13 Questions

[Anymouse]

Ok, so I have written up a questionnaire for you all. You do not have to answer each of the questions, but I am interested in knowing what the different opinions of atheists are on these questions. . . .

P.S. Theists, feel free to answer these questions as well.


1. What evidence would convince you of God’s existence?

Which god? I presume you mean the one described in the Bible. Independently-verifiable evidence. Can't speculate on the nature of the evidence, as it has not yet been found.

2. You see the words, “I love you” written in the sand at the beach. Is this man-made? If so, how do you know?

Having evidence that men and women do this, and lacking evidence that gods do, I would have to provisionally accept the former (unless evidence is subsequently presented for the later).

3. If the God of the Bible were real, would He set the rules or would man set the rules?

In such a hypothetical situation (you started with "if"), I suppose it would be up to him. Likewise, if Allah of the Koran is real, I suppose it would be up to him, too.

4. Do moral laws exist? If so, do they exist independent of humans? How do you know what they are?

"Moral laws" is undefined in this question. Does morality exist? Yes, and it is not dependent on religion.

5. If everyone on earth believed that rape were morally right, would it still be morally wrong?

I presume that would include the victims feel it is morally right. A slippery question indeed. Our societies today generally consider it immoral, regardless of religious view, though in some it is still used as a weapon of terror or war.

If everyone on Earth believed that nuclear weapons were morally right, would it be morally wrong to own or use them? Would it be morally wrong for Iran or Israel or Guatemala to develop or buy them?

If you consider nuclear weapons "morally wrong," is it also not a moral wrong to pay tax money to a government (such as the USA or the UK), which then in turn uses that money to develop, procure, and deploy them?

A concept of "right" and "wrong" can be defined without religion. For example, the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." If I were a masochist, and wanted to be beaten, does this give me permission to "do the same unto you?" I would replace the "Golden Rule," with its failure to cover such possibilities (thus, making it an imperfect rule) with something more like "If you harm none, do what you wish." But I am not in charge here.

6. What is the most dangerous religion on Earth?

Any philosophy, including religion, can be "dangerous." Dangerous is undefined here. I would consider telling me what I can't read (like Twain's Huckleberry Finn or Lewis's It Can't Happen Here "dangerous." Many religions are guilty of atrocities (but not all).

7. Where did the laws of logic come from?

"Logic" is the rules of valid reasoning and deduction, and rules as to what constitutes invalid reasoning. Logic has been developed as a system by many cultures all around the world for settling philosophical and scientific questions. No one society or culture can claim to "own" the "rules" of logic.

Moreover, like many things humans discover, our opinions change when new information is discovered that renders the old obsolete. While I cannot imagine a system that more concretely develops ideas than logic, I do not infer from that there is none.

8. How did non-rational events and processes lead to a rational human mind?

I am not sufficiently versed in the sciences or religion to render a credible answer to this. I would point out though, that Benoit Mandelbrot, mathematician, when questioning how such things as waves of sand on sand dunes could be so regular though comprised of random sand grains, set out to find a mathematical model. He did, and there is an explanation (I would note that just because he came up with an explanation it is not necessarily right, but his explanation can be tested). The Mandelbrot Set, a graph of the function of random particles aligning themselves into an organized set, is now available as a poster in good head shops everywhere. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set )

9. Why do some atheists such as Carl Wieland and Alister McGrath become Christians?

I cannot answer this; I do not know them. Presumably for the same reason some Christians become atheists, Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans, &c. Because it made sense to them.

10. How do beliefs and thoughts differ?

Two very slippery terms, both of which give rise to argument between the religious and the atheist, because each means a different thing when they use the words. Without common language, grammar, and rules, no meaningful communication can exist between them; these two words are examples of this.

11. Do you believe that God does not exist?

Which god? Anyone who holds to a particular religious view, say Christianity, believes in exactly the same thing about every god or goddess ever postulated by humankind as an atheist does, except their own god. Such religious people might even use logic to try to refute the existence of a god not their own, demanding empirical evidence for the existence of Thor or Eris, say.

12. Do you think that God does not exist?

Which god?

13. How do you think life began on Earth?

Religious or not, I am comfortable with the answer, "I do not know."

Anymouse.