The scandal of drugs in sports apparently won't go away. Today's New York Times reports that Marion Jones, one of the greatest track stars in the world, is expected to plead guilty to lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs. Such an admission would end years of denial and will likely lead to her being stripped of the record five medals she won in the Sydney, Australia Olympics in 2000.

Claiming something is true doesn't make it so, in a court of law or the court of faith. As we have seen this week, none of the classical arguments for God's existence can compel a skeptic to believe in him. What's worse, critics have several reasons to reject faith in God. First, as we have seen, evolution can be used to explain the design of the world without faith in a designing God.

Second, if there is actually a God who made the universe, we would assume that his existence would be obvious to us. Atheist Sam Harris makes an apparently reasonable statement: "An atheist is simply a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (87 percent of the population) claiming to 'never doubt the existence of God' should be obliged to present evidence for his existence." It shouldn't be so difficult to comply with his request.

Third, some atheists go so far as to claim that the very words "God exists" are meaningless and incoherent. What do we mean by the word "God"? We cannot answer by pointing to anything in the created world, since this would be idolatry, making creation into the creator.

Neither can we use the rational concept of "God," since by definition our finite minds cannot comprehend an infinite being. To say that "God exists" is like saying "mumblephump exists." Since I just made up the word, and no one knows what it means (including me), my statement is incoherent. If I cannot speak rationally of "God," how can I believe in him?

Fourth, the problem of innocent suffering makes things much worse. It is hard to believe that an all-loving, all-powerful God created a world filled with evil. As Harris makes the point, "an atheist is a person who believes that the murder of a single little girl--even once in a million years--casts doubt upon the idea of a benevolent God." Of course it does.

So where are we? Let's continue on Monday.

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