Atheists are impossible to argue with because they have a hidden agenda. The atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel revealed the essence of it in his book The Last Word: “It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God.”

Nagel and others like him have set their will against believing. For this reason, it would be foolish to try to convince them that they are wrong. They simply won’t let you.

Isn’t it interesting that he said he hopes he’s right? Doesn’t that make him an agnostic, one who admits he doesn’t really know?

Indeed it does, and yet he calls himself an atheist! Why, I wonder? Perhaps because he doesn’t want to admit that there is a Creator out there who can make demands on him?

Carl Sagan, the late astronomer, once said on national TV, “There is not a shred of evidence in the entire universe to prove the existence of the supernatural.”

By the word “evidence” he, of course, meant scientific proof. But there are other kinds of proof if you have the eyes to see.

In the 1980s, I corresponded with Sagan. He was a kind man, and we exchanged about 12 letters on the topic of God’s existence. (If you’re interested, they are all included in my book Enjoy Your Precious Life. Write to me at P.O. Box 745 Chester, N.J. 07930, and send $15 postage-paid).

I asked Sagan this: “Can you produce any evidence that God does NOT exist?”

He replied, “Of course I cannot. There could always be a sufficiently subtle and remote God who does not manifest himself, and if he wishes to hide himself that is his business.”

Here we have a lowly man demanding that almighty God prove himself scientifically.

It’s a big risk to trash the First Commandment: “I am the Lord your God, you shall not have other gods before me.” The false god in this context is the ego of the nonbeliever. Putting one’s will against God’s is dangerous.

Granted, we should respect the sincere conscience of others even if they are in error, but we do not have to respect their self-sabotage.

The sin by which the angels fell was pride. It led them to a state of mind called “deliberate inadvertence.” The angels did not stop believing in God; they merely turned away from him because they did not want to serve him any longer.

“I will not serve,” was the cry. Feeling themselves equal to God, they defied him.

Of course, atheists will laugh at you if you mention angels, which is precisely the reason you should never argue with them.

When people are in denial, their mind is closed. They would rather enjoy their delusion than admit they are subject to God and his supreme law.

The next time an atheist asks you to prove that God exists, just say, “I don’t have to. God will do that for you one second after your death.”

Or say, “Albert Einstein is arguably the most brilliant scientist in the history of the world. He was convinced that there has to be a supreme intelligence behind the universe. Are you smarter than Einstein?”

Father John Catoir is a columnist for Catholic News Service and former president of The Christophers.