Challenges and Temptations of Atheism. Philosophical-pastoral Considerations

Abstract

The problem of atheism is not always tantamount to the question of existence or non-existence of God. It is also the question if God is Love. There are arguments against the existence of God, or against the proposition that God is Love, that St. Thomas Aquinas already quoted:
God is scientifically unnecessary if everything may be explained by nature's and man's actions.
God is morally impossible if suffering exists.
The author discriminates between practical atheism that consists in living in such a way as if God did not exist, and theoretical atheism that consists in changing the notion of God. Theoretical atheism recognises the existence of reality that is a necessary being, reality on which everything depends, although it does not call it God.
Atheism can be born of pride and can tempt one with a vision of man deciding what is good and what is evil, with a vision of man as the highest value, and also with a vision of senselessness of human life. But atheism may also be born of protest against suffering, of lack of understanding of the imperfection of the world, or finally of a grudge against believers. The believers' answer to the challenges of atheism is first of all not a discourse, but a testimony of love.