Is God Dead?" So asked the cover of Time magazine on April 8, 1966, in the midst of the sexual and drug revolution. The headline echoed the atheistic sentiments of the 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (pronounced NEE-che).

Nietzsche wasn't the first person to reject God's existence, but he was one of the more famous to do so in the late 1800s. In his book The Gay Science he wrote, "God is dead," and gave his own (obviously fictitious) account of "God's murder." From 1859 Charles Darwin's theory of evolution attracted many philosophers and scientists. It gave them a doctrine—actually an atheistic religion—to replace any belief in God as the Creator of all things. Nietzsche's "God is dead" philosophy helped popularize the implications of the theory of evolution.

Especially in America—ironically often described as the most religious nation in the world—a battle continues between those who believe in God and the atheistic-evolutionary forces of popular culture, science and higher education. The intimidation factor of higher education has ensured that you are taught the "theory" of evolution in school as unarguable fact. (To learn the real facts of the matter, order our free Bible study aid booklets Life's Ultimate Question: Does God Exist? and Creation or Evolution: Does It Matter What You Believe?)

God most assuredly is not dead. The T-shirt of a friend of mine bore a clever message in this regard. The first line said, "God is dead. —Nietzsche." The second line said, "Nietzsche is dead. —God." Truth is in the second line. But here's a greater truth: Atheism is dead too.

Its proponents don't know that yet, but as a philosophy—actually a godless religion with evolution as its handmaiden doctrine—atheism is truly dead. However, the atheist movement presently thinks it has the upper hand. Militant atheism or atheist activism is regularly in the headlines during these early years of the 21st century. Atheism websites and publications abound. Beginning about 2009, evangelistic atheism advertisements have been plastered on buses in many European and American cities.

Nevertheless, though popular for the moment, atheism's demise is coming—with no possibility of resurrection.

Why is atheism dead?

For any readers who've embraced atheism, this is offered as encouragement to reconsider that philosophy.

Honestly, atheism died for a lack of truth and logic. It lacks truth because, first, God is not dead and, second, the godless philosophy depended on unprovable evolution to explain life. Being unprovable, evolution remains a theory—and not a good one. A viable theory is supposed to fit the facts available—yet evolution does not even come close.

Atheism lacks logic because it underestimates the complexity of life, doesn't do math well—especially fractal geometry—and it won't ask itself the really hard question. (Fractal geometry, originally called Chaos Theory, is a relatively recent branch of mathematics that discovered that the patterns of coastlines, leaves, trees, hilly landscapes and virtually anything in nature are not random but mathematically calculable—and evidence of a supreme Designer!)

What is the atheist movement trying to do?

What have most great religions attempted throughout history? Answer: dominate. Remember, atheism is essentially a nontheistic religion, and human nature is remarkably predictable.

This question was clearly summarized in a December 2011 blog titled "What Are the Goals of the Atheist Movement?" by leading atheist activist Greta Christina. In essence, the first goal as she expressed it is to "see atheists fully accepted into society, and to have atheism accepted as legitimate." One could argue that this goal seems to have long been met in most halls of academia. The other goal is more ominous: "a world where there's no religion"—no religion except atheism, of course.

Why does atheism hate traditional religion so much?

A recurring atheistic argument against traditional religion is that all the world's wars (and other societal evils) have been caused by religion. Sadly, this is true to a significant degree. But we must realize that these are consequences of false religion—not merely believing in God. Even much that has been passed off as Christianity is not the true Christian religion of the Bible. Moreover, we should ask: Has atheism ever been guilty of wars, killing and destruction?

Dr. Rudolph Rummel of the University of Hawaii, in his book Death by Government, chronicled how many of their own people various governments in history have killed (not including battle deaths or capital punishment for crimes). The worst of the worst, in terms of sheer numbers, was the communist Soviet Union, which murdered nearly 62 million Soviet subjects during its 70-year history. The next most deadly was the communist Chinese government launched by Mao Tse-Tung, with 35 million killed. In third place was Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, which exterminated 21 million. It should be realized that Friedrich Nietzsche's godless philosophy infused Nazi thinking.

But the worst murderer of its own people by percentage was the Cambodian communist regime of Pol Pot, which during the late 1970s slaughtered one third of the country's 6 million people.

Belief in God didn't cause these atrocities. They were perpetrated by fundamentally atheistic regimes. So atheism is by no means a panacea.

Why doesn't atheism ask the hard question?

Put any discussion of the divine, spiritual law on hold. Scientists—including atheistic ones—believe in, constantly rely on, and use the laws of physics (including mathematics and all the natural laws of science) to carry out their work. The hard question: Where did the laws of physics come from, and why do they always work?

Atheism doesn't want to answer this question, yet science willingly assumes the certainty of these physical laws. Theoretical physicists have in recent years developed the matrix or M-Theory—an extension of string theory—to explain the universe. (You'll have to google it, as there's no room to address it here.) But even that has at its basis certain fixed laws of physics. Where did those laws come from?

When pushed for an origin of the laws of science, the atheistic-evolutionary answer essentially is that those laws have just always been there. Thus logic fails the atheist movement by the refusal to address origins.

There is an answer, though. Let's move from the seemingly unknown (origin of the laws of physics) to the known (origin of societal laws). Where do laws governing society come from? That's easy. They are made by legislators and sustained, albeit imperfectly, by judicial branches of governments. Societal laws don't exist by happenstance, and neither do the laws of science—they are specifically made and dynamically sustained! Bottom line: Laws—spiritual or physical—demand a Lawgiver who is also a law Sustainer. And that would be God.

The future of atheism

God is on His throne, and Jesus Christ will soon return to the earth to establish the Kingdom of God. However, there is an evil spirit being—Satan the devil—who wants human beings to reject belief in God, and as one of his many deceptions he has spawned atheism (compare John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 12:9).

On the horizon before Christ's second coming is the worst world war in history (see our free Bible study aid booklet Are We Living in the Time of the End?). And this war will arise from conflicts between world religions—false religions, not the true religion of the Bible. As the battle lines are drawn, the resulting fervor will draw atheists and believers alike to one worship system or another—but, again, not the worship of the true God as revealed in the Bible. Atheism as we know it today will be virtually extinguished in those troubled times.

And as the divine plan in Scripture unfolds, all will come to believe in God. The question then will be whether they choose to believe what God says. Either way, the conclusion is the same: Atheism is dead. —God.