Tag Archive | atheism

Devil’s Advocate

Jan28

I try to be an equal opportunity devil’s advocate. Let me know where I fail.

Reflections on religious studies.

To people who don’t want anyone to challenge their Christianity:

Having people ask questions should cause you to seek answers and thereby strengthen your faith. Are you not supposed to be always ready to give an answer as to why you believe (I Peter 3:15)? No reasonable person should expect you to have all the answers but when you keep seeking answers, you can live your life with what you do understand, accept the rest, and answer better next time.

 

To the Christians who do not want to try to convert others:

Are you not commanded to tell the Gospel to the world (Matthew 28:19-20)? Some Christians have created a bad taste in the mouths of the world by being aggressive, overbearing… domineering. Doesn’t Jesus’ example tell you to see others with love, compassion, and with the desire for them know the truth? If you or your message is not received, shut up and leave it alone (my paraphrase of Matthew 10:14). It is not your job to hound them. Maybe God will send them someone else.

 

To the atheist and the Satanist:

Where does your morality come from? The Satanist says, “and do no harm.” I have heard this phrase from Wiccans too. Why not harm anyone? If there is no higher power, why shouldn’t we just do whatever it takes to get what we want despite stepping on the backs of others to get it, other than the actions being illegal. I have heard atheists say that banding together for the common good was a survival mechanism. This banding together may have helped us fight against predators and to hunt food, but in the main, it helped us develop an us versus them mentality. It made us stronger to fight against other humans in competition for territory and food. If there is no higher power to fear, then the only thing to fear, (besides fear itself,) is other people. Might makes right. The same survival mechanism that brought us together was the catalyst for bigger wars.

 

Another general point:

Our worldview must make philosophical sense. For example, If I believe that Christianity is true, then Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, and Taoism cannot be true. They cannot all be true. One truth for me and another truth for you is illogical and philosophically unsound. We would never accept this sort of reasoning in politics, business, or science. When we say that something is true for you but not for me, we are really saying something else.

 

Truth is not very important so it’s okay if people believe a falsehood.

This leads down some rocky roads because this worldview does not affect only religion; it bleeds over into what we expect of government, personal relationships, and other areas.

 

We don’t care enough about others to discourse on truth.

For those of us who profess Christianity, numbers two and three are antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. We should care about all people, even those who mock us for our faith.

 

We aren’t sure in our own minds that what we believe is true.

When questions come up that we can’t answer, It’s time to study to show ourselves approved 2 Timothy 2:15.

 

 

Please respond. Do you disagree? Is my logic sound? Let me know. I’m asking for it.

Burden of Proof – The Magic Table

May20

Recently, a Facebook friend of mine posted this to me in a discussion thread.

If I claim to my friends that I have a magic table that you cannot see or feel, they would say to me, correctly, “Prove it.” You claim that there is a being that no one can see. I say, “Prove it. The burden of proof is on you.”

Let’s change this a bit to an experience that many people have had, pain.

Let’s say you have pain in your back. It is debilitating. Sometimes, you can’t move the pain is so bad. So, you go to the doctor. The doctor checks you out and says, “I can’t find anything wrong with you. Take these pills and rest for a few days.”

The first time this happens, you take the pills, and rest. It does not get better. You go back to the doctor. He does an MRI, x-ray, and blood work. All the results come back and the doctor calls you to say, “There is nothing wrong with you. It’s your imagination.”

“NO! It is not my imagination. I hurt. Something is wrong!”

You know something is wrong. Just because the doctor can’t see anything in the tests, does not mean that your pain does not have a cause. That pain is real.

Christians, at least some of us, experience God as a reality, a positive reality, not as a voice such as the product of schizophrenia, but as the presence, the comfort, the peace that fills our lives. We cannot hand that to you for you to touch. We cannot paint it with colors for you to see.

We can talk about the statistical improbability of DNA arranging itself into sentient beings, or the temperatures or force being exactly right for our universe to have come about, but you have already rejected those arguments (illogically in my opinion). All we can do is describe the presence and tell you how you can have it. We do this because we love you and want everyone to experience the inner peace that knowing God brings. To take that away from us puts the burden of proof on you.

Please read The Scandinavian Sceptic. It is rather long and some points are better than others but the good ones are good, and… he gives references.

 

note: This post deals only with burden of proof.

Apr25

banner image by Sean Lynn

 

Our nation is a fractured house. Society divides us in every way imaginable, male vs. female, religious vs. atheists, religions against each other, gay vs. straight, republican vs. democrat, and there are all of those who don’t fit into the one or the other category. Yes, we are different and we live in a country that guarantees that freedom to be different. In all our differences, let’s have a civil conversation.