Christian Apologist Says Church is Producing Atheists

Christian Apologist Says Church is Producing Atheists



By Michelle Vu - Christian Post



July 31, 2007





Churches are producing atheists by not answering the

questions of young people and explaining why they believe in

the Bible, said a Christian apologist who works with young

adults.



Anthony Horvath, who was formerly an atheist himself after

years of Christian education, pointed out that renowned

atheists such as Richard Dawkins were raised in the Church

but have become some of the fiercest attackers of God.



He further noted, "Books like Richard Dawkins' 'The God

Delusion' and Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' do not
become

best sellers in a society that understands what Christianity

is all about."



Horvath, who has taught religion to middle school and high

school students, explained that some of the recurring

questions young adults struggle with but churches often fail

to address include the formation and development of the

Bible, the presence of evil and suffering in the world, and

the question of inspiration and inerrancy.



"In large part, it happens when the church leadership is

completely unaware that their members - and not necessarily

just the young members - have questions at all," explained

Horvath to The Christian Post. "And [they] continue merrily

along thinking that to retain the youth they just need to be

entertained."



Young people question whether they should trust the Bible

since it "is so old," and are not satisfied with the simple

answer that they should trust it because God wrote it.

Horvath explains that though they understand that to be the

Christian position, they want to know how they can be sure

of that.



Furthermore, the younger generation continues to wrestle

with the age-old question of why, if God is good, then there

is evil and suffering in the world.



"The evidence - which they can see with their own eyes on TV

and in the newspaper - is that God is not good," said

Horvath. "It is only a matter of time before a young person

begins to encounter pain and suffering in their own lives

and has to grapple with the issue personally."



He added that these youth will be less likely to trust what

the Church says as they continue to be fed easy answers

which do not really explain why.



As a solution, Horvath recommends apologetics - the defense

of the Christian faith. He points to 1 Peter 3:15 which

teaches believers to be ready to give the reasons for what

they believe.



"I am talking about apologetics at a much broader scale then

normally understood," said Horvath. "It should not be left

to professors or specialists, such as C.S. Lewis. It needs

to be incorporated into everything we do as the Church from

cradle to grave."



He called for believers to not only be able to say that

Jesus rose from the dead as church dogma and doctrine, but

to be able to explain why they believe this.



Horvath maintains an online discussion forum on Christianity

and welcomes non-Christians to openly vent their opposition
to the faith for discourse.