The Island-Fish

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  “O ye passengers, whom may God preserve! come up quickly in to the ship, hasten to embark, and leave your merchandise, and flee with your lives, and save yourselves from destruction; for this apparent island, upon which ye are, is not really an island, but it is a great fish that hath become stationary in the midst of the sea, and the sand hath accumulated upon it, so that it hath become like an island, and trees have grown upon it since times of old; and when ye lighted the fire upon it, the fish felt the heat, and put itself in motion, and now it will descend with you into the sea, and ye will all be drowned: then seek for yourselves escape before destruction, and leave the merchandise.—The passengers, therefore, hearing the words of the master of the ship, hastened to go up into the vessel, leaving the merchandise, and their other goods, and their copper cooking-pots, and their fire-pots; and some reached the ship, and others reached it not. The island had moved, and descended...

Psychology of Atheism

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The reason the proud don’t seek after God is that they don’t want to—they will not seek after God because they don’t want to leave their sins. It’s not that they cannot find Him, but that they will not [any more than a thief will find a policeman].

Scripture gives us insight:

1) Pride keeps one from seeking God. Any admittance of guilt is a blow to the pride of the human heart;



2) Because he’s self-centered and self-sufficient, one feels no need to even consider God;



3) One thinks that she’s in control of her life and that adversity will never come to her;


4) One’s willful ignorance leaves him without understanding of God’s righteous judgments;


5) One believes that either God is blinded to his sinful lifestyle, or that God has no sense of justice and will therefore not require any account for his lawlessness.

“For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’ His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his adversaries, he snorts at them. He says to himself, ‘I will not be moved; throughout all generations I will not be in adversity.’ . . . He says to himself, ‘God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.’ . . . Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said to himself, ‘You will not require it.’” (Psalm 10:3-6,11,13).

(from The Evidence Bible)

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