Questions for atheists

I love questions, especially those I can answer I don’t know.

Below are a set found at CARM. Some atheist has already offered his answers here.

• How would you define atheism?

A lack of belief in god[s]/ deities

• Do you act according to what you believe (there is no God) in or what you don’t believe in (lack belief in God)?

The question of whether god is or is not little affects how I wake up in the morning or cross the street.

• Do you think it is inconsistent for someone who “lacks belief” in God to work against God’s existence by attempting to show that God doesn’t exist?

How would I even do that?

• How sure are you that your atheism properly represents reality?

I wouldn’t be one if it didn’t represent reality for me.

• How sure are you that your atheism is correct?

I could be wrong. Am open to persuasion.

• How would you define what truth is?

There are no truths and this statement is false.

• Why do you believe your atheism is a justifiable position to hold?

It is falsifiable. You only need to present god and I will change my mind even am convicted that what you have presented me with is a god.

• Are you a materialist or a physicalist or what?

Am a naturalist

• Do you affirm or deny that atheism is a worldview?  Why or why not?

Atheism is not a worldview. It is a lack of belief

• Not all atheists are antagonistic to Christianity but for those of you who are, why the antagonism?

Not just Christianity, but all religions that think they have a right to impose their beliefs in the public square. Religion is a private matter and it should remain so.

• If you were at one time a believer in the Christian God, what caused you to deny his existence?

I became too clever to continue buying the BS.

• Do you believe the world would be better off without religion?

IS this a trick question?

• Do you believe the world would be better off without Christianity?

To an extent yes. We would have Apollo, Zeus and other deities fighting amongst themselves for our adoration and not the Inquisition and witch hunts among others.

• Do you believe that faith in a God or gods is a mental disorder?

I just know it is a failure to apply oneself rationally and critically to what they believe.

• Must God be known through the scientific method?

What other way is there of acquiring knowledge? Maybe you could suggest.

• If you answered yes to the previous question, then how do you avoid a category mistake by requiring material evidence for an immaterial God?

You commit a mistake in your question. You claim to know there is a god and that it is immaterial. How do you know this?

• Do we have any purpose as human beings?

No.

• If we do have purpose, can you as an atheist please explain how that purpose is determined?

It has nothing to do with my atheism.

• Where does morality come from?

What do you think?

• Are there moral absolutes?

Do you know of any?

• If there are moral absolutes, could you list a few of them?

I didn’t say there were any.

• Do you believe there is such a thing as evil?  If so, what is it?

Yes. Anything that I don’t like being done to me.

• If you believe that the God of the Old Testament is morally bad, by what standard do you judge that he is bad?

By the standards of a reasonable person.

• What would it take for you to believe in God?

Please tell me what god is so I can know it. Belief will not be necessary when I know.

• What would constitute sufficient evidence for God’s existence?

We must first agree on what god is to know whether god is

• Must this evidence be rationally based, archaeological, testable in a lab, etc., or what?

Of course it must be rational. Why would you want it any other way?

• Do you think that a society that is run by Christians or atheists would be safer?  Why?

A society run by reasonable people is a safer one.

• Do you believe in free will?  (free will being the ability to make choices without coersion). 

If that is your decision, yes.

• If you believe in free will, do you see any problem with defending the idea that the physical brain, which is limited and subject to the neuro-chemical laws of the brain, can still produce free will choices?

This is not what you defined above. But to say more, our choices are not free.

• If you affirm evolution and that the universe will continue to expand forever, then do you think it is probable that given enough time, brains would evolve to the point of exceeding mere physical limitations and become free of the physical and temporal and thereby become “deity” and not be restricted by space and time?  If not, why not?

I understand evolution and what the theory explains. I don’t think it has an aim like the one you suggest. If that were to happen, those beings will not be Homo sapiens. You seem to be obsessed with deities. Do you have some knowledge the rest of us don’t.

• If you answered the previous question in the affirmative, then aren’t you saying that it is probable that some sort of God exists?

No.