The
Evidence
Delusion

A Christian pastor directly addresses the atheist challenge

Want to contact the speaker Pastor Pete?
pete@manchesterlutheran.church
07857 057 006

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.”
—The Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 2:1

7:30pm, Wed 9th July

Welcome, thanks for coming this evening, and I hope you enjoy our cheeky title: “The Evidence Delusion” a play on words on Richard Dawkins’ famous book: “The God Delusion”

As we begin, I’d like to ask you to do me a favour and remember this question:

Why would God hide himself?

My thesis for tonight: God is not a delusion. But the idea of evidence for God is a delusion.

Trust in God is a gift God gives us through the Word of Jesus, it is not something we can create by reason or argument.

Nevertheless, I’ll start by acknowledging that many Christians throughout history have tried to claim there is evidence or rational arguments for God’s existence. The five big classics are:

• Cosmological: everything has a cause, and so must the universe.
• Contingency: everything depends on something else, God is it.
• Teleological: there’s order in the universe, therefore a designer.
• Ontological: the idea of God is so great, he must exist.
• Moral: morality exists, so must have been given by God.

These are all unconvincing: and I can totally understand how frustrating it is for an atheist or a humanist to have to listen and respond to them. If I’m honest, arguments like these feel to me like they border on gaslighting atheists.

And these ideas are repackaged today by modern “apologists”:

• The historical evidence for the resurrection.
• The fact that Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus.
• The manuscript evidence for the New Testament.
• The internal need for meaning in life.
• Religious experiences we may have had.
• Or the idea of Christianity as the foundation for modern science.

These modern repackaged arguments are also unpersuasive—for a reason: They are not what God’s Word says.

God himself does not say to you: Believe I exist—and here’s evidence to persuade you.

In reality the Bible’s claims are unprovable:

• God created all things by His Word, so that you would know Him.
• God loves you unconditionally.
• God became a human being to die for you.
• This God-man Jesus rose from the dead to make you righteous.
• Jesus now rules all things because he cares about you.

These are not rational claims: God does not intend them to be.

They are mysteries: strange, even offensive to our natural instincts for evidence and proof. No amount of evidence could ever “prove” these things to me.

The idea that a man rose from the dead is inherently ridiculous—at least to me.

I believe it is true: but not because of some evidence I saw.

The Bible’s claims are irrational. God does not say: “Believe these things, here’s the evidence.”

That misunderstanding is The Evidence Delusion.

In fact, God does the very opposite of providing evidence. The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah says this:

“Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.”

The Bible says this same idea in multiple places:

Colossians 2:2-3:

“God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”

Exodus 33:20, God says to Moses:

you cannot see my face

Mark 7:36:

And Jesus charged them to tell no one.

This is the evidence delusion: The misunderstanding that God offers evidence, when in reality he has actually hidden it.

But, why? Why would God do that? Let’s return to that question we asked earlier: Why would God hide himself?

Because, rather than trying to generate evidence for the unprovable that the Bible never attempts to offer, this question actually gets into what the Bible actually claims.

And, there three parts to the Bible’s answer:

1) Two problems
2) Two solutions
3) Why God hides himself

The first part:

1) Two problems

These are:
The problem with evidence.
And the problem with people.

The problem with evidence is this: Evidence creates beliefs, but not trust.

Here’s what I mean… Some religious people claim that atheism is just another “religious position” because atheists and humanists believe things.

But, something about that argument clearly just feels off. I can only imagine feels pretty irritating, And I can understand why you might feel frustrated when hearing it.

The reason that argument feels “off”: is because it lacks the critical thinking to distinguish two different kinds of belief

There is a clear difference between “trusting, depending, relying on” and “believing something as a proposition”

And the confusion partly arises because the English word “believe” can be used to mean both things.

But, a few hundred years ago, when people used Latin as a technical language, they distinguished these ideas with two technical terms:

• assensus: assent, belief, holding something to be true; and
• fiducia: trust, reliance on, depending on a person or thing

These two concepts are not the same.

We actually see this distinction emerge in “The Little Book of Humanism” by Alice Roberts and Andrew Copson. In the chapter on Being Good they quote Richard Norman who writes:

“To cooperate with one another, we need to be able to rely on one another and trust one another. That is why we need the values of honesty, of loyalty, of being reliable, and keeping our promises and agreements.”

That’s a great description of fiducia, or trust.

Whereas in the chapter on Religion and Faith, they write this:

“Religious people believe in one, or a few gods, and reject all the others. Humanists just go one step further, rejecting belief in all of them.”

That’s a great description of assensus, or belief.

The Bible agrees with “The Little Book of Humanism” on this. (Not a sentence you probably hear every day!)

One particularly dramatic way the concepts are distinguished is in the book of James, chapter 2, verses 17 and 19:

“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead… Even the demons believe—and shudder!”

James’ point is to distinguish two types of “faith”:

• “faith” that we depend and so act on: this is trust or fiducia,
• “faith” which we don’t depend on, and so is “dead” this is assensus, mere intellectual assent.

And, what’s more, you can have assensus without fiducia. Or you can have fiducia without assensus.

In other words, you can believe things without trusting them. And you can trust things without understanding or even believing them.

Kids do this all the time:

When I lived in Africa, my family were exposed to lots of diseases, so my wife and I put various rules in place for the kids.

My 5 year old didn’t understand, or even believe, these invisible problems existed, but he trusted us, so followed our instructions.

The problem with evidence is this: it can only create assensus, mere belief, dead faith.

Evidence on its own cannot inspire trust. Trust is something that arises in relationships.

Which was so perfectly captured by that quote in “The Little Book of Humanism”:

“To cooperate with one another, we need to be able to rely on one another and trust one another. That is why we need the values of honesty, of loyalty, of being reliable, and keeping our promises and agreements.”

That’s the problem with evidence, the second problem is with people.

The problem with people is everyone behaves inconsistently with their beliefs. At some point, we see inside all of us, that all of us are untrustworthy. That’s part of the human condition.

Bertrand Russell put this very well in his book Sceptical Essays:

“We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one which we preach, but do not practice, and another which we practice, but seldom preach.”

And, again, the Bible completely agrees with Bertrand Russell on this point. The Apostle Paul writes this in Romans 2:1-3:

“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?”

Paul’s point is exactly what Bertrand Russell said: look, the reality is, if we’re honest, all of us say we believe one thing to be moral, but none of us live up to our own standards.

In a very honest part of his letter, chapter 7 v. 18, Paul puts it like this:

I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

And this is why, Paul explains, God has given us his Law.

God’s Law is not the central message of the Bible, but it runs all through the Bible. Because, the purpose of this Law, God’s commandments, things like: don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness, don’t covet… …is to reveal this inner problem we have.

This inner problem—our tendency to behave inconsistently—is what the Bible calls sin.

Which the Bible claims stems from a natural distrust of God, Paul puts it this way in Romans 14:23:

whatever does not proceed from faith is sin

And he explains that God gives us his Law to reveal sin, so that we understand it, and give us context to understand God’s solution to it.

In Romans 5:20-21 he writes:

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is why, in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 22 verses 37-40, Jesus said this about God’s Law:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus says here that even though God’s Law is not the central message of the Bible, God’s Law is present throughout the whole Bible, because the whole Bible depends upon it:

So, remember that question: Why would God hide himself?

Well, here are the two problems.

The problem with evidence: evidence can only ever produce belief, it cannot produce trust.

And the problem with people: as Bertrand Russell rightly noted, we are all hypocrites, because nobody lives consistently with their beliefs anyway.

But, describing these problems is only part of the answer, as to why God hides himself. We also need to understand the two different solutions.

That’s the second part of the Bible’s answer:

2) Two solutions

One Human. One Divine.

The first solution is the human solution, which is to “work off” the problem.

In biblical terms—if you don’t mind indulging me for a theological moment—this is to misunderstand the role of God’s Law.

God’s Law is given to reveal sin and give us context for its solution. But God’s Law is not given as a solution to sin.

However, all human solutions are essentially Law-solutions. That is any approach that says:

—believe something
—understand something
—say something
—do something
—or be something

…so that you’ll:

—be more consistent
—or be more moral
—or be more righteous
—or be someone who’s improving
—etc., etc.

All human solutions are Law solutions: they just disagree about what the correct “Law” is.

Here’s another quote from “The Little Book of Humanism”, where they are talking about the problem of selfish thinking:

Humanists think that the solution to this problem lies in thinking about other people’s perspectives – simply asking other people what makes them happy and what makes them unhappy.

Wise advice. And that’s something I try to do myself even. But, that’s a good example of a “Law solution”.

Another great example of what you might call a “Humanist Law-solution” is Clifford’s principle

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone to believe anything on insufficient evidence.

Funnily enough, this isn’t an alien concept to the Bible. The book of Ecclesiastes, written over 2,300 years ago, is framed as an exploration of empirical research.

Ecclesiastes 1:13 says:

And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven.

Again: the Bible addresses these kinds of categories, different approaches to behaviour management, empiricism, moral structure, etc.

But, it just restricts the idea of Law only to something that reveals and describes the problem of the human condition, not a solution to it.

And even though the contents the Bible’s Law, do at times differ from Humanistic principles and morals, and those differences may feel significant to people who care passionately about them: in reality the most important difference is this:

Whatever your standard, principle, or code is: what is its function? What is “Law” for?

The Bible says: all it can do is reveal and explain our problem. It can never be a solution. This is where it differs from human solutions.

And that is a key difference between the Bible and other religious texts.

Because, again, even though the content of their Law, commands, instructions, wisdom may be different: where other religions are closer to Humanism than the Bible, is that they also see their Law, commands, instructions, whatever, as at least part of the solution to the human condition.

In Islam, for example, the solution to sin is the five pillars:

• Shahada;
• Salat;
• Zakat;
• Sawm; and
• Hajj

Now, it’s immediately obvious from the first of those, Shahada—faith—that Muslims completely disagree with Humanists, who base your life on evidence.

Islam is a religious position. Humanism is not.

And yet, critical thinking demands we recognise what similarities do exist when we carefully compare concepts:

Islam says: “The solution to the human condition is:
—think this way
—do these things
—and be one kind of person.”

Humanism says: “The solution to the human condition is:
—think that way
—do those things
—and be another kind of person.”

They massively differ in the details, but there is a similarity in substance.

And it is this similarity where the Bible takes a different path.

To quote the Apostle Paul again, he writes in Romans 2 verse 6:

[God] will render to each one according to his works:

And even though people may have a completely different understanding of morality to God, He will take that into account, v. 12:

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

But, even taking into account people’s different understands, the problem of the human condition still remains.

He concludes his explanation of sin in chapter 3:9-12 with a catena of quotations from the Hebrew scriptures, about the fact that nobody lives consistently:

all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands;… All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

So: whatever Law you live by, whatever principle, whatever rule, whatever philosophy… …the Bible says that “being correct or not” isn’t the point.

Because none of us live consistent with our beliefs, no human solution to our problem can ever work. And so the Bible explicitly rejects these solutions:

Galatians 3:10-11:

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law

So that’s the first solution, the human solution.

But, the second solution, the God solution is this: He just gives it to you: because he loves you.

Unconditional, unqualified, unreserved, unlimited, unwavering, undeserved love, mercy, kindness, forgiveness, generosity and good favour.

And God gave His Law merely as a framework, so you have context to understand the free nature of his gift. God has given you His righteousness: you don’t need to be right. God has given you His justification: you don’t need to be just.

This unconditional love is what’s summarised in the Apostles’ Creed:

I believe in God the Father; Matthew 6:26:

Look at the birds of the air… your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

He loves you even if you don’t believe in Him.

almighty; Romans 5:8:

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

He loves you even if you distrust and hate Him.

maker of heaven and earth; Acts 17:24-27

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything… that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.

God didn’t make everything for His own benefit: He made it for yours.

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord; John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,

God’s actions toward you in Jesus Christ are purely motivated by his unconditional love for you.

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary; Galatians 4:4-5:

when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

God’s Law gives us the context to understand how God freely gives us forgiveness through His Son: The God-Man was born under the Law for you, obeyed it perfectly for you, so that he could legally and freely give you the reward for perfect obedience to the Law.

Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; Romans 4:25:

[Jesus] was delivered up for our trespasses

All four Gospel record that Jesus stood before two Law courts: A Jewish one that couldn’t prove his guilt. And a Roman one that declared him innocent and pure. And then a murderer called Barabbas was released instead and Jesus suffered the legal penalty, crucifixion, that Barabbas deserved.

All four Gospels record all these events, because Jesus paid the legal penalty for your sins.

He descended into Hell, On the Third day he rose again…; Romans 4:25:

and raised for our justification.

Jesus rose again from death, so that you are legally declared righteous, perfect, justified. And finally,

I believe in the Holy Spirit... Romans 3:23-25:

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

This righteousness, this justification, has been won and given freely to you. In Jesus, God has taken away your sins, and declared you righteous.

And we receive that justification through faith:

Not through “belief” Not through assensus Not through holding certain things to be true. But through trust.

And that trust is not something we create in ourselves. That faith, that trust is itself a Gift of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 2:8-9:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The Holy Spirit gives people this faith as they hear the Gospel—the promise of His goodness towards us.

1 Thessalonians 1:5 says:

our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

So, to the problem of evidence, that evidence cannot create trust and to the problem of people, that nobody lives consistently with their beliefs, …there are two solutions:

The human solution is any kind of belief, system, understanding, work we do. None of these human solutions work.

And God’s solution is simply to give us His righteousness as a free gift, and even the trust itself to receive that righteousness is itself a gift he freely gives through the Gospel.

This is the message of the whole Bible. Acts 10:43:

To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

The whole Bible is about this Gospel: God’s free gift to you.

And so, that is why, Part 3:

God hides himself.

God hides himself precisely to avoid putting you in a situation where you are having to analyse evidence, and create belief based on your own work and reason.

God hides himself to give you trust as a gift.

God hides himself to avoid putting you through some kind of test of reason.

Richard Dawkins rightly said:

“Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.” and “Religious faith not only lacks evidence, its independence from evidence is its pride and joy, shouted from the rooftops.”

The Bible explicitly agrees with Dawkins here, 1 Corinthians 2:3-5, Paul writes:

“And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

Jesus said the same with slightly different imagery. Luke 10:21:

“In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”

Think about those words we heard earlier from Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works,

Faith doesn’t come by religious works. Faith doesn’t come by moral works. And faith explicitly doesn’t come by works or reason or wisdom or reading or archaeology.

God has deliberately hidden himself so that you can’t find him through analysing evidence, so that he can give you faith purely as a gift.

I fully agree with Dawkins:

Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.

So agrees Paul. So agrees Jesus. So agrees the whole Bible.

You know, the people who struggle most with this message, is not atheists, or humanists, but Christians.

So many Christians, especially Christian preachers or apologists, just deny what the Bible is saying here.

And try to claim that we can prove our religion is true with amazing arguments, or incredible miracles, or absolute proofs, or impressive feats.

But why? Why do Christians of all people make those claims if the Bible doesn’t?

Because I look like a right idiot this evening, don’t I?

This message that I’m giving to you tonight, doesn’t make me look clever, reasonable, rational, powerful or impressive.

Because it ISN’T clever, reasonable, rational, powerful or impressive.

What I believe cannot be proven with evidence. I’ve been saying that from the beginning.

I’m not gonna lie or pretend.

The only reason why my preaching has any effect, isn’t because I’m clever or impressive, it’s because in this weak, foolish, stupid message that God loves you, His Spirit actually does work in invisible power and give people trust that it’s true.

Again, Paul says exactly the same thing, 1 Corinthians 1:22-25:

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

God hides his strength in weakness. God hides his wisdom in foolishness. God hides all the evidence, so that he can give you trust in Him as a gift through this simple, unimpressive, idiotic message:

God loves you.

So: Why is evidence for God a delusion? Why would God hide himself?

Well, because of Two problems:

The problem of evidence: evidence can create assensus, belief, but not trust fiducia, trust.

And the problem of people: nobody lives consistently according to their beliefs.

And because there are Two solutions:

The human solution, which doesn’t work: to rely on some kind of belief, process, system understanding, work, Law, principle, etc.

And the divine solution: to give you righteousness, justification, forgiveness as a free gift

So God hides himself, God withholds evidence of himself:

To prevent us relying on ourselves. To prevent us treating trust as a test of wits and understanding.

So that he can work His power in our weakness, and His wisdom in our foolishness. So that He can give you faith as an unconditional, unilateral gift:

As Jesus himself once said to a top academic, who simply didn’t understand:

Because God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Thanks so much for patiently listening.

I do hope I’ve been able to provoke some questions and interesting discussion.