A big question, that is, if any question should be so called is asked of atheists. The OP posits
The biggest question I would have for an atheist is, If there is no God, where did matter come from? I have never heard a plausible answer to that query. Some would retort, Well where did God originally come from? As if the inability to answer the second question somehow adds credence to the inability to answer the first. My response first of all would be that I don’t know, but second it’s a question that doesn’t demand an answer given God’s omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent nature. He’s self-described as the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. The Bible says that the wisdom of God is as foolishness to man, and the wisdom of man is as foolishness to God. It is futile to believe that all we can sense physically is all there is. There is more to life than just the material world, but atheists are unwilling to accept it.
The first problem with this question is to assume that matter had to come from someplace while making special pleading for god. Before we deal with answer to the query, I have not heard a coherent reply to the question what is god. To posit what is unknown as the cause of another is to me a case of high ignorance, to state it with so much confidence is silly.
And this author cannot ignore the challenge about the origin of god. If in his response he says god always is, we will ask, why can’t we say the same of matter? Matter as we know it may not be omniscient but I know it is omnipresent. I think a case of omnipotence can be made for we know of nowhere where matter does not act.
Whatever the bible says is in need of verification. It can’t stand on its own. That it is in the bible does not make it true. The bible says many things including, pregnant virgins, talking donkeys, walking snakes, and transporter whales among other absurdities; are we to take all these as true because they appear in the bible. I don’t know if there is any verse in the bible in praise of intelligence.
There could be more to life than what we can sense, the only problem is because we can’t sense it, we have no way of knowing that there is. It is rational and reasonable to either suspense judgement on their existence or to not believe in them anyway until such a time there is adduced evidence to support their existence.
Random story 1
Al Shabaab, the younger brother of Al Qaeda and cousin to IS seem to have found a new playground at our upper most border. They come kill at will and disappear in the darkness only to resurrect and strike again.
Random story 2
Due to non cooperation by the government, dead and missing witnesses, the clown who runs our PR government was freed by the ICC. The other two suspects are hoping they will as well be in a place to make witnesses disappear. When I grow up I want to be high up in government.
Random story 3
About two weeks ago a politician died. That is not news. The news is that Raila, the former prime minister is rumoured to want to vie for his seat. If this rumour is confirmed, then I can comfortably say there is no low a politician cannot stoop to. Besides stooping too low, am not sure how he will respond to those who have said he seeks power for its own sake.
It is holiday time, soon, be happy and make merry.
Great post, Mak. Here are the words that no Christian can admit are true: I do not know. To posit that not knowing the origin of existence, and matter, is evidence for, not only a god, but a specific, Christian god, is arrogant, ignorant, and ludicrous. As an atheist, I do not posit there can not be a god. I posit there is no evidence to support an invisible, untestable, indefinable being MUST exist and MUST be the absolute answer to everything. Furthermore, I posit that even less evidence, shall we say, evidence to the negative power of 634, exists to prove that the Christian god is the so-called invisible, untestable, indefinable god that created all matter. Show me the proof. It does not exist but in people’s minds. Christians are not trustworthy enough, their holy book not believable enough, and their intelligence not high enough for me to trust anything they have to say regarding things they do not and can not possibly know. I do not know the answer to why existence exists, but neither does anyone else. Least of all Christians.
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Christians and believers put so much faith in their so called holy books.
To say I don’t know I think is one of the answers they are never taught to say.
And you are right on the money that we possibly might know why we there is life and what, if anything, caused it.
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“And you are right on the money that we possibly might know why we there is life and what, if anything, caused it.” I’d say we do not know why there is anything, least of all what caused it. We may one day. That is if we don’t die out before we can discover it, but as of this moment in time, we do not know why what is is. Not knowing does not equate with the solution of, “because we do not know, then it MUST be Jesus.” That thinking is utterly absurd, and I find it deeply insulting to my intelligence when Christians use it to prove their god is real.
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That was an oversight on my part. Meant to say we may not know.
Sometimes the question is we may not know what we are looking for in the quest to knowing what started it off, so we may have found it and passed it over
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Great point. It’s like when I’m trying to find the right pair of socks to wear in the morning. Sometimes I’m actually already wearing the right ones, but continue my search for different ones because I’m not aware of it yet. Life is crazy like that sometimes. 😀 But you are right on the money here. The theist also is unable to define what “god” is yet we’re supposedly fools for not seeing how real “it” is. Sorry. Not knowing is proof of one thing only: not knowing.
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Reminds me of my friend who was speaking on his phone and at the same time thinking he had lost it and was busy rummaging through the desk looking for it.
Theists have to tell us what god is. They can’t assume we know what they are talking about. I will readily say I don’t know when I know I know not.
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And that, sir, makes you not only a smart man, but a very intelligent one. All hail the Golden Boot!! May he forever redden the asses of idjits!
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Thank you good sir.
Long live Golden Boot and the last prophets
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Meant to say you are not only smart, but very honest. $Amen$
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You are very generous, my good friend, with your compliments
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From one final prophet to another, you earned them, my brother.
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“He’s self-described as the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.”
That’s simply untrue. At no point has any god described himself anywhere, as anything – men have WRITTEN that he has, but those are only the words of men, no more verifiable than the saga of Harry Potter.
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Great points. Truly great.
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How did i not think of that!
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That’s why I get the big bucks! 😉
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Hmm. I agree
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“The bible says many things including, pregnant virgins, talking donkeys, walking snakes, and transporter whales among other absurdities;” liberal christians would say these passages have to be read metaphorically; but that misses a couple important points. First, what good is a book that show now indication of what is to be taken literally and what metaphorically – especially if it’s supposed to be the word of god? Couldn’t god write coherently? which leads to another problem – this rambling between metaphor and literal sense, between injunction and poetry, between concern and callousness, etc., etc. – how can anyone discern what the word of god is in such a mess, let alone ‘follow’ it?
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God in that case should have attached a reader’s manual to come with the bible.
It would settle doctrinal matters once and for all
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Heavens, I have never thought of a god who sat down and made matter. And there’s me thinking he only upcycled ribs of the masculine variety.
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“And there’s me thinking he only upcycled ribs of the masculine variety.”
LOL
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Tish you have a way with words.
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Origins = A God of the Gaps Playground.
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It is
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“It is holiday time, soon, be happy and make merry.”
I had to read through your whole post to get to the best part. lol
We each make merry in our own way. I will be having a quiet merry time and glad for that. 🙂
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Haha. Sorry dear
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One of the big problems with monotheism and its fanatical supporters is the incessant desire to explain everything related to human existence no matter how fanciful such explanations might be.
To the extent of our current scientific knowledge, all matter and energy in our observable universe originated from the Big Bang over 13 billion years ago. Beyond that, we simply do not know what caused the Big Bang and if other universes have existed in the cosmos.
But, that’s okay. We are human beings, not gods. One of the qualities of wisdom is an awareness of that which we do not know. To believe otherwise is not wisdom… it is self-delusion.
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Well said. The words no theist will ever say: “I don’t know.”
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You are right Bob. To accept not knowing for the believer is usually a tall order
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It’s an impossible order. I’ve never heard the words, “I just do not know” come out of a theist’s mouth. Never. They know all. We non-believers are idiots to not accept this, and we will burn for it. F*ck that.
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You know that is the strangest thing about theists.
Their god is all loving but will burn others in hell for eternity for asking for evidence that it exists
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[…] a blogger from Kenya, recently wrote a post entitled Atheism and other random stories. As I was reading it, this comment stood out to […]
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cheers Nan
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I cribbed this from here: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100830212527AAgHcrA
“Have you considered the very simple idea that if your god-thing could have simply always existed, the same can just as easily be said about matter and energy?
Let’s fill out a little tally sheet together, shall we?
Matter and energy: No one has any idea how it could have simply always existed.
God-thing: Same
Matter and energy: We know it exists.
God-thing: No scientific proof whatsoever that it exists.
Advantage matter and energy.” (end quote)
As far as I know the real answer is one of those things we just do not know for certain…yet. One thing for sure, just as that quote suggests, matter can be observed, and investigated. Gods, not so much.
Is it just me, or is every creationist not-an-argument or a gotcha-not-a-question basically the same damned game of circular reasoning?
Was this Ray Comfort? Sounds like the same kind of stupid…
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…oh, and as I understand it matter and energy are interchangable.
So, if I smack a creationist upside the head, would it matter?
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It may not matter to the universe, but it would make you feel good to have done it, and it would make me feel good too, knowing you did. So please, tell me if and when you do.
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I’m really not as ornery as I used to be, but it could still happen. 😉
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I’m every bit ornery as I used to be!
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“So, if I smack a creationist upside the head, would it matter?” – Depends on how much energy you used.
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That wouldn’t really MATTER as long as it happens. 🙂
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That was exactly what I was going for, right after I hit the comment button I thought “damn I should have mentioned the energy used to smack em”
…but it got through anyway, so I feel better this morning. 🙂 Thanks for making me feel smarter lol.
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Not interchangeable but energy is a property of matter.
Smacking a creationist wouldn’t matter as long as you smacked them real hard.
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Sometimes, after all logical arguments have failed to impress, after all evidence has been denied or ignored, after all of the misconceptions and lies have been laid to rest, that is the only option left. With the apparent density of a creationists head, I kinda doubt a good smack would help much…except for making me feel better lol.
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Outstanding rebuttal, my Nairobi brother. If one is of unknown origin, then why can’t there be two of the same? To refute one is to deny both and one can’t be true while the other is false. These circular arguments always make me dizzy! 🙂
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The theist states with all the confidence and arrogance that god has always been, this same god lacked raw materials to create woman and had to make man sleep to do so. Crazy creationsists
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MaK-
Confidence and arrogance are not twins.
He lacked raw materials?? sez who?
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Hey CS.
They are not distant relatives. It is possible to be both and it will not entail a contradiction.
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There is some good insight into this difference; one such difference is in the link –
The writer makes an interesting observation. But one thing is for certain, arrogance reeks of pride, where confidence does not.
In the things of God, this is an important distinction.
View at Medium.com
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CS, in the things of god, whatever that is, the distinction is not as clear as you might want it to be.
The believer like you is confident that their god exists and goes claiming it arrogantly that whoever does not buy into their dream is going to hell.
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Mak-
I don’t know why u didn’t post that link i sent u-
It very nicely showed the distinction between confidence and arrogance-
You never heard me mention hell, or dream-
Don’t assume all believers are identical.
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I didn’t say all and am sure I didn’t say you do. maybe I should have added some believers.
I read the link.
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