UMass professor of philosophy Dr. Louise Antony confesses two distinct drawbacks to being an atheist.
During her closing statement at a 2008 academic debate on the , Dr. Louise Antony made a startling admission:
She said there’s a heavy price or two to pay for being an atheist.
Heavy Price One
First, Antony said that an atheist has no confidence that goodness will win out in the end.
The theist has a story with a happy ending. The atheist, on the other hand, no such hope.
In fact, Dr. Antony said there’s no reason at all to believe that the world just won’t destroy itself. That evil won’t win out.
Heavy Price Two
The second price Antony said the atheist has to pay is that there is no redemption.
She said if you’ve done something terribly wrong, something you deeply regret…that you know is awful…there is no mechanism to erase that. Nothing can remove that stain.
You can apologize and ask for forgiveness…but you carry that guilt with you until the day you die.
The Advantages of Being a Christian
Naturally, this doesn’t prove that atheism is false. What it does suggest, however, is that you better have a very compelling reason to abandon belief in God.
One of the advantages of being a Christian is the blessings of having a clear conscience. How wonderful it is to wake up in the middle of the night with a peaceful, clear conscience…and not one tormented by guilt and shame.
The other advantage is knowing that even though Christ was crucified he rose from the dead and demonstrated in one final flourish that, indeed, he was God, that Satan was defeated and that good will triumph in the end.
The atheist, unfortunately, even in his darkest moment, has no such comfort.