The Mega-Guide To Atheist Arguments And Objections

Philosophers and laymen have debated the existence of God for centuries. Many of the arguments for both atheism and theism have been perennial. Some of the greatest thinkers of old had insight relevant to the very discussions that we have today. The advent of modern science may have changed the way arguments and objections are formulated, but they are still the same arguments (just with different supporting evidence). While I have written extensively about many of these arguments, and many have more latitude than I am crediting, I think it…

Where Atheists Often Go Against The Grain of Modern Scholarship

Scholarly consensus forms our view of the world more than we think. Most of us do not have the resources to traverse the atmosphere and view the earth from an observer’s point of view (or analyze other evidence), so we have to rely on scholars to inform us that it is a sphere. Robust models become prominent in scholarly circles and then become public knowledge within a few decades. Many of us look with a critical eye on those who flout scholarly consensus. Atheists scoff at neo-ussherian Christians who believe…

God On Trial: Reviewing Some of The Best Objections To Apologetics

Those of us who dabble in philosophy of religion will encounter a range of objections. We might hear Christians using a clearly circular argument against atheism. We might hear an atheist proudly reciting shallow one-liners like “Who created God?” But sometimes there are potent counterarguments that make you stop and think about whether your argument is as sound as you thought. In this article, I will be reviewing some of the best objections to apologetics. Some are objections that I thought of on my own, while others are objections that…

How We All Interact With The Unseen Realm Every Day

Many may regard the unseen realm with a skeptical eye, relegating it to the realm of superstition. While we westerners do have a scientific disposition and tend to think of things in terms of the natural world, many of us would not affirm the doctrines of materialism. In a very broad and brief sense, materialism is the position that the material world is all that exists. Yet there is a sense of how we all interact with the unseen realm every day. The unseen realm is not some abstract theological…

When The Scientific Method Needs To Hand The Reins To Philosophers And Theologians

As children of the Christian thinker RenĂ© Descartes, western minds are less likely to accept truths based on the qualifications of some authority figure, whether that authority figure is a bishop or the government. Instead, we pass truths through scrutiny. We ask for reasons to believe rather than a competent authority figure. From the Christian Enlightenment emerged the scientific method (developed by the Christian, Sir Francis Bacon). However, secular thinkers have a tendency to stretch the potency of the scientific method beyond its reach. There are still times when the…

CS Lewis, Cosmic Fake News, And Atheistic Naturalism

It is difficult to hate CS Lewis. From his charming fiction to the personable presentation of his arguments, all of his writing provides a glimpse into his personality. He knew that if you want to write effectively, you have to let the audience get to know you. Now, decades after his death, laymen and scholars alike feel as though they know who CS Lewis was. He is more than an author of an old book. He is almost a mentor, and almost a friend. Even Christianity’s most vociferous critics, such…

How To Avoid Indoctrinating Children With Mathematics And Christianity

The term indoctrination has a very negative stigma. When people hear that phrase, they will think of parents telling their children what to believe and how to think. They think of religious zealots who are just creating more clones of themselves to perpetuate their religion for generations. When those children get older, they will teach their children how to be clones as well. But the problem will have more latitude than mere cloning (as disturbing as that seems to be). They will suggest that providing children with a religious education…

Why ‘Who Created God?’ Is My Example of A Thoughtless Question

There are some sophisticated atheists out there. Intellectuals with beards who write books, engage with the nuances of the Christian faith, understand Calvinism, trinitarian theology, the gospel and the different interpretations of soteriology. These sophisticated atheists will roll their eyes when hear somebody spouting a one-liner from The God Delusion. They will repudiate the movement that is often referred to as New Atheism. As I pointed out in my article The Case Against New Atheism, the New Atheists are not sophisticated. In their style of argumentation, ignorance and behavior, they…

If Atheism Were True, Would Suicide Be A Vice?

When we say that something is a “matter of life and death,” we mean to say that it is something that we need to take very seriously. If we gloss over it, somebody may die, and we may be complicit in their death because we could have taken some action to prevent it. Generally, we recognize that if we can save a life, then we have done something good. If a man is dangling from the edge of a cliff, looking down, desperately trying to climb back up, then to…

Can A Universe Emerge From Absolutely Nothing?

The perennial debate between believers and non-believers has often focused upon the existence of the universe. When a skeptical person asks the believer why it is that they believe in the existence of God, they will point to the sky, the ocean, the trees, and the wide variety of life. Of course, this would be a simplistic version of the intuition that they are expressing. They are expressing that everything in the universe could not have emerged from nothing. However, oddly, some atheists have suggested that it is possible for…

Is God A Good Explanation For Anything? A Response To Matt Dillahunty

In defending the Christian faith, apologists will use arguments leading to conclusions that have theistic significance. Typically, they will lead to something like, “God.” God is thought to be the best explanation for a wide range of phenomenon. However, if the concept of God has no explanatory power, then the apologetic arguments would be undermined and unjustified. In answering the question, “Why are supernatural explanations inferior?” Matt Dillahunty made a case against the explanatory resources within a theistic system. Mr. Dillahunty believes that we cannot appeal to God to explain…

If Christianity Were True, Would You Become A Christian?

As we are assessing competing views of reality, many of us boast that our conception of the world is the correct one. Everybody will struggle until they adopt our frame of reference. Even pluralists (who believe that every view is of equal merit, depending on your personal needs) believe that they are correct about pluralism and that others should abandon their frame of reference in favor of pluralism. The truth is relevant. No matter how many relativists tell us that truth changes based on one’s preferences, we generally know better.…

7 Slogans Atheists Should Not Use

Atheists love slogans and soundbites. Of course, there is nothing wrong with using one to relay a complicated truth to a wide audience. People do that regularly and a skilled educator knows how to do that effectively. However, this becomes a problem when a slogan is not true. People just recite it because it sounds good. They do not have any knowledge beyond that particular slogan, but they like the way it sounds and so they propagate it without considering whether it is true. The result is often embarrassment. When…

The Case Against New Atheism

Most of the atheists who we encounter today will have styled themselves ‘New Atheists.’ Very little can be said in the way of distinguishing remarks between the New Atheists and the old atheists. Most New Atheists suggest that if you are outspoken about your atheism, you are thereby thought to be a New Atheists. The old atheists laid their hands over their mouths, cowering in fear of the religious monarchs. But that definition simply will not do. Consider the atheists of the Renaissance (most scientists and philosophers of the Renaissance…

7 Ways To Tell If An Atheist Is Not Worth Your Time

Christians sometimes find themselves engaging in dialogue with people identify as atheists. Often, these conversations will amount to nothing more than intellectual sparring or preaching. The atheist is only looking for a platform to recite the latest one-liner that they read in a meme. Yet the conversation persists out of pride. The Christian does not know when to back away from the conversation because they may not have a lot of experience with atheists. One needs to realize that congruence is unlikely. There are times when continuing in the conversation…

If I Were An Atheist, What Would I Believe?

Religious people are often found describing atheistic stances in ways that seem overwhelmingly uncharitable. They will summarize the atheistic position in a way that no atheist would agree with. It is sort of the cartoon version of the belief. Of course, atheists do the same to Christians, and this happens frequently when people disagree with each other. What I have always tried to do is to represent their views fairly, but also indicate that atheism leads one to certain views that are absurd. But in this article, I would like…

6 Reasons That Metaphysical Naturalism Limits Science

People who believe in the existence of God are sometimes charged with limiting science, lazily saying that God is the explanation, and therefore we do not need one. While some Christians may be guilty of such thinking, many Christians acknowledge science as the means by which God created the universe. For one to say that because we understand science, that therefore we do not need God, is like saying that because we understanding engineering, we do not need Henry Ford. Ironically, metaphysical naturalists (those who believe that the natural world…

5 Mistakes Richard Dawkins Has Made

Some atheist laymen regard Richard Dawkins as a very sophisticated thinker and a very good apologist for atheism. In fact many will say that Dawkins’ body of work persuaded them to cross over from being backslidden into outright atheism. Despite the high regard in which laymen hold him, academics tend to view him as a joke figure, shaking his fists at sky fairies. That is why the philosopher, Doctor Alvin Plantinga said, “Dawkins’ forays into philosophy are at best sophomoric. But that would be unfair to sophomores.” I think there…

5 Contradicting Slogans Atheists Use

One common attack upon the infallible, inspired and authoritative word of God is that, people will say, that it is full of contradictions. Of course, these alleged contradictions often turn out of be proof-texted and completely isolated from the context. In contrast, there are a number of popular atheist slogans which are obviously contradictory. Atheists will say one thing, and then, out of the other side of their mouth, contradict it! They keep a slew of slogans, not realizing that these slogans are incompatible with each other. I think there…

5 Bible Verses That Atheists Misinterpret

Many Christians are probably not aware of just how poorly atheists tend to interpret the Bible. This is so ironic because they often claim that they read the Bible frequently, that they have a sound understanding of theology, unlike us Christians who never read the Bible. They will say that reading the Bible is the quickest way to becoming an atheist. The problem, though, is that many of those who I encounter do not seem to read the Bible. They read memes, about the Bible. But these verses are spectacularly…