The online retro gaming community owes many thanks to Jim Leonard, from here on addressed by his screenname Trixter, the founder of MobyGames (which has become the premier database of electronic gaming). He keeps his own website with some pieces of history nigh-difficult to find elsewhere and a personal blog that only on occasion gets technical. Because of my interest in the technical side I thought I'd flip through his archives one evening and came across his "coming out" (his term) as an atheist: https://trixter.oldskool.org/2007/12/20/coming-out-of-the-closet/ As a born-again Christian I must live with the drive that knows everything I do, all the way down to my very purpose for being, is for the glory of my Lord and the growth of His kingdom. I started this blog asking for God's blessing (after all it takes work while gaining me nothing) and pledging my first post would involve something that can lead others to Him. As my About page indicates I acknowledge there is more than one perspective to everything and that truth must prevail only where it is absolute, thus this post is made as a rebuttal to Trixter's well-written reasons from his heart. Trixter: I feel as if I can relate to the GLBT community because I subscribe to a belief system that usually changes how people treat me once they know it. I rarely open up to people about it for fear of being ostracized, and of ruining friendships or business relationships...my belief system is a personal choice and doesn’t hurt anyone, yet...people I open up to seem threatened by it and never treat me the same way afterwards. This is more of a broad point rather than the matter at hand, but it bears mentioning that people in all of history have felt threatened by what they perceive to be a force of change towards their way of life. This is nothing new in the light of world history, and Christians especially from the beginning have not only faced but expected persecution because we know we are a threat: a threat to the power certain people in this world want to exercise over us. We are more alike than you think. Trixter: Previously I would only tell people that I knew (from personal experience) were kind, forgiving, and open-minded. But even for such people (especially the devout religious), it’s harsh, so I sometimes soften the blow with a quick follow-up that I’m “really more of a skeptic”, and just haven’t been presented any credible proof that deities exist. If I’m lucky, they accept that and move on, probably with an internal understanding that “I’ll find my proof some day and join the rest of the population in believing in [insert personal deity here].” If I’m unlucky, I’ll have to field questions about the Bible. I will never pretend to speak on behalf of Christianity in general because it has become such a broad spectrum over the centuries, but I will acknowledge (because Acts 1:8 is direct about it) to speak as a witness of what Christ has done for me and why the Bible can be believed. I do not know what "religious" people Trixter has encountered in his life, but any belief system has its different facets including elements of fault simply because it still deals with imperfect human beings capable of corruption. But once again, there is more common ground here than haughty attitudes will claim: I'm a skeptic myself, not of the Word of God but rather the opinions of man. The decision to believe or reject God is never entirely an intellectual one (more on this below). In any case, as I know humanity to be corrupt beyond solving his own problems it makes certain sense to me why people refuse to live and let live, with friendships sustaining despite differences in fundamental beliefs being the exception instead of the rule; I have experienced this myself as I have few homosexual friends remain friends (their choice, not mine) once it became clear to them I could never recognize that aspect of their lives as legitimate.
Trixter: Being an atheist is becoming easier in an increasingly modern world, but I can’t shake the feeling that society still has many years to go before athiests [sic] are treated fairly...which he follows with what amounts to a lament that "atheist pride" isn't more celebrated in our culture. He hits on an interesting point though there's more significance to it than he acknowledges. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he isn't making the arrogant presumption that society ought to bend over backwards to accommodate him: atheism is a religious belief (so far as the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is concerned) which means, like all other such beliefs, you can't be coerced by government to believe otherwise but that doesn't go so far as a right to have your beliefs celebrated (or not questioned). And as for his drawing parallels to racism and homophobia (how do I best put this?): when one is branded a white supremist for no reason other than having voted for President Trump and wanting to live in a country with a secure border, one can either 1) hate oneself for unknowingly being so evil or 2) just learn to care little for labels and opinions that run over with passion but have no objective merit.
Trixter: “What would it take for you to believe in [insert personal deity here]?” A giant flaming hand that lowers out of the sky and points directly at me, while a thunderous booming voice fills the heavens with a single “Believe in me!” (That’s not a joke answer — I’m being serious.)...Either it would be true or it would be a truly phenomenal feat of engineering, optics, and science. Both explanations would warrant unconditional worship! I chuckled when I read this because it so happened during my recent paternity leave my wife and I binged on Stargate SG-1. The premise of that universe's mythology is that all the ancient gods were real...albeit they were just advanced extraterrestrial enslavers with a god complex (the Star Trek episode "Who Mourns for Adonis?" flirts with this exact same idea). Regardless of Trixter's speculation that he would willingly submit to the Goa'uld just because they are capable of meeting his stipulations, and knowing that quoting Matthew 16:4 would ring hollow, the fact remains that even with signs right in front of them people still refused to believe because this is not a matter of intellect but of faith. I think the premise of Trixter's statement is that he considers his decision to be atheist an intellectual one, which brings us to:
Trixter: “Why don’t you believe in [insert personal deity here]?” Because I haven’t been presented credible evidence that your deity exists. I’m a practical, scientific person; I usually require proof of something before I subscribe to it...“What about the [insert religious text here]? Isn’t that proof that [insert religious text’s deity here] exists?” Nope. Text without verification is fiction. Can you prove that the events in the text actually happened?
This brings us well back into the realm of common ground, as I find these words of his what I most identify with. I likewise am a practical and scientific person (a test of my personality type would verify how "geeky" I am, not to mention realist to the point of cynicism) which is why I prefer to consider the evidence for myself instead of accepting prevailing "expert" word of something like Darwinian evolution or man-made climate change. I completely agree text without verification is [not necessarily fiction, just a probability] which is why I believe the original intended text of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, stories older than the New Testament, are lost to history...and am fascinated by people who accept the historical validity of today's tellings of Iliad and Odyssey while claiming the Bible was written centuries after the fact thus cannot possibly be accurate. This is not the place to elaborate how the validity of the Bible has been tested and passed (there are others far more qualified than me to go into detail on that), but to reiterate the point that without faith nothing can lead to belief, not even evidence.
I'd better come to the main point before this gets too long-winded; my apologies for that, but given the choice between concise and thorough the importance of this subject demanded the latter. How I would present the only important question that truly-matters in life may not be typical for some of my fellow Christians, but as someone who is both born again and a critical thinker (and living proof those traits are not mutually-exclusive) I know God cannot be comprehended by human intellect. So instead of asking "what do you believe and why?", "who is God to you?" or "where are you going in the next life?", I'll instead ask what every one of us has at some point: "What is the purpose of my existence?"
Every human being has faith in something, otherwise there'd be no belief let alone understanding: there must always be a premise to accept a fact, and analyzing that premise can only go so far before getting to the point of "we know this because that's just the way it is." Everyone also has ideals, the core facet of individual worldview that draws out how one believes the world ought to be. In a time when I was more idealistic (and, I confess, more arrogant) I would throw myself into debates on social networking. It didn't make me any new friends, but it was still a learning experience because I actually talked with atheists and discovered they weren't as empty and ignorant as I thought they were. Many had convinced themselves they were atheist (or agnostic, the less-arrogant variant that acknowledges God's existence cannot be dismissed) for intellectual or scientific reasons, some the same type as Trixter who dismisses God because the evidence for God isn't good enough for him. I already mentioned how evidence is never going to be enough for the faithless, but it goes deeper than that: the most profound discovery I made back then is that every atheist/agnostic I've encountered chose to be so for emotional reasons, not intellectual.
I would be so arrogant myself if I pretended God can be reached through an intellectual understanding; in fact, I mentioned the exact opposite a couple paragraphs ago. Faith is a personal decision not relegated to just one aspect of our humanity: it encompasses all of them. What's more is it isn't one-sided: while coming to saving faith in Christ is our own choice, the process of salvation has always been solely God's domain. The same goes for the choice to reject God, which everyone does so consciously for their own emotional reasons: from basic intellectual arrogance prompting bloated faith in one's own perceptions (this is the kind from those who demand evidence while refusing to acknowledge what's already out there), to deep reasons such as seeing natural disaster, experiencing a personal tragedy, or mistreatment at the hands of religious zealots in which the human heart is unable to reconcile how a God who allows such things to happen is truly loving (or out there at all).
What cannot be denied is everyone lives seeking to fulfill the answer to that one question. The late Dr. Henry M. Morris III (whom I knew personally through the First Baptist Church of Dallas) founded the Institute for Creation Research because he knew the scientific origins of humanity were merely one aspect, but still an essential one, to determining that answer. If humankind just exists here on Earth because of some happy accident of scientific process over eons, then we are merely intelligent animals set to live out our lives however we see best (and we certainly have differing opinions on that, some of which have led to war and other tragedies); I personally would find that a very empty existence. If, however, we were created for something much more, that changes everything. Whatever we each decide, it is a conscious step of faith.
What will you live for?
In His love,
BaronSFel001 P.S. There is one more aspect, not related directly to the main topic, still worth covering: Trixter: I hope we can still be friends. There's no reason we can't: friendship is love. Real love, the kind defined by its multiple forms in the Bible that considers well-being under any adversity (as opposed to shallow use of the term thrown around by sexual revolutionaries), is unconditional. Thus, love is a conscious choice that has absolutely nothing to do with feelings, which makes it really that simple. While it goes much deeper than live and let live, that is a good start.