Does God Matter?
Dateline: October 14, 1999
The question of whether or not there exists some sort of god is not one which
should necessarily preoccupy the minds of atheists, but it is one to which we should
return from time to time. Theists - especially Christians - regularly challenge us
with all sorts of arguments and ideas which supposedly demonstrate that some sort
of god definitely exists. We can always hope that someone will come along with an
original idea and manage to convert us, but I personally have never seen it happen.
Instead, we get the same tired old arguments and, if we are especially lucky, we
might get them in new wrapping. Nevertheless, it is important to be able to address
these arguments. But prior to that, there is an even more important issue to address:
is a god really important in our lives?
Is God Important?
If the existence of a god isn't important, we certainly needn't waste our time debating
the issue. It should be expected that theists, and Christians in particular, will
quickly say that the question of their god's existence is indeed vitally important.
It would not be unusual to find them saying that this question eclipses all other
questions which humanity might ask. But the atheist should not simply grant them
this assumption.
Theists who try to argue that their god is indeed important will naturally support
their position by reference to all its supposed characteristics - like perhaps that
it offers eternal salvation for humanity. This seems like a reasonable direction
to go, but is nevertheless flawed. Of course they think that their god is
important, and of course this is closely related to what they think their god is
and what it does. But if we accept this line of reasoning, we are accepting a particular
set of characteristics which have not yet been established to be true. It must be
remembered that we didn't ask if their god with its supposed characteristics
is important. Instead we asked if the existence of any god, generally speaking,
was important.
These are very different questions, and theists who have never thought about the
existence of a god outside of the sort of god they've been indoctrinated with may
fail to see the distinction. Atheists might choose to later grant that if a particular
god with certain characteristics exists, then that existence could be important -
then we could move on to see if there are any good reasons to think that that god
exists. But we might also just as easily grant that if a particular elf with
certain characteristics exists, then that existence would be important. That, however,
begs the question of why we are talking about elves in the first place. Are we just
bored? In a similar vein, it is justifiable to ask why we are talking about gods
in the first place.
Social Order & Morality
One reason which some theists, and Christians in particular, will quickly reach to
for dealing with the issue of a god is that belief in a god is good for, or even
necessary for, social order and moral behavior. Christian
apologists for hundreds of years have argued that without a belief in a god, basic
social structures would disintegrate and people would no longer find reason to treat
one another morally. It is a shame that so many Christians argue this because it's
such a bad argument. The first point which should be made is that it obviously isn't
true that their god is required for good social order and moral behavior -
most of the cultures in the world have gotten by just fine without their god.
Next is the question of whether or not belief in any god or higher power is
required for morality and social stability. There are any number of objections which
can be made here, but I will try and cover a few of basic ones. The most obvious
thing to point out is that this is nothing but an assertion, and empirical
support is clearly against it. An examination of history makes it evident that
believers in gods can be very violent, especially when it comes to other groups of
believers who follow different gods. Atheists have also been violent - but they have
also led very good and moral lives. Thus, there is no apparent correlation between
belief in gods and being a good person. As Steven Weinberg noted in his article Designer Universe:
With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.
Another interesting fact to point out is that the claim doesn't actually require
any god to really exist. If social stability and morality are only achieved with
believing in a god, even a false god, then the theist is claiming that human societies
require massive deceit in order to survive. Moreover, the theist is arguing that
a society doesn't actually need their god, since any god will apparently do.
I'm sure that there are some theists who will quickly agree with this and not be
bothered, but they are rare.
A more fundamental objection, however, is the implicit portrayal of humanity which
such a claim makes. The unspoken reason why humans need some god to be moral is that
they are not capable of creating their own social rules and hence require an eternal
rule-giver with accompanying eternal rewards and eternal punishments. How can a theist
possibly claim this when even chimpanzees and other primates are clearly capable
of creating social rules? The theist is attempting to create ignorant children out
of all of us. In their eyes, we are apparently incapable of running our own affairs;
worse yet, only the promise of eternal reward and the threat of eternal punishment
will keep us in line. Perhaps this is actually true of them, and that would be unfortunate.
However, that is not true of any of the atheists I know.
| Quote of the week: A mystic is a person who is puzzled before the obvious, but who understands the nonexistent. Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) |
Purpose
Another reason which might be used to argue that the existence of a god is relevant to us is that a god is necessary to have purpose in life. Indeed, it is quite common to hear Christians assert that atheists cannot possibly have any sort of meaning or purpose to their lives without the Christian god. But is this true? Is some god really a prerequisite for meaning and purpose in one's life?
I honestly don't see how this can be so. In the first place, it can be argued that even if a god did exist, that existence would not provide either meaning or purpose to a person's life. Christians seem to maintain that serving their god's will is what gives them purpose, but I hardly think that this is admirable. Mindless obedience might be praiseworthy in dogs and other domesticated animals, but it certainly isn't of much value in mature adult humans.
The idea that this god is supposed to have created us has been used to justify the doctrine of obedience as a fulfilling one's purpose in life; however, the proposition that a creator is automatically justified in ordering its creation to do whatever it desires is one which requires support and should not be accepted out of hand. Moreover, a good deal of support would be needed to claim that this would serve as an adequate purpose in life. As for myself, I cannot imagine finding purpose in mere obedience to a creator.
Of course, all of that assumes that we could clearly discern the will of the alleged creator. Quite a few religions in human history have asserted the existence of a creator-god, yet none of them have managed to find much agreement as to what such a creator-god might want from us humans. It seems that if such a god did exist, it probably wouldn't have done such a poor job as to allow this confusion. Even within religions, there is tremendous diversity of opinion as to the desires of the god being worshipped.
I can draw no other conclusion from this situation than that if some sort of creator-god exists, it is highly unlikely that we'll be able to figure out what it wants of us, if anything at all. The scenario which seems to play out is that people project their own hopes and fears onto whatever god they worship. People who fear and hate modernity project that onto their god and as a result, find a god which wants them to continue in their fear and hatred. Others are open to change and willing to love others regardless of differences, and thus find in a god which is tolerant of change and variation, and wants them to continue as they are.
Although the latter group is more pleasant to spend time with, their position is not actually any better founded than the former. There is no more reason to think that there is a benevolent and loving creator-god than that there is instead a mean-spirited and fearful creator-god. And in either case, what that god might want from us - if discoverable - cannot automatically give us purpose in our lives.
Purpose with Independence
On the other hand, it is easily arguable that meaning and purpose in life are ready to find - indeed, create - without the existence of, much less belief in, any sort of god. Meaning and purpose at their heart require valuation, and valuation must begin with the individual. For this reason, they must exist first and foremost in the individual. Others outside of us - including gods - may suggest possible paths for us where meaning and purpose could perhaps develop, but ultimately that will depend upon us.
If the existence of a god is not actually relevant to how we live our lives and certainly isn't necessary to being a good person, then debating the existence of any god can't be too important. You might choose to debate the existence of some particular god in order to pass the time or hone debating skills, but it would appear that one of the more effective response to the oft heard "Why don't you believe in God?" is "Why care about gods in the first place?"
So, could it matter that any gods exist? Maybe, maybe not. Some particular god could matter, depending upon its characteristics and intentions. However, the point which must be recognized here is that it cannot be automatically assumed that any god which exists is *necessarily important. It rests entirely with the theist to first explain who and why their god could even matter to us before we use valuable time to decide if it even exists. Although this might initially sound harsh, we are really under no obligation to entertain the idea of something existing when it has no relevance to our lives.
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