1) If God is all-knowing and all-powerful and all-good, how do we account for all the evil and suffering?
The answer is: You can't! When I was a Christian, I remember answering this question with statements like, "Everything happens for a reason." "God must have a reason for not intervening and we cannot know His will." "Tests of faith make us stronger." What a bunch of baloney.
Other Christians might think that disasters might be caused by god for a reason. Pat Robertson warned Dover, PA to "Watch out" after they voted against teaching intelligent design in schools. Regardless of whether you take the warm and fuzzy "It'll all make sense in good time" notion or the brimstoney "God is sending a message" stance, I call your BS. Try to justify it all you want, but I can't and I won't. It is insulting to victims of oppression, natural disasters, criminal behavior and plain bad luck.
2) Explaining the existence of a god is just as difficult (and arguably more so) than explaining the beginning of the universe.
I'm guessing we'll have a viable explanation for how the universe came to be within my lifetime. Nobody has presented a theory on the existence of god that doesn't require a leap of faith. Why should we accept that god has always just been there?
3) Atheists are just taking non-belief one step further.
If you belong to any religion, you are making a statement about what you believe. If I asked you why you don't believe in the gods of Greek mythology, you could give me a bunch of reasons. If I ask a Christian why she isn't Muslim, she could give me her rationale. If I ask a Muslim why he isn't Christian, I could probably have a long conversation about why he believes in his god. Why do people around the world subscribe to one religion, rejecting the rest, without turning a critical eye on their own? As an atheist, I am just believing in one less god (or set of gods) than any religious person out there.
4) The fly exists, so therefore, god must not.
Mark Twain, in Fables of Man, goes on a bit of a rant about the fly. He questions any being who would invent the fly, knowing that the fly is going to spread disease, annoy animals and torment humans. Since I live out in the country and inevitably get flies in my house, I am acutely aware of the nuisance that is the fly. Therefore, I have elevated this argument to classic status. Twain writes the imagined words of a creator to the fly, "Persecute the sick child; settle upon its eyes, its face, its hands, and gnaw and pester and sting; worry and fret and madden the worn and tired mother who watches by the child, and who humbly prays for mercy and relief with the pathetic faith of the deceived and the unteachable...spare no creature, wild or tame; but wheresoever you find one, make his life a misery, treat him as the innocent deserve; and so please Me and increase My glory Who made the fly."
No comments:
Post a Comment