November 15, 2013

Atheism

Ansley Dodson 3A

Atheism is a religion practiced today, and for many hundreds of years, all over the world !he history of Atheism was said by "infred #chroeder to be more of the $history of various religious departures from orthodo%y& than the actually history of atheism Atheism is the lac' of a religion or the belief that there is no (od )owever, li'e other religions atheism does have an ancient te%t read by many atheists throughout *urope from the mid+seventeenth century until the end of the eighteenth century called the clandestine, or clandestine literature !hese very high+class documents somehow managed to escape censorship and the hand written copies were circulated throughout *urope Atheism has many arguments against ,hristianity and other religions "hat seems to be one of the main problems that atheists have is the problem of evil -any atheists base their arguments on the fact that $pointless suffering& e%ists and don.t thin' through the fact that (od.s e%istence is logically impossible without a small amount of suffering *very valuable lesson comes from hard ships and $bad fortune teaches while good fortune deceives & "hat atheist don.t understand is that (od did not put evil into the earth but the potential for evil "hen (od created the universe and the human race )e gave us the blessing of free will "ithout free will we would all /ust be robots Also without the potential of sin, this would alleviate the possibility for love as well 0ne of the most well 'nown arguments from atheists would be that the universe had no cause, this is also 'now as the ,osmological Argument #ome atheists see it as the world is /ust a fact and is in no need of a further e%planation, while others are either not sure or believe it came from the big bang, or evolution )owever, most atheists agree on the statement of, everything came from nothing )owever what seems to be the problem with that is atheist are

ma'ing something out of nothing Nothing is literally no+thing 1t is not a spec of dust, or particles or even an atom, it is literally no thing Another argument brought up by atheists is the argument for design, also 'nown as the !eleological Argument Atheist believe that the universe and earth and all the species on the earth happen by chance and natural selection )owever, this argument is invalid As shown in, $1 Don.t )ave *nough 2aith to be an Atheist&, if you found a diamond watch on the ground in the forest, whether you are an atheist, ,hristian, or any other religion, you wouldn.t thin' that nature made it because that is an illogical assumption No, you would 'now that the watch had a watch ma'er, and if something as in+comple% as a watch re3uires a designer how is it logical to believe that something so comple% as our universe came from nothing #omething else that seems to be difficult to grasp for most people but especially atheist is miracles -any ,hristians as well as others see miracles as proof that there is a super natural being at wor' in the universe #ome atheists are against miracles because some have been claimed by humans and have turned out to be frauds )owever what seems to be the main problem for atheists is that miracles go against the laws of nature and most atheist are naturalist and materialist believing that everything comes from nature and everything is /ust materials !he main problem against naturalist is how everything came from nature )ow do you get laws and morals from nature -orals are something that seem to be written on the hearts of all humans 1t is evident that morals are not /ust instincts because in a dangerous situation sometimes your morals tell you to go against your stronger instinct !here for morals could not have came from nature !his argument also applies to materialist in the fact that laws and morals are not materials as well

#omething that atheists also contradict themselves on is the statement of $!here is no absolute truth & or, $!ruth is relative,& 4oth of these statements according to, $1 Don.t )ave *nough 2aith to be an Atheist& are self defeating statements meaning that they contradict themselves 4y saying there is no absolute truth atheist are implying that that statement itself is not absolutely true !he same applies when they say that $truth is relative,& because, by saying this they are implying that that statement itself is relative Almost every argument made by an atheist either contradicts itself or is illogical Atheist say that they need proof to believe what is in the bible but when given that proof they seem to resent that proof /ust li'e they resent the trust about ,hrist, miracles, and all other ,hristian teachings #ome of the main points 1 plan to cover with my atheist is her belief in creation #he is a chemistry ma/or and says she doesn.t care about where the universe came from but 1.m going to do my best to find out if she truly does not care or if she /ust has unanswered 3uestions !his is similar to the first of the twelve points which is $!ruth about reality is 'nowable & #econd, 1 want to cover the second of the twelve points which is, $ !he opposite of true is false& 1 believe 1 can use this to e%plain to her how evil is the opposite of good but evil itself is not a thing, but the lac' of something 2rom this 1 would li'e to 'now what her definition of $good people& is because, one of her biggest problems is how such a $good and forgiving (od& can send $good people& to hell #o 1 am curious to find out what her definition of good is 2rom that 1 would li'e to 'now from what standard of good she is comparing whether it be a mortal or immortal being that she.s holding her standard of good Also another point 1 want to cover is the third of the twelve points which is $ 1t is true that a theistic (od e%ist& !he reason 1 want to cover this is because it is very evident to me that

she is against (od but whether or not she believes in a super natural being in general can ma'e a difference in the conversation 1f she believes in a super natural being 1 want to find out why she is so against believing he is not the creator of the universe 1f she does not believe in a god or a supernatural being 1 am curious to see her evidence to bac' up the fact that there is no (od 4ecause it ta'es a lot more faith to believe there is no (od than to believe there is one because the evidence clearly shows that a super natural being of some sort e%ist 1 hope to go far in the conversation with my atheist and 1 hope and pray that she will be open minded to these ideas and will see, understand, and comprehend the evidence for ,hrist that is going to be shown to her 1 am e%cited to be able to witness to an atheist and 1 pray (od gives me the persuasion s'ills and the right words and responses to help convert her to ,hristianity