Common Questions

Atheism: The Church’s Fault?

The following two paragraphs are from an article addressing the failure of churches to adequately address questions of some young people.  Our comments follow.

[Anthony] Horvath, who has taught religion to middle school and high school students, explained that some of the recurring questions young adults struggle with but churches often fail to address include the formation and development of the Bible, the presence of evil and suffering in the world, and the question of inspiration and inerrancy.

In large part, it happens when the church leadership is completely unaware that their members – and not necessarily just the young members – have questions at all,” explained Horvath to The Christian Post. “And [they] continue merrily along thinking that to retain the youth they just need to be entertained. (Christianpost.com, full article).

Mr. Horvath is viewing this issue from the perspective of a denominationalist.  Still, his points are valid.  Young people have questions that need to be addressed.  Old people too.

We cannot assume that because someone grows up going to church every Sunday and Wednesday that they automatically have an unshakable believe that God created the world, Jesus is the Christ, there is a heaven and hell, the Bible is true, etc. (Gen. 1:1; Jn. 1:29; Matt. 25:46; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17).  They need to be thoroughly instructed in such issues, including learning arguments against the truth so they can weigh the evidence, come to their own conclusion, and answer challenges (Deut. 6:6-9; Acts 17:11; 2 Tim. 2:15).  If this does not happen, they will not have their own faith, but that of their parents or others.  No one will get to heaven on someone else’s faith.

The bottom line: If we fail to address these issues in the pulpit and classes, then, yes, the church is guilty of making atheists by default.

Further, Mr. Horvath is right about churches seeking to keep young people by entertaining them.  This is a major problem in denominations and liberal churches of Christ.  Sadly, it is becoming more of a problem among conservative churches too.

Entertainment does not build faith.  The Word does (Rom. 10:17).

When entertainment is used, people eventually tire of it or find something better.  It is an emotional high, but spiritually shallow.  We recently read an article about a Baptist church in Hot Springs, AR, that sponsored a Pro-Fishing event to draw men in (read the article).  Why have many men stopped attending denominations and need to be brought back with bait?  Because they were raised on entertainment religion that became boring.  Now something more “relevant” and “interesting” needs to be offered.  The thing is, the bait comes with a hook.