Why Atheistic Demands For Evidence Of God Are Silly and Disingenuous

Just be honest in your atheism

(By Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld — Bibel in Bildern, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5469693)

As an outspoken Christian and, more broadly, devout theist, one of the most common things I contend with is a demand from atheists for evidence of God. For example, I recently received a comment online in which an atheist demanded that I produce my “most demonstrably true evidence for the existence of God.” Theists of all stripes are familiar with these kinds of pointed demands from atheists.

There are two underlying assumptions that come with such a demand. First, the atheists want theists to believe that if they could just produce one scrap of “demonstrably” true evidence, they would instantly believe. Second, the atheists are confident that no theist can produce any evidence to satisfy their demands.

Many atheists consider these kinds of lines of attack to be their silver bullet. However, they are simply a diversionary tactic and, at their core, are disingenuous. Atheists often want an untenable burden of proof about God. In fact, atheists demand more intellectual fidelity and evidence from theists than anything else in existence. What do I mean? Let’s look at some examples.

If I were to ask you to produce for me “demonstrably true evidence” that any number of historical figures existed, could you…