Response to Shagbark (4 of 4)
| May 6, 2012 | Posted by Joseph Keysor under Blog |
“What scientific evidence do you have to prove God does not exist – not inferences or arguments, but evidence?”
It is a waste of time to try to prove God does not exist, since, as I noted above, we can do nothing with the information unless we can know something about this God. Therefore the only worthwhile activity is either trying to divine the nature of God, or evaluate the claims of particular beliefs about God.
I am glad you agree that the atheist position cannot be proven scientifically. I also agree that the mere fact of the existence of some God is inadequate, but it can stir us up to seek more. The worthwhile activity then would be to seek for more information about this God. As Jesus said, “Seek, and you will find.” A good place to start looking for God is in the person and teachings of Jesus Christ.
I feel like you have studied Harris’ book closely, but resisted it at every step, considering every idea only long enough to come up with some surface-level objection to it, always careful to shield yourself from being contaminated with a true understanding of it.
I feel you are mistaken. I identified some specific issues in Harris’ book which you didn’t respond to. True, I do think Harris is a deeply misguided man, and a potentially dangerous man who would not be sorry to see Christians persecuted, but I approached his book from the vantage point of long-standing and hard-won beliefs. If my beliefs are not true, my whole approach to life is wrong. If they are true, Sam Harris is a blind man groping in darkness.
I believe I do have a valid understanding of Harris’ book. His understanding of religion and of religious people is wrong; his ideas of threats to society are wrong, and the solutions he proposes are correspondingly wrong. I also showed, from his own words on a different aspect of his book you chose not to deal with, that Harris and other atheists are perfectly willing to kill for their beliefs, or have other people do the killing for them.
The general pattern to your questions is one I see in many religious people. You feel that you lack something; and you make up a God to try to fill this void.
Or is it you who tries to avoid God for various personal reasons?
The existence of other people who don’t feel this void terrifies you.
I am happy to say you are wrong there. What was there in any of my posts that was indicative of terror? On the other hand, you said my stating that atheists should not be able to avoid escaping the burden of proof, and you found this “scary.” Perhaps it is you who are easily frightened. What if your rejection of God is based on fear, fear of what the implications for your life and for eternity of the biblical God might be?
Admitting that they don’t would suggest the problem was with you. So you try and try to insist that they must feel this void, they must have this empty, amoral, purposeless attitude towards life.
I recognize that many atheists manage to get by because they do not live consistently with their presuppositions, and have various ways to give themselves the illusion of meaning. Their humanity rebels against the world view they claim to hold, so they live inconsistently. They do not always feel empty, but they are. They do not feel amoral, but their morals have no solid foundation. They do not feel purposeless, because they give themselves a false purpose, and the illusion of doing something.
And because this is what you’re really thinking about, all the fears and problems that you personally have show up in your arguments as things you accuse atheists of having. The objections that religious people make against atheism tell us more about religious people than they do about atheists.
It all depends on whether or not God exists. If there is no God, Christians are wrong and confused. If there is a God, atheists are wrong and confused. This will be made clear on the day of judgment, when we stand before Christ to give an account of the way in which we have lived. I hope you will find out more about Christ before that day. Again, “Seek and you will find.”
If life whispers to you and asks you to change your mind, will you listen?
Many times circumstances have compelled me to reevaluate my self, and required me to do things differently. But about the existence of God, what I have in Christ is more real than life itself.
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