My goal with this website is to address modern day concerns of atheists and other non-believers. My goal is NOT to ponder the origins of the universe. You will not likely ever see the word “epistemological” or “intrinsic” on this website. That’s just not my purpose. There are plenty of websites out there if that is your thing.

This is rather long, so I’ll save my front page readers with a break tag. For my feed readers, I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do for you.

Hello,

Just came across your website and was interested in starting a conversation with you about religion, the existence of God, or the lack thereof.

I noticed your website seems to be based on a distorted definition of faith, at least according to Christianity. Faith isn’t something that’s blind – that’s called wishful thinking and superstition. When it comes to religion, faith is something that is built on facts and evidence, at least according to the Bible (Hebrews 11). Blind faith isn’t faith, nor is it rational. It simply doesn’t make sense to believe in something there seems to be no evidence for. Faith is when we know by evidence and facts that what we believe is true. We can’t see God, which is where faith comes into place, but our belief in God needs to be heavily supported by facts, or it doesn’t make sense and isn’t true faith.

I understand many Christians out there are under the same mistaken idea that faith is somehow blind and belief against proof. Biblically at least, that’s far from the truth.

Second, you seem to strongly advocate science. Nice. So do I. But the presence of science doesn’t = the absence of God. Science, by its very nature, is never capable of proving anything doesn’t exist. Science operates on inductive reasoning, which means it observes the world, and then draws conclusions based on those observations. Therefore, it can only draw conclusions about things that can be observed in the physical world.

Also, science and religion address different categories. Science addresses the “how,” religion addresses the “why” and “who.” Ok, the world formed billion years ago in a Big Bang. But why? And who? What is the purpose?

I believe in evolution as much as the next intellectually equipped person. But even evolution doesn’t make sense without religion. What endows these organisms with a will to survive? Why do they want to live? What’s the point of living? Who or what gave them the will to live?

Your site seems to capture very well the present time’s separation of critical thinking and religion, but it doesn’t have to – and is not supposed to be that way. Religion is supposed to involve rational and logical thinking. So what you’re really taking aim at are the people who practice religion, and not God.

I’d love to hear your response.

Matt

My response:

Matt,

I do not believe that my definition of faith is distorted. There is no tangible evidence for the Christian god or any god for that matter. I’m not saying that you believe this, but many people try to tell me that their evidence is in the majesty of a rainbow or a waterfall, or that they can feel the presence of god around them. These are not facts, nor are they evidence of the existence of any higher power. I am interested to hear what facts and evidence you have to support belief in a higher power.

I do strongly advocate science, but nowhere do I propose that the presence of science means that there is no god. I do not know where you came to that conclusion. I am aware that science cannot prove the nonexistence of something. I have never set out to prove the nonexistence of anything. I only ask that people who make fantastic claims prove themselves. Certainly, purporting that an all-powerful, all-knowing being whose origin is never addressed created the world and everything in it can be called fantastic. I realize that the Christian god is believed to exist and operate outside of the physical world as we know it. I can only say that that is very convenient as it seems to absolve said deity’s proponents from having to apply the same rules of logic that are applied to every other instance of educated discourse.

The “who” versus “how” arguments, to met at least, are a matter of philosophical slippery slope that can never be resolved. Acknowledging that a deity may have created the infinitely complex universe does nothing to satisfy the question of how said deity came to be. It is an infinite regress that can be argued until all parties are blue in the face, which is why I stay away from it altogether. I choose to live in the here and now and combat the issues which I face on a daily basis, mainly persecution for my beliefs and the separation of church and state.

I am glad that you think that critical thinking and religion should go hand in hand, and I am glad that you practice that, however, this has never been my experience. Everywhere I have ever lived, religion has existed hand in hand with hatred, bigotry, exclusion, and political gain. In my opinion, when one accepts that they believe for a fact that something that can’t be seen dictates their surroundings in ways which cannot be measured, they have thrown critical thinking to the breeze. When evaluating the existence of a god in a physical world, it is not illogical or out of line to expect that there be some concrete deliverables by which to measure its existence. Otherwise, there is nothing to separate belief in a supreme being with belief in the boogeyman or belief in fairies.

Again, it has been my experience that people do not believe in god truly as a way to explain the origin of their surroundings. It is more often than not the product of not wishing to go to Hell post-mortem. Adherence to any of the many dogmatic organizations of god believers is driven by avoidance of sin and the constant quest to praise and be noticed by a god. Am I taking aim at the people who believe in a god and not the god itself? Sure. Because without the people who believe in that god, there is absolutely no reason to debate his existence. Without the parade of fundamentalism that impacts my life on a personal level daily and on a political level, I would have no reason to speak out.

So to conclude, living in a physical world, in which there can exist no physical proof of a supreme power, what purpose or need is there for such a being? Human beings celebrate morals without any intervention from gods and do so out of evolved desires to propagate one’s species and to experience more of life. These desires do not have to be driven by divine mandate, and to claim such without evidence is preposterous. There are many mysteries of our origins, and as we progress scientifically, we continue to pull the veil back on what has previously been attributed to supernatural powers. It is ambitious to want to think that there is something else out there with a grand plan for us all, but at the end of the day, it is the work of our fellow man that determines the course and quality of our lives.

Is there anything you would have added?

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A Muslim dies and finds himself before the Pearly Gates.
He is very excited, as all his life he has longed to meet the Prophet Mohammed.
Having arrived at the Gates of Heaven, he meets a man with a beard.

“Are you Mohammed?” he asks.

“No, my son. I am Peter. Mohammed is higher up.”
And he points to a ladder that rises into the clouds.

Delighted that Mohammed should be higher than Peter,
he climbs the ladder in great strides,
climbs through the clouds coming to a room
where he meets another bearded man.
He asks again, “Are you Mohammed?”

“No, I am Moses. Mohammed is higher up.”

Exhausted, but with a heart full of joy.
he continues to climb the ladder and, yet again,
he discovers an even larger room
where he meets another man with a beard.
Full of hope, he asks again, “Are you Mohmamed?”

“No, I am Jesus…You will find Mohammed higher up.”

Mohammed higher than Jesus!
The poor man can hardly contain his delight and climbs
and climbs, ever higher. Once again, he reaches an even larger room
where he meets a man with a beard and repeats his question:
“Are you Mohammed?” he gasps, as he is, by now,
totally out of breath from all his climbing.

“No, my son….I am God. But you look exhausted.
Would you like a coffee?”

“Yes, please, my Lord.”

God looks behind him, claps his hands and calls out:
“Hey, Mohammed, two coffees!”

On an unrelated note, here’s another image to ponder. This is of a box of limes at my old job. The passage referenced reads, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Is the sailfish saying that? What if Jesus came back as a sailfish. Would anyone take him seriously? J&J Produce just could help but muddy their packaging by adding an unrelated scripture reference. I mean, if you really going to do that crap, you could put something somewhat related, like Galatians 5:22.

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But then again, it’s sort of hard to be an evangelical without being somewhat of a complete braggart about your godliness.

I used to work in retail and had a very firsthand view of the mean-spirited search for consumer packaged goods. Whatever delusions of “Christmas spirit” shoppers embody at home or church, they ditch them when they enter the store on a mission for sale-priced goods. I once helped a woman to her vehicle with a large item, and the whole way to her car she did nothing but bitch and complain about how every store was sold out of the things she “needed” (her words). Then right as she was getting into her car, she made sure to say “God bless!” Really? You search frantically for items to give as gifts, and you think that somehow fits in with the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus? I don’t understand how people reconcile all of these hateful, vengeful, and competitive feelings with the peace and mercy that is supposedly at the heart of the holiday.

Like several other atheists and non-believers I know, I celebrate Christmas, but I celebrate it as a secular holiday whose main tenet is togetherness and time with family. Yes, we exchange gifts, but we do so on a very limited scale. The whole point of a peaceful gift exchange is lost if you fight tooth and nail to acquire some last minute item. Besides, Black Friday or not, you can almost always find better deals on the internet than you can in brick-and-mortar stores anyway.

Only 359 days until next Christmas. So that means only about 300 days before the next phony “War on Christmas” begins.

Have a safe and Happy New Year!