A Stream in the Desert:: My Answer to Atheists:

Sojourning at an Oasis Paradise

My purpose for living this life, and for writing this blog, is to understand the faith that links us to God. I wish to explore and discuss the reality at the heart of all of the world's religions. This is an immense task, but I know that God also has faith in us, trusting that we do desire the truth, as well as freedom, love and wisdom. Thus, as always, He meets us halfway. Even as God has given us individual souls, so we must each of us trace out an individual pathway to God. Whether we reside in the cities of orthodox religion, or wend our solitary ways through the barren wastelands, God watches over us and offers us guidance and sustenance for the journey.

Most of what you will see here is the result of extensive personal study, combined with some careful speculation. Occasionally, I may simply offer some Scripture or an inspirational text. I am a wide reader, and the connection of some topics and ideas to matters of faith and religion may not seem immediately obvious, but perhaps I may spell it out in the end... or maybe, you will decide that it was just a tangent. Anyway, I hope that you will find my meanderings to be spiritually enlightening, intellectually stimulating, or at least somewhat entertaining.

Saturday, June 1, 2019

My Answer to Atheists:

Part 1: You can't say "God doesn't exist."

1. Define what you mean by "God."
a. God is not a member of any category of things, persons, etc.
b. God is not just another person you can find. There are no Olympian gods.
c. God is the self-sufficient action of being-in-itself. He is "the subsistent act of Being Itself" (Bishop Robert Barron).
d. If God did not want to be known, He could have avoided our notice, but He has chosen to make us aware of Him.

2. You can't just ask me to point to anything inside our experience and say "God did that," as if to give evidence.
a. God is outside of our experience.
b. We are inside His experience.
c. Nothing happens that He does not allow, or take into account, in his plans.
d. He "did" the physical laws that made the universe, and all of the laws of nature that made life possible.

3. Science is not great enough to be able to discover God, or to disprove Him.
a. Science can only look at empirical objects that can be observed with our natural or artificial senses.
b. You can't take out your own brain and look at it quivering in your hand, i.e., you cannot see "seeing" with your own eyes.
c. Science requires reasonable conjecture to be able to build knowledge.
d. Reason insists that the "God hypothesis" is a very likely explanation.

4. Atheists fail to seize upon the very largest questions.
a. Where did the universe come from?
b. Why is there something, rather than nothing?
c. Why are you here? Or why are there any intelligent beings possible at all?
d. Why do you think you feel that some actions are good and moral, but some are not and should be forbidden?

5. If you can be satisfied with saying, "I don't know the answers to the really big questions," then simply be agnostic, and don't presume to say that you "know" that there "does not exist" something you can never prove or disprove.
a. If there is anything likely to be beyond our understanding, surely it would be the God who created and sustains the whole Cosmos and everything in it.
b. The mere fact that you feel you must debate Him shows that He desires to call all conscious beings to Himself.
c. "Something from nothing" is not a better answer than "creation by God."
d. It is highly unlikely that science will ever be able to explain, let alone try to manipulate, how the universe's initial physical constants were chosen and fixed.

Part 2: What, or Who, is God?

Omnipresent - not limited in location, because for there to be any location it must be sustained by non-contingent being-in-itself.

Omnipotent - not limited in power, because it is obvious that the Cosmos exists, and that it has both a beginning and an end, as do all living beings.

Omniscient - knows all that can be known, because He has allowed for and observed every contingency, and has designs for every possibility in the future.

Supremely Intelligent - has a coherent intention, with an aim, plans, methods and intermediate goals, and knows how to take action to achieve them, from concept to success.

Perfectly Loving - understands the needs of other beings, because He takes special interest in bringing forth life and intellect, and shaping it into moral creatures.

Perfectly Truthful - He communicates only the Truth, because deceiving his creatures would only warp their development and prevent their further growth in morality.

Giving Freedom - unlimited in his choices of action, He then allows his creatures to choose what they think is best for their own survival, growth and development.

Teaching Wisdom - understanding of practical pursuits, He guides us to follow aims that will lead us to live properly and seek fulfillment in society and knowledge.

Part 3: So what else did you want?

1. God does not force you to obey, but doing so helps your cause.
2. God gives you a magnificent intellect.
3. God let's you grow in knowledge and power.
4. God has given you the best teachers, and the best exemplars.
5. You can refine your own character.
6. The gates of Heaven are ajar for you to open.
7. You can design and build your own paradise, any way you want.
8. God will trust you, if you love Him.
9. You can have everything you need.
10. You need never to be lonely.
11. You can live as long as you want.
12. God asks only for gratitude, and that you always love others.

Do you have any problem with that?