ATHEISM
T. H. Huxley, a well-known agnostic, was with a group of men at a weekend house party. On Sunday morning, while most of them were preparing to go to church, he approached a man known for his Christian character and said, “Suppose you stay home and tell me why you are a Christian.” The man, knowing that he couldn’t match wits with Huxley, hesitated. But the agnostic said gently, “I don’t want to argue with you. I just want you to tell me simply what this Christ means to you.” The man did, and when he finished, there were tears in Huxley’s eyes as he said, “I would give my right hand if only I could believe that!”
Two men were discussing religion. One man said, “I don’t have anything to do with things I don’t understand.” “Have you had your breakfast this morning?” asked the other. “Yes,” said the first, “but what’s that got to do with religion?” “Did you have any butter on your toast?” persisted his friend. “Yes,” replied the man, increasingly bewildered. “Well, can you tell me how a black and white cow eating green grass can make white milk that makes yellow butter?” “No, I can’t,” admitted the skeptic. “Well,” his friend advised, “I wouldn’t have anything to do with breakfast then.”
—Rolling in the Aisles
Voltaire, an infidel of the most pronounced type, expressed his disillusionment with his kind of life in these words: “I wish,” said he, “that I had never been born.”
My brother once said that the trouble with being an atheist is that when your motorcycle plunges off a cliff into the Colorado River and you aren’t killed, there’s no one to thank.
—Jessica Shaver
Sir Ralph Richardson said, If a man without a sense of smell declared that this yellow rose I hold had no scent, we should know that he was wrong. The defect is in him, not in the flower. It is the same with a man who says there is no God. It merely means that he is without the capacity to discern His presence.
—Reader’s Digest
On the European Time magazine cover were the words, “God is dead; Marx is dead, and I’m not too well myself.”
Mahatma Gandhi was once approached by an atheist with the request that he organize and promote an anti-God society. Gandhi replied, “It amazes me to find an intelligent person who fights against something which he does not at all believe exists.”
British statesman W. E. Gladstone (1809–1898) visited Christ Church College and spoke optimistically about the betterment of English society during his lifetime. His outlook was so positive that a student challenged him, “Sir, are there no adverse signs?”
Gladstone reflected, “Yes, there is one thing that frightens me—the fear that God seems to be dying out of the minds of men.”
An infidel and some friends were drifting in a boat toward Niagara Falls. Seeing they were dangerously near the Falls, the infidel prayed. Afterward someone asked him why he, an atheist, prayed. He said, “While infidelity is a good thing by which to drift down the river, it’s not a good thing by which to go over the Falls.”
The agnostic H. G. Wells said a few things worth remembering, one of which was, “Until a man has found God, he begins at no beginning; he works to no end.” Unfortunately, Wells did not find God; therefore he worked to no end.
Friedrich Nietzsche was the first “God is dead” theorist. Time magazine once concluded an article on him with these poignant lines:
God Is Dead. (Signed) Nietzsche.
Nietzsche Is Dead. (Signed) God.
An infidel was lecturing on “The Fraudulence of the Christian Religion.” After his address the meeting was opened for questions. After a short pause a man who was well known in that city as a former alcoholic, but who had in recent months become a Christian, stepped to the front of the auditorium. Taking an orange from his pocket, he proceeded to peel it, saying nothing. The lecturer, visibly irritated, demanded that the man get on with his question. But still the man said nothing. Instead he just peeled the orange and then ate it. When he had finished, he turned to the speaker and said, “Was this orange sweet or sour?”
“How should I know, you idiot?” shouted the infidel. “I didn’t taste it.”
To which the converted alcoholic replied, “How, then, can you know anything about Jesus Christ if you have never tried Him?”
A group of atheists were criticizing the Bible. One of them spoke about creation. He said, “What man with any common sense could believe that several thousand years ago, God stooped down and picked up a piece of mud, breathed on it, and changed it into a human being?”
A Christian man standing by overheard the conversation and responded by saying, “I cannot answer all the questions about creation, but this I know: One night God stooped down and picked up the dirtiest piece of mud in this city, breathed on it by His Spirit, and changed a gambling, drinking, thieving wretch into a peace-loving man of God. I was that man.”
An atheist complained to a friend because Christians have their special holidays, such as Christmas and Easter, and Jews celebrate their national holidays, such as Passover and Yom Kippur. “But we atheists,” he said, “have no recognized national holiday. It is unfair discrimination.”
To which his friend replied, “Why don’t you celebrate April first?”
—Maryland Church News
Near the end of his life Jean-Paul Sartre told Pierre Victor, “I do not feel that I am the product of chance, a speck of dust in the universe, but someone who was expected, prepared, prefigured. In short, a being whom only a Creator could put here; and this idea of a creating hand refers to God.”
Sartre’s long-time friend Simone de Beauvoir, a philosopher, said, “How should one explain this senile act of a turncoat?”
—His magazine
Charles Bradlaugh, an infidel, once challenged H. P. Hughes, a preacher, to a debate. Hughes, who was head of a rescue mission in London, accepted the challenge with the condition that he could bring with him one hundred men and women who would tell what had happened in their lives since trusting Christ as their Savior. They would be people who once lived in deep sin, some having come from poverty-stricken homes caused by the vices of their parents. Hughes said they would not only tell of their conversion but would submit to cross-examination by any who doubted their stories. Furthermore, the minister invited his opponent to bring a group of nonbelievers who could tell how they were helped by their lack of faith. When the appointed day arrived, the preacher came, accompanied by one hundred transformed persons. But Bradlaugh never showed up. The result? The meeting turned into a testimony time, and many sinners who had gathered to hear the scheduled debate were converted.
Evangelist E. L. Hyde was conducting revival meetings in New Jersey. In the course of his remarks he said that he could prove, to the satisfaction of any infidel, within ten minutes, that the infidel was a fool.
The next morning while he was out walking, a man accosted him very abruptly by saying, “Aren’t you the evangelist preaching up here at the church?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, I supposed you were a gentleman.”
“I claim to be one.”
“Well, I don’t think you are. Didn’t you say last night that you could prove, to the satisfaction of anyone, within ten minutes, that all infidels are fools? If you don’t prove it to my satisfaction, I will publish you in all city papers as the worst liar that ever struck the city.”
Seeing there was no possibility of reasoning with the man, Mr. Hyde said, “Where is your infidel?”
“I claim to be one,” was the reply, “and I want you to know that I am no fool, either.”
“You mean you think there is no reality to Christianity?”
“I do, sir. I have studied all phases of the subject. I have traveled and delivered lectures against Christianity for more than twelve years, and I am prepared to say there is nothing to it.”
“You are certain there is nothing to it?”
“Yes, sir, there is nothing to it.”
“Will you please tell me,” said Mr. Hyde, “if a man who will lecture for twelve years against nothing is not a fool, what, in your judgment, would you constitute a fool?”
He turned away in rage. Mr. Hyde, drawing out his watch, insisted he still had six minutes. But the infidel would not hear him, nor was Mr. Hyde published in the city papers.
—Pulpit Helps
Voltaire, an immoral man, was one of the most talented infidels of all time. He wrote about 250 books and pamphlets—most of which spitefully denounced Christianity. One would think that such a notorious atheist would remain steadfast in his battle against the truth of the Bible right to the end. But he found it impossible to quell the inner voice of God. In his last hours he feared for his eternal destiny, so he asked to receive the sacraments of the church.
Thomas Paine was called “the god of modern skeptics.” He was idolized by infidels even though by all standards of decency he was little more than a drunkard and a thief. Yet on his deathbed, he begged the Savior for mercy. Apparently in their final moments, some atheists cannot resist the light of conscience and the sense of eternity that God has instilled within them.
Sign on a church bulletin board: “Atheists are people with no invisible means of support.”
An infidel father asked his Bible-believing daughter if she meant to say that she believed in the Bible. “Why sure, Daddy.” “You mean to say you even believe that Jonah was swallowed by a whale and then after three days was vomited up on the seashore and that he went and preached to the people?” “Sure.” “Oh, that’s ridiculous. I don’t believe in such nonsense.” “Well, when I get to heaven, I’ll just ask Jonah.” “But what if he isn’t there?” “Then you ask him.”
An atheist once asked a Christian, “You say there is a God who created this world and sent His Son to die for our sins. But how do you know there is a God, or how do you know we have a soul? Do you ever see God, or did you ever see a soul?”
The Christian calmly answered, “Did you ever see your brain?”
“Well, no.”
“Then how do you know you have one? Or did you ever see a pain?”
“No.”
“All right, you may not be able to see a pain or your brain, but that is not proof that neither exists.”
An atheist has reason but no hope for his reason. A hypocrite has hope but no reason for his hope. A Christian has a reason for his hope and a hope for his reason.
Atheist Robert Ingersoll once got up and said to an audience of his, “If there be a God, let Him strike me down in one minute.” He held up his watch and the minute went past. “See, I told you there’s no God.”
But a preacher happened to be seated in the audience, and at that time he rose up and asked, “Do you think you can exhaust the grace of God in sixty seconds?”
An atheist, blaspheming in a marketplace, challenged God to show His power by striking him dead within five minutes. The five minutes elapsed, and following the tense delay, the man said to his audience, “What did I tell you?” An old woman standing by said, “Sir, have you any children?” “Why?” “Well,” said the woman, “if one of your children handed you a knife and said, ‘Kill me, Daddy,’ would you do it?” “Why no,” said the astonished man, “I love them too much.” “That is exactly why God did not strike you dead,” said the woman, “He loves you too much.”
An atheist was dared by his cronies to go out into a cemetery at midnight, hammer a cross into the ground, and shout three times, “There is no God!”
He took the dare, went to the cemetery, knelt down, and hammered the cross into the ground. He shouted, “There is no God” three times and then started to get up to go away. He could not move. Something held him fast. The shock of it so frightened the man that he dropped dead from a heart attack.
What held him fast was a very simple thing. He had hammered the wooden cross through the hem of his overcoat.
—Howard Whitman
ATTITUDE
There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.
—Clement Stone
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude in life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company … a church … a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past … we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have, and that is our attitude.… I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you … we are in charge of our attitudes.
—Chuck Swindoll
A businessman judges applicants for jobs on these counts:
5% on availability
5% on adaptability
5% on ability
85% on attitude
It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it. For example, two people may be in the same place, doing the same thing; both may have an equal amount of money and prestige—and yet one may be miserable and the other happy. Why? Because of different mental attitudes.
—Dale Carnegie
The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.
—William James
Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
—Lou Holtz
AUDIOVISUALS
If you want people to remember what you say, illustrate your talk. If you use audio only, listeners will recall 70 percent of what you say in three hours, but only 10 percent in three days. If you use visuals only, viewers will recall 72 percent in three hours, 20 percent in three days. If you use audiovisual presentations, your audience will recall 85 percent of the message after three hours, and 65 percent in three days.
—Survey Bulletin
AUTHORITY
There are many tests by which a gentleman may be known; but there is one that never fails—how does he exercise power over those subordinate to him?
—Samuel Smiles
AVERAGE
Average is as close to the bottom as it is to the top.
—Teen Esteem
AWARDS
Accepting an award, the late Jack Benny once remarked, “I really don’t deserve this, but I have arthritis and I don’t deserve that either.”
—Bits & Pieces