The Atheism Delusion

All my life, people have asked “Do you believe in God?” as though it were a meaningful question. I have never felt it was. It seems to me like a dodge to avoid the real question. It seems to me that, to any sincere and thoughtful person, the existence of God is self-evident.

My friends Xerxes or Xanthippe say they do not believe in God. But then they scoff at Him as “an old man with a long white beard living in the clouds.” Obviously, this is not God. Theirs is a perfect straw man argument.

Richard Dawkins argues that everyone is an atheist about all gods but one: Christians do not believe in Zeus or Baal. But by definition, there can be only one God, and it cannot matter what name you give Him, either Zeus or Jesus or Allah. So by Dawkins’ logic, to be a theist one must be an atheist; Aristotle would choke on his retsina. Nor do Christians deny the existence of Zeus or Baal, or any particular pagan god. They only deny that they are God; and the pagans who worshipped Zeus or Baal would agree. They are not God, by definition, because there are many pagan gods. None are claimed to be omnipotent, or omniscient, or all-good. They are simply supernatural beings. Dawkins is intentionally or unintentionally confusing apples and rutabagas.

Aha, you may object; but the pagans did not believe in God, did they? They believed only in gods; they were atheists in the proper sense.

I think they were atheists only in the modern sense: that they were trying to avoid the issue. We do not have sufficient evidence to say much about the original beliefs of hunter-gatherer societies, but when we look at ancient Rome, Greece, China, or India, we see that they did believe in an omnipotent, omniscient, all-good power. The Greeks called it Dike, “Justice.” Even the Gods could not avoid it. Plato and Aristotle were philosophical monotheists. In India, they called it karma, even apart from Brahman, possibly a later concept. In China, “tian,” “heaven.” They simply did not personify it and make it the sole focus of legitimate worship.

Another “atheist” argument is that there is no physical evidence of God. This seems perfectly disingenuous, since God is spirit and prior to matter, which He created; He is not physical by definition. You could just as plausibly argue that there is no physical evidence of consciousness. But just try running the statement “I am not conscious” by Descartes. Conversely, instead of arguing that there is no physical evidence of God, you could argue that everything physical is proof of God, in the same sense that hearing a nightingale’s song and seeing a nightingale’s plumage is evidence there is a nightingale in the woods.

It seems to me people are not arguing here in good faith. It is not that anyone really does not believe in the existence of God. It is more a case of whistling past the graveyard; we all want plausible deniability.

The real question is “Do you believe in evil?” Or you could phrase it as “do you believe in karma?” Or, “do you believe in justice?”

This is what everyone is really trying to avoid; avoid by not even asking the question. We do not want to believe in justice, in right and wrong, because and to the extent that we are aware ourselves of having done evil. We want to avoid admitting it.

We are in the position of Adam and Eve, who, hearing Yahweh approach, absurdly tried to hide in the bushes. Yeah, that ought to work, with an omniscient being.

Another reason why “do you believe in God” is the wrong question, is that it is perfectly common for people to profess to believe in God, yet deny the existence of evil or justice. They will readily say they believe in God; but will they speak of the Devil? This really means they do not accept God at all; they are just mouthing the word in hopes this will serve as cover. Like Adam and Eve with their fig leaves.

They will profess, for example, that the only thing that matters is to accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior. They will say salvation is by faith alone. If you simply say you believe in God, you need not worry about your actions. They will say God loves us all, there is no Hell, or nobody in Hell, and we will all get into Heaven. We are all saints. They will say the only sin is in pointing out a sin.

How common an attitude is that in the Christian world?

Almost the dominant attitude, surely.

As it is in the Muslim world, for that matter.

It seems from this that Hell indeed will not lack occupants. To sin is human; to deny God, to deny the possibility of sin, is diabolical.