It was the 19th century atheist Ludwig Feurbach (1804-1872) who stated that “Religion is a dream of the human mind…in these days, illusion is sacred, truth profane.” (Religion and Humanistic Atheism, xxxix).
And of course who can forget the famous quote of Karl Marx (1818-1883) in response to his criticism of G. W. F. Hegel’s “Philosophy of Right”, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of the soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
I introduce this posting with these quotes because one of the most popular objections coming from atheism is the charge that Christianity (via-a-vis belief in a supernatural being who is personal, infinite, moral, and transcendent, called “God”) is a psychological crutch.
OK, so how do you and I respond to this objection? Is belief in God simply what these critics claim it to be? Let me give you six principles that I believe will answer this objection and even show that it is not a healthy Christian faith that is holding the crutch as much as it is the delusion of atheism.