Thursday, April 25, 2013

Atheism Dilemma IV


Since my Atheism Dilemma series of posts have been so popular, I have decided to continue writing more posts.  These posts exist to show the incoherence of atheism as a belief system.  In this post, I will focus on the Atheism Dilemma of Appeal to Assertion.

An Appeal to Assertion is a fallacy that entails a premise to be true just because it was stated and repeated.  Atheists are guilty of this fallacy.  They assert many things regarding God, Faith and Religion.  Here are a few and my response to them.


Assertion:  God is Imaginary
Many atheists claim that God is imaginary or exists solely in the imagination of the human person.  At first, the assertion seems coherent; God is invisible, no one can hear Him, see Him etc.  Kids have imaginary friends and these friends seem to have this characteristic of invisibility.  However, there is a problem with this assertion: proof.

Objection:
In order for this assertion that God is imaginary to be taken seriously, the one making the claim must provide evidence of this.  For God to be imaginary, God must be shown to exist in the synapses within the Thalamus and Neocortex.  To date, no such evidence of this exists.  Moreover, imaginative beings cannot affect the material world.  God as an imaginative being cannot heal, answer prayers or manifest Himself in the external world outside of the human brain as an agent that can manipulate matter.  

Assertion:  God is a myth
Atheists assert that God is part of mythology.  While gods such as Zeus, Thor and the like are considered mythology, atheists include the God worshiped by monotheistic religions are part of mythology.  Jehovah, Yahweh, Allah, Jesus are all considered mythological beings.  The problem with this assertion is that there is no proof.

Objection:
In order for something to be considered mythology, it must have a human origin. Mythology is a collection of stories or apothegm that originate from an author or authors.  We know that mythological gods have an origin in specific authors and can classify them as such.  In order for God to be classified a myth, an author or authors must be present.  In other words, for God to be a myth, He must have His origin in human authorship.  No atheists have provided evidence that God was authored by a particular human author.

Assertion:  Which God?  There are many Gods to choose from, they all cannot be right.
When theists mention God for a particular reason, atheists often respond: which God?  They do this in an attempt to equate God with other folk versions of gods.  This is done to present God as a deity competing with other deities.  The problem with this assertion is that there is a clear lack of comprehension between folk religion and revealed religion.

Objection:
While there are over 3,000 different designations and descriptions of gods in human society, this does not mean that God is automatically disqualified.  Man has always had belief in a supreme being or creator.  This is a common trait found in every culture throughout the globe.  We are even wired to have belief in God via the VMAT2 gene.  Throughout human history, man has attempted to define and classify this ultimate reality of a supreme being.  Man has used language with its limits in order to describe God.  Some defined God via their understanding of nature or natural phenomenon.  Others defined God via what is experienced in human life such as emotions, sex, pleasure, and so on.  These gods are all manifestations of the limited ability of man to describe the ultimate reality of God.  There is only one God and man in his limited capacity has tried to define him based on the limits of human experience and language.  The 3,000 + gods we know are how man has attempted to describe the one reality called God.  

These are some examples of assertions made by atheists that are fallacious and said due to lack of education.  When one critically examines the assertion and compares them with facts, one will see how easy they are to refute.  

Appealing to assertions may be a quick method to stump theists who are not well prepared in arguing logically; however, they backfire when cross-examined.  Atheism has another dilemma here that does damage to the claim that atheism adheres to logic and reason.  It is obvious that atheism possesses neither of these.  










10 comments:

  1. There is a clear flaw in your claims here. And i'm not advocating for atheism mind you, i'm just a religious studies scholar who insists on precision. your initial point is that atheists claim that god is imaginary or mythological. but that is a restatement of the actual issue, which is the request for proof from Christians that god is real. claims that god is mythic and imaginary are actually refutations of the Christian claim that god is real. the onus is on the original claim of god's actuality.

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    1. The flaw here stems from your understanding. This post addresses the fallacy of assertion that atheists fall into when discussing God or religion. Statements that God is imaginary and the like are claims that must be supported with evidence. The burden falls on anyone making a claim. Stating that God is imaginary or mythological presents you as having knowledge that contests the opposite position. For example, If I tell you that you are a liar, it is because I must know something that indicates you as such. Therefore, if an atheist claims God is imaginary of myth, then he/she must have something that forced him/her to conclude this and therefore must present it in order for that claim to have weight.

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    2. You're making the claim that your "God" exists, with no evidence. Yet, we must provide evidence for our claim?

      (Which, by the way, is not that "God" does not exist, in my case, at least, simply that there is no reason to believe that a "God" does exist, bud.) So what's with the double standard?

      You say Zeus, Thor, et cetera are mythology, yet your "God" is not? That doesn't make sense. People used to worship them in the same way that you worship your "God", today.

      Not only is this entirely hypocritical, but your claim that "God" is NOT mythical also requires evidence, for which you have none.

      Double standards everywhere, my friend.
      Take care to make more sensible arguments. Take care. :)

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    3. You're making the claim that your "God" exists, with no evidence. Yet, we must provide evidence for our claim?

      (Which, by the way, is not that "God" does not exist, in my case, at least, simply that there is no reason to believe that a "God" does exist, bud.) So what's with the double standard?

      You say Zeus, Thor, et cetera are mythology, yet your "God" is not? That doesn't make sense. People used to worship them in the same way that you worship your "God", today.

      Not only is this entirely hypocritical, but your claim that "God" is NOT mythical also requires evidence, for which you have none.

      Double standards everywhere, my friend.
      Take care to make more sensible arguments. Take care. :)

      Delete
    4. Thanks for posting the comment twice. This post is not meant to present evidence for God. Rather, it is meant to critique atheism by showing the dilemmas it creates. I have other posts that deal with evidence as well as my book 'Atheism Is Stupid.'

      There are many reasons to believe God exists if one is open minded and takes the time to do the research as I have when I was an atheist.

      Zeus, Thor etc were ways that primitive many attempted to name and describe God. I speak on this in my Radio Podcast Sacerdotus Radio, google '3,000 gods Sacerdotus Radio' to find the link.

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  2. I made a response to your post here.

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  3. Whatever claims atheists make is irrelevant. The original requirement for proof still exists: Christians need to provide proof of their claim of a God existing. Whatever anyone else says doesn't make the claim that god exists more or less true. It still needs to be proven regardless.

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    1. Christians have provided proof for centuries. The problem is that atheists will dismiss it just to feed their cognitive bias just like some conservatives will deny global warming or evolution today despite evidence presented to them. It is a psychological issue, not an issue with lack of evidence.

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  4. The Bible is God's Word, because the Bible says it is God's Word, and what it says is true, because it is God's Word.

    A classic piece of "reasoning" manifested in the apologetics rhetoric of Christian fundamentalists/evangelicals everywhere.

    So when Christian apologists start making claims about atheists relying on *mere* assertion, atheists just laugh at the irony.

    "Atheists assert that God is part of mythology. While gods such as Zeus, Thor and the like are considered mythology, atheists include the God worshiped by monotheistic religions are part of mythology. Jehovah, Yahweh, Allah, Jesus are all considered mythological beings. The problem with this assertion is that there is no proof."

    Again with the ironic jokes. The proof that they are myths is precisely the fact that they don't have evidence to back them up as being anything other than myth. The universe and the earth creationist around 6,000 years ago. A myth. The earth wiped out by a global flood around 4,300 years ago. A myth. Israelites were millions of slaves in Egypt and helped build the pyramids. A myth. Ten magical plagues later they escaped and lived in the desert for decades. A myth. Virgin birth. A myth. Resurrection. A myth. And many of these same kinds of myths are employed in various forms with the mythical gods of other religions. And it's highly amusing how the author fully acknowledges that these other stories in all the other religions are myths - but because he has personal religious faith in the particular religious myths he believes in in his religion, they're somehow automagically "not myths" because of religious faith. But if some other religious believer of some other religious faith tried to use the exact same argument with the author, the author would reject it out of hand as being obviously bogus: A believer in Lord Ganesha comes to the author and says, "The stories about Lord Ganesha are true. I know this because I believe in them. In order for Lord Ganesha to be considered mythology, it must have a human origin. Mythology is a collection of stories or apothegm that originate from an author or authors. We know that mythological gods have an origin in specific authors and can classify them as such. In order for Lord Ganesha to be classified a myth, an author or authors must be present. In other words, for Lord Ganesha to be a myth, He must have His origin in human authorship. No atheists have provided evidence that Lord Ganesha was authored by a particular human author."

    The author of the essay above would not buy his own argument for a second, because it's a completely bogus argument from the get-go. There are all kinds of ancient myths regarding which the specific *original* author or authors can never be known. Not knowing the original author does not magically conjure a myth into reality. It's an obviously silly argument to try to pretend otherwise.

    Indeed, this argument is actually just a manifestation of the very popular anti-atheist argument made by Christian apologists everywhere that they have no burden of proof, that they can just make things up and - BAM! - whatever they make up is automatically real unless anyone can prove it is not real. Which is the opposite of actual epistemology, because since it is Christian apologists making the assertions about what is real, they are the ones who have the burden of proof to produce credible real world evidence to back it up. But Christian apologists know they can't actually do this, which is why they are all the time manufacturing all kinds of apologetics rhetoric to try to justify making things up and believing in them without good evidence to back them up in the first place.

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    1. Actually, the Bible is God's Word because the Catholic Church stated this, not the Bible. The Bible only describes itself as inspired and useful for correcting see: 2 Timothy 3:16-17. The "reasoning" you are describing is usually found among Protestant fundamentalists, not Catholics like myself. You should not generalize all Christians in that manner or you will fall into strawman argumentation.

      Atheism is based on assertion. There is no way an atheist can prove that God does not exist. This is purely an assertion based on speculation.

      As I resplied above: Zeus, Thor etc were ways that primitive man attempted to name and describe God. I speak on this in my Radio Podcast Sacerdotus Radio, google '3,000 gods Sacerdotus Radio' to find the link.

      Moreover, your comment actually provides evidence to what I stated "The problem with this assertion is that there is no proof." You make many claims and they are just that, claims. Not once have you provided evidence. You assert and do not prove anything. Are we supposed to believe God is a myth because you say so? You have to show us the proof. Show us the author of God. Historians and the like classify myths as 'myth' because they found a specific myth to be rooted in human authorship. There is vetting process that takes place in this regard. In order to call God a 'myth,' you have to find the human author who developed the concept that is universal and which we are hardwired for. To date, no atheist has done this.

      In fact, I have a challenge that no atheist has been able to take on Youtube, Google "God is a myth Challenge" to find it. The objections you raise regarding specifics in Biblical history have answers if you bother to do research. I address many of them in my book 'Atheism Is Stupid.'

      Delete

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