16 Questions for Atheists

My friend James Lazarus has posted his answers to 16 questions for atheists originally posted by some Christians. Here is a link to his response to the 16 questions. I will provide my own.

1. Why is there something rather than nothing?

This question is ambiguous. First, it may mean, "Why does anything exist at all?" If it means that, then I think the theist and nontheist alike is plagued by the same question. Why does God exist rather than not? Some theists have argued God is a logically necessary being via the Ontological Argument. In that argument, it is attempted to show that God must exist due to logical necessity. However, I don't think the Ontological Argument works since it is possible to imagine a universe without a God existing. Therefore, I don't think it can be shown that God is logically necessary in the same way that "2 + 2 =4" is. Given this, theists also have to wrestle with the question of why there is a God rather than not.

The statement may also mean, "Why does the universe exist?" The theists will answer that the universe exists because God created it. The nontheist cannot use a similar answer of course. However, why think there needs to be an answer? One can just ask the theist where God came from and given the failure of the Ontological argument above, they wouldn't have an answer. God's existence would go unexplained. Either side has to posit a brute, unexplained fact. The theist posits God and the atheist posits the universe. Why prefer one over the other?

One can decide between the two in terms of simplicity and explanatory power. If it can be shown that God is the simpler hypothesis and has more explanatory power than the brute fact of the universe, then God would be shown to exist. This needs to be shown first before asking this question, however.

2. How do you know that you exist (without being circular)?

I'm not all that sure what relevance this has to theism. I don't think we can have an answer to this that isn't circular. I take it as a basic belief without evidence that I exist. I think it is also possible to "know" some things that are basic. I'm not exactly sure how this works though since usually, knowledge is in need of justification and basic beliefs are by definition not based on any other beliefs.

3. Where does human self-consciousness come from?

I don't know. I haven't researched the subject much. I'd say the current research on the brain can explain a lot about ourselves but I'm not sure it can explain it all. I also think atheism is consistent with mind-body dualism though I don't know how one would explain where the mind came from.

4. How do you know your senses are reliable (without being circular)?

I don't think one can answer this in a non-circular fashion. A theist would say that her senses are reliable because God made them and He would make them reliable. However, one can then ask how one knows God is concerned with truth or how one knows God is morally perfect? One must then appeal to their "sense" of truth or some type of argument which, even if not evidential, will have to rely on some type of reasoning which would be carried out by the person's mind. One can then ask why they rely on their reasoning faculty.

The atheist is in the same boat. We have a better chance of survival if we have true beliefs and reliable methods of obtaining those beliefs. Evolution then would be likely to give us some reliable faculties which we can use. We can then improve on these faculties throughout our lives through training and make them even more reliable. This is why I trust my senses and in general, my reasoning abilities. If this is circular, then so is any theist response.

5. What is truth?

A proposition is true if it corresponds to reality. It is false if it doesn't.

6. What is the cause of everything?

Well, I take this to mean, "What is the cause of the universe?" and my answer would be similar to the answer to #1.

7. What is the purpose of mankind?

Well, an atheist wouldn't believe mankind has any divine purpose. However, that doesn't mean there is no right or wrong thing to do. What is right or wrong need not be defined in terms of how our creator planned us to live. In fact, it only could be if the creator was good. If the creator were evil and gave us the purpose of causing as much suffering as possible, that wouldn't make us obliged to follow it. At that point, we would be obligated to go against our given purpose. So, even if there is no purpose of mankind, that doesn't mean there is no morality.

8. How do we determine right from wrong? Is there such a standard? Where does it come from? The State? DNA?

Some people look at their religious text to determine right from wrong.  If these religious texts are false, then that is not a reliable standard. In determining if the standard is reliable, one must make sure that in relying on the standard, one isn't positing imaginary entities that don't exist in the real world. If one's standard relies on a nonexistent God, then it is not a good standard. If one's standard relies on the claim that "Whatever my state says is morally correct" or if it says "Whatever my DNA has programmed me to believe about morality" is morally correct, then these are not good standards.

I'd say that a reliable standard is a consequentialist one. Not in the sense of, judge the act by its consequences, but to judge a desire by its consequences. For the long, extended explanation, see Alonzo Fyfe here.

9. What is the difference, from an atheistic standpoint, between love and hate? Aren't these merely emotional responses triggered by certain stimuli? Why is one better than the other?

These are emotional responses triggered by stimuli but that doesn't remove the possibility of people being morally responsible for them. These emotional responses are produced by our beliefs and desires. How someone reacts to say someone calling them a bad name reflects their character. Different people with different characters will react differently. Therefore, one can blame someone for their reactions to stimuli.

Love is better than the other because it is conducive to desire fulfillment whereas hate is generally not. Hate is by definition desire-thwarting so this makes it a desire we shouldn't promote in others, that is if we are concerned for our own well-being and that of others. So, love is better than hate for this reason.

10. How do you explain transcendent truth? i.e. Even folks that have never heard of the Bible (like tribe people in deep jungles) knowing that stealing, murder, adultery, etc. is wrong?

I think this one is fairly easy. I would take out murder since murder is immoral by definition. It's like asking, "How did you know the blue ball was blue?" Well, it's a blue ball so it must be blue, duh!

As for the rest, I would say that figuring out that the desire to steal is not conducive to desire fulfillment overall is pretty obvious. I don't think we need complex scientific theories to see this is true. The same can be said of committing adultery and the general act of being dishonest. Surely, society functions much better when people have a desire to tell people the truth and to not steal from others.

11. Isn't implicit, weak or negative atheism (ala George Smith, David Eller & Michael Martin) just another form of agnosticism? If the atheist critiques theism without justification, then isn't he/she believing in atheism with something other than rational thought? And as soon as the atheist provides any kind of rational justification for his/her critique of theism, hasn't he/she just moved into explicit, strong or positive atheism? And if so, doesn't he/she then need to worry about some burden of proof for his/her belief in a lack of belief?

One could define lack of belief in a God as a form of agnosticism. Definitions don't matter much to me. See my earlier post. I don't know what it means to "critique theism without justification" so I can't answer the second question. I think critiquing theism would be equivalent to giving evidence for positive atheism only if "atheism" is defined as the "disbelief in the God being critiqued." I don't think one can argue from "God as you define it has problems, therefore all definitions of 'god' will have problems." I don't understand the last question since positive atheism is a disbelief, not just a lack of belief.

12. If you honestly do not believe there is a God, why do you ask so many questions about a God you don't believe exists?

I'd say there's many reasons. The first is that religious people use their religious text to justify harm done to others. At this point, it is important to research whether using the given religious text is the right thing to do. Is it reliable? Are the other claims it makes true? To answer these questions, one needs to know certain things about the ancient world, God, and so on. A second reason is that so many people believe in some form of a god that atheists want to know why. A third reason is that if there is a God in the traditional sense, then it would be very important morally. To find out that a morally perfect being created you and gave you the gift of life, that would make it super-wrong to do wrong acts. Also, since we owe a being who created us something, we would owe God obedience (to a certain extent). Of course, there is a limit to how much God can ask of us much the same way there is a limit to how much anyone can ask of us when a favor is done. See my answer to #7 above. If our creator asked us to rape as much as possible, then even though we owe our creator certain things, we don't owe it to him to obey that command. So, I think God's existence would have some bearing on morality and he would be a source of morality. See my earlier post.

13. If you really don't believe God exists what does it matter to you, how He should choose to punish those who don't believe?

I think it matters because people often use their belief in this matter to justify harming others. Some people who believe that homosexuals go to hell use this fact to justify beating them up and calling them names. They justify these things by saying that if it'll help even one person change their ways, it was worth it since hell is such a bad place.

I don't think belief is a morally cupable action that one can be blamed for. So, a morally good person wouldn't punish someone just for their belief. He would only punish people insofar as their beliefs indicate the presence of bad desires. I think it is important for wrongdoers to atone for their wrongdoing. It is important to "make it up" to the person you wronged. I don't think there is any good reason why God would draw the line at death as the last chance to atone for our sins. I think good people who don't end up atoning for their sins before they die should go to a limbo-type place where they can find out the truth and see if they want to atone for their sins. If they don't want to, I think they should either be allowed to continue to exist in a place other than limbo or heaven or possibly if they no longer want to exist, then God would terminate their existence.

14. If you really believe God doesn't exist, then there is no worry of punishment for you anyway, so why get upset just because someone else believes you're going to a place they believe exists?

I don't get upset because someone has different beliefs about the afterlife than me. I may want to show their view to be false or indefensible, but I don't get upset about their view. And the reason why atheists tend to get upset is because the religious people, believing atheists will go to hell and never return, try many immoral things to get atheists to become of their religion. That is something to be upset about.

15. How about "life from no life?"

I don't really see what the trouble is in believing this. I don't think life is so fundamentally different from non-living things that perhaps non-living things would eventually bring about life. People who are alive are made up of the same elements as the things that aren't alive. Diamond is a form of carbon. I think one needs to give a good explanation of how life came about, yes but I don't think the fact that scientists don't have one means we should automatically jump to "God did it." Theists have made this mistake in the past and have been wrong, things like "God makes the planets revolve around the sun."

Most biologists agree that it's possible and I don't see any reason to think they are wrong. It's just an area where science hasn't given us a definite answer yet, but that doesn't mean there isn't one forthcoming. However, there are many plausible stories, none of which has any definite evidence over the other, but they are still plausible nonetheless.

16. How can atheists speak definitively, authoritatively, or otherwise on the metaphysical (and spiritual)which is beyond their experience?
 
Many theists don't have the relevant experience they would need to say other religions are false. They never studied the Kabballah, Hindu religious texts, or the Koran. They never went to other churches and prayed to their god(s) and worshipped them in the way the leaders told them to worship. So, how can they say the other religions are false?

I think reason can play a part here. If they have some argument or some type of personal experience, they may reason from that to say that other religions are false. The same can be said of atheists though they don't necessarily have a personal experience, they just have arguments. But surely, one is only better than the other because one is more certain than the other. It's not that one needs to have both to be justified in their take on religion.

For example, if someone believed in leprachauns, you would be justified in not giving their claim very much weight. If they responded with, "Well you're no expert on leprachuan-searching, how would you know they don't exist?" one can easily see the absurdity of asking the question. So, one can respond to metaphysical questions which is beyond their experience if they think the object is impossible or improbable to exist. The same goes for everyone.