Glen Scrivener sums up this issue well when he says: “Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Materialists believe in the virgin birth of the cosmos. Choose your miracle.”1
So, the question is not does the atheist believe in miracles, because he does, but why does he deny their reality? It all comes down to the fact that because of sin he suppresses the truth in unrighteousness. His love of sin and desire to not be accountable to our eternal God causes the atheist to clearly turn a blind eye to the greatest miracle in the universe – creation.
When one thinks of our universe words such as exquisite design, awesome complexity, breathtaking beauty, and unfathomable mysteries come to mind. These phrases cause one to ponder how could such a magnificent universe have come into being. My friends, there are only two possibilities – God or evolution.
For the Christian not only do we believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, but we believe that only an all-powerful God could have created our universe. To have made a universe of such incredible size, amazing complexity, perfect orderliness, fabulous mysteries, and awesome beauty would have required a force of indescribable creative genius, possessing unlimited power and intellect that no finite mind (such as we possess) could ever completely fathom. The above description basically defines the God of the Bible, who created the stars, planets, mountains, trees, animals and, yes, you and me. You are clearly here because God created you—not by chance, but by deliberate design.
For the atheist the idea that our universe had a beginning is now accepted by almost all scientists. The many atheistic scientists that believe in the evolutionary mantra of nobody times nothing equals everything clearly are casting their lot with the miraculous. And in fact, this would be a bigger miracle in my book because how can nothing create something; let alone something as fabulously complex as our universe. The Christian view that an eternal God of infinite intellect and power can perform miracles is far more plausible than the atheistic alternative.
Atheists, who live their lives without a belief in a divine Creator, must indeed lead lonely lives. By definition they must believe that they have no soul and no immortality. Since they came into existence by chance, and not divine design, any meaning they find in life is but a by-product of random occurrences. Even the great mysteries of our universe that cause us to ponder just who we are and why we are here are a closed corridor of thought to those who place God as something that exists only in one’s imagination.
The struggle for life, without the existence of a rational creative force in the background, makes our journey here on earth a mere exercise in futility. The only reality we all can count on is physical death. For the atheist, he will die, sadly without ever knowing why he was born in the first place.
1 Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020), p. 11.