Claim: 4 Truths to Combat Atheism’s Lie

Ooooh … somebody has a rebuttal for non-belief, well this should be fun.

Over at Charisma News is an article entitled “4 Truths to Combat Atheism’s Lie“, and if the evidence there is compelling, then it would indeed potentially be quite interesting. You are not holding your breath on this are you and if so then you would be quite right not to, it is just a rehash of the usual rather tired old claims that often pop up.

So let’s take a look anyway.

1.   The Universe cannot exist without a Creator

The first fact that proves God’s existence is the existence of the universe. No rational person doubts that the universe exists, so how and why did it get here? In biblical language, the Scripture starts with

… and from there the rest of the argument consists more or less of … “the bible says” …. and that’s it.

There are numerous issues with this assertion, but I’ll simply pick a few rather obvious ones.

First, if the reason that there must be a god is because there must be a cause for the universe, then the rather obvious next question to  ask is, what caused god? The usual reply is to assert that god has no cause, but that is not an evidence-based answer, bur rather is simply making stuff up to solve the problem by introducing an additional layer of pointless complexity.

Secondly, when you can vary an answer, then you know that the proposed answer is of little value. For example you can substitute god with any god of choice, zeus, thor, Loki, or even aliens from another universe, or time travellers, or … well you get the idea. All of it is equally credible when deployed using this rather flawed argument.

The truth is that we do not know what caused the universe, and neither do those that hold the bible. In fact such a question may not have any meaning, because if the start of the universe was the start of time and space, then the very concept of causality breaks down, and so asking what caused the universe is akin to asking what is south of the south pole.

Oh and of course he tosses this quote in …

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God'” (Ps. 53:1)

… ah but the bible also quotes Jesus advising that anybody accusing somebody else of being a fool will be in danger of hell fire (the bible full of contradictions like that). However, I much prefer to make the observation that while the fool might indeed say there is no god in his heart, the wise man says it out loud.

2. We are made to think of our Creator.

The second proof of God’s existence is our ability to consider God. I call this a God-consciousness. This God-consciousness is universal. It is inside of every human being. The Bible explains why we think of God at all. 

… and what follows are more bible quotes as “evidence”.

Er no, humans have been naturally selected through the evolutionary process to be rather prone to superstitious thinking, and so what we see is a vast diversity of quite different god concepts being embraced at one time or another, and also observe each of these strands of belief constantly evolving and changing as they complete with each other.

3. The creation is a moral universe, thus confirming a moral God.

The third proof of God’s existence is the fact that He made a moral universe. Morality is divine. Morality is unchanging. There is a right and wrong; good and evil. C.S. Lewis, who was an atheist turned Christian, argued that a moral universe proves a moral God. As an atheist, he had wondered how he got the concept of good and evil. There could only be one logical explanation: The universe is moral. Not only does morality prove God’s existence, but it reveals the kind of God He is.

Oh dear, sorry no but this is complete nonsense. God’s unchanged morality in the bible is quite repugnant stuff, not only is slavery endorsed as a jolly good idea (even in the New Testament – “Slaves obey your masters”) but we also have explicit instructions on whom you may buy and sell, and how you may beat your slave (apparently it is OK as long as they do not die a few days after the beating). Then we also have this “moral and just” god instructing his chosen tribe to embark upon a campaign of genocide.

Read parts of the bible and you find that it is more or less an instruction manual that ISIS would feel quite comfortable with.

Luckily we have put all that behind us now, and have worked out that rather a lot of it is complete bullshit. What is of course still rather scary are the people who consider the bible to be the ultimate moral guide, if they literally embraced every word, we would all be in deep trouble, but luckily they don’t, even when they claim that they do.

4. The Creator gave us a consciousness of eternal existence.

The fourth proof of God’s existence is our consciousness of eternal existence. What I mean is this: We do not have the ability to imagine ourselves not existing. We can imagine our death and even our funeral, but in doing so, we are always on the outside looking in on our death or funeral. We can’t imagine not existing forever.

This “proof” is simply an observation regarding our inability to come to terms with our own mortality, and that perhaps is a coping mechanism we have developed within our human psychology.

As much as atheists try unsuccessful to shake off the consciousness of God, they also try to shake off the consciousness of eternity, but even they cannot imagine themselves not existing.

… except this is once again not a factual claim at all. We all quite happily appreciate that before we were born we did not exist, can quite happily cope with that and not find it in any way inconvenient at all, and so it is when looking forward to the time after we are gone as well. Nope, this is truly a rather silly argument.

.. and that’s a wrap.

Convinced?

Nope neither am I.

The basic claim is that there is a god that manifests in our reality and that claim is both measurable and detectable, yet for some odd reason, this god has also opted to play hide and seek, and so the actual verification of anything supernatural so far is exactly zero.

When you point this out, you then get vague waffly and utterly meaningless arguments such as the above that convinces nobody at all. Such arguments might indeed masquerade as arguments to convince those that do not believe, but in reality are designed to keep those that believe still believing.