Tuesday, June 09, 2009

One Sentence An Atheist Materialist Can Never Validly Assert

This sentence: "See, I was right."

It's strange that a philosophy can be held with such contemptuous vehemence, all the while offering not the slightest logical prospect of eternal vindication.

Do atheists have any real thirst for victory?

If they did, would they be so quick to reject theistic arguments in order to "triumphantly" cling to such philosophical asininities as "Who designed the designer?"

Would they run around shouting, "There is NO evidence for God!"? Really? There is NO evidence anywhere? Not in philosophy, not in history, not in biology, not in the fine-tuned structure of physics, not in personal experience, not in miracles, nowhere, no how, none, none, none? Really?

My advice to atheists: work on that unmanly lack of thirst for everlasting victory, and then reassess the evidence. And do not expect to work less hard at it than you have for your scientific education/knowledge. What have you got to lose other than a sure prospect of not winning?

Note: I am not saying that the evidence only makes sense due to this thirst. I think the cumulative evidence is strong and speaks for itself. The lived evidence even more so ("taste and see"). However, it can be shut out, ignored, and rationalized away. But why do such a thing for such temporary stakes? What kind of moral insanity/lack of spiritual cojones places the benefit of the doubt on the "no eternal victory" side?

Another note: Hopefully it is not necessary for me to unpack the reasons why an atheist will not be able to say, "See, I was right." But just in case: While we're alive on this earth, we can never be absolutely, 100.0000% sure about the answer to the atheism/theism question. However, if the atheist materialist does, in fact, turn out to be correct, he can never know it, since after this life he will no longer exist. He has no vindication he can actually enjoy. This problem does not exist as an absolute logical necessity for the theist. For the same reason, no shame can attach to the eternal defeat of the theist, since he wouldn't be around to suffer it, either.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Yes, how foolish not to take the Paschalian wager!