By Brian Nixon, Special to ASSIST News Service
ALBUQUERUQUE, NEW MEXICO (ANS – October 9, 2015) — “We cannot, of course, disprove God, just as we can’t disprove Thor, fairies, leprechauns and the Flying Spaghetti Monster.”
This quote is by Dr. Richard
Dawkins (b. 1941). Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and one of the
leading figures of what has been termed, “New Atheism.” (1)
The
quote is interesting on two fronts. One, it owns up to the fact that
people (the “we” in the quote) cannot disprove God’s existence. And two,
the quote seems to equate God to mythical lore and human fabrication
(exactly his intention).
Dawkins is correct in his
understanding of the first statement—“we cannot…disprove God,” and
misinformed on the second: most of the world’s notion of God far
transcends a supernatural being similar to the “Flying Spaghetti
Monster.”
Dawkins is opposed to the idea
that there is a God or a supreme being. Belief systems such as his leads
to a position called atheism. According to the Pew Research Center,
2.4% of the population consider themselves atheist. (2). The Pew study
also reveals that most atheist tend to be men (67%) and younger (38% are
between the ages of 18-29).
The position of atheism is not
new. The Sophist (3) in ancient Greece questioned whether the gods were
real, as did many in the Roman Empire, including Lucretius
(4)(99BC-55BC).
Even Biblical writers
recognized that there were atheists. King David writes in Psalm 14:1,
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’.”
The word atheism is derived from two Greek words: ‘a’ meaning, “without;” and theism, meaning, “god.” Without-god (5).
The Merriam-Webster dictionary
rightly defines atheism as both disbelief and a doctrine (6) (meaning
“code,” “creed,” and “dogma.”). The atheist is one who feels that there
are empirical reasons to believe that God does not exist (usually
through the sciences). This definition is different from a similar
belief, agnosticism (Greek: “no knowledge”), which teaches that God—if
there is one—is unknowable and undiscoverable. Theoretically, the
agnostic is unsure about God’s existence, whereas the atheist believes
that there is no God.
According to Norman Geisler,
there are two forms of agnosticism: “the weak form holds that God is
unknown…the stronger form…claims that God cannot be known (7).”
Likewise, Geisler points out
that there are various forms of atheism: traditional (metaphysical:
there never was, is, or will be a God), dialectical (God died—literally
or figuratively), semantically (God-talk is dead and meaningless),
conceptual (there may be a God, but He is hidden from view), and
practical (God may exist, but we should live as if he did not).
When all analysis is complete,
agnosticism and atheism fall into self-defeating assertions. As Geisler
states concerning agnosticism, “One who knows something about reality
cannot affirm in the same breath that all of reality is unknowable.” By
making the statement that “there is no god,” atheist or agnostics are
making a truth claim. But, if we can’t know (agnosticism) or think we
know without a standard (atheism), how do we know if what the person is
claiming is true? We don’t. There is no standard by which to judge it.
The statement fails; it is a self-defeating. Think of it this way: if a
person knows that I can’t know, then how do they know? You get my point;
it’s circular, and ultimately futile.
Winfried
Corduan puts it this way concerning agnosticism: “Thus agnosticism
pivots on a contradiction by having to maintain that at one and the same
time it is both possible and impossible to know something about God.”
In short, both atheism and
agnosticism are self-refuting; one cannot “meaningfully affirm that
something is not and be totally devoid of a knowledge of the something
(8).” With worldviews void of absolutes—be it God or truth—a person
“assumes knowledge of reality in order to deny all knowledge of
reality.”
Geisler summarizes the dilemma
as follows, “there is simply no way short of omniscience that one can
make such sweeping and categorical statements about reality…Hence total
agnosticism is only self-defeating. Only an omniscient mind could be
totally agnostic and finite men do not possess omniscience.”
For more information on issues important to the Christian faith, check out Veritas Evangelical Seminary: http://www.ves.edu/
1) Google defines New Atheism
as follows: “a social and political movement in favor of atheism and
secularism promoted by a collection of modern atheist writers who have
advocated the view that ‘religion should not simply be tolerated but
should be countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument
wherever its influence arises.’”
3) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sophists/4) http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/history/ancient.shtml
5) Part of this article was used in Jesus Loves Atheists.
6) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atheism7) Geisler, Norman. Big Book of Apologetics. Baker Books.
8) Geisler, Norman. Big Book of Apologetics. Baker Books.
Photo captions: 1) Dr. Norman
Geisler. 2) Veritas Evangelical Seminary. 3) Brian Nixon with ANS
founder, Dan Wooding, during a recent visit that Dan made to
Albuquerque.
About
the writer: Brian Nixon is a writer, musician, and minister. He’s a
graduate of California State University, Stanislaus (BA) and is a Fellow
at Oxford Graduate School (D.Phil.). To learn more, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Nixon
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