This lens is meant to provide a succinct introduction to some of atheism's assertions and fallacies. We will also provide links to essays that will discuss the issue in greater detail.
Atheism info
There are various sects within atheism. Generally speaking, atheism is a faith based belief system that holds to the belief that God does not exist. However, this requires a belief in a negative that cannot be proved. Therefore, some atheists have redefined atheism as not meaning that God does not exist. They claim that they do not believe in God because God's existence has not been proven (and perhaps cannot be proven).
According to this line of reasoning, if God's existence could be sufficiently proved, atheists would become theists. Atheists argue that God cannot exist because there are so many conflicting concepts of God. One aught to wonder how atheism could be true, considering that there are so many sects. Some of these sects, such as "American Atheists," are such fundamentalists that they actually exclude certain people in stating, "Atheists are NOT..." We comment on these in detail in Atheism's Sects.
According to this line of reasoning, if God's existence could be sufficiently proved, atheists would become theists. Atheists argue that God cannot exist because there are so many conflicting concepts of God. One aught to wonder how atheism could be true, considering that there are so many sects. Some of these sects, such as "American Atheists," are such fundamentalists that they actually exclude certain people in stating, "Atheists are NOT..." We comment on these in detail in Atheism's Sects.
Atheism Links - I
- Atheism Dissected
- 97 posts as of Nov 2008 considering atheism from various vantage points.
- Atheism is Dead
- 88 posts as of Nov 2008 a team of contributors posts and the battle ensues in the comments section.
- Richard Dawkins - Scientist or Activist?
- 53 posts as of Nov 2008 considering Prof. Richard Dawkins' various assertions.
- Sam Harris - Mythbuster or Mythmaker?
- 36 posts as of Nov 2008 considering Sam Harris' various assertions.
- Dan Barker - One of America's Leading Atheists
- 31 posts as of Nov 2008 considering the Freedom From Religion Foundation's very own Dan Barker's various assertions.
Atheism puts forth a front of being committed to rationale, intellect, philosophy, and scientific proof. However, they want to set the rules of the game and be the umpires as well. For instance, they say that there is no proof for God's existence. However, before offering any, the theist aught to ask what "proof" would suffice, what would qualify as "proof." We find that no matter what proof is offered, the atheist will discount it.The most obvious and simplest proof would be for the atheist to request a personal appearance of God-either to the atheist personally or to all peoples world-wide. However, considering what an atheist would do if God appeared to them, this would not suffice since, for example, the atheist could claim that it was a hallucination of some sort.
Some atheists claim that such proof would require scientific verification. However, atheism has taken it upon itself to redefine "science" as a search for absolute naturalism and an absolute rejection of the supernatural. We must define our terms since, for example, Richard Lewontin (Harvard University Professor of zoology and biology) has offered a description of this self-serving redefinition:"Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural...we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."
[Richard Lewontin, "Billions and Billions of Demons," New York Times Book Reviews, Volume 44, Number 1 (January 9, 1997) reviewing Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark]
Ravi Zacharias on Amazon
A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism
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Real Face of Atheism, The
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Can Man Live Without God
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Scott C. Todd (Department of Biology; Kansas State University) has further demonstrated just how far some "scientists" are willing to take their faith based belief in materialism:"Even if all the data pointed to an intelligent designer, such a hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic."
[Scott C. Todd, "A View from Kansas on that Evolution Debate," Nature Vol. 401, Sep. 30, 1999, p. 423]
Clearly, Mr. Todd has abandoned the true scientific method of following the evidence where it leads. Likewise, some atheists are very quick to jump ship and abandon their alleged unbiased search for the truth. They do this because atheism is a faith based belief. Thus, some of them would be willing to exclude clear proof in order to continue holding on to their dogmas.
Atheism Links - II
Scientific Issues
- Gladio Mentis - The Sword Of The Mind
- MedicineMan's mental tonics.
- Atheism Analyzed
- Analyzed from a logical perspective.
- Atheism Analyzed: The Reality Approach - Using Logic and Rational Processes
- Companion the the above mentioned blog contains articles and downloadable books.
With regards to atheism's requests for scientific proof: theists aught to ask atheists to prove scientifically that proof can only be had through the scientific method. If they cannot prove this, they have no foundation upon which to request that God's existence be proved scientifically.They should be asked to prove that their materialistic redefinition of science is historically and logically accurate and how they went about arriving at such a definition. If they cannot prove that all things can be explained by materialistic means, they have no foundation upon which to claim that all things can be explained by materialistic means.
Atheists claim that science is not about disproving God's existence and that science actually has nothing to do with the supernatural. However, atheists will then turn around and claim that God cannot exist because of what we can see though a microscope and telescope. Hence, for atheists, science proves absolute materialism and materialism disproves God. But how can science not deal with the supernatural but disprove it at the same time?Moreover, they criticize theists for using the concept of a God in order to fill the gaps of our knowledge-"the God of the gaps." Yet, they fill their gaps by using the concept of the time of the gaps, the chance of the gaps, the materialism of the gaps. Time, chance and matter are the atheist's trinity. They conjure up time in order to claim that given enough time, complex and orderly system can come into being. Also, that given enough time, everything will be explained by an appeal to materialism. Until humanity knows everything that there is to know, atheists can keep claiming that materialistic means can explain all things.
Therefore, they claim that their worldview is true even though there is no way to disprove it. They have, in fact, concocted an un-disprovable theory.
J. Budziszewski on Amazon
How to Stay Christian in College: An Interactive Guide to Keeping the Faith
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Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law
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What We Can't Not Know: A Guide
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True Tolerance: Liberalism and the Necessity of Judgment
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Atheists are also likely to claim that something can only be proved if it can be experienced through our senses. If they cannot prove this, they have no foundation upon which to claim that reality can only be ascertained through the senses. Some people do claim to have had experiences with God, such as hearing God.But atheists are skeptical enough of God's existence that they simply claim to know that all such reported experiences with God as somehow illusory. This is, of course, something that they could not possibly know and is based solely upon their presuppositions, their circular logic.
Atheism Links - III
- Atheism
- Read the article that was voted "best article of the year."
- Atheism Quotes
- Hear it from their own lips.
Atheists typically deny the existence of absolute truth, except their absolute claim to know that and whatever else they believe. Some claim to be relativists but believe that relativism is absolutely true. In fact, relativism is a faith based belief which is paradoxically both relativistic and absolutist. Atheists claim to be tolerant but they are not. They do not tolerate those with whom they disagree. They then charge others with intolerance, but if they do not tolerate the intolerant they themselves are not tolerant.
They also claim that there are no absolute moral standards, except this moral standard. Also, that one should not impose their morals upon others, except the moral that one should not impose their morals upon others. They also claim that one aught not "shove their beliefs down someone else's throat," except the belief that it is wrong to shove one's beliefs down someone else's throat. They claim that it is wrong to judge even while judging others of being judgmental and judging judgmentalism as being wrong.
They also claim that there are no absolute moral standards, except this moral standard. Also, that one should not impose their morals upon others, except the moral that one should not impose their morals upon others. They also claim that one aught not "shove their beliefs down someone else's throat," except the belief that it is wrong to shove one's beliefs down someone else's throat. They claim that it is wrong to judge even while judging others of being judgmental and judging judgmentalism as being wrong.
Atheists make an argument that states, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" This simple sentence carries along with it a variety of presuppositions and undefined terms. For instance, what is "bad"? What is "good"? Why is it that no bad things are supposed to happen to good people? There is certainly nothing in the Bible nor in orthodox Christian doctrine that would lead one to conclude that no bad things are supposed to happen to good people. It is therefore a faulty argument to make against Christianity. The argument is based on atheism's theistic concepts. They presuppose what God would be like if God existed. They lay some ground rules, and if God breaks their rules, then they define God out of existence. Hence their argument goes: if God existed and God were good then no bad things would happen to good people. This argument is incumbent upon their subjective definition of what good and bad are.
Ronald Nash on Amazon
Worldviews in Conflict
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Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions
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Faith and Reason
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Life's Ultimate Questions
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Concept of God, The
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Another presupposition is that a good person is always good. What if a good person did something bad and they are being punished? What if we think that a person is good based on merely partial information (such as only knowing someone at the jobsite)? What if the atheist's definition of good is faulty? In fact, for an atheist to argue against evil, bad, and wrong, they must presuppose absolute standards for good and right. Perhaps the simplest response to this argument is another question-why do good things happen to bad people? If God cannot exist because bad things happen to good people then, God must exist because good things happen to bad people. If God's character would be malevolent if God allowed good people to suffer bad things then, God's character must be benevolent (or at least balanced out) since God allows bad people to enjoy good things.
Norman Geisler on Amazon
I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist
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Who Made God?: And Answers to Over 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith
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To Everyone an Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview: Essays in Honor of Norman L. Geisler
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Philosophy of Religion: Second Edition
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Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Baker Reference Library)
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Norman Geisler's "When...ask" Series on Amazon
When Critics Ask: A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties
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When Cultists Ask: A Popular Handbook on Cultic Misinterpretations
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When Skeptics Ask a Handbook on Christian Evidences
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Various Authors on Amazon
Answering the Objections of Atheists, Agnostics, and Skeptics
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Beginning Apologetics 4: How to Answer Atheists and New Agers
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Answers for Atheists, Agnostics, and Other Thoughtful Skeptics: Dialogs About Christian Faith and Life
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Reasoning With an Atheist
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The God Who Is There
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List of all of my online blogs
- "The Lost Tomb of Jesus"
- "Blogger" Version
- "The Lost Tomb of Jesus"
- "Squidoo" Version
- Gospel of Judas
- "Blogger" Version
- Gospel of Judas
- "Squidoo" Version
- Thank God for The Da Vinci Code
- "Blogger" Version
- Thank God for The Da Vinci Code
- "Squidoo" Version
- Atheism Dissected
- The Expansive Version
- Atheism Succinctly
- The Introductory Version
- Life and Doctrine
- Various Topics and Links to Various More
- Life in Albuquerque
- One Resident's Musings
- Apologia
- Succinct Description of Apologetics and Links to Various Resources (books, audio, video, ministries, charities, music, etc.)
- The Bahá'í Faith
- Essays About The Bahá'í Faith
- Islamicus
- Essays About Islam
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- Essays About Mormonism - LDS Church
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- Essays About The Catholic Views of Mary
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- Essays About Catholic Eucharist - The Real Presence
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- Essays About Catholic Purgatory
- Grand Design Graphics
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- Great Books, Frugal Prices
- Sam Harris-Myth Buster or Myth Maker?
- "Squidoo" Version
- Sam Harris-Myth Buster or Myth Maker?
- "Blogger" Version: various essays about Mr. Harris
- Richard Dawkins - Scientist or Activist?
- Various essays about Prof. Dawkins
- Dan Barker - One of America's Leading Atheists
- Essays about the Freedom From Religion Foundation's very own Mr. Barker
- Atheism is Dead
- Multi-author site discusses atheism from various perspectives.
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