A Note to Atheists

Atheism puzzles me in that it denies what it says doesn’t exist, God. If something truly doesn’t exist, it doesn’t need denial. This is atheism’s central weakness. Evidence of a non-existent God is not obvious. In fact there are many more reasons to believe in God, than to deny his existence. Take for example the NYC transit with which I’m familiar! What? A handicapped person in a wheelchair is waiting to board a bus. The bus arrives and a wheelchair- friendly mechanical devise goes into action controlled by the bus driver. I watch the wheelchair lift begin its work, all its mechanized parts working together, wonderfully systematized simultaneously performing different tasks one dependent on the next, all at the same time, allowing the lift to extend itself perfectly, assisting the wheelchair rider. Once the rider is securely on the bus the systemized mechanisms proceed to reverse themselves in harmonious order and the bus moved on. As I watched, I was greatly impressed at the human ingenuity needed to successfully effect that device using existing mechanical and systematic linkage know-how, allowing the handicapped lift to work so predictably well! I thought to myself, “This devise could not have accidentally put itself together. It needed intelligence behind it! Then I thought about God and natural creation, how for billions of years materiality has successfully followed systematic and mechanical linkages in the hand of an evolutionary developmental Creator, a God, who according to Jesuit priest, T.P. de Chardin, “makes things make themselves!” Freedom! The Godhead is eminently free and loves it! Yes, Creation does have freedom to make and remake itself, changing the face of the earth often violently. That’s one of the reasons I think why natural disasters happen, natural outcomes beneficial in sustaining life, yet capable of destroying life too happen, gravity for example which allows things to “stay put” promotional to productive and predictable life, can also pull avalanches of snow, water, mud and rocks downward destructively! Indeed, fire too, not only gives light and warmth, but can also kill. Even that horrific thing called “pain” is not altogether bad, as feeling it can prevent something worse! If one could not feel pain one would be ever at risk of injury or death. So pain can actually be protective of life! All materiality has positive, along with negative potential, “creation untamed” as Terrence Fretheim calls it. It’s the job of humanity to “subdue the earth” (untamed creation) becoming environmentally sensitive, taming the earth if you wish. And while we’re at it, let’s pay very close attention to the Capital Sins of Greed and Avarice, both of them very much connected to environmental abuse, involving gross Corporate and personal indifference to necessary human contributions to environmental balance and well-being. There is so much more that needs to be said that would require pages of posts including discussion of the interweaving of MYSTERY throughout creation. If atheism factored in the reality of permeated mystery throughout materiality, maybe some might say, “Hmmm, maybe there is a God.” After all God is a Mystery and of necessity wherever his fingerprints touch, cosmic mystery spins! At least so it seems to me, simply and plainly.

" Atheists must make the same leap beyond rational thought in the other direction. So I guess in one respect that it comes down to which leap is the better wager." Bill, the misunderstanding comes in thinking that a leap is necessary. Most atheists realize that a Kierkegaardian leap of faith is not warranted in any direction. The position that this entails is not one of absolute certainty, absolute certainty is a red herring. There is no requirement to have faith that a god doesn't exist. There is not need to accept any given definition of 'god' as being accurate (which is a prerequisite for a belief that god doesn't exist). Being a atheist only requires that one not be convinced by theistic claims. Being a rationally committed one means remaining unconvinced after a reasonable amount of study of these claims.

Mr. Graham – No, you don’t get to choose post-mortem oblivion or eternal life. If there is no eternal life you enter into the oblivion of eternal death and a period (.) is place on the utter futiltity of life, of having been born. From the pit of oblivion comes an imaginary voice wailing, “Is that all there was to life, a little happiness, lots of pain and sweat, only to end up in a box in a hole in the ground, soon a pile of bones and forgotten? How stupid it was to be born!” However, if there is eternal life, heaven, soon discover is how right it was to believe Jesus who said that when one finds the “Pearl of Great Price” essentially GOD, one sells everything and buys that “Pearl.” True, Faith is (can be) a “dark light” a “Black Pearl” if you wish, exquisite, rare and priceless, a “dark light” casting shadows of fright on the jagged walls of the tunnel of life, but fortunately it is a LIGHT, nonetheless! In that “light” life punctuates with an explanation point (!) and there is no wailing, only singing to realize how wonderful it was to be born, despite some hardships common to all. Simplistic? Or SIMPLY TRUE? By the way, eternal life is in the final analysis a mater of CHOICE, as God "offers" never "forces." this as best as I understand it.