Monday, February 8, 2016

Calvin found the God of the Atheists

Rick Watson

Knowledge of self, knowledge of God, and even the very existence of God are three topics which can elicit a wide variety of discussions and even arguments in our modern time. There are those who would say that God no longer matters. There are those who would say that God is at the center of their world. How do we reconcile these differing views? Does John Calvin have anything to say about these topics?


According to dictionary.com knowledge is defined as follows: acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation; general erudition. As we consider this definition it would appear that knowledge is mostly dependent on human effort. This idea is in direct contrast to Calvin’s thoughts proposed in his first book of the Institutes.


Calvin reminds us that in fact knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves are interconnected. They are not simply something that we can do. They cannot be separated. Book 1 Chapter 1 section 1 states: “For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone. In the second place, those blessings which unceasingly distil to us from heaven, are like streams conducting us to the fountain.”


Calvin also states that we cannot even truly know ourselves unless we first know God when he states in section 2:
“On the other hand, it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself.”


This idea of contemplating the face of God is best exemplified in Luke’s account of the transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36). In this story we have the opportunity to experience the very glory of God.


From these two ideas it is clear that Calvin justifies self-knowledge as well as knowledge of God as something integral to the human condition. Both are necessary. How then can we say that atheism even exists? Atheism is defined as follows: The doctrine or belief that there is no God.
In fact Calvin postulates that all human beings, because of their very nature of being created in the image of God, must at some level acknowledge the existence of God.


Calvin writes: “That there exists in the human minds and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity, we hold to be beyond dispute, since God himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of his Godhead, the memory of which he constantly renews and occasionally enlarges, that all to a man being aware that there is a God, and that he is their Maker, may be condemned by their own conscience when they neither worship him nor consecrate their lives to his service. (institutes bk 1 chap 3 section 1). Additional information summarizing Calvin’s position on Atheism is available in the article called “In Search Of An Honest Atheist.”

14 comments:

  1. Rick your analysis makes me wonder how deep this integral self-knowledge of God runs in us. Believing we still need regeneration by the Holy Spirit to “know” Christ I would have to think this self-knowledge would have to be rather general in context.

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  2. Whether one be an atheist or a believer in a creator always come down to a moment of suspension of disbelief. For the atheist, they look at the world and believe that it did. The lightening bolt hit the magic soup of right chemicals at exactly the right moment. For the believer in God,they look at the world and cannot believe this all happened by chance, all this was planned and put in order. Both require a leap of faith. And is not faith an concept of God? Is commitment to unbelief, still an act of self-knowledge? If knowledge of God is light, then atheism is darkness. It is a refusal to look upon 'the face of God'. And as Calvin states in Book 1 Chapter 1 section 2, "Again it is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has looked upon God's face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself." Is it then possible for one who dwells in darkness to move into the light until they have considered the possibility of God and seek to see the face of God?

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  4. Atheism itself is a kind of religion. It is strange when you think about it. It is a denial of the existence of God. If there is no God, why bother denying the existence of a supreme being. If there is not one, what difference could it make? What is the point? It would be like denying the existence of "pargumaflis" (a word I just made up). It would seem to me that atheism is in a sense much ado about nothing.

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    1. I totally agree here. If you are at the place of contemplating the reality of "no God" then you are indeed recognizing God. You couldn't contemplate the non-existence of something that does not exist.

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  5. Rick, this is an interesting post for wildcard card. I agree that the topics of the existence of God, the knowledge of God, and knowledge of self can be discussion starters. I also agree that they could promote an agreement or two. It makes we wonder if we think too much of our modern world and all that it has to offer. After just brushing the surface of the Institutes, I think I begin to see many similarities. Chapter 1 of the Institutes, “we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise….” (section 2), seems to answer the question of why things go down hill. I have always believed that the majority of the people in the world wake up and tell themselves they are going to good today. The problem is that everyone has different knowledge (or maybe perspective) of what good is.

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  6. Jerry, That's an interesting thought, the idea that the majority of people are going to do good today. I wonder though if there are people who wake up and never even think this way. Maybe they don't consider these possibilities. Maybe for them, good is self-relative i.e. only they are good. This could be what calvin speaks of when he speaks of the self-righteousness of people.

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  7. My favorite exploration of the (im)possibility of unbelief is the 1997 Jodie Foster movie, Contact. I recommend it if you wanted to start this conversation in a youth group or adult ed class. Theatrical trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRoj3jK37Vc

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  8. Rick, thank you for this discussion on atheism. I think it's interesting that the Old English form of "good" is "god" (with an accent above the "o.") I also think that it's interesting that there are almost 60 different definitions of "good." This says to me that this subject isn't quite as black and white as we would like for it to be, and I think that my colleagues have spoken to this in their comments. Thanks again for this discussion.

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  9. Your discussion of atheism reminds me of the movie "God's Not Dead." The philosophy professor, Mr. Radisson professes to be an atheist, but in discussion in with his student Josh, admits that instead he actually hates God.

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  10. Having worked at a secular university for years, I am in the heart of so many claiming to be atheists. While believers are often offended or uncomfortable with this, I am struck with the overall "faith claim" in the very claim that there is no faith. A faith claim, even if it is atheism, reflects the searching for God which, I believe, in itself by definition is indeed a recognition of God. Someone that makes a faith claim of this sort is often really searching often to people who want to prove that God does not exist, which by definition of existence doesn't make sense. What is perhaps a scarier concept is that of nihilism which is nothingness. However, Calvin helps us in his very opening helps us to understand that we can't have self-knowledge unless God is present. So, while we might be able to come up with the theory of nihilism, it cannot be reality if we exist.

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  11. Rick, I wonder if our trouble today is more about agnosticism than atheism? Rather than thinking that God is not in us and we are not in God, I wonder if people just suspend thinking altogether? I laughed aloud when Calvin said, "If, indeed, there were some in the past who deny that God exists, yet willy-nilly they from time to time feel an inkling of what they desire not to believe" (p. 45). It gives me comfort to know that those who spend their time not thinking, could one day find themselves touched by the hand of God anyway.

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    1. This made me laugh and cry at the same time. I think you've got it.

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  12. Thank you Sharon and all for this discussion. I appreciate the phrase "touched by the hand of God." I ask this question - though it does in fact go beyond a discussion of Calvin's theology and ventures into the world of mission and evangelism, "How can the church invite those who are searching into the conversation?" This is where we may wish to go as the church in the 21st century.

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