A year ago I read a story about how a former Seventh-Day Adventist pastor was going to try out atheism for a year, see what it was like to live without God. And to no one’s surprise after this year he’s declared himself an atheist. If someone is inclined to try on atheism, chances are their belief in God is already lost. Given the larger currents of American culture it’s not surprising that some people see God as implausible.
In 1967 sociologist Peter Berger wrote a book called The Sacred Canopy in which he described the idea of a plausibility structure, or something that seems true to a person. Whether it is true or not isn’t the point; the person may think sincerely what they believe is true, but they tend to think it’s true more based on it seeming plausible to them than on evidence. American and Western culture make belief in God less plausible, make God seem more like Santa Clause than the eternal creator and ruler of the universe. Why is this?
Read Full Article »