Post by Kevin on Jan 2, 2021 10:06:13 GMT -7
One of the favorite questions Atheists ask is for the Christian to provide evidence for God (usually without using the Bible to do so).
First, there is no reason to dismiss the Bible. The atheist is asking a spiritual question, and our spiritual understanding is built on the bible.
Second, we need to ask the atheist for their evidence. Not to support their claim that they lack belief in God. The modern anti-theist has redefined atheist to be a "lack of belief in God" rather than it's original definition of "belief there is no God" because they've come to the conclusion, and rightly so, that there is no way to support their claim that "there is no God." Since the modern anti-theist dodges the bullet, we need to ask some questions of them that require them to provide evidence.
Without a personal agent causing the universe to begin to exist, how do you explain how all of space, time, and matter created itself. Keep in mind that “before” the universe existed, nothing existed. There was no space, no atoms, no time, no vacuum—literally nothing—before the universe began. If nothing exists, nothing can begin to exist. That is, you can’t create everything (or anything!) in the universe when there is nothing to create from and there is nothing or no one to do the creating. You can’t even say that the laws of physics created the universe because even those didn’t exist before the universe existed.
So I need you to provide your evidence to explain how the universe popped into existence by itself from nothing.
Second, since you do not believe in the spiritual, you must maintain that humans are made of physical matter and nothing more. We are merely machines, albeit biological and complex ones. That means human behavior and decisions are governed by the forces of physics and chemistry. If that’s true, then human beings have no free will. Stephen Hawking, one of the most celebrated scientists and physicists of our time, agrees. He writes, “It is hard to imagine how free will can operate if our behavior is determined by physical law, so it seems that we are no more than biological machines and that free will is just an illusion.”
I need to provide your evidence that explains how free will can arise from a purely physical object.
You can try to claim that free will doesn’t exist. This concession, though, leads to further absurdity. First, it means that we don’t have free will, a claim that doesn’t resonate with our intuitions that we can make freely-willed choices. Second, it means that atheism—or any belief—is not rational.
Deterministic forces act on all physical objects, even the neurons in our brain that allegedly make up our thoughts. Every thought, then, results from the collision of billions of atoms governed by physical forces. Our brains are deterministic boxes without the capacity of free will and reason to guide our thinking. Therefore, no thought—not even the idea of atheism—is rational. Third, we can’t hold people responsible for crimes. If human behavior is not freely chosen, but determined by mechanical forces, then we can’t hold people accountable for crimes. Can you hold a robot responsible for murder? No one can be guilty for an action he didn’t freely choose.
#atheist #antitheist #burdenofproof
First, there is no reason to dismiss the Bible. The atheist is asking a spiritual question, and our spiritual understanding is built on the bible.
Second, we need to ask the atheist for their evidence. Not to support their claim that they lack belief in God. The modern anti-theist has redefined atheist to be a "lack of belief in God" rather than it's original definition of "belief there is no God" because they've come to the conclusion, and rightly so, that there is no way to support their claim that "there is no God." Since the modern anti-theist dodges the bullet, we need to ask some questions of them that require them to provide evidence.
Without a personal agent causing the universe to begin to exist, how do you explain how all of space, time, and matter created itself. Keep in mind that “before” the universe existed, nothing existed. There was no space, no atoms, no time, no vacuum—literally nothing—before the universe began. If nothing exists, nothing can begin to exist. That is, you can’t create everything (or anything!) in the universe when there is nothing to create from and there is nothing or no one to do the creating. You can’t even say that the laws of physics created the universe because even those didn’t exist before the universe existed.
So I need you to provide your evidence to explain how the universe popped into existence by itself from nothing.
Second, since you do not believe in the spiritual, you must maintain that humans are made of physical matter and nothing more. We are merely machines, albeit biological and complex ones. That means human behavior and decisions are governed by the forces of physics and chemistry. If that’s true, then human beings have no free will. Stephen Hawking, one of the most celebrated scientists and physicists of our time, agrees. He writes, “It is hard to imagine how free will can operate if our behavior is determined by physical law, so it seems that we are no more than biological machines and that free will is just an illusion.”
I need to provide your evidence that explains how free will can arise from a purely physical object.
You can try to claim that free will doesn’t exist. This concession, though, leads to further absurdity. First, it means that we don’t have free will, a claim that doesn’t resonate with our intuitions that we can make freely-willed choices. Second, it means that atheism—or any belief—is not rational.
Deterministic forces act on all physical objects, even the neurons in our brain that allegedly make up our thoughts. Every thought, then, results from the collision of billions of atoms governed by physical forces. Our brains are deterministic boxes without the capacity of free will and reason to guide our thinking. Therefore, no thought—not even the idea of atheism—is rational. Third, we can’t hold people responsible for crimes. If human behavior is not freely chosen, but determined by mechanical forces, then we can’t hold people accountable for crimes. Can you hold a robot responsible for murder? No one can be guilty for an action he didn’t freely choose.
#atheist #antitheist #burdenofproof