We're All Atheists Now?

When you atheists understand why a jury can convict one particular person for a crime and not any of the other 7+ billion people on the planet who are technically eligible suspects, then you will understand why I am a Christian believer. The available evidence points to the Christian God, not to Zeus, Thor, or Quetzalcoatl.

If one were to live by the logic presented in this uncompelling meme, our judicial system would collapse. A lawyer for a likely murder suspect could simply say to the jury, "Surely you would agree that all these other people in this courtroom are innocent of this crime. I'm simply asking that you go one suspect further and declare my client innocent of these charges."

We are confident in the Christian God because that is where the evidence points regardless of the other options.

[This response is adapted from the work of Andy Bannister in Chapter 3 of The Atheist Who Didn't Exist.]

Science and Observations of God

What is the message of this meme?

• Science improves our knowledge over time. We have better images now of things that were previously inaccessible to us.
• Science couldn't then nor can it now observe God.
• Therefore, God must not be real because science cannot see him.

How to respond?

1. Science is a wonderful enterprise that does indeed improve our knowledge, and Christians should embrace, rather than fear, it.
2. The traditional Christian conception of God is that he is not physical, so we should not expect to be able to physically see him.
3. This world is full of things that skeptics, atheists, and scientists in general have good reason to believe exist even though they cannot see them, such as magnetic fields, quarks, a mathematical point or line, past genetic mutations, past transitional forms for which there are no fossils, force carriers in physics like photons or gluons, and past historical events for which there are no records.
4. The epistemology (or way of knowing) of this meme and of the average skeptic is weak sauce. If we limited our knowledge to only that which we could see, then we would know very few things indeed.

If atheists and skeptics want to claim that they can be confident in their lack of belief in God because science hasn't observed him, then to be consistent they must also claim to lack a belief in many other things that are not controversial.

Russell's Teapot

The challenge of Russell’s Teapot is meant to say that Christians believe in their God without any evidence, just like there is no evidence for this teapot orbiting the Sun. We can’t prove the teapot isn’t there and so we’re free to believe in it, but don’t expect the rest of us to believe in it. The same goes for God.

My response to someone who brings up Russell’s Teapot  would be that, rather than accepting God’s existence by mere blind faith, I can think of several good reasons to think that God exists. 

1. The universe had a beginning a finite time ago, and things that begin to exist must have a cause. 
2. The universe is highly fine-tuned with an apparent design that points to a purpose behind it. 
3. Despite intense research, life began at some point on Earth, and there is absolutely no consensus on how this could have happened “on its own.” Stated more positively, the design of the earliest life and the information that is apparent in living cells point to an intelligent designer. 
4. The origin of human consciousness is a huge problem for materialists. How did this higher “ape” become aware of itself with all of our mental capacities? This is much better explained by personal Mind who is responsible for humankind. 
5. If the materialists are correct, then humans are creatures determined by our brain and body chemistry, and we are thus not free nor rational. 
6. The historical evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is strong and compelling.

So, while the Teapot is meant to demean the Christian faith and claim that there is no good evidence for it, the truth of the matter is that quite good evidence exists that points positively to an intelligent Mind behind life and the universe. Skeptics of religious faith may claim that they don’t find these reasons compelling, but what they cannot legitimately do is assert that there is no evidence at all. Conversation can then turn this evidence and to why so many people throughout the history of the world have found reasons such as these so convincing that God does indeed exist.