system of migratory birds – you name it, everything testifies to a marvelous design. In other words, to a Creator.

That is intuitive knowledge – innate. Atheism, by contrast, is learned. Yet it leaves humanity in darkness, without meaning and without purpose.

However, the image of God presented by the Christian religion did not answer the great questions you were asking either. The concept of hell, in particular, was repulsive and contradicted every attribute people ascribe to God. As you yourself write:

I sincerely hoped that this dreadful supreme being did not exist.

Is this not also one of the deepest motives behind atheism? A revulsion at the grotesque images of God that religions present to us?

How different everything becomes when God truly is GOD?! As it is written: “Out of Him and through Him and for Him is all.” A GOD who orders all things, with whom nothing goes wrong, and who brings everything to a good conclusion. A GOD who introduces us to evil – suffering and death – precisely so that we may come to know the good.

Indeed, that is the GOD I have come to know and about whom I testify on GoedBericht.nl (UltimateGoodNews.com). To know God as GOD is the foundation of trust, hope, love, joy, and peace – and of sound thinking as well. In your own words:

Then I came across your site. If what is presented here is the true “good news,” my feelings toward God are entirely different. (…) The God I see described here truly does possess all these attributes, and even the suffering in the present world can be explained.

The doctrine of hell is one of the greatest reasons people either do not convert or no longer want to be Christians. And many Christians are also false Christians because they converted only out of fear of hell—not out of love.

After reading this site, many of my questions now have logically coherent answers that do not contradict the attributes ascribed to God.

I am glad that GoedBericht.nl (UltimateGoodNews.com) can serve as a signpost for you and provide answers to your honest questions. The only thing I aim to do on my site is point to what “is written.”

You say that you still have questions that “prevent you from coming to faith.” By all means, ask them. You know where to find me. I sincerely hope that my answers may be of service to you.

As I understand it, it is GOD Himself who convinces through His Word and thus gives faith – in His time. Then you do not come to faith – no, faith comes to you!

Kind regards,

—André Piet—

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