Open Discussion: So, Why IS Atheism Better Than Christianity?

Just avoid or **** out the profanities.

(Clarification: By atheism, I refer to liberal/humanist/naturalist/existentialist atheism that rejects all forms of supernaturalism and religion. By this definition, Buddhism is exempted.)

A Short Pondering: Should a Christian Leader Impose Laws Based on Christian Standards?

I’ve pondered over this dilemma before. It goes something like this:

As a Christian, I firmly believe that homosexuality is not according to God’s will (for reasoning why, see this post). I also firmly believe that permitting it would be akin to promoting it, in that people will see it as permissibe and be influenced by those who practise it.

Yet if I were in charge of legislation, by outlawing homosexuality, wouldn’t I be imposing my beliefs on others who do not share my worldview? Compare if I were to make it compulsory to attend church or wear a cross. Wouldn’t that be forcing people to ‘convert’ against their will?

But then I thought deeper, and realized: If I believe firmly about a position, such as homosexuality, yet I do not press forward by translating my beliefs into action… What does that say about the strength of my convictions?

Compare if it were on matters of the economy. If I claim to be a proponent of free trade, but I don’t dare promote laws encouraging free trade because it would ‘infringe on the differing viewpoints of the socialists and protectionists’ – doesn’t this show me up as not truly believing that free trade is the best economic model for the nation?

If I really want what’s best for the nation and I really believe that free trade is what’s best for the nation, I ought to be promoting it as a strong leader. I ought to believe that my way is best, even if others do not agree with my views. I ought to strive to legislate against socialized and centralized economic models, believing them to be disastrous for the economy. To do anything less would be gross irresponsibility and might lead to the collapse of the nation.

Similarly, if I believe that homosexuality is detrimental to the moral fabric of the nation, shouldn’t I then be pushing against it no matter what others may think?

Critics of Intelligent Design Are A Confused Bunch

I’ve noticed that people who criticize Intelligent Design are often enough very confused or ignorant about the theory.

They might point out that many features seem very un-intelligently designed – for example the blind spot in the human eye, or how bees die from stinging even once. What a foolish and unwise Designer!

They might point out the imperfections in life forms – for example cancer and aging and mutations. What a shortsighted and careless Designer!

They might point out the cruelty and horrificness of certain features – for example the sting of a parasitoid wasp that depoists an egg inside a caterpillar, which eventually hatches into a worm that eats the caterpillar alive from the inside out. What an evil and malevolent Designer!

From remarks such as these, I deduce that these critics are confusing Intelligent Design with Christianity.

Intelligent Design doesn’t require an all-surpassingly intelligent Designer – just one intelligent enough to put together the remarkably complex, detailed construct that is life.

Intelligent Design doesn’t require a perfect and infallible Designer – just one who eventually succeeds in designing life.

Intelligent Design doesn’t require that the Designer be good, kind and benevolent and make only cuddly creatures – just that the Designer is intelligent. It ain’t called Friendly Design Theory, if you’ve noticed, duh!

Christianity is the one which requires an omnipotent, omniscient, all-wise, perfect, good and living Creator (i.e. God)… Not Intelligent Design.

Now, many proponents of Intelligent Design may indeed be practising Christians – but that doesn’t make the two one and the same.

After all, most of Lenin’s, Stalin’s, Mao’s and Pol Pot’s communist butchers were atheists, but that doesn’t mean that godless atheism – where man is the supreme moral decider and is not accountable to any higher moral authority – had anything to do with… Oh, wait. Never mind.

So get your facts and heads on straight, you dizzy ignoramuses.

PS. And by the way, if you want to chip in and object that the blind spots, mutations and waspy-chestbursters prove that the Christian God is not perfect and smart and loving – already prepared for ya.

• The Sin Theory of Evolution – Reconciling Evolution, Creationism and Intelligent Design

Uniting Atheists, Christians and Basically Everyone Else

From Digg.com:

Above comic modified from Dueling Analogs original which I covered before at this post.

This mockery is brought to you courtesy of the High Evil Alien Overlord Xenu, who uses such propaganda against the truth of Scientology to trap your inner thetans in your pathethic fleshling shells forever. Muahaha!

All frivolous lawsuits and clogging the tubes of teh Internets should therefore be directed towards him, thank you.

I am an A-atheist (Because Atheism is an Unproveable Faith)

Did you realize that someone who claims to be an atheist – one who does not believe in the existence of any gods – is outing himself as a hardcore believer by blind religious faith?

If you’re not sure, just ask him how he knows that God does not exist. To save time, here are the mutiple-choice answers he will probably pick from:

A) I don’t really know for sure.
B) I just know it.
C) I believe it and that’s what counts.
D) @#$% you, you brainwashed, opiate-of-the-masses addicted, fundamentalist bigot!!!

The point being, no atheist philosopher has ever actually disproven the existence of God. Logically and rationally, it is a patently impossible supposition.

Indeed, this is why most serious and scholarly hard skeptics of religion do not call themselves ‘atheist’ but rather agnostic – they know that it is impossible to prove that God does not exist, so they instead hold to the much less shaky claim that one cannot know for sure about God.

After all, how does one go about disproving the existence of God? You’d think that one of those oh-so-countless, oh-so-intelligent atheistic scientists would have attempted to do that by now.

This is because disproving the existence of God is totally different from disproving the existence of, say, unicorns. Or to be more exact, Planet Earth unicorns – as a creature fitting the description might by chance exist on some faraway planet in Alpha Centauri.

All one has to do is search the entire world’s habitats which are suitable for a land-bound, four-legged, grass-eating, not-heavily-furred mammal. And maybe all of those genetic tampering labs too.

Once that is accomplished, one can say that they have proven beyond reasonable doubt that Planet Earth unicorns do not exist.

But the Christian definition of God is not that of some Earth-bound, fleshling creature. God is omnipresent and spirit – that is, God is everywhere and He is not a physical being.

So in order to prove that God does not exist, one would have to search out every habitat that God could ‘live’ in – namely, the whole entire universe.

So Mr. Atheist Scientist, you’ve searched all of Beta Quadrant? Well, God could still be hiding in Gamma Sector. Or maybe the Outer Rim galaxies. Or Dimension-X.

Are you done with that final star system yet? You’d better hurry up with checking the insides of those not-even-light-can-escape black holes, everyone knows God hates to lose a game of hide-go-seek.

Oh wait, did I forget to mention that God is spirit? You’d better invent something that can detect forms of energy never even theoreticized about before.

Um, maybe I shouldn’t bother you when you’re in such a bad mood… But did anyone tell you that God transcends the space, time and multiple dimensions He created in Genesis/The Big Bang?

So does this mean it is humanly impossible to prove that God does not exist somewhere out there in the vast, unexplored, ever-expanding universe? You betcha.

Therefore, since the atheist cannot PROVE that God does not exist, he merely BELIEVES BY FAITH that God does not actually exist.

Unless, of course, the atheist can simultaneously search all of time, space, reality, and existence outside of these things and thereby PROVE that God is nowhere to be found. But in order to do that, the atheist would have to be omnipotent and omnipresent – so the atheist would be god!

Congratulations atheists, welcome to the Club of Religion! Don’t worry about catching up to the older members on intolerance, persecution and religious war – your avowed atheists Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot already beat them all by a hundred million victims!

And on a final note, if you protest that my logic is totally flawed – that the burden is not on you as an atheist to prove that God doesn’t exist, but rather is on me as a theist to prove God exists – then I have something to declare.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am an a-atheist.

This is not to say that I do not believe in the existence of people called atheists. Rather, I do not believe that there is such as thing as ‘God not existing’.

And now, I as a a-atheist place the burden of proof on the atheists… To prove to me that God does not exist.

Knock yourselves out.

UPDATE: I have been corrected… Atheists can prove that God does not exist, because atheists are god!

Atheists: Can You Discount Every Single Testimony of Miracles and Answered Prayers?

The following are compiled from testimonies of God-fearing Christians who are convicted to be truthful, as Jesus and the Bible demand of them. They were recounted first-hand to me.

Can the atheist or naturalist who deny the existence of God or supernatural phenomena claim that every single of these testimonies is false or mistaken, and that every one of the testifiers is a liar or misguided?

• Hundreds of swarming Christmas beetles simultaneously fall to the ground on their backs and do not get up again, just as the pastor prays for the God-given authority of man over all nature in order to stop this disruption to the service. The entire church witnesses this miracle, including members of the church  executive committee who later sign the pastor on.

• An elderly lady leaving church in tears because of the pain of her bent back of 38 years, is stopped by the pastor who proclaims that God is indeed faithful. He asks her if her pain is still there – “No”. And if she can stay on for the rest of the hymns – “Yes. I can.” And she stands straight up in full view of the entire church congregation.

• A young man’s heart stops for over half an hour due to anesthesia. The doctors test him and predict that he will not live through the night, will not awaken from his coma, and will have massive brain damage to the point of being a vegetable. The very next day, he awakens with full control of his body. The ECG shows no heart problems at all. The doctors are flabbergasted.

• A young woman, unsure of whether to accept her new suitor due to still having feelings for her ex, asks God for a speific sign: The suitor will give her something with an apple in it tomorrow. The very next day, he gives her a teddy bear… One that holds an apple.

• After spending a whole night exorcising a possessed man (no 360-degrees head-turning involved outside of Hollywood), a Malaysian Christian studying in New Zealand seeks a sign froim God that the exorcism was successful: His wife in Malaysia will send him her very first letter to New Zealand from 9000 kilometres away, and it will arrive today. That very morning, the first person at the door was the mailman, with the letter in question.

• Seeking advice about how to know God’s will about relationship and marriage, the young man is asked by a church leader what a suitable sign would be. He answers that it would be a clear sign if his next job, out of the dozen applications that have been stewing for a month, sends him to Johor Bahru where his love interest is teaching. That very afternoon, he receives the phone call. They want a Science-educated individual who is good in English and who has worked for a magazine before – which fits him to a T. Not a single other job apllication responds for 6 months more. And the job is in Johor Bahru.

That last testimony is by me myself… And the second last is my father’s. So I double know that it isn’t fake or fudged.

And those are just a handful of the miracle healings, directly answered prayers, and other coincidences so improbable that they can’t be due to chance alone… A fraction of a the divine interventions taking place in churches, prayer meetings and personal cries to God every single day across the world.

Can the atheist dismiss every single one of these occurences as psycho-somatic healing, pure luck or fraud?

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PS. I anticipate that some commentors will jump in with the red herring argument “Oh but so-called miracles and answered prayers happen in other religions too. So are you saying that their gods are just as real as the Christian God?”

To this I reply: “That’s a whole ‘nuther blog post, meanwhile thank you for conceding that gods DO exist (no matter what stripe they may be).”

Two Recommended Christmas/New Year Articles

First, a serious piece by Jerry Bowyer from Townhall. Excerpts:

AD or ADD?

2008 years from what? Most people still know (I hope) what event initiates our calendar. Few people know why. That’s because we have, long ago, stopped paying attention to history.

One of the reasons that it’s so hard to read and understand ancient history books is that they lack a unified chronology. Herodotus, Plutarch, etc., never say ‘this happened in the year X’. Instead they give you a lot of ‘in the tenth year of the reign of emperor such and such’, ‘or in the year of the 50th Olympiad’ etc.

There is, ancient man would say, no such thing as history. Everywhere there is chaos, except where our emperor/king/sheikh/chief/president-for-life reigns, and when he dies, the clock must be re-set. The King is dead, we shout, long live the king, and the calendar goes back to year one of the new reign.

When a new emperor comes, the clock is reset: It is year one. On it goes until the emperor dies and his reign ends. Then a new emperor and a new calendar.

But what if we had an emperor who will never (again) die? Then each generation will share the same calendar. We won’t date events by ‘the 10th year of the emperor Augustus’ or the 8th year of the reign of President Bush, or the 50th year of the glorious leader Fidel.

We’ll calculate them by the 2008th year of the reign of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. We’ll abbreviate them with AD (anno domini) using the Latin of the alleged city of eternal conquest.

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And a fun satire mocking all the irreligious icons liberals hold dear, by The People’s Cube:

Christmas in History: First Media Reports of Nativity Story

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Other Christmas posts:

Nostalgic Christmas Cartoons With a Christian Message

12 Days of Christmas Spoofs And Christmas Joke Songs

IM IN UR MANGER KILLING UR SAVIOR

Be Thankful For Jesus’ Incredible Self-Control (Christmas Related Post)

Living Life Like an Atheist or a Christian – Wanna Bet?

Here is Pascal’s Wager in my own colloquial words. For a song about atheism’s belief in an after-nonlife, see Tears in Heaven – Atheist Despair Version.

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Livin’ Like an Atheist

Having lots of fun, with a relative moral standard entirely of your own definition. At the end of it all, there are two possible outcomes:

God is not real: Well, good for you. No heaven or hell, and you’re proven right all along. But so what? Since you’re dead and no longer exist to contemplate your excellent choice, it doesn’t matter.

God is real: Well, bummer for you. Only one eternity of being apart from the presence of all the Godly goodness you hate for you to spend resenting your bad choice.

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Livin’ Like a Christian

Taking care to be follow the absolute moral standards laid out in the Bible and being an overall nice & holy person may not be as hedonistically fun as some other lifestyle choices. At the end of it all, there are two possible outcomes:

God is not real: Okay, so you’ve ‘wasted’ a lifetime’s chance for enjoying pleasures and making a name for yourself. So what? You’re dead and no longer exist, it doesn’t matter to you.

God is real: Congratulations! That’s an eternity of joy, peace, love, meaningful existence and all sorts of great stuff to enjoy!

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Summary of Conclusions:

From The People’s Cube (see also related to that here):

                            

It’s a bad bet to live like there’s no God. If you’re right, you’ll be dead and unable to appreciate a mere 60-odd years of high living. If you’re wrong, you’ll have infinite time to rue your poor gamble. Finite gain vs Inifnite loss.

It’s a good bet to live like there’s a God. If you’re wrong, you’ll be dead and unable to regret your not spending 60-odd years living for pleasure. If you’re right, you’ll have an infinite existence of truly joyful lviing. Finite loss vs Infinite gain.

Place your bets.

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From Cosmology Curiosity, which has more thoughts on Pascal’s Wager:

Global Warming Hysteria: Why Atheists, Christians and Malaysiakini Readers Shouldn’t Believe It

To the Atheists (or Agnostics):

You often say that you cannot believe that God exists, since no conclusive evidence that positively proves God’s existence can be found.

Well, similarly, there is still no conclusive evidence that proves global warming is caused by carbon dioxide emissions. There is only a theory and plenty of conjecture, but it has yet to be shown definitively that global temperature rise is caused mainly by carbon dioxide – and not solar fluctuations, water vapour or cosmic rays.

Yet the proponents of CO2-forced temperature theory have already discarded and branded as ‘heretical’ all other theories in the firm belief that their CO2 models are correct.

By believing that global warming is an imminent doomsday, End Times, apocalyptic, armageddonic End of the World… Are they not religiously putting their trust in prophecies based solely on faith, not reason or logic or cold hard evidence?

For your reading:

Aliens Cause Global Warming

Temple of the Goracle (with Al Gore as its high priest, giving out emissions-and-brimstone sermons and carbon offset indulgences)

Ann Coulter Junks Global Warming Too (how global warming has all the vices of dogmatic, totalitarian religion

Ann Coulter Junks Al Gore Too

100 Scientists Dissent Global Warming

Many Peer Reviewed Scientific Studies Defy Global Warming ‘Consensus’

MAYBE Humans Cause Global Warming That COULD Cause Climate Changes That MIGHT Be Bad, PERHAPS

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To the Christians:

It is claimed that global warming is a proven fact, that all evidence points to it, that the vast majority of reputable scientists believe it, and that anyone who does not accept the truth of global warming is a religiously motivated pseudo-juunkscience moron who believes the Earth is flat and the centre of the universe, with the Sun revolving around it.

That is exactly what has been claimed about evolution for the past century.

Does that throw any perspective onto the so-claimed scientific consensus on global warming? Just because the secularists who control the sciences, education system and media say it is true, does not make it the truth.

For your reading:

Why I Feel About Global Warming The Same Way I Feel About Evolution

Compare 100 Scientists Dissent Darwinism with 100 Scientists Dissent Global Warming

     

This next one is from The New York Times of all places.

        

 

The Goracle from Moonbattery:

     

Plenty more mockery at Global Warming Editorial Cartoons.

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To the Malaysiakini Readers:

Open up a newspaper or turn on the TV, and you will find only bad news about global warming. How climate change is jeapordizing our civilization. How more and more evidence points to human-produced carbon dioxide as the threat that will doom us all. How the United Nations and every sane scientist supports drastic measures to curb CO2 emissions.

But before you swallow the brainwash powder they are peddling, consider this: 

The mainstream media is controlled by interests with a stake in perpetuating mass paranoia about ‘global warming’. They go to great lengths to discredit critics of the status quo on ‘global warming’, especially independent media. If they could, they would arrest and silence their critics for the crimes of heresy and public disorder against the establishment, which is firmly backed by the silent majority on ‘global warming’.

Now read the above paragraph again, only replace ‘global warming’ with ‘social contract’, political stability’ or ‘peaceful, tensionless race relations’.

I’ll put it to you bluntly: If you don’t believe anything the mainstream, Government Enslaved Media media has to say about politics, crime, social issues, religious issues, peaceful/violent demonstrations, corruption, fairness and justice…

Then why should you believe what it has to indoctrinate you about global warming either? Isn’t an honest pursuit of the truth why you go to non-government moderated sources such as Malaysiakini.com and blogs?

For your reading:

The IPCC Does Not Want Balanced Climate Reporting

Official British Court Finds 11 Inaccuracies in Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, Labels It As Political Propaganda

Classical Values on The IPCC Mandate

NST: Global Warming: The Facts Do Not Add Upa> (last paragraph of letter, which is repeated in the quotes below)

Also read the following quotes:

“We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we may have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.” – Stephen Schneider, one of the original leading proponents of global warming

“Balanced reporting perpetuates the public’s perception that scientists are in disarray, which is misleading in the case of climate change.” – Kevin Hennessy, lead scientist with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

“I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it (global warming) is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis.” – Al Gore, probably the most well known public proponent of global warming

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For everyone’s reading on carbon dioxide and global warming:

Video: Refuting Al Gore on CO2 Levels and Temperature

Carbon Emissions and Percentage of Atmosphere

Carbon Dioxide and Global Warming – 5 Reasons Why I’m Not Alarmed

35 Scientific Errors (or Intentional Lies) in An Inconvenient Truth

Official British Court Finds 11 Inaccuracies in Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, Labels It As Political Propaganda

Many Peer Reviewed Scientific Studies Defy Global Warming ‘Consensus’

Ground Based Temperature Recording Stations: Stupid Locations For Measuring Global Warming

A Skeptical Layman’s Guide to Anthropogenic Global Warming