"With education comes enlightenment. Looking to petty deities is in cultural decline in most countries that educate their people."
Perhaps you've seen similar statements to the above. I know I have. Many times. Atheists in particular like to take pride in their education. They boast about it. They attempt to belittle anyone who doesn't share their worldview as being under-educated, or not paying attention in school. But the irony is, in their boasting, they disprove their right to boast.
See, as much as they like to feel big and try to make others feel small, no amount of education seems to improve their ability to make educated arguments against any religion. In recent years, it seems to have done a fantastic job confusing people about the difference between men and women, which is one of the most basic and fundamental facts of biology. But it can't teach atheists, who boast so strongly about their education, to argue against the God they claim only uneducated people believe in?
Uneducated people like... The more than 60% of Nobel Prize winners between 1901 and 2000? (Compared to just under 11% who were atheists). Uneducated people like the doctors, lawyers, scientists, historians, cold case detectives, and many others who, "in spite of", and often even because of their education, came to faith, and actually present educated arguments for it! Uneducated people who, ironically, often have more qualifications than the atheists who have the audacity to slander them as being uneducated.
Shouldn't we expect a whole lot more from atheists? If they're going to take such pride in their education, shouldn't they be leading by example? Shouldn't they be showing us, rather than telling us, that their view is the enlightened one? It should be easy, shouldn't it? If someone tells me the world is flat, I don't have to mock them as being uneducated, especially if they're coming at me with evidence (which they're surprisingly good at). No, I can show them that actually, any spherical object, from a close and low enough perspective, will appear "flat" (and that even many of their "where is the curve?" photos actually do have a slight curve). I can point out that ships disappear over the horizon bottom first. I can point to witness testimony from people who have actually been to space, including some who took photos. And I can do all of that without feeling the need to stroke my own ego. I don't need to puff myself up or belittle flat earthers.
And so it is clear that atheists can't blame their education for their atheism. It's all about ego. It's a temptation common to our kind. Whether insecurities over our own shortcomings, or just general narcissism, we often want to feel something makes us superior to our peers. It's the origin of racism, sexism, and various other forms of bigotry, including the belief that atheists are superior. But there is one aspect of education atheists can blame for their atheism.
See, children are quite impressionable things. It is the reason children so often share the religious views of their parents, as well as why cultures tend to hold to common beliefs. So, when children are raised Christian, they tend to stay Christian. When children are raised Muslim, they tend to stay Muslim. When children are raised atheist, they tend to stay atheist. And when children are raised to believe someone made this
but no one made this
they tend to retain that insanity until someone points out the folly of it.
But how hard is it to point out that folly, really? If God's designs are so awesome that we copy them (and we do, constantly), then atheism is the most egregious act of plagiarism in the history of... ever! The world we live in is so exquisitely designed that it truly takes effort to deny the designer. It's like marvelling over a mud hut, only to brush aside a mansion. Even if you don't know who God is, the fact that there is one is so unbelievably obvious, you would sooner convince me to deny the existence of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Henry Ford, because compared to the tiniest cell in my body, their designs are pretty darn shoddy.
For generations, we have taught children that they're the result of a magical explosion, and are descended from a mythical, self-created microbe, which turned into a fish, a frog, a chimp, and eventually a man. With how impressionable students are, especially in an environment they believe is specifically designed to teach them the truth about the world, it's no wonder so many of them become atheists. But it isn't their education that makes them atheists. It's their indoctrination.
What makes it even worse is that the greatest influencers on education know this! Take, for example, Eugenie Scott, who served as the Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education between 1986 - 2014. Scott is famous for opposing all forms of teaching Creationism in schools, of course preferring her Evolutionary dogmas to be shoveled down kids' throats without mercy. Here's what she said about the topic being brought up in critical thinking classes:
"In my opinion, using creation and Evolution as topics for critical-thinking exercises in primary and secondary schools is virtually guaranteed to confuse students about Evolution, and may lead them to reject one of the major themes in science."
Let's translate that without all the PR talk: "In my opinion, we shouldn't teach students to critically examine the origins debate, because Evolution doesn't hold a candle to Creationism, so lots of students would at least end up rejecting Evolution".
Can you imagine anyone saying the same about the flat earth model? The whole point of critical thinking exercises is to teach students how to think about any issue. Anyone who discourages critical thought on specific topics (kind of like a cultist...) is tacitly admitting their views cannot stand the test of critical thought. If you compare the flat earth and round earth models, kids aren't likely to come away as flat earthers, are they? Yet, Eugenie Scott admits if they thought critically about Evolution, they might reject it!
Well, to that I say, yes, they would. Evolution is a silly religion, it shouldn't be taught to the exclusion of all other origins models in schools, students should be taught to question it (after all, don't atheists love to say "I'd rather have questions without answers than answers that can't be questioned"?). And if that leads them to reject Evolution? Good!
But we can't have that, can we? Because Evolution is the only aspect of education likely to preserve atheism. It would go back to how it was before, with no credible alternative (not that Evolution can be considered credible) to Creationism. But then Christianity would again have a foothold in society. Ick, worse! Moral standards might return. No more blues in pink loos. No more suing innocent bakers or florists over their conscience. No more Critical Race Dogma. No more Socialism. No more murder under the guise of bodily autonomy!
In the end, the modern state of our society proves Paul 100% right: "For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions. For even their females exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. The males in the same way also left natural relations with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error.
And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong. They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. Although they know full well God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them." (Romans 1:18-32).
If Paul was so spot on in his assessment of anti-Christian society, maybe we ought to ask ourselves about that God of his. Specifically, how do we avoid the due penalty for the sins we commit against Him? Thankfully, this isn't all that hard. See, as any educated historian knows, Jesus really did exist. He walked the Earth, He did miracles, He died, and His tomb was found empty.
Because He walked right out of it.
Jesus is still alive! His death was the punishment due to us for our sins. He received the full wrath of God on our behalf, so that though we are guilty, we can be declared righteous in the sight of God. By repenting of our sin, confessing Jesus as Lord, and believing in our hearts God raised Him from the dead, we, too, will be raised into eternal glory, never to perish again. Or you can spend the rest of your life as a robot who doesn't think he has a Creator, only to be sent off to the scrapyard for being deliberately irreparable. Your education will bring you no comfort there.