WU welcomed Frank Turek to present his book “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.”
Ration Christi, “Reason for Christ” in Latin, strives to find scientific, philosophical and historical proofs for the existence of Jesus Christ. The alliance has now become a national organization and they now have chapters on many campus, one of them including Winthrop. The organization aims to strengthen the faith of Christian students on campuses. The directors of the chapter on campus are Melissa and Davin Pellew, and last Tuesday, they organized a conference with the awarded member of our community: Dr. Frank Turek, who is a national speaker for the organization; he has also written four books.
“Ladies and gentlemen, what I am going to say tonight will be controversial,” Turek said. During this event, he presented his first book, “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.” The book centers around four questions to prove that Christianity is true: Does Truth exist? Does God exists? Do miracles exists? and Is the New Testament real?
In front of an enthusiastic and responsive crowd, Turek debated those four questions, leaving time at the end to answer the public’s questions.
The strength of Turek’s argument relied on putting atheism in the light of its own judgement towards faith. To the argument that there is no truth, or in other words, that Christianity can’t be true, he answered by asking: does truth exist? Like Jesus, he wants atheists to look at those they think are more judgemental with less judgement, but for themselves.
To answer the existence of God, he brought the reflection toward
creationism and evolution. Indeed, atheists refuse to believe that there was a god in charge of creation. But, they do agree that there was a beginning and that there was a phenomenon scientifically explainable that started the universe as we know it. So, why is believing that the Big Bang could have been caused by something or someone so ridiculous? He also argued that creation, in its whole complexity, is too precise and calculated to be due to randomness. Turek advocated that if there was a place where scientists couldn’t find an explanation, that was the place for faith.
To face the pessimism toward miracles, Turek once again referred to creation, and from a creationist or evolutionist point of view, it is a miracle. The way everything is well-made so that it can survive in its natural environment is so perfect in both cases that it is a miracle. He then argued that coming from this major miracle, changing water in wine, wasn’t that big of a deal and therefore looking at the greater picture: the question of miracles and faith it shouldn’t be so harshly discussed.
“You believe in your mind, can you see it? You’re using it right now, I hope,” he concluded.
For his last question, he justifies its veracity by the presence of it in embarrassing details about prominent characters that would have been depicted as heroes in Rome.
“Christianity is not true because the Bible says it is,” Turek concluded, arguing that the Bible is a report of what happened and not a plea.
In a nutshell, Turek made a case for open-mindedness Christianity, which is often seen as being the contrary. And if we make the exception of his allusion to homosexuality and abortion, he demonstrated the openness of his religion; he succeeded in building his rhetorical argument of Christianity. If atheists in the room didn’t have faith by the end of the event, at least they had the opportunity to see faith in the eyes of a theological professional.
