I found this post on Wintery Knight's blog. I'm actually quite surprised the post didn't generate a discussion. There were 14 comments, but all seemed to be from Christians simply agreeing with WK.
Anyway, his post is titled, "Does God pose an authority problem for you?" and the title says it all. WK goes into how prominent atheists express a staunch disdain toward God (as described in the Bible) and his authority, which seems to be the root of their unbelief.
Excerpt:
"So you might be surprised to know that even if Christianity were true, atheists have no intention of changing the way they live. That’s the real issue – and that should be scary for any atheist to realize. If they just cracked open a Bible and read Romans 1, that should be enough to scare the crap out of them – because it’s pretty obvious what is going on with humans – all of us have an authority problem. And a lot of the learning and striving that atheists do is just an effort to get people to think that they are so great and successful after they’ve dumped their relationship with God.
I hope that more atheists look in the mirror and are honest with themselves about what’s really going on. Is it really such a terrible thing to have a relationship with the person who cares the most about you and wants the best for you? Is fun really that important that people have to push away a real, significant, eternal relationship just because it requires self-denial? If I didn’t embrace chastity, as God wishes, where would I get to time to do the really heroic things I do – and how could I concern myself with a woman’s real moral and spiritual needs if I got into the habit of using them selfishly? You can’t experience imitating God when you shut him out. And that’s what we are all here to do – to know him, to be his friend, to act in a way that allows us to feel what he feels, and to have sympathy with him."
I encourage you to read the entire post because I just pasted what WK said at the end of the post. He cites passages from atheist writers and gives surveys of atheist responses to God.
Nonexistent father figures do not cause a real problem for me and I'm one atheist. But it causes the same non problem as absent fathers in real life. I have been known to imagine what a good one would be like and it's not really like the Christian version. Nor does it make that imagined version real.
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