CAPT. S. M. SHELTON
Commanding Officer
CDR. 12. L. CRANCE •
Executive Officer
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EDITOR: H. T. DAVIS, YB1 055-J or 365
THE
A D A K
SUN.,
THE CHAPLAINS CORNER with Chaplain
Perry
WHY I AM NOT AN ATHEIST By James
W. McClendon, Jr* (Reprinted by permissioa)
Mr, Bertrand 'Russell, the eminent
philosopher, has • just had reissued a
little pamphlet with the interesting
title, "Why I amt Not a Christian."
Though the contents of the book .are
disappointing, there not being enough
really acid paragraphs to whet the
appetite of the avid anti-Christian,
it is nevertheless a good title. If
good for nothing else, it suggests me.
From time to time one of my athdist
friends, noting some of my (holdover)
pagan ways, doubtless, will say to me,
"Come on, now Jim, why don't you break
over, give upthis Christian posturing,
and be a good atheist (or agnostic, or
pagan, or freethinker, or whatever he ••
likes to call it) too?" I am writing
this to answer suchevangelistic pleas,
. Of course I might give a facetious
answer, I might make a bad joke of it
and say,"I am not a pagan because I
know some people who claimto be pagans
but who do not live up to their pagan- .
ism. Every now and then they perform
some deed of self-sacrificial love, or
act as if they owed a duty to the
righteous God. And as long as there
are jany atheists who 'behave in this *
hypocritcal way, 1*11 just keep right
on being a Christian.'! I might say
tnis, fox* I have heard some atheists
give a similar excuse from their side!
But in fact I am not going to make any
(continued on next column)
—I
facetious replies of this sort*
Hor am I going u to reply, thdugh it
is tru9,fcut I am'afraid I myseld could
not live a consistent atheistical life.
Oh, I do live that life now, from time '
to time* Every now., and then I act as «
if I myself were- the only God I know.
I hurt my friends with unkind words, I
neglect my .wife who loves me and stands
by me, I fly into petulant rage at some
slight fault detected in my children.
But these acts ••are- occasional; isr it
possible to keep them- up always? Might
I not be a hypocritical atheist, if I
were one?. Might I not show my some act
of love- that the God I deny is really
present? This is a danger, but this is
not my real reason. In fact, my ex
perience leads me to believe that athe
istical conduct would come pretty ea^^
ily to me!
The real reason is, however, that I
am-not sure I could disbelieve. An
atheist must above all disbelieve in
God, What if . I could not do this?
Sometimes I could disbelieve in God* -I
could disbelieve in Him when T thought
of my own clever arguments, >T could
disbelieve in- Him when I was engrossed
in my lusts. But just as disbelief
seemed finally dominant, I fear I would
find myself asking,"Is there, perhaps,
after all, He?" And such doubts are
ruinous for atheism. The.sight of a
humble, godly Christian man or woman,
the warmth in a friend’s eyes or hand
clasp, the owful mystery of death, C.
S. Lewis’s "sunset touch"-any of tho^^
are all too likely to make a good atl^^
eist unsure of his- grounds and liable
to that dread abyss-faith. Perhaps my
fellow atheists could help mo overcome
this lurking faith, but I am not sure
of it. g
How a Christian can doubt his faitH
and recover from his doubts. He has,
according to that faith, everlasting
arms to hold him and shelter his home.
If his doubts are sins, they can be
forgiven if# not, no forgiveness is
needed. But who is to hold the atheist
on his course? There are by definition
n.o everlasting arms under him. Doubtj
then, to 'the atheist may well mean
final failure-or salvation,as we Chri- *
stians would say it. Apd , so I say
thank you, atheist friends? 'but I dare ’
not trust my self to the shifting winds
of your opinions. You are strong be
lievers in your atheist creed, but I
fear the winds of pagan doctrine would
not be enought to sastain so unsteady a
fellow as myself. I had better stay
on as a Christian. Won’t you join me?