5 Lies Atheists Tell

 

 

Today I came across an article on todaychristian.net. It’s called 5 lies atheist tell. I decided to answer their claims. Of course you may want to be careful about taking my word on any of this, after all, apparently I’m a liar.

1. The Biggest One- THERE IS NO GOD. They would have no problem telling a dying child there is NO God. Clearly they have no idea if there is or there isn’t. They assume their conclusion is the only right one.

This is a pretty big assumption. How do they know that I’m lying when I say “there is no god”? Especially when I tend not to say that without adding “I believe” at the front. Can belief claims be lies now? After all, I’m not saying what I know, I’m saying what I believe. Before you can call me out on lying about this, you must first prove that I’m lying. Prove that I don’t believe in god. I’m sure some of you will say “the Bible says everyone know God.” But, if that’s true, why doesn’t everybody believe in this god? Heck, why doesn’t every Christian believe this claim? Before you can tell me that I know because the bible says I know, you must offer me a reason to believe that what the bible says is true, and that your interpretation of the biblical passage is the proper one. If you can’t even prove to me that your god exists, how can you tell me I’m lying when I say that I don’t believe they exist?

And where is this claim that we go around telling dying kids that there is no god coming from? I’ve never even met any dying kids. But I do have a dying uncle. He knows I’m an atheist, but I see no reason to tell him that there is no god. He’s dying, and his belief comforts him. I’m not going to lie to him and tell him that I believe, but the only way that I’d tell him there is no god would be if he were convinced he were going to hell. If someone knew that they were dying and they were tortured by the belief that they deserved eternal punishment, then I’d happily tell them there is no god. They’re already dying, so why should they suffer more?

2. They say they have “Open Minds.” We know that is not the case. When presented with spiritual issues they always dismiss it as fictitious, invalid or unsupported stories.

What is your definition of open minded? Because mine certainly isn’t “the willingness to believe everything you’re told without question.” If you can provide evidence of the truth of these spiritual claims, then I’d be willing to take them into consideration. But most are only supported by anecdotal evidence. Eye witness testimony is considered weak even in court. Why? Because our memories suck. If 5 people see an accident happen, the police will get 5 different stories. So if judges won’t convict someone of murder based on “Sally said she saw Mary do it,” why should I accept “I know Jesus is real because he spoke to me in a dream one night”? This is not being close minded, it’s being critical. That’s not a bad thing. As for the few stories that claim to have physical evidence, they tend to either be fraud or easily explained away. Things like ghosts caught on film, they always have better explanations than “it’s a ghost.”

3. Christianity teaches you to not think. Atheist assume that the Bible somehow teaches Christians to not use your brain. This is clearly not the case.
“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (Hos 4:6)

How is this teaching people how to think? It merely warns against ignorance. But that doesn’t make it a warning against all ignorance. If there was more context here, then I could say more about it. But all I can say about it now is that this is not a lesson in thinking, it’s a lesson not knowing.

“For wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her” (Prov 8:11)

This says that wisdom has value, but it isn’t telling people to go out and learn how to think. Wisdom isn’t knowledge, and valuing wisdom does not mean valuing thinking.

“Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline, and understanding” (Prov 23:23)

Doesn’t that first bit kind of sound like “don’t teach”? Like it’s saying “hoard your knowledge for yourself”? This one does sound a lot more like it’s encouraging people to think and learn though. And that’s admirable. But all three of these passages are still just 3 passages in a book with thousands of passages. I’m sure I could just as easily find a few that discourage people from thinking. It’s all about picking and choosing which passages you’re going to accept.

All of those passages have some merit. They aren’t bad passages. But they don’t disprove the claim that Christianity doesn’t teach people how to think. It doesn’t. But it’s kind of a meaningless claim. Atheism doesn’t teach people how to think either. So what? That’s not their purpose. You know what does teach people to think? Reading. Not just things you already agree with, but anything you can get your hands on. Read posts by people who having differing opinions from your own and actually think about what they’re saying.

4. Science exists despite religion.

Truth: Science exists specifically because of religion. The scientific method comes from studying philosophy and Newtonian physics comes from studying astronomy. Religion caused people to study both philosophy and astronomy.

Where is the evidence to support this claim? Yes, some scientific ideas stemmed from religious thinkers asking religious questions. But religion itself didn’t create science. And there are scientific questions which were answered by non-religious people too. Yes, science and religion have been used together at certain points of history, but that does not mean that religion is responsible for science.

5. They Don’t Care If There Is Or Isn’t A God. Deep down inside of everyone’s heart there is a missing element that is always questioning, searching and longing to find God. They may try to ignore it but it still remains there.

I answered this in the first question. Again, prove it.