There is a new poll that suggest more people in the United States are deciding they no longer believe in God. I have always found the rejection of the existence of God fascinating, unlikely but fascinating. Especially when people appeal to intellectualism for rejecting "faith" in God. I do not think unbelievers are stupid or unethical, only inconsistent. Just like the person who has the Jesus bumper sticker on the rear window of their vehicle and then proceed to cuss out the guy who just cut them off. There are 3 ideas I find truly inconsistent among some of my friends without faith that lead me to believe that their worldview is not only unlikely but completely unlivable as a point of view:
Smart people do not need faith.
Why is it smarter to have no faith, than to have faith? Is it because faith requires no evidence? What if I told you that "no faith" requires faith? There is no proof that God does not exist. There is no scientific or philosophical ace in the hole that proves God does not exist. So, what does this say about unbelief? It means it requires faith to not believe. Since there is no evidence that God does not exist or that it is irrational to believe in God, people without faith in God must rest on opinion without evidence.
I am a good person without faith in God.
Yes, but that is not the important question. The important question is, how does a person with no faith in God know what good is? Since, there is no God or ultimate purpose to the universe, or ultimate purpose for you or me, what is good? If ethics is only social survival instincts there is no such thing as good, but only those behaviors which help humans survive. The goal then is not goodness but only survival. So people without faith in God are not necessarily saying they are a good person, but only they are contributing to survival. So someone might ask, what is wrong with that, isn't that good? Well, if there is no purpose, no ultimate value to the world or humans why does it matter if humans survive? Why is it important to save something that has no ultimate purpose and that will likely become extinct some day? Before I can tell, if you or I are good people we would have to know what goodness is.
Evil is ignorance.
No. Since there is no ultimate good you cannot define evil. If the good is only survival then evil can only mean not surviving, not ignorance. Ignorance would imply the possibility of knowing genuine goodness, but if there is no absolute standard or measure to what is good we would have no way of knowing. Since we all will die, from the unbeliever point of view, "evil" has won the day. But what if humans evolve over millions of years and survive hundreds of millions of years, isn't this better than nothing? Nope. Because when the end for humanity comes, it will only come once, and then who will be left to care?
Smart people do not need faith.
Why is it smarter to have no faith, than to have faith? Is it because faith requires no evidence? What if I told you that "no faith" requires faith? There is no proof that God does not exist. There is no scientific or philosophical ace in the hole that proves God does not exist. So, what does this say about unbelief? It means it requires faith to not believe. Since there is no evidence that God does not exist or that it is irrational to believe in God, people without faith in God must rest on opinion without evidence.
I am a good person without faith in God.
Yes, but that is not the important question. The important question is, how does a person with no faith in God know what good is? Since, there is no God or ultimate purpose to the universe, or ultimate purpose for you or me, what is good? If ethics is only social survival instincts there is no such thing as good, but only those behaviors which help humans survive. The goal then is not goodness but only survival. So people without faith in God are not necessarily saying they are a good person, but only they are contributing to survival. So someone might ask, what is wrong with that, isn't that good? Well, if there is no purpose, no ultimate value to the world or humans why does it matter if humans survive? Why is it important to save something that has no ultimate purpose and that will likely become extinct some day? Before I can tell, if you or I are good people we would have to know what goodness is.
Evil is ignorance.
No. Since there is no ultimate good you cannot define evil. If the good is only survival then evil can only mean not surviving, not ignorance. Ignorance would imply the possibility of knowing genuine goodness, but if there is no absolute standard or measure to what is good we would have no way of knowing. Since we all will die, from the unbeliever point of view, "evil" has won the day. But what if humans evolve over millions of years and survive hundreds of millions of years, isn't this better than nothing? Nope. Because when the end for humanity comes, it will only come once, and then who will be left to care?
perfectly stated!
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