"Unfortunately, there are many holy books, and they all disagree with each other ... This god seems to be an exceptionally unreliable oracle -- most of what he has supposedly said is wrong." An argument for atheism from PZ Myers in this reply to an LA Times op ed piece by Charlotte Allen on the repetitious rants of atheists.
Myers' line of argument is patently ridiculous. You would have to look very hard to find a person who subscribes to any of the five main world religions who believes that their particular holy book was written, or inspired, by the exact same God who inspired all the other holy books.
The "god" is not unreliable: the simple explanation is that there are many "gods" all causing different holy books to be written. Or is that too obvious an explanation for these allegedly "pedantic, scholarly" atheists to understand?
For example, many Christians believe that the devil has led people to believe things which are contrary to the truth the Christian God has revealed in the Bible. In Myers' terminology, this entity (the devil) would be "a god", but not in the terminology of Christianity. Other Christians would see this divergence of religious texts as a result of the human tendency (in Biblical language, the "sinful nature") to want to worship anything other than the God of the Bible. Other religions also have explanations for the divergence of the assortment of holy writ from what they accept as correct.
The existence of many different statements purporting to present the truth of who God is does not mean that there is only one author of all these statements. Nor does it mean that all of them are false. Only one of them needs to be correct.
Personally, I don't think the correct statement is the statement presented by atheists. For all their time allegedly spent reading and writing books, the evidence of the article quoted above is that prominent atheists still cannot form a simple logical syllogism without blatant fallacies. So I can't hold much hope for the substance of the rest of their so-called "reasons" either.
Friday 22 May 2009
Is this the best atheists can come up with?
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3 comments:
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Co. 1:18
Really makes me thankful for God's grace. : )
Kellie
Amen, Kellie.
Sharon, this post reminds me of something Ravi Zacharias was discussing recently (see his "Let My People Think" podcasts). He commented that secularists/atheists never seem to notice or mind that all world religions are exclusivists, they just are bothered that Christianity is (my paraphrase, not a quote). In point of fact Islam, Buddhism, and even Hinduism make exclusive claims to truth. I suppose you could argue that Western atheists are simply reactionary to the formative religion of their culture, but I believe they are reacting spiritually to the truth that Kellie states, above. I find their protests to be yet another proof of the truth of Christ.
You are right Amy, they are one fulfilment of many prophesies recorded in the New Testament about opposition to the gospel message of salvation through repentant faith in the name of Jesus Christ.
~ Sharon
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