One of the dumbest things to make the news lately is the so-called Atheist bus tour. OK you don't believe in God. That's your business. But why do you care enough to put ads on the sides of buses?
The desire the proseletyze shows athiests for what they are: religious believers. A person is free to choose not to believe in God, or to think its ridiculous, but you can never prove that there is no God. So making an absolute statement that there is no God is a statement of religious belief.
This brings to mind a famous quote of Carl Sagan's which has been adopted by the SETI community. Sagan and his followers rightly point out that just because no objective scientific evidence of intelligent extra-terrestrials is known by the scientific community, that doesn't mean aliens don't exist. They capture this sentiment with a single phrase:
“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”
Very interesting. There is a lot of truth to this phrase. Scientists have yet to detect any radio signals from aliens (unless the government is covering it up) but that really doesn't say anything as to whether intelligent aliens exist or not. We simply don't know.
OK what's amusing is that that same phrase could be applied to the God question. Let's pretend we're talking about the existence of God, and take the position that there is no objective scientific evidence fo the existence of God. But despite this, we could continue to believe in God and say “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”. The athiest zealots would find this absurd. Yet they find it perfectly reasonable when discussed within the context of benevolent extra-terrestrials who want to send us a radio message from across the universe.
Agnosticism is a reasonable position. Its also reasonable to take the position that you doubt there is a God, but the question is really beyond answering. How could anyone possibly know the answer to this question? I mean KNOW-that is have absolute certain knowledge of fact or fiction? It is not possible to know whether the big-bang “just happened” or whether it was caused by an outside force or being. Its not possible to know whether the laws of physics (which certainly seem to be by design) are just “there”, just exist for no reason, or whether they have actually been designed by some outside super-intelligence. On both sides of the argument you have extreme zealots. Creationist Christian wackos who KNOW with absolute certainty that their personal God did all the work, and on the other side are the Atheist zealots, equally vehement about their beliefs. And as the silly atheist bus tour shows, equally committed to forcing everyone else to adopt their point of view. And it is a point of view-no atheist really knows anything whatsoever about whether a God created the universe or not.
Well it seems that wherever vehement atheism rears its ugly head one finds the arrogant ass Richard Dawkins-one of if not the leading atheist evangelist. Now lets not forget to give credit where credits due. Dawkins is certainly a smart guy and probably a great biologist. I've read a few of his books and they were decently written, not bad but not the best popular science books out there.
So the guy has some things going for him. That being said, Dawkins seems completely unable to engage people who disagree with his point-of-view with any kind of respect or intellectual honestly. Dawkins, who knows everything about the universe, doesn't hesitate to treat any believer like they're a 5 year old being told they shouldn't believe in Santa Claus. Maybe that's being generous. Dawkins seems completely unable to put a veil of any kind over his attitude that anybody who believes in God is a complete moron. In one lecture a college student asks Dawkins “what if you're wrong” and he responds by saying “what if you're wrong about the great ju-ju at the bottom of the sea”. Are you kidding? This is an intellectual, a smart man in debate? Dawkins routinely reacts to people who don't hold his point of view by attacking them as idiots. His response to the college student was not much different than what I would expect a 13 year old to say.
When it comes down to it the reality is atheism is a religion just as much as evangelism is. A reasonable position is to be an agnostic. How could Richard Dawkins or anyone else possibly know with certainty there is no God? The issue of God is one that requires deep thought and reflection. Yes there is overwhelming scientific evidence for the big-bang and evolution, but we have no idea and may never have any idea (scientifically speaking) why the universe or life exists at all, or whether or not there is a creative force behind it. So lets just admit that different people hold different beliefs, and agree to respect those beliefs.
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Michael,
ReplyDeleteYou asked, "How could Richard Dawkins or anyone else possibly know with certainty there is no God?"
Precisely! That is exactly what Dawkins asks those who state with absolute certainty that there is a God.
The claims on God that Dawkins makes is far more modest. All that he claims is that based on presently available evidence, there is almost certainly no God.
Bertrand Russel was once asked what he would do if he met God after he dies. Russel's famous reply was that he would ask God as to why he has made the evidence of his existence so scarce in the world!
Every atheist is by definition an agnostic! Unlike a religious person, the atheist bases his or her beliefs on presently available evidence. Every atheist is ALSO an agnostic!
The point is that an atheist would revise his or her stand if in future, evidence surfaces to warrant this. What about the religious person?
Anand Nair
A good article & I love the qoute “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”. I stupidly thought that it was just me that shared that theory of god. Coming from a catholic background yet strongly DOUBTING that god exists, I have always thought that if God does exist; who's to say that creation isn't more complex. Even if you do believe, knowledgable christians know the bible is not from God, as we all know it was created in a time when not much was known, so any explaination of creation would be simple. The problem I have with him & other Atheists is that they treat they're belief just like the crazy bible bashers, not open to others views & even are misinformed.
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