Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes QUOTES

1 " As students, we took all of this for granted, like oxygen in a lecture hall, and we heaped harsh judgment on the Christian West,” John recalled. “But we rarely asked, ‘Compared to what?’ The ‘what’ was always some form of utopian ideal. But utopian ideals have not fared so well. In the twentieth century, secular utopian idealists presided over the extermination of a hundred million people, killed for ‘a higher good’ by the apostles of Darwin, Marx, and Nietzsche. History has never produced a more efficient set of butchers. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

2 " At the heart of the human condition, we might say, is an epistemological sin—the refusal to acknowledge what can be known about God and then to respond appropriately: “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him” (Rom. 1:21). They engage in willful blindness. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

3 " To adapt a phrase, idols have consequences. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

4 " Atheists often denounce Christianity as harsh and negative. But in reality it offers a much more positive view of the human person than any competing religion or worldview. It is so appealing that adherents of other worldviews keep free-loading the parts they like best. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

5 " If we do not cultivate the same confidence, the danger is that Christians will tend toward defensiveness and anger. In today’s grievance culture, it seems that some new group is always coming forward to complain that they are offended. It can be easy for Christians to pick up the same victim language. But our motivation for speaking out should not be only that we are offended. After all, we are called to share in the offense of the Cross. We are called to love the offender. Christians will be effective in reaching out to others only when they reflect biblical truth in their message, their method, and their manners. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

6 " if there is no God, and life is a chance product of blind material forces, what purpose does human life have? Is it just a chemical accident on a rock flying through the cold, empty reaches of space? "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

7 " a mind capable of forming an argument against God’s existence constitutes evidence for his existence. That is, a conscious being with the ability to reason, weigh evidence, and argue logically must come from a source that has at least the same level of cognitive ability. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

8 " When a worldview exchanges the Creator for something in creation, it will also exchange a high view of humans made in God’s image for a lower view of humans made in the image of something in creation. Humans are not self-existent, self-sufficient, or self-defining. They did not create themselves. They are finite, dependent, contingent beings. As a result, they will always look outside themselves for their ultimate identity and meaning. They will define human nature by its relationship to the divine—however they define divinity. Those who do not get their identity from a transcendent Creator will get it from something in creation. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

9 " We must be committed to turning away from idols and toward God as the ultimate source of truth in every area of life. To avoid being “conformed to this world,” we must “be transformed by the renewal of your mind "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

10 " Materialists thereby deny the reality of mind (while they use their minds to advance materialism), determinists deny the reality of human choice (while they choose determinism), and relativists deny the fact of right and wrong (while they judge you if you disagree). "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

11 " If movies and music are vehicles for emotionally “hooking” people into Hollywood worldviews, then the best countermeasure is to create more compelling, more beautiful forms of art that express a biblical worldview. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

12 " Clearly, Enlightenment thinkers were seeking a God substitute. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

13 " So here is Paul’s diagnosis of the human condition so far: God is constantly reaching out to people with evidence of his existence through general revelation. But humans are constantly suppressing those truths by creating idols. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

14 " Scientific evidence has shown that “built into the natural development of children’s minds [is] a predisposition to see the natural world as designed and purposeful and that some kind of intelligent being is behind that purpose.” Even if a group of children were put “on an island and they raised themselves,” Barrett adds, “I think they would believe in God.” 13 It appears that we have to be educated out of the knowledge of God by secular schools and media. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

15 " Only a God of love is fully personal. Thus the Trinity is crucial for maintaining a fully personal concept of God. As theologian Robert Letham writes, “Only a God who is triune can be personal.… A solitary monad cannot love and, since it cannot love, neither can it be a person.” Therefore it “has no way to explain or even to maintain human personhood. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

16 " Politically correct university courses are not liberating students to think for themselves. They are turning students into cadres of self-absorbed reactionaries ready to take orders from the faddish theorist of the moment. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

17 " Christianity agrees with Hamlet when he said to Horatio, “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy.” Reductionistic worldviews insist that there are fewer things in heaven and earth. Living according to these worldviews is like living in a concrete bunker with no windows. Communicating a Christian worldview should be like inviting people to open the door and come out. Our message ought to express the joy of leading captives out of a small, cramped world into one that is expansive and liberating. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

18 " Mitchell claimed that her materialist view leads to “humbleness.” But it is not humbling; it is dehumanizing. It essentially reduces humans to robots. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

19 " But things that are intrinsically good can also become idols—if we allow them to take over any of God’s functions in our lives. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes

20 " In short, their practice contradicts what they profess. They are trapped in cognitive dissonance. "

― Nancy R. Pearcey , Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes