Zacharias: Atheism contradicts itself

An idea from Ravi Zacharias's Jesus Among Many Gods (2000): A prominent argument for atheism is that "the universe is immoral, therefore there is no (good) God." But such a statement is meaningless except on the basis of an absolute morality [itself left over from Judeo-Christian belief]. Our belief in this morality appears to be so strong that we are willing to deny the existence of God over it! Yet such a belief makes sense only in terms of an essentially religious world-view. Such atheism is itself "Christian". All this atheist argument proves is that our idea of Divine morality is inadequate.

(Zacharias, a Christian from India, is also interesting on the effects of religion on Indian culture. Indian culture is traditionally "pluralistic" and so is in some ways like modern Western culture. Both are beguiled by the ideas that "truth is subject to the beholder," and that "we all come through different routes and end up in the same place." But no religion actually says this. Meanwhile, India, like the contemporary West, has a veneer of openness, but it is highly critical of anything that hints that a challenge to it. "Within such systematic relativism, one tends to drift and float with the cultural tide and give no thought to the unforgiving nature of reality. That is how life is lived out in pantheistic cultures.")