{"id":365,"date":"2005-08-27T19:07:01","date_gmt":"2005-08-28T03:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/?p=365"},"modified":"2005-08-27T19:07:17","modified_gmt":"2005-08-28T03:07:17","slug":"why-not-atheism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2005\/08\/27\/why-not-atheism","title":{"rendered":"Why Not Atheism?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I noticed that the web\u00adpage <a href=\"http:\/\/www.godlessgeeks.com\/WhyAtheism.htm\">Why Athe\u00adism?<\/a> is very pop\u00adu\u00adlar on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.populicio.us\/last24hours.html\">Pop\u00adu\u00adli\u00adcious<\/a> and so I decid\u00aded to give it a look. There\u2019s a lot of legit\u00adi\u00admate crit\u00adi\u00adcism that can be lev\u00adeled against Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty and against the philo\u00adsoph\u00adi\u00adcal argu\u00adments that many Chris\u00adtians use to explain their faith, and so I always seek to learn from sites like this. And I did learn a lit\u00adtle.<\/p>\n<p>But most\u00adly, I was just shocked at how poor the lev\u00adel of argu\u00admen\u00adta\u00adtion was. Giv\u00aden that the page is so pop\u00adu\u00adlar, I fig\u00adured it would be a \u201cbest of breed\u201d exam\u00adple. <\/p>\n<p>\u2018Fraid not.<\/p>\n<p>His argu\u00adments are most\u00adly against posi\u00adtions that most thought\u00adful Chris\u00adtians (at least, the ones I inter\u00adact with) don\u2019t actu\u00adal\u00adly hold. I don\u2019t have time to com\u00adpose a detailed rebut\u00adtal of his essay (actu\u00adal\u00adly a tran\u00adscribed speech), but as <a href=\"http:\/\/xastanford.org\/archives\/reasons-to-believe-in-god\/\">I have spo\u00adken on the gen\u00ader\u00adal theme<\/a> before I can high\u00adlight some inad\u00ade\u00adqua\u00adcies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We don\u2019t claim that our mys\u00adti\u00adcal expe\u00adri\u00adences should be as con\u00advinc\u00ading to oth\u00aders as they are to us. But we do assert that they are avail\u00adable to you and should be includ\u00aded in the evi\u00addence you con\u00adsid\u00ader.<\/li>\n<li>We believe in the Big Bang. Our ques\u00adtion is, what went bang? In oth\u00ader words, the Big Bang explains a lot about the state of the uni\u00adverse today, but it does\u00adn\u2019t tell us where it itself came from. All that it tells us is that the uni\u00adverse had a begin\u00adning, and our argu\u00adment is that there was also a begin\u00adner who must be fun\u00adda\u00admen\u00adtal\u00adly dif\u00adfer\u00adent than the uni\u00adverse which was begun. He rebuts some weak ver\u00adsions of this argu\u00adment, but there are much stronger ver\u00adsions to inter\u00adact with (such as those offered by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leaderu.com\/offices\/billcraig\/menus\/existence.html\">William Lane Craig<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>A lot of Chris\u00adtians believe in one of the many the\u00ado\u00adries of evo\u00adlu\u00adtion. In fact, I\u2019d say most of the well-edu\u00adcat\u00aded Chris\u00adtians that I know are quite cer\u00adtain that the earth is bil\u00adlions of years old and that species change over time. They\u2019re divid\u00aded on whether or not nat\u00adu\u00adral\u00adis\u00adtic expla\u00adna\u00adtions ade\u00adquate\u00adly explain the ori\u00adgin of life. It would be nice for our cause if such expla\u00adna\u00adtions could be shown to be inad\u00ade\u00adquate, but it\u2019s hard\u00adly essen\u00adtial.<\/li>\n<li>His response to the argu\u00adment from moral\u00adi\u00adty miss\u00ades the point com\u00adplete\u00adly. We don\u2019t claim that peo\u00adple can\u2019t invent moral systems\u2013it\u2019s obvi\u00adous that they do so all the time. The cen\u00adtral claim we are mak\u00ading is that moral\u00adi\u00adty is only mean\u00ading\u00adful as a con\u00adcept if there is more to real\u00adi\u00adty than mat\u00adter and the forces that oper\u00adate upon it. More\u00adover, we assert that any moral sys\u00adtem which ignores this  is nec\u00ades\u00adsar\u00adi\u00adly arbi\u00adtrary and inad\u00ade\u00adquate.<\/li>\n<li>The claim that there is no evi\u00addence Jesus ever exist\u00aded is so ridicu\u00adlous I\u2019m tempt\u00aded not to respond to it, but giv\u00aden that it is being recit\u00aded with dis\u00adcour\u00adag\u00ading fre\u00adquen\u00adcy I\u2019ll direct your atten\u00adtion to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christian-thinktank.com\/jesusref.html\">a list of extra\u00adbib\u00adli\u00adcal, nonChris\u00adt\u00adian wit\u00adness\u00ades to Jesus who wrote before 200 A.D.<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Since what seems to be dri\u00adving his site is a fear that Chris\u00adtians have some plan to install some sort of theo\u00adcrat\u00adic gov\u00adern\u00adment in Amer\u00adi\u00adca, I\u2019d just like to make it clear that we believe in a sep\u00ada\u00adra\u00adtion of church and state\u2013because the state cor\u00adrupts the church. And besides, it\u2019s a Bib\u00adli\u00adcal idea (1 Tim 2:1\u20132 \u2014 a prayer that the gov\u00adern\u00adment would leave Chris\u00adtians the heck alone).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Any\u00adway, he says a lot more in his essay. I cer\u00adtain\u00adly haven\u2019t respond\u00aded to it all, nor have I respond\u00aded thor\u00adough\u00adly to what I did take time to respond to. It\u2019s most\u00adly the same-old, same-old stuff you hear if you\u2019ve done any inves\u00adti\u00adga\u00adtion at all into the exis\u00adtence of God (there is evil there\u00adfore God\u2019s attrib\u00adut\u00ades are con\u00adtra\u00addic\u00adto\u00adry, the Bible is stu\u00adpid, reli\u00adgion always oppos\u00ades progress, etc, etc).<\/p>\n<p>If those argu\u00adments both\u00ader you a lot then dig around on the sites I linked to above and also lis\u00adten to some of the rel\u00ade\u00advant lec\u00adtures at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.veritas.org\/3.0_media\/index.php\">Veritas.org<\/a>. There are rea\u00adson\u00adable answers to peo\u00adple\u2019s ques\u00adtions.<\/p>\n<p>Any\u00adway, I guess I was just shocked that this page is so pop\u00adu\u00adlar. I expect\u00aded bet\u00adter of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I noticed that the web\u00adpage Why Athe\u00adism? is very pop\u00adu\u00adlar on Pop\u00adu\u00adli\u00adcious and so I decid\u00aded to give it a look. There\u2019s a lot of legit\u00adi\u00admate crit\u00adi\u00adcism that can be lev\u00adeled against Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty and against the philo\u00adsoph\u00adi\u00adcal argu\u00adments that many Chris\u00adtians use to explain their faith, and so I always seek to learn from sites \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2005\/08\/27\/why-not-atheism\" class=\"more-link\">Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201cWhy Not Athe\u00adism?\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-of-random-interest"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-5T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}