Intellectuals, more brilliant minds than myself. All these men attempted to find a basis for ethics and morality apart from God. They have not succeeded.
"It is not possible to establish a reasonable and coherent ethical theory without first establishing the telos, i.e. the purpose and destiny of human life." -Ravi Zachrias
How to convincingly explain his? I wish C.S. Lewis were blogging this right now, then I would just copy and paste. Really the best thing would be for you to read any book on atheism by Ravi Zacharias. I am reading 'CAN MAN LIVE WITHOUT GOD' right now. Basically the answer for the short term is 'yes' but not to it's full potential. The long term answer is 'no.' If you want to refute this, read it first, then please educated me.
I know a lot of atheist. I love them dearly. I know atheist who are far smarter and morally superior than myself. So please do not assume my fight is with atheist.
My argument is against the belief system of Atheism. Just like how many find the belief system of Christianity or Islam damaging, I truly believe that atheism as a belief system is untenable, and ultimately dangerous and hollow. Is it possible for me not to sound like an arrogant jerk while making these kind of statements? Doubtful. But this is the choice the reader is left with... react emotionally with hostility or thoughtfully respond. I am eager and hopeful about being proven wrong. Because learning where I am wrong brings me closer to the truth. But right now, of sound mind and judgement, after careful consideration over considerable time, I state that to the best of my knowledge and understanding, atheism as a belief system is in my mind objectively and absolutely wrong. I have 101 reasons that I could write down now, but I rather open up a dialogue with friends, family or strangers who come across this. In search for truth and out of love and goodwill, if you disagree please help me understand why.
God, let truth be known. Ironically, God if you don't exist... well then who cares what the truth is. As long as I'm happy who cares what the truth is.
Dostoevski said "If God is dead, than everything is justifiable."
It seems so clear to me, God is not to blame for the disgusting, horrible, suffering and cruelty in this world. It is MAN, it is MANKIND, it is HUMANKIND. If we kill God, and humanity itself becomes its own god completely. Who can we trust to take his place? What leader, politician, mere human can take his place? Are not all humans prone to bribery, selfishness and vulnerable to the insatiable lust for wealth, fame, sex and power? We are all constantly fighting our self serving nature. Consider, is it easier for a child, woman or man to do good or to do evil? Is it easier to fight our bad urges or give into them? What is harder, to do what we want to do, or what we know we 'ought' to do?
This is worth taking the effort to copy. Auschwitz survivor Victor Frankl writes:
If we present man with a concept of man which is not true, we may well corrupt him. When we present him as an automation of reflexes, as a mind machine, as a bundle of instincts, as a pawn of drive and reactions, as mere product of heredity and environment, we feed the nihilism to which modern man is, in any case, prone. I became acquainted with the last stage of corruption in my second concentration camp, Auschwitz. The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory that man is nothing but the product of heredity and environment--or, as the Nazis liked to say, "of blood and soil." I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.
God... my mind pleads for his existence not as a crutch for the pain of life, but out of reasoning and thoughtful consideration.*
*i will admit, that my heart does plead for his existence as a comforter for the pain of life.
You dramatically state,
ReplyDelete"Kant, Kierkegard, Hume and Diderot."
Intellectuals, more brilliant minds than myself. All these men attempted to find a basis for ethics and morality apart from God. They have not succeeded."
You're right about one thing. They were smart, you are not.
Kant, Hume and Kierkegard were all philosophers that integrated religion into their work, especially vis a vis Christianity and ethics/morality. Anyone who read their work would know that. You obviously haven't. Which means that you spoke on their behalf without actually reading what they said. That makes you dishonest. It also means that you don't know what you are talking about. But it seems that doesn't bother you. Because you have "faith". However, if your highly problematic statements (that you make without any training, background, or humility) are any indication of your general thinking practices I doubt you even know what "faith" means.
And the worst part about this whole mess is that you don't even feel guilty about it!
And then you talk about holocaust survivors and Nazism?!
You enlist Jews for your evangelical and Christian purposes?
I'm Jewish so I find that somewhat hilariously ironic!
You don't know what you are talking about. But you don't care. You never did. That's because your form of belief is cheap. But I can tell from your writing: you already knew that anyway.
Grow up.
Dear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your passionate response. It has been awarded the prize of my blog topic for the day :) Please consider anything I write in it as part of a response to you. Please do write anytime as I would like to understand your perspective more clearly.
-Nathan (Growing up as much as I can!)
It always seems a shame when angry comments are left without bother of looking at a response. How else are we to break the spell of our own self delusion if we won't stop to see why others think how they do?
ReplyDeleteAnd I am aware of my own words. I make a serious effort to the point of strain to hear and understand reason from anyone and everyone.