Some wisdom from Mike Adams...

The man who used to be my most outspoken atheist colleague (he is now retired) provides a good example of what I’m talking about. His decision to adopt atheism had nothing to do with honest intellectual reflection. He simply had a horrible relationship with his father and he took it out on God. The consequence of this was a level of emotional insecurity that made him simply impossibly to deal with. He was constantly plagued by indecisiveness and anxiety.

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This article reflects what I've experienced in over two decades of ministry. At the heart of, much (but not all), atheism are painful experiences or painful emotions. One of the men I remember most was a gentleman who billed himself as the "resident atheist" at a nursing facility where I served as Chaplain. What most distinguished him was not the depth of his arguments or his winsome demeanor but the deep anger and pain that radiated from him. He disbelieved in God not on the facts but on a hurt that I could not reach even though we had a cordial relationship.

This speaks to us as Christians as well because this culture has many people who've been mistreated, even devastated, by people and structures in their church. I'm not talking about the faux outrage of the kind where people are angry the church won't affirm their personal sexual proclivities. I'm talking about people who really have been hurt by others who are rude, arrogant, and just plain mean all within the walls of the church. There's a lot of those folks around and their actions plant the seeds of future "atheists".