Barry Meguiar
Welcome back to another episode of Ignite. And we have back our special guest, Eric Metaxas.
Eric Metaxas
Well, thanks for having me.
Barry Meguiar
It’s always fun to be with you now. I, I would we both love to share faith. We’re gonna talk about that today. I get you’ve written so many books, the definitive book on CS Lewis, the Bonhoeffer book, which I want to talk more about, because it seems to relate today. But this thing atheism is dead. And it really is.
Eric Metaxas
My new book. Yeah. Oh, by the way, your I didn’t write a book about CS Lewis. I’ve written about CS Lewis. I’ve written a lot about CS Lewis. I’ve written all kinds of stuff. But the new book, I mean, most people might know me because of my Bonhoeffer book a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. But my new book is titled, Is Atheism dead? It’s a question. And the title comes from my response. Some people remember 1966, very famous Time magazine article, it asked Is God dead? And long story short, where we are now in the culture, science has quietly been pointing. Now think of the irony, science has been pointing to the idea that there is a Creator of the universe. And I’m not going into the details. But it’s become so dramatic over the decades, and most people don’t think about it. And I said, if they knew just what’s in my book, Is Atheism dead? They would understand the question you’d ask today is not is God dead, you’d have to ask, is Atheism Dead? Because from the new scientific evidence now, we don’t have to base our lives on scientific evidence. I mean, I know Jesus is real. And the Bible is true, apart from science, but the point is, if you’re not sure, and you just look at the science, and a few other things that I mentioned in the book. The question today overwhelmingly is, is atheism dead? And I actually would say, to cut to the chase, yes. In other words, intellectually, the idea that there is no god no created the Universe, and everything emerged randomly by accident. The odds of that, based on what we know today are less than zero. I and I’m not exaggerating, I mean, you could have any theory you want, you can believe whatever you want. You cannot believe that 50 years ago, when Time Magazine had that article, a lot of people could say, Well, based on the evidence, I think maybe there’s no God. Today, I challenge people, I challenge you, you can look at my book, and you tell me, I would say the evidence is so dramatic and overwhelming. That the concept that there is no God is absolutely intellectual, intellectually untenable. You could say I’m an agnostic, I have questions. I don’t understand this. I’m going to say that, great. But I don’t think you can be intellectually respectable today and say, I know that there’s no God.
Barry Meguiar
I, you know, we’ve been Karen and I have both been sharing our faith every day for almost 50 years. And I have bumped into very few people that are that call themselves atheists. I mean, they’re, they’re in the minutiae. But they do happen. And so I think from a faith sharing standpoint, this book is really important, even for our own affirmation.
Eric Metaxas
Actually, that’s, to me, that’s the most important part. I think people think I’m gonna give this book to my atheist friend, right? Listen. Most people who say they believe in God, or believe in the God of the Bible, don’t act like it. In other words, they act like they’re hedging their bets a little bit. They act like well, I believe that I believe it. But But I’m here to say that, again, there’s great irony here, that science and a number of other things have provided evidence that there is a God who created this universe in which we live and on and on and on. On a level that most of us in our lifetimes didn’t think was possible. And so I wrote the book, hoping to get it into the hands of people who have some faith, that they would read it and they would say, Oh, my goodness, I had no idea how much evidence there is. In other words, why have I been timid about my faith? What what is wrong with me? It’s like being timid about science like saying, I don’t know, science works. And I don’t know and I need say, Listen, just just just understand that we might not have all the answers to everything. But we have enough evidence now to know that if you had to choose, is there a God who made the universe? Is there a God who wrote the Bible? Is there a god? You’d have to say yes. And so I think it’s for people of faith, either a lot of faith or a little faith, but some faith to say to them, your if you know the truth of this evidence, your faith will be bolder, you will be less shy about sharing your faith with strangers because you know the evidence is on yourself.
Barry Meguiar
Truth is a wonderful thing. I get books, you know, we all get into books. I can’t read all the books, I read books that I, that I’m convinced will help me get more solid in what I can say when I’m sharing my faith. And I quote tidbits out of your book, just because I mean, just some of the gems that book you could throw it in at certain times and conversations, they go, Wow, it just changes people.
Eric Metaxas
That’s my dream come true. When you write a book Barry, you hope that there gonna be people out there who can have that response to they’re going to grab this thing and use it because I, I can’t take credit. I mean, I’m being serious when I say it’s only by God’s grace that I bumped into a lot of this information. But what I can take credit for is that at some point, I said, this information is so overwhelming. I know, most people I know, are not aware of this information. I have got to put it in a book. I’ve got to get this information out there. Because it will change your relationship to faith, you’ll be you know it. I mean, I was I was saying it’s like, there are people who hope things and then there are people that know things, right. When you know, all this information, I mean, I’ll tell you, here’s a headline, all my life, I’ve gotten this idea. Most people understand that somehow faith and science are at odds, somehow science is pushing religious faith out. Okay. Yeah, we’ve grown up with that as part of the culture. I’m here to tell you, literally, the exact opposite is true. I don’t mean, it’s, it’s it’s not as strong as that. I mean, literally, the opposite is true. Science is pointing to faith dramatically. And again, it’s a headline, I say, I challenge you to, you know, look at the facts. And don’t just take my word for it. But I would also say that we need to know historically, it is Christian faith. I mean, think of this, it is Christian faith, that led to modern science. That’s a fact. That’s a historical fact. It’s not like a Christian point of view. A historical fact. And I have many people in the book that I quote, who are not Christians, who say, what we think of as modern science, with all of its extraordinary abilities and potentials came out of historical Christian faith in the 16th and 17th, centuries, period, end of sentence. So if you think that faith and science are somehow at odds, not only is that not true, it’s literally the opposite. And because so few people know that you can understand how I feel half nuts, they get this message out there to say to people, you’ve been sold a preposterous lie. And you need to know that even the idea of rationality, the idea of trying to figure out things scientifically, all of this ultimately comes out of a Christian worldview. I didn’t really know that. And once you know it, you think, how have I bought these lies that that faith and science are at odds. You could tell him a man on a mission?
Barry Meguiar
Okay. One more thing for you. But before we quit here, okay. The two foremost minds? A spokesman for atheist
Eric Metaxas
I get excited
Barry Meguiar
If nothing else remember this.
Eric Metaxas
That’s right. This Yeah, no. I would say the same thing. If nothing else, remember that? Remember this? This is really important. Okay. My basic thesis in the book is that again, he asked the question is atheism deadt? This idea that there’s no God? Right? I deal with the science. I deal with archaeology I do. Okay. Put all of that to the side. At the end of the book, I deal with the concept of atheism itself. And I say that the people who were brave enough to look at the idea of a world without God, are very few. Two of the most famous 20th century John Paul Sarte and Albert Camus the French existentialist. They understood that if there is no God, which was what they believed, they said, if there is no God, then there is no meaning in the universe. Then we have to somehow figure out can we create a system of ethics to live as human beings without God? They really wrestled with this. And they understood that if it’s true, there’s no God. There’s nothing to be happy about. Now, this is I just find this funny. They had an honesty, okay. There are a lot of people who say I’m atheist, and it’s great and I can do what I want or whatever. What I talk about in the book is that people who have this flippant, shallow view of a world without God, you can’t take them seriously because they don’t look very deep. The two people who look the deepest Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sarte at the end of their lives, here’s the punch line, both of them independent of each other by 20 years. Both of them came through the other side to believe in the God of the Bible. And now I thought to myself when I encountered this, I said, How is it possible? I’ve never heard this before that two of the most famous atheists of the 20th century may be the most famous. Not only were troubled by this concept of atheism, but at the end of their lives, came to faith. I said, that’s the headline of the 20th century. Nobody knows this. And so when I put it in the book, I said, I’m dying to get this out. So that people know that the people who had the most guts to stare at the abyss of a world without God, those people eventually came out the other side. It is amazing that that’s true. But it is true. And it’s amazing that we didn’t know it. But now we know it’s
Barry Meguiar
It’s important that you know it. So when you’re sharing your faith, it just adds it you have an ammo chest, I feel I pulled on my chest, right? Off the pegs. And you never know what you need for it. But this ammo chest, understand it, read this book, it will give you such excitement for the truth. To know that what we believe is true. And, and the world needs to hear this best and nobody’s telling the world this. They’re not gonna how are they going to know unless somebody tells them and that’s true.
Eric Metaxas
Yeah. And I really do believe that people who already believe you say you have a faith, your faith needs bolstering you need to know that intellectually speaking, it’s open and shut. We’ve got to stop being timid. You’ve got understand the evidence while you were sleeping has been piling up. Here it is. So be bold. When you share your faith. This is not something that might be true. Maybe it works for you. This is reality. And and therefore, you know, we should be excited.
Barry Meguiar
You could hear Eric everyday on Salem radios and just like every major city in America.
Eric Metaxas
You just go to Eric metaxas.com Or look me up on the web, and try not to find me. It will be very difficult.
Barry Meguiar
I every every time I catch you, I’m on the runner. Do I catch you? I just got to stop. Because you always have these gems for us. Thank you for joining us today.
Eric Metaxas
Thank you for being such a dear friend. Thank you.
Barry Meguiar
Yeah, it’s very special. Integrate. Okay, see you next time.
