The Trinity and the New Atheists

What in the world does the Trinity have to do with engaging someone who rejects Christianity? Okay, I have to admit that thought never crossed my mind until I read Reeves’ book. In chapter 5 he talks about the “New Atheism” and references Christopher Hitchens. I was personally fond of Hitchens. I was drawn to his utter honesty about God. Hitchens and others moved past denying God’s existence to arguing that the existence of God would be a very bad thing. They were not atheists but “antitheists.” It’s like the movie "Spinal Tap" with the amp turned up to eleven!

Reeves quotes Hitchens from his book, God is Not Great:

I think it would be rather awful if it was true. If there was a permanent, total, round-the clock divine supervision and invigilation of everything you did, you would never have a waking moment or sleeping moment when you weren’t being watched and controlled and supervised by some celestial entity from the moment of your conception to the moment of your death…It would be like living in North Korea. (p.108)

In response, Reeves makes a case for the existence of God by actually agreeing with Hitchens:

For Hitchens, God is the Ruler, and so must by definition be a Stalin-in-the-sky, a Big Brother. And who in their right mind would ever want such a being to exist? In other words, the antitheist’s problem is not so much with the existence of God as with the character of God. He will write and fight against the existence of God because he is repelled by the thought of that sort of being. That God is not great.

But the triune God is not that God. Hitchens, clearly, had it in his head that God is fundamentally The Ruler, The One in Charge, characterized by “supervision and invigilation.” The picture changes entirely, though, if God is fundamentally the most kind and loving Father, and only ever exercises his rule as who he is—as a Father. In that case, living under his roof is not like living in North Korea at all, but like living in the household of the sort of caring father Hitchens himself wished for. (p. 109)

As Reeves later goes on to write, most people who reject God are like Hitchens. They rightly reject an image of God that is not rooted in Scripture. I would imagine that there are many professing Christians, too, who struggle to love God and trust him in their daily lives. They have shifted their understanding from God being a loving Father who oversees and cares for them to a Ruler who is playing capricious games with their lives.

I am reading my Bible a bit differently these days. I am thankful that God is my Father!