Atheism is Irrational and Hypocritical

Atheism is not rational, and it is always hypocritical. They have faith in nothing except themselves and claim they do not need faith at all. Their faith is in themselves, and they have no reason to trust in themselves other than their elevated view of themselves.

 
They mock others for their faith in God while pretending they have no faith in anything. They know there is a God they just refuse to validate Him.
Just as the devil wanted to be more powerful than God, he has convinced the atheist that he can be his own god.

 
Romans 1:28-29 "28 Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips.

I have never heard an atheist mock the Easter bunny, Santa Claus or any other man-made fantasy because they are not threatened by what is not real. I have only seen an atheist mock God because God is the One they are the most angry at and fear the most.

 
Ephesians 4:18-19 "They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. Having lost all sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, with a craving for more."

Atheists are angry because they are full of shame but refuse to confess it to be cleansed; they bow to no one but themselves.

Elevating Culture Above Christ is the Danger

Many people say they don't want to debate when there is disagreement. Sadly, it shuts down communication so that the one who will not discuss things does not have to evaluate their own thinking. They use the excuse "I don't want to debate" to shut down any honest and rational communication that might shed light.

I don't "debate", which has the connotation of discussing for the purpose of winning. I enjoy honest, open discussions, looking at all sides to be able to come to an agreement and always with Scriptural backing.

 
1 Corinthians 1:9-11 "9 God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. 10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree together, so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be united in mind and conviction. 11My brothers, some from Chloe’s household, have informed me that there are quarrels among you."

There is only one way to agree, and that is to look at Scripture, leaving out all traditions of men to study what God said in His Word.

 
In our modern Christianity, most have been trained to never correct someone else out of fear of their feelings. Feelings have become more important than honest, open discussion.

 
When the culture has been raised to protect their feelings more than a desire to learn, they will be hypersensitive to any form of correction. Since the people are full of pride, they resist correction as though it were the new evil. It is the reason the school system is failing, giving good marks to children for trying, rather than for achievement.

 
The culture has become less intelligent and more obstinate than ever before because of the propensity to withhold proper teaching and challenges that force someone to try harder or to evaluate their own way of thinking.

 
Children now believe they know everything; any correction at all makes them angry. They assign bad motives to those who tell the truth to help them grow. They gossip, lie, and punish anyone who attempts to explain why there was a correction.
In short, the culture has become more irrational, less contemplative, and highly vengeful.

 
2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

2 Timothy 3:1-5 "But understand this: In the last days, terrible times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,"

1 Timothy 4:1-2 "Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron."
Acts 20:29-30 "I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them."

Romans 16:17-18 "Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Turn away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive."

Division is created when scripture is ignored in favor of worldly cultural Christianity that elevates errors above the truth while punishing those who bring the Word of God as the evidence of truth.

Freedom in Christ is Great Joy

So much of the way people act and what they believe is based on a lifetime of false Christianity and false doctrine. The only way to overcome it all is to ask God to reveal all that is wrong and be willing to discard anything that is not of God when He reveals it to them.

The reason people remain in a system that has been wrong for hundreds of years is that the rest of the culture around them would call them insane if they deviated from what the culture has always practiced.

Mark 7:13 "So much of the way people act and what they believe is based on a lifetime of false Christianity and false doctrine. The only way to overcome it all is to ask God to reveal all that is wrong and be willing to discard anything that is not of God."

Matthew 15:8-9 …7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8 ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ "

I recall a few times when I quoted scripture to an old woman who had been attending a modern church all her life until she became too ill to leave her home. This woman often spoke unbiblical things based on the culture, and was irritated when I would give her scripture that clarified or corrected her thinking. She resisted the scripture because it came from someone she considered to be a fanatic.
Sadly, this is the state of many people who have attended large gatherings all their lives. They go to a large building, sit in the pews for years without interjecting or participating except when told to repeat after the pastor in the pulpit or to sing a song the leader told them to sing. Nothing was led by the Holy Spirit, and no one was allowed to speak except those who were considered to be in authority over the people.

The pews all faced forward toward the designated preacher, who was elevated on a platform as though superior to the others below.

The people below in the pews treated the one in the pulpit as though he were the mediator between them and God. The people dared not speak without permission, or they would have been considered rebellious by the rest of the group.

God's model for the church gathering was for all to participate; there would be several leaders who led by example and teaching, but had no authority over the others. The elders served, not dominated.

Matthew 20:24-26 "…24 When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them aside and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,…"

1 Corinthians 14:26 " 26 What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a psalm or a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. All of these must be done to build up the church."

Everyone participates, and the Holy Spirit is the leader in the gathering of believers. The groups are small, so that this can happen decently and in order. The leaders are servants of all to help with guidance, and they are subject to correction themselves as are all the rest.

 
No person is greater than another; only the Holy Spirit is above all.

 
Ephesians 5:19 "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord,"

Colossians 3:16 "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God."

Romans 12:6-8 "We have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If one’s gift is prophecy, let him use it in proportion to his faith; if it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is giving, let him give generously; if it is leading, let him lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully."

In the gathering as described by God in the Word is vibrant, each person participates according to the leading of the Holy Spirit, not according to rules instituted by men. No one is forbidden to speak as is in the institutionalized churches.

 
I have experienced this a few times in my life and was so blessed that I cannot describe the fullness of the time spent with others who love to edify one another in the Word. There were leaders who were men, and no one was considered superior to anyone else, because Christ was elevated not people.

1 Peter 4:10-11 "As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another. If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen."

God does command us not to forsake gathering together, but that does not mean we must gather in the way of the culture. God told us that where two or three are together, He is in the midst, and that it can be anywhere on any day of our choosing, it can be every day or any day chosen. There are no rules about when to meet or with how many. The example in Scripture was in homes; no special building was required.

 
Hebrews 10:24-25 "And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
The purpose of the gathering was to edify one another, building one another in the faith so that everyone would leave that place having grown in wisdom and holiness.

 
Sadly, the modern gatherings have reverted back to the Catholic model with a hierarchy of men negating the Holy Spirit in every other believer who was considered less than the one in that elevated pulpit. The clues are those pews all facing forward and that man elevated above the others in a pulpit as though an authority.

 
There is great freedom in following Christ; the bondage of organized religion, based on man's ideas, is eliminated when we obey the Word of God in our gatherings.