Four Questions for Atheists
Can You Live with the Consequences of Your Beliefs?
Why is there something rather than nothing? Either the universe and all the ingredients needed to create life have always been there, or they came from somewhere or someone. I personally can't comprehend things always existing without being forced to ask where they came from. If they came from nothing, how was that possible? I'm not talking about the source being a big bang of some particle of energy; I'm talking about nothing actually being nothing. How could total nothing become everything?
Do you really believe that there is no such thing as good and bad? If there is no God and we are not the result of a purposeful creation, do you also affirm that good and bad do not exist? If we are all the products of evolution, then whatever exists simply exists. There was no purpose in our coming into being. It was a chance occurrence, a random happening. If that's true, how can we call something good or something bad? We simply are. We are neutral. Do you agree that there is nothing good and nothing bad?
Do you really believe that human beings are nothing more than glorified animals? I'm assuming that since you reject the concept or existence of God, you also reject the existence of anything spiritual. If everything evolved, then it evolved from matter, not spirit. Therefore, animals, humans, rocks, trees, and so on, all share a basic material origin. Ultimately, then, there is no difference between humans and anything else. Of course, some "things" (humans, for example) apparently think and apparently have free will-although I doubt that mere matter can lead to true thinking and true free will. Is that how you see yourself-as a being that does not truly think or truly initiates actions? C. S. Lewis, a Christian, once wrote that if he didn't believe in creation, he could not trust his "thinking process," because his brain, just like the rest of him, would be the random product of evolution, not an organ created to think. That makes sense to me.
Do you really believe that each person has the right to do whatever he or she wants, no matter what that may mean?If not, why not? If we all simply exist as products of evolution and if there are no absolute standards of right and wrong (since there is no creative being who gave standards to the world), what right do we have to judge the actions of another person (I even hate to use the word "person" in this context!)? Society may get together and pass laws to protect society as a whole, but on what moral basis can they do that without assuming that certain actions are helpful to society and certain things are harmful? Why punish people who break those laws?
My belief in God has no trouble with any of these questions.
Published by Bible Doc
I am a (mostly) retired minister. I spent a few years teaching Bible courses in a Christian school. One of my goals is to write. I see Associated Content as a step toward fulfilling that goal. View profile
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15 Comments
Post a Comment"Do you really believe that each person has the right to do whatever he or she wants, no matter what that may mean?If not, why not? " Wow! This is so incredibly rude that you think this! I believe there are and should be laws and constraints on behavior because I, as an animal, understand love of family and wish to protect my family. As an animal, I can understand that since all humans are the same, they are my family. Not only are all men my brothers but all life is, too. Everything evolved and there is a certain law of nature. To survive we must behave in certain ways. Our love and empathy drive us to help one another. We must treat our animal brethren with compassion, only killing if we must and with as much mercy as possible. We must respect our environment because we are part of it. It is artificial, societal constructs such as religion which serve to divide humanity, teaching that only their kind are brothers.
And, yes, I believe I'm an animal. If you are not an animal why do you have internal organs like an animal? Why do you eat, breathe, and excrete like an animal? Why is your body similar in form and why do you have similar DNA? Was God making a joke? We are animals, our ancestors adapted and evolved, passing on their genes because intelligence is an excellent survival trait. Believe it or not, animals also think and feel on greater and lesser degrees depending on the individual and its species.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/480619/where_morality_comes_from_one_atheists.html
The "Ten Commandments" are directly cribbed from Hammurabi's code, a legal document. Your concepts of right and wrong trickled down from there. Atheists are able to understand right from wrong because we are capable of love and empathy. Think about how one baby crying starts a whole room full of children crying, well before the children, toddlers, and infants are old enough to have been indoctrinated with Christianity. That is empathy. It's instinctive and has proven necessary for our survival.
Your view of atheists is extremely bigoted and rude. As a Christian, how do you reconcile your faith with your rudeness and bigotry?
Your entire article refutes the notion that humans "think."
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/403063/a_response_to_four_questions_for_atheists.html
I answered your questions in my own article. when it's published, i'll send the link...
I think you did a pretty decent job with your core questions here and I also find that many atheists are inconsistent in developing their understandings of their beliefs. However, I will have to say that your first question can be as easily asked of a Christian as an atheist (and as easily answered by an atheist as a Christian). Think about it: a Christian believes God has always existed... and God is some-thing (though obviously not initially a material thing) - so how often do you ask yourself where he came from? Or do you consign yourself to incomprehension? Either way, an atheist could either simply state that everything has always been here (perhaps time is cyclical or has some other property which avoids our linear thinking) or consign him/herself to incomprehension. There's not much difference between Christians and atheists concerning the necessary amount of belief in this issue; it only affects or reflects their understanding of subsequent value.
Regarding the comments from Jeff Musall and Jackie Oh, I had no intention of calling people good or bad or denying that there are other types of faith other than a biblical faith. I was just trying to say that atheists have no basis for their choices of bad or good than their own personal preferences. Society's laws may force a person to adopt a lifestyle that he or she may not otherwise have chosen. As to the implied idea that atheism does not require faith: atheism's faith is in the idea that only natural laws provide anything to rest one's life and behavior on. Where's the proof for that? Isn't faith the basis for that?