The neverending flame war between Christians and atheists on YouTube continues, LOL. This week´s battle: a two year old video on a channel titled Faith Evolved. The content-creator, Jay, is actually *not* a Christian. At the very least not a very Nicene-orthodox one. He is into the ACIM (A Course in Miracles) and the Urantia Book! I haven´t looked into *that* particular milieu for years. Recently, he even uploaded a heavy metal song composed by himself based on the Urantia Bible.
Since I don´t have any meaningful to do just now (except maybe sleep), I decided to comment Jay´s video, which contains 10 questions for atheists (or perhaps atheist materialists). A few are quite original. I don´t consider myself an "atheist" or "materialist" sensu stricto, so on some topics I more or less agree with Faith Evolved. But...I dunked on the Urantia Book and the ACIM on this blog before, so *those* particular "revelations" are simply not my cup of tea.
1. Are you sure you´re an atheist at all? Why are you not an agnostic, since you can´t prove a negative?
Good question. Many atheists claim that atheism is "merely a lack of belief in god or gods", a position jokingly known as "lacktheism". But of course that´s impossible. All atheism is a *positive* claim about the state of the (purported) evidence for a (purported) "god" or "gods". It literally can´t be otherwise. Therefore, most atheists are *not* "agnostic", "negative", "soft" or "lacktheist" but rather the exact opposite *even when they claim otherwise*, which explains the activism of many atheists Jay reacts against.
Next, Jay further states that since we are a "baby species" who can´t even cure the common cold, how can we be sure that God doesn´t exist? This is a correct observation, but it works both ways: how can we be sure the ACIM or the Urantia Book are real, rather than (at best) very scrambled communications from the Great Beyond (or our own psyches)? Some form of humble agnosticism when it comes to "Ultimate Reality" seems to be in order here...from both sides.
2. How can intelligence come from non-intelligence? Isn´t this evidence for intelligent design?
Also good questions, but I have a problem with Jay´s computer metaphors. Whatever Reality might be, it sure isn´t a human-built computer! Intelligent design in the "computer simulation" or "watchmaker" senses strikes me as extremely unlikely, indeed, impossible. An organic metaphor for Reality seems more apt. Or Neo-Platonist emanationism per usual. As for intelligence, the Divine probably isn´t "intelligent" in the human sense. Most personal gods are simply humans writ large. Perhaps the Divine simply "creates" countless of universes spontaneously without having to "design" them or "think" at all in our senses of those terms?
3. Since something exists, must not part of it have existed forever? Reality must have some kind of structure to exist at all.
This also seems correct. A materialist atheist would (of course) argue that the structure is purely material, perhaps space-time. But yes, the notion of a true Nothing or Nothingness does sound incoherent.
4. Why can´t that one thing that exists forever be consciousness, spiritual or god?
Well, exactly.
5. What if the scientific method doesn´t take everything into considerations, such as spirituality?
That depends on how you define "science", but at least in the modern world, "science" either tries to explain phenomena in a materialist way, or declares them unsolvable and therefore meaningless if they can´t be so explained. This may or may not be a good approach *in science* but of course people have broader vistas and will explore the spiritual anyway.
Note the following, however. Many religions make claims about the material world. For instance, the Bible. Or the Urantia Book. If these claims contradict each other and/or contradict scientific evidence, that particular religion is probably not true, and neither is it´s "god" if the faulty information is said to come from Him through divine revelation. Examples include young earth creationism, ancient aliens and (perhaps) the claim that Jesus visited Rome. Indeed, channeled material seems to contain a downright staggering amount of misinformation of this kind!
6. Why can´t God just be an advanced alien race?
This was the question that really brought the house down, LOL. It´s derived from the Urantia Book, of course. I agree that a sufficiently powerful space alien would be a "god" according to one common definition of that word. Pagan gods look humanoid, they are long-lived but it´s not always clear whether they are really immortal, they have superhuman powers, have access to flying vehicles, and are sometimes associated with various planets. Yeah, sounds like a space alien, alright! But note that most atheists would *not* consider such a being to be a "god" (this position is probably an unconscious Christian influence), but rather a material being misidentified as such, or perhaps nefariously posing as such. Compare cargo cults in New Guinea.
7. What would it take for you to believe that "God" exists?
Depends entirely on what you mean by that word. A kind of generic spiritual reality could presumably be strongly suggested by a mystical experience. But how can we *know* that this is the Ultimate Reality? Maybe we´re only tapping into the hive-mind of some lower astral creatures!
8. What if an advanced alien race could change reality? What if humans could become "gods" and create life on other planets?
Theosophy? My guess is that material creatures can´t change material reality in this radical fashion. We can "only" leave this plane of existence for another one, and probably not change that either.
9. Does a part of you secretely hope that God exists?
Which "god" was that, again? I hope the ACIM or the Urantia Book *aren´t* true!
10. How can you know for sure that I (Jay) don´t know God?
Here, Jay quotes some kind of scripture, but it´s not clear to me which one. The point is that knowledge of God or the Divine is gained through personal experience and living faith and not through intellectual logic. Therefore, it can´t be disproven by the latter. First, what is "living faith"? Second, while I agree that completely dry philosophy doesn´t prove anything, there seems to be a false dichotomy between "personal experience" and "intellectual logic". Surely, they can inform each other? Third, what about "comparing notes" with other people´s personal experiences?
Obviously, I can´t ultimately *know* whether or not Jay experienced God, but precisely for that reason, I´m not duty-bound to accept his claims without some kind of corroboration.
How do you know I´m not the Ashtar Command? ;-)
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