Mailbag: Denying God, Part 1

From: "Steve"
Subject: The Folly of Denying God

Beyond a doubt, the most significant question to ever penetrate the human mind is that of the existence of God. More consequences for humanity hinge on the denial or affirmation of God's existence than any other issue.

Actually, it is doubtful whether the question of the existence of any gods is "the most significant" question humanity has ever had to deal with. Ultimately, whether this question has any meaning at all, much less whether it is the most important question ever, depends entirely upon how we define the concept of "god."

Under some conceptions of "god," the existence of such a being would be very important and would have very serious consequences for how we live our lives. Under other conceptions, the existence of such a being would be moderately important and would have some relevant implications for how we live. Finally, under some conceptions, the existence of such a being wouldn't be very important at all and we wouldn't need to give it any consideration when deciding how to live and how to behave.

To assert that the question of a god's existence is the "most important" humanity faces means that Steve must be starting out with a very specific conception of "god," one which excludes many if not most other possible conceptions. Thus, he isn't approaching the issue from a disinterested perspective but, rather, from a perspective which is already based upon a number of theological assumptions and prejudices.

Countless numbers of Christian families have sent their children off to schools across America only to see them return as strangers robbed of their faith in God and of the basis for morality and ethics.

This is yet another highly doubtful assertion on Steve's part. Now, I don't doubt that many children have gone to school and returned with ideas that their parent's didn't necessarily share - part of the experience of education is to grow into your own person, a person which isn't necessarily a carbon-copy of one's parents. Thus, regardless of where a child is educated, there is always a decent chance that they will end up believing slightly different things than their parents. I don't think that this is necessarily a bad thing and neither should Christian parents - unless of course getting a carbon-copy of themselves is exactly what they want.

That being said, however, the idea that "countless" families have had their children "robbed" of theism entirely is far too much to swallow. To put it simply, there just aren't enough atheists in the United States to support such an idea. Even if we imagine that these children were simply "robbed" of their Christianity rather than their theism generally, it would still be un-believable because there aren't enough non-Christians in the country to justify accepting that.

I must also take issue with Steve's implication that there is no basis for "morality and ethics" without faith in God. I've encountered plenty of theists and plenty of Christians whose morality was very doubtful; on the other hand I've encountered plenty of atheists who are very moral people. No one is perfect, naturally, and I've never met an atheist who never did anything wrong. Still, none of them seem to be lacking a basis for acting morally.

Many of these children have attempted to fill the vacuum in their lives through aberrant sex, drugs, and alcohol. Others have sought to fill this void with material success, which can never satisfy the spiritual needs of one created in the image of God.

There are indeed many children across America and around the world who have abused sex, drugs, and alcohol - but there isn't any correlation between such behavior and atheism. On the contrary, since most people are theists we must acknowledge that most children who do anything wrong are also theists. Obviously, their theism isn't preventing them from "aberrant" behavior, is it?

Neither I nor many of the other atheists I know have experienced any sort of "vacuum" in their lives due to the absence of belief in the existence of any gods. Some have certainly gone on a quest for a new foundation for meaning, purpose, and morality - but in most cases, at least, any sense of loss or emptiness doesn't last a very long time. When it comes to people who have been atheists for a while, the idea that they have a "God-shaped hole" in their lives is nothing more than a prejudice of theists who can't imagine that we can live good and happy lives without their gods.

Note: This message originally appeared in the Agnosticism / Atheism forum. Read the whole thread. More selections from the Agnosticism / Atheism Mailbag...