QUESTIONNAIRE OF AN ATHEIST

September 22, 2025

Denying the existence of God has become a fashion, especially among the youth. Often they challenge the believers with seemingly logical arguments in support of their claim. The following is a compilation of frequently asked questions from atheists. We hope this write-up will help those who are challenged by atheists as also those who often find their faith in God weak.

Is it true that God created the universe? If so, who created God?
This is the classic question an atheist would throw at any person who identifies himself as a believer. So let us start with accepting this argument for argument’s sake to proceed further. If we concede that God was not behind the act of creation, then who created the universe? Since we have already discounted the possible answer of God being the creator, the only remaining plausible answer is that the universe came into existence on its own. Precisely this is the stand of atheists. If this universe can come into existence on its own, applying the same logic, God also could come into existence on his own.
Why should an atheist believe in God? Any logical answers?

Just common sense. Because there are only two possibilities; God exists or God does not exist. If God does not exist as the atheists claim, then everything comes to an end with death. A person need not have to face God after death. But if God does really exist (God does exist, it is the truth), then the atheist will have to stand before God after death and that meeting will not be a pleasant one. At that moment he will weep over his folly of not believing in God, but it would be too late to repent.

As it is not yet scientifically and logically proved that God does not exist, common sense and jurisprudence alike demand the benefit of doubt to be given to the opposite proposition that favors the existence of God. Believing in God is not a big burden. It is like a person taking his umbrella with him even when there is no chance of rain. It is just a precaution. In case it happens to rain, his umbrella will help him. On the other hand those who do not care to take an umbrella will be caught unawares on their way when it starts to rain. Why should we run the risk of meeting God at an unexpected hour after a whole life spent in denying his existence? The non-existence of God is an unproven hypothesis yet. Common sense demands us to be prudent like any other man who believes in God, at least as a kind of insurance against the possibility of God being a reality.

Again prudence demands that it is always advisable to believe and later come to know the reality rather than disbelieving and facing its bitter consequences in the end. So an intelligent person will always confess God’s existence, even when he does not have the evidence to prove it logically. Yes it is applicable to intelligent human beings only. In Psalm 14:1 those who say in their hearts, ‘there is no God’ are called fools. They are called fools because they do not exhibit the intelligence expected from an ordinary prudent man.

Once we go through the pages of the Bible starting from the story of Adam and Eve, the impression we get is that it has been just a few thousand years since the creation of man. But science has proven that long before Adam’s time, men lived on earth. How can this anomaly be explained?
This question is framed taking into account the lifespan of the patriarchs starting from Adam. It is true that the Bible has mentioned the age of Adam at the time of death as 937 years (Gen.5:5). But this is the period Adam lived on earth after being expelled from the garden of Eden. There was a time before it when man lived with God. The fact is that we are not able to measure it or in other words we are not privy to this knowledge.

Now carefully read the first two chapters of the book of Genesis. They give two different versions of creation. Chapter 2 does not seem to be a concise repeat of what is already mentioned in chapter 1. It suggests the existence of a pre- Adamic human race. But Adam was a special creation. In the first chapter we read that ‘male and female God created them’ (Gen 1:27). But in the second chapter Adam was created first and Eve was made with a rib taken from Adam.

In chapter 4 we see Cain laments that anyone who meets him would kill him (Gen 4:14). Anyone? If we strictly follow chapter 2 there were only three persons at that time, Adam, Eve, and Cain. So why should Cain fear ‘anyone who meets him?’ It suggests the existence of other human beings also at that time.

Again Cain got a wife (Gen 4:17). Where did this woman come from? We do not read about any other children born to Adam and Eve at that time. So there should be other people inhabiting the earth. Cain built a city, says the Scripture (Gen 4:17). City? For just two or three persons? It is absurd to think that anyone would build a city to accommodate his family. So there should be other people around.

Having said all these, let me add that these are just hypotheses and not part of dogma. But it will definitely help those atheists who sincerely try to reconcile their views with the Bible.

God destroyed the whole human race in the great flood during the time of Noah. So he should be a cruel God!

God permitted the flood not because he was a cruel person to enjoy seeing men suffer. Instead it was a punishment sent to an ‘earth that was filled with violence, and corrupt in God’s sight’ (Gen 6:12). It was the natural consequence of man’s wrongs. We have a parallel in global warming which scientists attribute to the boundless exploitation of nature by us. Nobody suggests that the punishment of global warming happens at the command of God!

If you can believe the hypothesis of Malthus that nature permits wars, natural calamities and plagues to control the increase in population, what prohibits you from believing that the great flood was nature’s balancing act at a time of rapid increase in population?

We have no problem in believing the statement of Darwin about the survival of the fittest. But we hesitate to believe that Noah was a man blessed with the spiritual capacity to survive in a world fully immersed in sin. Noah’s spiritual acumen warned him about the impending flood and compelled him to build an ark for survival.

Yet the atheists say that God is cruel. If God is cruel, by the same logic nature also should be cruel, because nature permitted the extinction of many species. But God at least kept Noah and his immediate family so that humanity never goes extinct.

It is absurd to imagine two pairs of every species were accommodated in a wooden ark. Isn’t it?
The cells of egg and sperm required for reproduction cannot be seen with naked eyes. It is so small in size that powerful microscopes are required to see it. Now we have the technology to preserve the eggs and sperm without any damage for years or even centuries. It is not an absurd claim but a proven truth that the whole lot of eggs and sperms required to reproduce all species in the world will require much less place, anyway much lesser than the size of Noah’s ark. Yet we are hesitant to believe it!
The Bible’s God is a partisan God who favors and loves Israelites only. Why?
Nowhere in the Bible it is written that God loves Israelites alone. The fact is that God protected Israelites when they obeyed the commandments. In the same way God protected other people also when they were loyal to the moral principles revealed to them in their own ways.
But the fact remains that this God of the Bible is more generous towards Israel!
It is the same God who sent Israelites to a horrible captivity and exile. Again the same God permitted Israelites to wander through countries not for years but centuries. During these periods of unimaginable suffering, was God favoring their enemies? If the answer is ‘yes’, then God favored Israel also for a short time. But the truth is that God was never partisan.
Surely a God who commanded to destroy entire populations from infants to old men should be cruel? How can you justify it?
We think on a personal level giving importance to the suffering of those persons killed by Israelites. But God does not think personally. He has the interest of all creation in his mind. If the purpose of destroying the whole population was with the intention to purify the world from evil, then how can we blame God? God is executing a balancing act in all these events.

More importantly, God’s justice is incomprehensible to us till the very end. Perhaps He allowed the punishment on those nations as a way to purify and sanctify them, because they failed to find their own ways to repent and return to God. It will be revealed at the time of judgment only. So why should we bother much about it now?
How can we call a God who commands to kill and punish, a righteous God?
It is a matter of perception only. In fact there is no such God who enjoys people being killed and punished. The unfortunate part is that Israelites understood God in a narrow way that led to this wrong interpretation gaining ground. To get a clear picture of the issue involved, we need to first understand the structure of the Bible.

A major part of the Bible is simple history. There, historic events are recorded without adding or deleting anything. Perhaps the Bible is the only book where no efforts are made to obscure historical facts. The Bible is honest in saying that David, the most celebrated king of Israelites was an adulterer, murderer and an expert is destroying evidence. The Bible does not try to hide the truth that Jesus was born in a family whose roots go back to the same David. The Bible honestly admits that the lineage of Jesus includes men and women of not so much a good reputation.

In the same way they recorded their God experience in an honest way. For them God was a punishing God. But it was the notion of the general public. Wise people among them did really understand the true nature of God and tried to educate the people about it. At many places in the book of Psalms, and also in the books of prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel the mercy and love of God is explained in detail. His justice is also explained alongside. But the people could not grasp it. Yet when someone quotes from the God experience of a generation that was ignorant of the true nature of God, both are links in the same chain of ignorance.

Now coming to what Jesus taught us during his public ministry, all the doubts and apparent ambiguities in the Old Testament teachings get clarified. What Jesus said is the truth. There is no truth beyond it. Jesus said that God is love. He told us to love our enemies. He warned against amassing wealth and exhorted his followers to help the needy. He called the sinners to repentance.

Now listen.

God revealed himself to man in different ways during different times. But humanity could not understand God. So God sent Jesus, who was perfect God and perfect man, into this world. Jesus imparted the perfect and ultimate knowledge about God to mankind. The fullness of divine revelation already happened in Jesus Christ. In other words, as humans, we have nothing more to learn about God. It follows that no divine revelation is to follow Jesus except the explanations of what he taught us. This is why Jesus wanted everyone to believe in him.

God was historically distorted in the mind of man. Jesus corrected this anomaly and imparted us the full knowledge – as much knowledge as we human beings are supposed to know- about God. So there is no relevance for the God-concept of the Old Testament now. In short, God is not cruel. Rather his nature itself is love.

Q. But how could God be called just when he sends sinners into eternal hell?

We have no problem believing in the principle of Isaac Newton, that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In the spiritual realm, hell or eternal separation from God is the natural reaction to one’s sin. It is not awarded by God but voluntarily selected by man. God becomes helpless here only.
You claim that God is omnipotent. Then how this God becomes helpless? If defies logic.
The answer is there in the question itself. God becomes helpless because he is omnipotent. God did not create man as his slave. He made man in his image and likeness. Think of the image and likeness of a God who is omnipotent and free to do anything he wishes. Man partakes in this power and freedom of the Almighty, though on a limited scale. So God cannot intervene in a decision taken by man using his free will.
If God created man, surely God is responsible for man’s sin also!

A.Human beings who are created in the image and likeness of God have the capacity to see sin and virtue in the same way as God sees them. So he is responsible for his sins. Even in social laws a man becomes liable for those acts done with full knowledge about its nature and consequences. The same logic applies to divine law also.

Isn’t it a lie spread by Christians that Jesus rose from the dead?
No. It is something that actually happened. The Risen Lord appeared not to one or two persons, but to more than five hundred persons at different locations and different times. Their testimonies in writing are available from as early as AD 60.

Now, supposing that the resurrection of Christ was a false story intentionally spread by Christians, then there should be some reason behind it. They should have expected some material benefit out of it. But in the early centuries Christians were persecuted horribly for their faith in Jesus and for proclaiming his resurrection. They were treated as outcasts by Jews. In the Roman empire the Christian persecution lasted for three centuries. If the resurrection was a lie, will any sensible man publicly spread it fully knowing that its reward will be severe persecution?

All these things are quoted from the Bible. But why should I believe in the Bible?
As human beings, we are supposed to believe in truth. The Bible is the truth and so we should believe it.
What is the logic in saying that the Bible is true?
The Bible is unique in the whole history of humanity. It took nearly fifteen centuries and forty authors to complete it. It was written by them sitting in three continents and using three languages. In spite of it, the Bible remains unique because there is no contradiction in it, rather a common thread connects each of the seventy three books that it contains.

The Bible contains a huge volume of prophecies and their fulfilment in due course is the primary supporting evidence as to its veracity. Many are already fulfilled, many in the course of fulfilment, and the remaining are soon to happen. The birth, public ministry, passion, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus was prophesied a millenium before Jesus was born. Jews returning to their homeland and living as a nation (Israel) was prophesied even before they were exiled from their homeland! The destruction of Damascus, Gaza becoming desolate, and Lebanon burning in fire are all prophecies dating back to 7th century BC. Whatever is said in the Bible happens. Do we need any further proof for its veracity?

This universe is permanent. But Christians cheat the public by stating that there is an end to this world.
The end of the universe is not someone’s imagination. Science testifies that our universe will cease to exist one day. It is simple physics. All material objects are subject to change and so they cannot exist perennially. For example the fuel in our sun will extinguish one day. With the sun not giving light and energy, life on earth will cease to exist.

But there is something that is intangible and that is made not of elements as we know them. It is the soul or spirit. God lives forever because God is Spirit. Those who unite with God in Spirit will inherit eternal life. A time is fixed for separating those who unite with God in Spirit and those who unite with this world in flesh and we call it the end of the age.

Q. Soul/spirit is just a concept. It does not exist in reality.

It is the biggest mistake of atheists. Soul/ spirit is the truth. The flesh is useless because it is subject to change and decay. At the time of death the spirit returns to God, its donor. Many experiments have concluded that a certain energy that cannot be explained by physical theories leaves the body at the time of death. This energy, of which science is ignorant, is the soul.

Hell and heaven are mere inventions by man’s imagination. They do not really exist. Any proof of its existence?
Let us start with accepting the argument that hell and heaven do not exist. Then do aliens exist? How does science believe in the existence of creatures more advanced than human beings in some distant corners of the universe? We have no qualms in believing this proposition. But we cannot believe in the existence of hell and heaven! Let doubting Thomases suppose that heaven and hell are celestial bodies inhabited by good and bad people respectively.
How can you call a God who favors Christians and rejects all others a righteous God?
Nowhere in the Bible, it is written that God accepts only Christians and rejects all others. On the other hand, at many places it is mentioned that everyone who does righteous works is acceptable before God. Again we have many clues from the Bible about the possibility of God favoring the gentiles rather than the chosen people, provided the gentiles act righteously.

Q. Isn’t the Christian Mass a gimmick? You are cheating people with the false claim that a piece of bread and a few drops of wine becomes Jesus’ body and blood!
It is not a gimmick but an undeniable truth. The bread and wine changes into the body and blood of Jesus Christ at the time of consecration. Though it has been happening in thousands of altars for the past two thousand years, the doubts about this supernatural phenomenon also started around the same period. For those skeptics, God has on many occasions made it a visible miracle by changing the bread and wine into real flesh and real blood of a living person.

The number of Eucharistic miracles as they are called is in hundreds and of them nearly a hundred incidents are confirmed as miracles by the Catholic Church after conducting elaborate scientific tests and experiments, that too often at the hands of scientists who confess themselves to be atheists or non- believers. At the end of experiments, they had to admit that the consecrated host contained the heart tissues of a young man. The findings remain unchanged across time periods and place of miracles. They are the cardiac muscle tissues of the same persons with the same blood group!

In an 8th century incident in Lanciano, Italy a priest who was struggling with doubts about the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, experienced a transformation of the species during the time of consecration at the Mass. The transformed species are preserved till today and periodic tests are being conducted on it. As late as 1970 (i.e. after twelve centuries) scientific tests identified the flesh as human cardiac muscle tissue (myocardium) from the left ventricle, and the blood was found to be human blood type AB. The samples also showed no signs of preservation techniques.

There is no doubt. Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord is alive and present in the Eucharistic host and consecrated wine.

Is there any logical foundation to the statement that those who receive the Holy Communion will get eternal life?
Yes. What is given as Holy Communion is the body and blood of Jesus Christ who lives forever. As we have seen earlier, scientific experiments have confirmed that they do not undergo any physical change even after centuries. It is an undisputed scientific truth that our body is nurtured according to the food that we eat. If the flesh and blood of eternal Christ becomes our food and drink, then we partake in the eternal life that Christ owns. Common sense is sufficient to believe this.

Q.From the point of view of an atheist, it is the responsibility of the believer to prove the existence of God. What do you say?
It is true. The burden of proof is on the one who claims it. So it is the duty of the one with clear eye vision to prove the existence of the sun. But it is equally important that the existence of the sun cannot be proved to a blind man. In the same way the believer has a thousand reasons to logically substantiate the existence of God, but the fact remains that they will not appeal to an atheist who is blind towards the eternal light of God. The problem is not with the existence of God or with the believer who confesses it, but with the atheist who refuses to open his eyes to see the truth.
So you are escaping from the real question without offering solid evidence to prove your point?
Never. It is the truth. Whatever evidence a believer brings to convince an atheist will be seen as absurd to him because his reason, faculties and intelligence are bound by this world and its limited knowledge. The existence of God is a spiritual truth and a spiritual eye is needed to see it. We know that very small particles in the physical realm are not visible to naked eyes. Now think beyond this ‘very small concept’ to reach a point where the size approaches zero or nil. Our knowledge strikes a barrier there, because the physical laws can explain only those things measuring above zero. Then how can a person understand divine mysteries that lie beyond the visible?
How can we believe something that we cannot see?
Do you see electricity? Do you see electromagnetic waves? Has anybody ever seen a black hole? Yet we believe in their existence. So it is a silly argument that seeing is necessary to believe in God.
But all these physical phenomena are proved by their properties. So we can believe it.

A. Applying the same logic, God’s works are proof of God’s existence.
What explanation can be given to convince me that this universe is the work of God?
Its primary evidence is the intelligent design of the universe. Is it not absurd to think that everything in a universe that is, as argued by atheists, not created by anyone, is arranged in perfect order and harmony. It is far easier to believe that a mastermind acted behind the creation and gave it the perfect order on the basis of verifiable physical laws that we see. A believer calls this being that is responsible for the whole creation ‘God’ whereas the atheist denies God. This is the only difference.

Both atheists and theists believe that the universe came into being from nothingness. But science could not till date explain how something is formed out of nothing. Let atheists think which position is logically correct; to assume that this universe came out of nothing with a self regulatory framework of physical laws and continues forever, or that God (applying the same line of logic) created a universe and made everything in it in perfect order. Obviously the second proposition satisfies the demands of logic more than the first one.

Q. But a super computer or AI is capable of creating such intelligent designs, though on a limited scale!
Yes. But do not forget that a human brain worked behind super computers and AI. There should be a cause for every consequence. It is one of the basic principles of logic. We have not heard of anything that happened without a cause. If anything happened without a cause it is God. But atheists stop short of admitting it and attribute this property to the universe!
Why does God permit evil?
This is perhaps one argument most quoted by atheists to deny God. But unfortunately this turns out to be proof against their position that God never exists. Because permitting evil cannot be an argument against one’s existence, rather it proves the existence. A person or thing having no existence cannot do any act whether good or evil.

Even if we buy the argument that God permits evil (the truth is different) the maximum that we can deduce from it is that God is not just, a proposition that is already replied.

Q. But there is no answer to why God permits evil!

True. The universe is created with verifiable physical laws to run it. What we see as evil is in fact the reaction of another action. It should be appreciated that God’s grand design encompasses everything and God does not play dice. What we see as evil in the short run may be good in the end. To know it, we must think like God, a faculty lost somewhere in our transition from simple human beings to sophisticated modern men. This is the reason we still believe that God is the author of evil. God does everything with a good purpose. But man with his limited wisdom is not able to understand it till the end.
You say that evil originates from the devil. Isn’t it the same God who created the devil also?
No. The Bible narrates in detail what all things were created by God. Nowhere it is written that God created something bad. On the contrary the Bible testifies at two places that God saw his creation was good (Gen 1:24,31). The origin of Satan is attributed to the rebellion of a group of angels. They were created good but their pride led them astray to revolt against God. It was the consequence of their actions done using their free will. They were good till the moment of revolt. ‘You were blameless in your ways from the day that you were created, until iniquity was found in you’ (Eze. 28:15). The problem started when the good angel did bad things. It is not that God created evil, but Satan voluntarily opted evil, a possibility inherent in his very nature of having free will.
Isn’t it better to deny the existence of God for man’s progress? How can we bear with a God who interferes in all matters?
This is exactly the question of devils. Their plan was to build a heaven without God. In the prophecy of Isaiah we read about someone who boasted of his plans to ‘ascend to heaven, and raise his throne above the stars of God, and sit on the mount of assembly on the heights of Zaphon, and ascend to the tops of the clouds, and make himself like the Most High’ (Isa. 14: 13-14). This was the origin of the devil. Progress without God will lead to damnation whereas progress with God will lead to good days.
Why should God interfere in the personal matters of man? Doesn’t man deserve a little more freedom?

The first question comes from a demoniac (Mk 5:7). He asked this question when he was possessed by the demons. But when he came out of demonic possession the first thing he asked was the permission to follow Jesus. Both these actions came from his free will. God does not interfere with it. It is our decision whether to permit God to act in our life or to keep him out of our life. There are millions of people living in sin in the world. God does not interfere with their life directly. It does not mean that God is sitting idle. He has put in place a system where the reward for their actions are repaid in their body, their wealth, their family, and their belongings. Those who are unfortunate in not getting this spiritual knowledge see them as punishment.

Anyway God is not just because he rewards one person who commits sins and then repents, whereas he punishes the one who commits sin but does not repent! Why this double standard?
You forget something important that happened in the process. It is repentance. In fact the essence of Jesus’ gospel was a call to repentance as a way to reconcile with God. Again the choice is ours. We can continue living in sin and wait for its natural consequences to befall us or to turn a new page with sincere repentance. God values the freedom of man more than anything as evidenced in his words. ’I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses’ (Deu 30:19) thereby giving us the freedom to choose.
It is surely injustice to throw out Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden for a single offence whereas many who commit thousands of sins go unpunished even today!
Two things to note here. First is that though Adam and Eve did a single offence only its gravity was severe because they were living in close company of God and they were blessed with a near perfect knowledge about God and therefore about God’s will. They enjoyed the presence, love, and protection of God much more than future generations. It is a settled law that one who is given more will be asked more. Since they were given the highest degree of God experience that any man could get, it is natural that God expected a proportionately higher degree of worship from them. In other words if Adam and Eve did a sin which we people keep on doing today, their liability is more than ours. True, we are not punished for our sins then and there. It is because of the infinite love and mercy of God that was revealed through the crucifixion of Jesus .

But the more important thing is the very concept of punishment that was awarded to them. There is no theological foundation to the argument that expelling them from the garden was a punishment. A reading of verses 14-24 of Chapter 3 from the book of Genesis tells us that the sin’s consequent curse was upon the serpent and then upon the earth. As for Adam and Eve, God protected them with garments made of skin. Sending them out of the garden was not a punishment, but an act of mercy on the part of God. Had they been permitted to continue in the garden they would have consumed the fruit of the tree of life and thereby attained immortality in a state of sin. This state is nothing but hell. God wanted to save them from hell and this was the reason for denying them entry into the garden. God also promised them a Saviour who would come at the appointed time and lead all to the tree of life in a state of grace.

It is difficult for me to believe all these stories.
It is quite natural. The Bible states that ‘those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor 2:14).
Does it mean that I would not be able to believe in God at any time? In that case, God (if he really exists as you claim) is surely biased against me and we cannot call him just!
Never. We have before us the stories of any number of atheists realizing the truth and becoming zealous believers. They could attain it because they shunned the darkness that obscured their reason and intelligence. The problem with atheists is that the darkness that dominates their mind prevents the light of God from entering their hearts. From this darkness arises the foolish arguments against the existence of God. Its solution is simple. Yearn for knowing the truth. Humble yourself and never forget that God is ever willing to give that grace to any person. You might not understand this now, but we have the strong hope that you will come to understand it one day and confess your faith in God.

May God Almighty bless you abundantly.