Thoughts on the debate between God believers and those who don’t.
It’s claimed that life is meaningless without religion and it’s an accusation often levelled at atheists. They deny that the cosmos has any intrinsic meaning or purpose so their lives must be the same it’s argued. Atheists see such an attitude as both condescending and a failure to understand. Theists assume other people are like … Read more
Believers claim that God can be proven to exist through logic. God’s existence can be established through our rational faculties and methods. Before I go on, I must point out there’s no such thing as ‘the logic’. There are different forms of reasoning; Buddhists and Jains have their own, so why does a claimant choose … Read more
What’s often characteristic of many theists in their debate with non-believers is their faith in the ideas of Aristotle. Soon after Aristotle came, more thinkers espoused and expanded his ideas. Aquinas, for example, gave rise to Thomistic Christianity. Advocates will put Aristotle and his ideas forwards yet fail to prove he was correct, merely presupposing … Read more
One of the most common arguments for god is the link to our free will. Without god, we can’t have free will and the ability to choose; instead, we are just automatons following the naturalistic script of determinism. I have many doubts over this argument, as well as its implications. It starts with the overlooked … Read more
One argument for God follows the thread that because there are so many claims and evidence for God and it all fits together, it must be true God exists: the Cumulative case. However, whether or not all the arguments and evidence fit together is not the issue. What is mistaken here is the difference between … Read more
‘In tune with the mysterious forces of the cosmos that believe there is nothing like millions of frustrating trial and error to give a species a moral fibre, in some cases even a backbone.’ Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett. One of the biggest points of contention in the theist-atheist debate is morality. Both sides accept … Read more