When Katharine Hepburn died at the end of last month I got several unexpected phone calls from old friends telling me they thought of me upon hearing news of her death. Later, after returning from a week-long trip to Ohio for the 4th of July, I saw this email from an old friend: "Hi Lisa, How are you? Hope all is going well. I had to think of you these past few days, knowing what a huge Katharine Hepburn fan you are. It's very sad to see her pass, yet she lived a long, rich life. Are you writing anything for your web site about her? You should, since you're a semi-expert on her."

Why not, I thought just this weekend.

I was a sophomore in high school when I decided Kate (and that's how I always referred to her, even naming my expensive Raleigh 14-speed bike "Kate" after her) was my favorite movie star.

What I liked more than anything about her was her tough, no-nonsense character. You could never imagine her bawling in her room or whining about something dumb that went wrong or feeling insecure.

She had tremendous discipline (even getting up the crack of dawn each day to take either a freezing cold shower or swim in Long Island Sound) and did things her own way, not worrying what anyone else thought.

It wasn't until a decade later that my thorough adulation of her was in any way altered. In a magazine Q&A article, she revealed in her own words that she didn't believe in a higher power or an afterlife.

I remember reading the direct quotes several times to be sure I had it right. To my brain it seemed incomprehensible she felt this way. I was disappointed, but then forgot about it. In fact, my memory of the comments wasn't kindled until catching this letter-to-the-editor appearing in the July 1 issue of the Daily News, written by the president of the Long Island Secular Humanists:

"All Americans mourn Katharine Hepburn's passing. Typically, when an icon dies, we are reminded of the person's core beliefs. Most of the media have avoided doing this for Hepburn. In an interview in the Oct. 1991 Ladies Home Journal, she explained, 'I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can do for other people.' Her simple humanism is another reason to admire this great independent woman."

What is to admire, I thought after reading the letter. First of all, she sounds extremely close-minded for someone so "independent." I mean, it's just a flat, "That's that and there's no point even discussing it."

What I have learned about self-proclaimed atheism in recent years is that it ultimately represents a rejection of God, not a lack of understanding that He exists.

As my pastor says, every person born on this planet who reaches the age of rational accountability, understands two things: There is a God and they will face Him in Judgment.

"They understand His Godhead and His eternal power--men, women, boys and girls know that," my pastor says in a sermon I have on tape. "You don't have to argue with them about it. You don't have to develop all kinds of philosophical and ontological arguments to try and prove it. People know that innately. Why? Because God put that knowledge in people. One philosopher said there's a god-shaped vacuum in all of us. That's just another way of saying what Paul says in Romans 1:20: 'For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.' "

In the very next verse, Paul tells us that because all people know God innately, those who don't glorify Him as such and are not thankful become "vain in their imaginations," developing their own plans and ideas. The result is their "foolish heart" is "darkened."

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools," wrote Paul, "And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man."

In listening to and reading the comments of many self-proclaimed atheists, I notice there is often an insistence that hard-core evidence is needed in order for a belief in God.

In the preface of the book, "Bertrand Russell on God and Religion," writer Al Seckel relates this anecdote from Russell's 90th Birthday party:

"A London lady sat next to him at the party, and over the soup she suggested to him that he was not only the world's most famous atheist but, by this time, very probably the world's oldest atheist. 'What will you do, Bertie, if it turns out you're wrong?' she asked. 'I mean, what if--uh--when the time comes, you should meet Him? What will you say?' Russell was delighted with the question. His bright, birdlike eyes grew even brighter as he contemplated this possible future dialogue, and then he pointed a finger upward and cried, 'Why, I should say, 'God, you gave us insufficient evidence.' "

I remember last summer, while killing time reading the Sunday paper in the Minneapolis airport before a flight, I came across a news story with a photo of a middle-aged guy sitting proudly on the bumper of his car next to the vanity plate, "ATHEIST." The headline read, "Just Prove it!"

According to the story, the man, who had just been elected president of Minnesota's atheist club, acknowledged he was waiting for someone to prove to him God exists. He said he was open to new ideas and would gladly read any religious tracts slipped under his windshield wipers.

Since proof requires "conclusive demonstration of something," as Webster's dictionary defines the word, I would gather there's nothing anyone could put in writing (Bible included) that would provide this guy the kind of evidence he demands. The thing is, he already knows this.

One of the biggest points made throughout the Bible is that God requires faith and faith is not a tangible thing. That's exactly the way God designed it.

"Faith is not a work," explains my pastor. "Faith is a non-meritorious system of perception. There are three ways of knowing something and faith is the one you've got to go on."

What atheists don't want to accept is that while they outwardly reject God for a supposed lack of evidence, He has more than enough evidence on them, knowing exactly what they know, what their thinking and what their true motives are. This includes what they know about His Son.

There's no playing stupid or weaseling out of responsibility following death. God, and only God, has the complete record of each person's life.

In an excerpt from the just-released memoir on Hepburn called "Kate Remembered," author A. Scott Berg recalls asking Hepburn in their last long conversation together what she thought the purpose of life was—"So what do you think it's all about?"

Without hesitating, Hepburn answered, "To work hard and to love someone. And to have some fun. And if you're lucky you keep your health-and somebody loves you back."

My thinking is what about her love for God? When asked what was the great commandment in life, Jesus Christ answered, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment."

Doesn't Hepburn have anything to be grateful to Him for? Instead, as many of the recently published quotes from her on her life seem to say, she gives herself credit—oh, yeah, and luck. "I've been lucky," she says at the very end of a tribute piece appearing in the July 14 issue of Time Magazine. "I always knew what I wanted."

Berg's memoir quotes Hepburn as saying she doesn't "really believe in heaven and hell, but in the here and now," and thinks her death will be "fine, perfectly fine- because I'll just be taking a long, wonderful nap."

I guess she's never stopped to consider that all the long, wonderful naps she's known in the past were gifts from the God who gave her life.