Atheist, Mark D, stated: “The believing mind is externally impervious to evidence. The most that can be accomplished with it is to induce it to substitute one delusion for another. It rejects all overt evidence as wicked.” “Not by accident, you may be sure, do the Christian Scriptures make the father of knowledge a serpent — slimy, sneaking and abominable.”

The quotes above are from American journalist and essayist H.L. Mencken. What do you think?

Christian response to Mark,

Christianity is under girded by extant, empirical, irrefutable, evidence relevant to the validity of the Creator of the Universe while Atheism is likened to a fish denying the reality of water.

God initially draws the inquiring mind and sincerely searching heart to Himself via what He has made in Nature and through His written word while Atheism defies logic, reason, evidence and commonsense. Atheism is truly “the fools” domain (Psalm 14:1; Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10). Please permit me to explain…

What is true and lasting knowledge?

The beginning of knowledge, wisdom and Truth is ONLY acquired by,

• Humbling oneself before God the Father (James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6; Isaiah 66:1-2; Hebrews 11:6)

• Acknowledging/believing in Jesus Christ as one’s personal Savior for the mediation of sin (Romans 10:9-10)

• Receiving the indwelling Holy Spirit of Truth (Ephesians 1:13-14)

• Diligently studying the word of God and walking in obedience to same in pursuit of Sanctification (2 Timothy 2:15)

Then and only then will a life constrained by Time begin to take-on true reality and one’s eyes will be opened, their mind enlivened to see and understand God’s Plan and purposes for Time and Eternity (Romans 12:1-2). Void the indwelling Holy Spirit, true knowledge and a fulfilling life will never be realized (1 John 2:27).

Christian faith is substantiated by God’s evidence…

A Christian’s faith is not impervious to evidence; in fact, it is the irrefutable evidence of our Creator’s reality that has motivated many Christian’s to pursue that Creator’s Name and His purpose in Creation. Even as a child, the clear night sky confirmed for me that what I was observing mandated design and a Designer though I did not know said Designer’s Name. Denying what is before one’s eyes can be equated to a form of psychosis. Atheism, for all intents and purposes, is a form of mental and spiritual illness. Consider the following,

1) Our Creator has provided extant, preliminary evidence relevant to His reality and validity via what He has made in Nature; therefore, the atheist will be “without excuse” at their Judgment in Eternity. There is NO scientific explanation for the presence of the supernatural Sun, the Moon, the Stars, void design which mandates a Designer (Romans 1:18-32).

Mankind nor his science can explain origin of matter; the Universe; the complex human genome; science and the insanity of evolution i.e. “historical science” fail to explain these supernatural evidences of design and a necessitated Designer; these supernatural forms of evidence will testify against the foolishness of atheism and the rebellious atheist at the Judgment of the Condemned in Eternity! (Revelation 20:11-15)

Our Creator, Who is a Spirit (John 4:24), took elements from the Spiritual World and formed those elements into matter that is visible to the human eye/senses and constrained this matter within the Realm of Time (Hebrews 11:3). Mankind, cognitively constrained by Time and limited in cognitive function by The Fall/the Curse on Adam, will NEVER define/explain origin of matter because all that we see finds its genesis in the unseen Spiritual World.

2) Another form of empirical-extant-irrefutable evidence is the truism that our Creator, Jesus Christ-Yeshua, left Eternity (the Spiritual World) some 2019-years ago and entered Time through the seed of the woman (a virgin) as prophesied in Genesis 3:15; Jesus walked among mankind in the flesh for 33.5-years defining God to everyone who would receive His Gospel of Grace through faith (Philippians 2:5-11) and then humbly/obediently/faithfully walked to the horrors of a Roman Crucifixion thereby shedding His perfectly innocent blood as payment for the sins of mankind (Genesis 3:21 is the 1st-Prophecy concerning blood sacrifice of Messiah).

3) Our Creator has provided His creation with a written Covenant (The Scriptures – The Gospel) explaining origin-meaning-morality-destiny and anyone who rejects this Covenant as articulated within the Holy Bible will die in sin and die a second death in Hell for rejecting Jesus Christ as Lord and Mediator for sin (John 8:24). This second death in Hell will be necessary because unrepentant sin will NOT be permitted to enter God’s Kingdom subsequent to death of the body constrained by Time (Revelation 21:27).

Therefore, it’s NOT that evidence for our Creator’s reality is absent; it’s NOT that “the believing mind is externally impervious to evidence;” it’s the Truth that the atheist rejects the extant evidence for our Creator because they love their sin, their sexual immorality, their antisocial conduct, their moral relativism, more than Truth and life itself. The atheist loathes the moral authority of our Creator over their life; therefore, the atheist makes a futile attempt to assuage themselves of guilt, the moral law/natural law/divine law and conscience (Romans 2:15) through rejection of that which they intuitively know to be the Truth (Romans 1:18-32). This deception is a lie of the Devil and anyone deceived by him in such a manner will suffer a similar fate as he in Hell (Revelation 20:10; Matthew 10:28).

In conclusion…

Understanding and acknowledging these forms of empirical, irrefutable, evidence relevant to the validity of our Creator is the only pathway to tangible, useful, eternal, knowledge and wisdom that surpasses human intellect/understanding which is constrained/limited by Time/the Curse/the sin-nature; the knowledge provided by the Holy Spirit is that which originates in the Spiritual World (John 14:16-18) and is carried-over into the Eternal Realm subsequent to death of the body in Time (1 John 2:27; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Matthew 24:35); unfortunately, the Atheist is carnal, worldly, fleshly, in thought and in deed (Romans 8:6-10); therefore, the atheist will never understand life’s deeper Truths in Time nor will they ever acquire knowledge that is relevant in both Time and in Eternity as they “exist” in unrepentant sin apart from the love, forgiveness, redemption, eternal life, only available by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 2:14; 2 Corinthians 4:4).

It is written…

“For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:5-8 (NASB)

Finally…

Tragically, the Atheist is a slave to their flesh and therefore a slave to their sin (Romans 6:17-23) and a slave to the god of this World, Satan (Ephesians 2:1-4: John 8:44); therefore, the unrepentant atheist is destined to die in sin and die the “second death” in Hell in futility (John 8:24; Revelation 20:14); their worldly knowledge under girded by foolish men like H.L. Mencken (Quoted in Mark’s OP above) will culminate in nothingness and their brevity in Time will be erased forever as if they never existed (Matthew 16:26).