Not a very good blog post

 

This is not a very good blog post, I think, but the other day I saw a piece called “30 questions for atheists” on an atheist YouTube channel. The questions are taken from a Christian apologetic book I´ve never read, so it could be risky responding to them as they stand, but having nothing else to do, I gave it a shot and wrote short replies to them from my somewhat idiosyncratic perspective…

What is right or wrong? 

An absurdly broad question. How do *you* define “right” or “wrong”? On this plane, what is “right” for one entity is usually “wrong” for another. For instance, what is good for the human hunter and gatherer is bad for the animal hunted and (sometimes) plant gathered.

Right or wrong for humans is based on the instinct of self-preservation, social instincts (both genetic and reciprocal altruism) and compassion (which could be seen as a highly evolved social instinct). Morality is usually a compromise between these three, and there is no simple way to judge exactly what is “right” or “wrong”, certainly not by impeccably deriving anything from one single principle or categorical imperative. Even the god of the Bible changes his commandments from time to time, presumably due to changing circumstances!

But sure, it might be possible to arrive at some kind of universal principle of human conduct, something like “Don´t maliciously cause suffering in others, preserve yourself and the community, be indifferent rather than hostile to people or communities you owe nothing according to the rules of genetic kinship and/or reciprocity”. But this would still only be valid for humans (or only for humans civilized enough to understand it), not all “rational beings” on all possible worlds, nor all possible beings. And there will still be conflicting interests, for instance between “don´t cause suffering” and “preserve the community”. Note, btw, that everything we have discussed so far can be explained by evolution.   

How do you explain the presence of evil in the world?

How do *you* explain evil, since the Bible contains different answers, including the notion that God creates both good and evil? Something tells me you don´t want to go there! Also, what´s the difference between what you call “wrong” and what you call “evil”? Is it the same thing, perhaps somewhat amplified in the case of evil, or are they different in kind? At least among humans, “evil” can be seen as active conscious malice. Perhaps it´s an evolutionary strategy to promote the interests of certain individuals or groups (and hence “good” from the viewpoint of these individuals or groups), perhaps it really is an aberration of some sort. Why the world contains so much suffering and imperfection is, I suppose, an interesting question. Was it created by an evil power, perchance…?  

On what authority do you judge good/evil?

Well, on what authority do *you* judge good or evil? Presumably, you mean the Bible (certified Protestant version).

In the Bible, genocide is *commanded* in the Book of Joshua, but in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says we should love our enemy and don´t resist evil. In Revelation, he kills everyone anyway! In one gospel, divorce is absolutely prohibited, in another its allowed in cases of either party being unfaithful. So which is it? The Decalogue says that God punishes even the descendants of transgressors, while Ezekiel says the opposite. Again, what are we supposed to believe?

Presumably, then, everything God commands at a moment to moment basis is “good”. But why is it so obvious that every command of the hypercosmic creator-god is “good”? What if God is really the Devil in disguise? How would you ever be able to tell the difference if your very *definition* of right/good is “whatever the creator of this world commands”? Would you serve Vishnu, Shiva or Satan if it could be proven that one of them created the universe?

Where did matter come from?

It may indeed have come from God or the Divine, but why do you assume that it must have “come” from somewhere? Maybe it´s eternal.

Can something come from nothing?

I assume you mean “can something come from nothing without a hypercosmic creator-god”? :D

I would go even further and say that something can´t come from nothing, period, so if the Divine exists, pantheism or panentheism is the bottom line, not “classical” theism and creatio ex nihilo.

Besides, most atheists today don´t seem to think that something can come from nothing (the questions were originally intended for atheists), so what´s the point of the question? Why don´t you argue against an eternal universe or multiverse?

What caused the big bang?

The Big Bang never happened, dude. ;-)

Can complexity and mathematical precision come from an explosion?

Where did Cain´s wife come from? Seriously, what makes you think the Big Bang was an “explosion”?

How do you explain non-material thought, logic and reasoning?

I leave this question to the reductionist materialists. But see further below for more on logic.

Apart from God and the Bible, how do you define love and hate?  

This is just silly, I´m sorry. Are you telling me that love and hate don´t exist without the Bible?! And what is the Biblical definition anyway?

How do you explain the fulfilled prophecies of the Scriptures?

How do *you* explain the failed prophecies in the Scriptures, most notably those about the imminent return of Christ?

Explain the resurrection of Christ.

Explain the “rainbow body” resurrection of Nyingma-pa shamans in Tibet. Or the resurrection of Swami Yukteshwar (whose body had been burned), mentioned by Paramahansa Yogananda in “Autobiography of a Yogi”.  

How do you know your worldview is true?

I don´t. And neither do you! Seriously, though…

The bottom line is that all our knowledge comes from our senses (including “the sixth sense”) and is in that sense “empirical”. Even revelation is “empirical” in this sense. But unless you are a very accomplished mystic, you will never receive any revelation, so you have no direct way of confirming your “Biblical” worldview. And if you are a fundamentalist, many empirical facts actually *disproves* your worldview!

What do you do with guilt?

Do you mean guilty people? We punish them, and I believe you do, too. But of course, this is really a theological assertion about the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. So here is a counter-question: Why can´t God just forgive sin without sacrificing his Son? Isn´t he supposed to be all-powerful and all-loving?

What provides the pre-conditions that make reality intelligible?

The shadow of C S Lewis? There is no complete “intelligibility” from a human perspective, since humans are finite. However, the material senses of humans are roughly adequate for their purposes, and can be explained by evolution. There is no mystery here.

Where did the laws of logic come from?

They clearly didn´t come from the Biblical God, who doesn´t strike me as particularly “logical”. In what sense is the Trinity logical, for instance? Or the Incarnation? Or the substitutionary atonement?

Logic is an abstraction created by the human mind, a mind-tool to better understand our world. It´s “derived” from that same world, otherwise it wouldn´t work at all, but an abstraction isn´t the same thing as the actual world, just as a map isn´t the same thing as the terrain it maps (to use a very rough analogy).

As for God, it´s pointless to claim him for logic, since the Divine might very well be trans-rational anyway!

What is the meaning of life?

Why must there be just one “meaning” to something so multifaceted as human existence? That being said, the ultimate meaning is indeed to return to the Divine. This can take countless of lifetimes…

How do you know evolution is true?

By empirical evidence. How do you (supposedly) know that evolution isn´t true? By theological assertion. Which is pointless.

Don´t the presence of moral laws presuppose the presence of an absolute moral code taught by a moral God?

No, it doesn´t. Here´s one for you, though: doesn´t the presence of Leviticus presuppose the presence of a crazy Hebrew priestly writer (known as P)?

How do you know slavery is wrong?

How do *you* know slavery is wrong? Show me where the Bible says that it´s wrong! This is an incredibly weak argument, since the Bible rather strongly implies that slavery *isn´t* wrong, making you a sinner for being an abolitionist!

How do you know torturing people is wrong?

Once again: how do *you* know it´s wrong, since your god supposedly sends billions to Hell for eternity!

Evidence for time + chance = complexity?

I don´t think an atheist would describe his position on evolution (which I suppose this is about) in this way, but regardless, my take is that complexity doesn´t need an explanation. It has always existed. What happens is simply a reshuffling of already existing complexity. The Divine is also “complex”.

Where did the information come from that is programmed into the DNA code?

Clearly, it comes from an ancient Hebrew deity who rode in a chariot accompanied by animal-headed angels. What could be clearer? Now, show me where the Bible mentions DNA.  

Does not the information in the DNA code make evolution impossible?

No idea what this question is supposed to even mean, but then I didn´t read the book the questions are from.

Can atheism have an explanation for the complex moral and ethical issues facing mankind?

Since I haven´t read the book, I´m not sure what this question means either. The “explanation” is obviously that humans are different and hence have different interests, be they individual or communitarian. But that´s so basic bitch, that I suspect the author means “solution”. The preferred solution of fundamentalists is to deny that the issues are complex and then give one-size-fits-all answers supposedly based on the Bible (which is actually quite morally “complex”, too).

Would you think cereal writing a sentence happened by chance?

No, I wouldn´t, but then, for all we know, nothing in the universe happens by “chance”.

Where are the transitional fossils between invertebrate organisms and vertebrate organisms?

A really weird question. I didn´t know vertebrates had been upgraded to a “baramin”!

What use is half a wing?

Well, what do you mean by “half a wing”? Some birds are flightless or bad fliers, yet still have wings, so clearly they have some use. However, this could be the old creationist misunderstanding that transitional forms had *modern* bird wings literally “cut by half”, which would indeed by a hard sell on the evolutionary marketplace!

Can life come from non-life?

In other words: what use is half a life? ;-)

Even if life can´t come from non-life, there are other options than Bible God, for instance vitalism or deism.

If there is no God, and if there are no absolutes, what gives man any more value than rocks, reptiles, trees or termites?

Man (and woman). If there is a god of the kind the author believes in, and this god decides that rocks, reptiles, trees or termites *are* more valuable than humans, the latter presumably can´t protest! We have already discussed the non-existence of “absolutes” in the Bible. 

Can intelligence come from non-intelligence?

Perhaps not, but again there are more options than “intelligence comes from Yahweh”, an Edomite bull god turned into a dyadic cherub in a temple built by Phoenician pagans on the orders of a polyamorous Jewish king. Check up panpsychism, deism or competing monotheisms to yours!