The Atheist
If someone walks up and announces: “I’m an atheist!” Perhaps the
best answer is: “Is that all? Unless you’ve got something more interesting than
that to say, go away, I’m busy.”
Declaring that you are an ‘atheist’ just tells me that you
are a person who doesn’t believe in something. You might as well say ‘I don’t
believe in Lawn Faeries, or space aliens; or I don’t believe in bullfrogs’.
Just because you don’t believe in something doesn’t necessarily mean that it
doesn’t exist.
Being an atheist has everything to do with your ego, and
nothing at all to do with God. There are as many definitions of God as there are
people who believe in Him. Which one is it you don’t believe in? We could go on
discussing the many things that people might say God is, all day. Instead of
what you don’t believe in, I’d rather hear about what you do believe in. Do you believe in anything besides yourself?
“Yes, of course!” Answered the atheist. “I believe in logic
and science. And there’s absolutely no scientific evidence that there’s a god.”
OK, then do you think that means that there is scientific evidence that
there is no God?
“Well, no, because you can’t prove a negative.”
Actually, you can. But, if you want to discuss this with me,
first, you’ve going to have to tell me exactly what it is you don’t believe in.
“I don’t believe in a god with a long white beard sitting on
a throne up in the heavens somewhere.”
OK, I don’t believe in that either. But, that doesn’t mean
there is no intelligence greater than yours or mine.
“No, but I don’t believe there’s a god of any kind.”
There you go again, we could discuss that all day long, and never
come to any conclusion, because first, you’ve got to define what you mean by ‘a
god’. And I’ve got better things to do. - Go away.
But the atheist persisted:
“A god is a supernatural being who has the power to override
the laws of nature.”
You said you believe in logic, but you’ve got a logical
disconnect here: Either there is a God, or there’s not a God. You can’t have it
both ways! If there is a God, then everything he creates is natural. So, if He
creates something new, then it is natural also. So supernatural is a
meaningless term. If there is no god, then talking about what he can or can’t
do is a waste of time. In either case, it’s nonsense. Go away.
“But, belief in god has resulted in more innocent deaths
than anything else on the earth!”
You are a bit confused; but that’s not surprising since you
don’t seem to know what it is that you don’t
believe in. But, let me clear this up for you: It is organized social institutions
claiming to believe in a god or gods that you are talking about, organizations
that distort the teachings of enlightened beings to gain power and control of the
masses. They have left the spiritual teachings of their founders far behind and
they have little or nothing to do with God. So, you are anti-organized
religion, not anti-god. In short, you’re not really an atheist, because, as we’ve
established, you don’t know who or what God is. In fact, I’m pretty sure He’s
not any of the things that you don’t believe in.
“You’re twisting my words! I belong to (he named an
organization) an organization that’s doing a lot of good in the world!”
I’m glad you’re doing something, not just being against
something you know nothing about. But, name something good that you ‘atheists’
have done.
“Well, …” He seemed to be having a little trouble coming up with
something concrete. “We’re teaching people to think for themselves.”
That’s good, but don’t do it by trying to get them to not believe
what you don’t believe. That’s just trading belief for disbelief, something
positive for something negative. If atheism is so great, name for me one world-renowned
atheist who has done some major good for humanity. And don’t tell me it was Marx
or Engels, because their followers created social organizations that
slaughtered more innocent people than all the religious organizations you seem to
condemn put together.
“There are lots of scientists who have contributed to our
knowledge of the nature of things who were and are atheists,” He declared.
Name one.
“Albert Einstein!”
Well, it’s obvious you don’t know much about Albert Einstein. It’s
true he wasn’t a Christian, but he wasn’t an atheist, either, he said:
“I want to know how God created this world. I
am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that
element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details.”
And, he also said: “The Lord God is
clever, but he’s not malicious!”
Do these sound like the words of an atheist?
“OK, but what about Richard Dawkins? He is a biologist.”
I’ll give you that one. Richard Dawkins was trained as a scientist, although
I can’t see that he has contributed much to our knowledge of the nature of
reality. His ideas about biology are at odds with about half of his
contemporary biologists. He is more of a “professional atheist” than a scientist. He is clearly
an intelligent man and a good writer. He has written some interesting books. He creates ‘god’ in
his own image, and then proceeds to prove what he thinks others believe God is
cannot be God. Intelligence and cleverness doesn’t make one right. There are many
intelligent people who are wrong.
“I believe most real scientists are atheists.”
That may be your definition of a real scientist, but it’s not mine. Disbelief without proof is not the hallmark of an open mind. Many
scientists are agnostics, but, don’t confuse agnosticism with atheism. Agnostics are
skeptics, which is what a scientist should be. It’s one thing to say “personally,
I have seen no proof that God exists” and quite another thing to say: “I don’t
believe there is a God.”
Come to think of it, I’m skeptical about your
statement that you are an atheist. You may just be agnostic.
“Don’t tell me what I am. I know what I am, I’m an
atheist!” He was getting a little annoyed with me!
OK, you’re against something, but, you can’t tell me what
it is you’re against.
“Alright, how’s this: whatever you believe god is, I’m
against that!”
Sorry, that won’t work either. I don’t believe god exists, I know God exists.
“You can’t know
god exists,” he snorted, “because you can’t prove he exists.”
Yes, I can, and I have. Go to my Transcendental
Physics blog and type: ‘Proof of the existence of God’ into the search box. Now
there is not only the personal proof that many have experienced directly, there
is mathematical, empirical, scientific proof. Read my posts that contain the
proof. Then, if you want, come back and maybe we’ll talk.
THE GIFT
The battle hard, the Peace to win,
Is not out there - it is within.
Celestial spheres are not perverse,
‘Tis you and not the universe
That must adjust and must align
To enter and become Divine.
The earth, the moon, the sun shall spin
Again, again, again, again ….
Until someday, the wheel you’ll break.
Awake, my soul, my soul AWAKE
Should be the chant within your heart
Until the clouds of gloom depart,
That in the Light, your soul can see
The Gift of God’s Eternity!
ERC February 25, 2018
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