Answering apologists’ questions, part 1

A fellow emailed the TV show address with this forwarded list of questions that apologists have for atheists, taken from Lee Strobel’s site. What is surprising is how simplistic and banal many the questions are (most of them being variations of “if God didn’t create us, who/what did?”). Only one question is any good, and one is downright idiotic. You’d think these guys had never read any atheist literature in their lives. They probably haven’t, though, being apologists, you’d think that doing so would at least give them some kind of frame of reference from which to formulate good responses to atheists’ and skeptics’ criticism of religion. Or maybe they’re worried they wouldn’t be able to respond…

The following answers are my own. Readers are invited to offer their own answers in the comments.

Lee opens:

What Would I Ask an Atheist?

Hemant Mehta’s offer for me to respond to questions from atheists led me to ponder this topic: what would I ask an atheist in return? Hmmmmm. I decided to send emails to some of my friends and ask them for their suggestions. Here are their replies.

Hmmmm indeed. Here are the questions:

Apologist Mike Licona: “What turns you off about Christianity? Irrespective of one’s worldview, many experience periods of doubt. Do you ever doubt your atheism and, if so, what is it about theism or Christianity that is most troubling to your atheism?”

I’m glad this question came first, as it’s actually the first time I’ve heard a question phrased this way from any Christian. Notice Licona doesn’t ask why I don’t believe, he asks why Christianity is a turnoff. Which is quite a different matter. Licona has noticed that, apart from disbelief, there is something about religion in particular that rubs atheists the wrong way. Very astute, Mike. (Except, of course, for slipping in the mistaken attempt at equivocation with the ever-popular Christian weasel word “worldview.” Atheism is not a “worldview.” It is merely the disbelief in gods.)

I’ll take the final question first. When credible evidence for a deity comes to light — a thing theists have singly been incapable of providing — then I will doubt my atheism. This does not mean I have a closed mind towards the idea. Even when I say, with full confidence, that I don’t believe in any gods, I’m not making a dogmatic proclamation of absolute knowledge. But here, it’s like the question of leprechauns. Would I believe in leprechauns if evidence for them ever made it sensible to do so? Sure. But in the absence of such evidence, I’m quite confident in maintaining my disbelief in leprechauns. Ditto gods.

There’s nothing about Christianity troubling to my atheism, per se, so much as troubling to my humanism and ideas about goodness and decency. What turns me off about Christianity is that I consider it morally confused at best, and morally bankrupt at worst. Indeed, the Doctrine of Hell alone forever disqualifies Christianity as a moral belief system of any kind. Put bluntly, any religion that not only uses threats of eternal torture and punishment to enforce compliance, let alone considers eternal torture morally acceptable in the first place, simply for the “crime” of not being Christian, can only be considered not merely immoral but evil. Let us, for the sake of argument, say God exists. Am I to understand that this deity — said to be omniscient, omnipotent, omnific — is so insecure in his rule over his creation that he would find it necessary to consign me to eternity in hell merely for using my reasoning capacities (which he presumably gave me) to doubt his existence, especially when this God has deliberately chosen to refuse to reveal his existence unambiguously? Am I supposed to consider such a being worthy of my admiration, let alone my love and, most incredibly, my worship?

I often ask people who call the television show to imagine an abusive spouse, who tells his wife the following: “Honey, I love you with all my heart. But I swear, if you ever leave me, if I ever even think you’re looking at another man or thinking about breaking up with me, so help me, I’ll break your neck!” Now, is this a man you’d introduce your lady friends to? Is this someone you’d consider, not only a good man, but the best and most moral kind of man possible? No? But look closely. This man is your God. Don’t worship him to his satisfaction, don’t accept the divine love he so generously offers you, and go directly to hell, boom, no passing “Go” or collecting the proverbial two Benjamins.

Honestly, can you really be so clueless as to why Christianity turns atheists off, when it offers such an appalling deity for our devotion?

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