Many times, talking to Christians, you’ll hear them say that Jesus is the Answer; often when you haven’t even asked them a question. When the subject of Evolution comes up, you’ll ask them how they think Humans arrived on this planet, they’ll simply say “God”. However, when you tell them that god isn’t an answer because it brings up more questions than it answers, they give you that deer-in-the-headlights look and say “Huh”?
I believe it’s because they were brought up believing in one particular god, of one particular sect of religion, and have not taken the time or effort to look at the big picture. They don’t see that people all over the world worship a thousand gods just as strongly as they worship theirs; some even willing to kill or die for theirs (and that’s not counting those that killed or died for the thousands of gods that were worshipped throughout history). So that’s the first question that has to be answered: “Which god?” Say this to them though, and you get yet another “deer” look.
However, if you try to solve a mystery by appealing to a bigger mystery, you have solved nothing and explained nothing. There are hundreds of more questions about their god that are just begging to be answered. Where did this god come from? Does it have parents? Are the parents still around? Does it have a gender? How long has he/she/it been around? Is there a race of these gods? Where do they live? Why can’t we see them? Are they all in this universe are do they all have their own universe(s)? How did they create the Universe? Why did they create this particular Universe? Why did they make most of the universe deadly to humans if people are so important to them? Why did they wait so long (14 billion years) before even adding people to it? Where is Heaven and Hell? Are there other places where souls can go after death? It goes on, and on. “God” begs hundreds, if not thousands, of questions.
These questions never seem to enter their minds. It may be because they were dealt with at a very early age. Any parent knows you have to answer all kinds of questions about god from pre-school children; and these were handled at that stage. By the time they’re ready for school they have a pretty good idea of what their particular god’s characteristics are (and many times he looks, sounds and acts a lot like Santa Claus). (If you think about it, Yahweh looks a lot like Santa to adults too.)
What about the older, more philosophical questions that have been with us for a long time. Why did god let evil enter the world? Why does god allow sickness? Why does god let bad things happen to good people? Why does god hide?
One of the biggest questions about god was put forward by Socrates: “Do the gods love good action because it is good, or is good action good because it is loved by the gods?” Called the Euthyphro dilemma, I can be put another way: “Does god create morality, or does he just pass that information along to us?” If the gods create morality then whatever they say is good, is good and they could change their minds tomorrow. But if good exists aside from god and he just passes it along, then god is just a messenger and we could, theoretically, figure it out ourselves without him.
Apparently the God of the Christian Bible, Yahweh, decided to change his behavior (and His definition of good) with the New Testament. What if he decided tomorrow to go back to his “old self?” and put out a third (a Newer) testament that demanded we keep slaves again? What if He said that instead of foreskins, we had to cut off our little fingers? Or our noses, in order to keep the sin of pride at bay? Or what if he said that we had to keep no less than 3 wives at all times? Would that now be “good”?
God is not an answer, it is a question. It is a thousand questions. All religions say they have answered those questions but all they put forward is conflicting evidence in the shape of their holy books; i.e. anecdotal evidence from uneducated, pre-scientific people, who thought that demons cause illness, and that curses and magic were real (and in the case of Christianity, that witches and gays should be hunted down and killed).
The only method that we have to get real, actual answers about the universe is science. In the unlikely event that a claim of religion was to be shown to be true, it would have to be confirmed so by science; and so far, those examples have been rare indeed.
“So that’s the first question that has to be answered: “Which god?” Say this to them though, and you get yet another “deer” look.”
This question is irrelevant to the topic of whether or not some supernatural deity exists.
“However there are hundreds of more questions about their god that are just begging to be answered. Where did this god come from? Does it have parents? Are the parents still around?”
Since God is defined as an eternal being, asking if it has beginning is pointless and nonsensical.
“Why did they create the Universe? Why did they create this particular Universe? Why did they make most of the universe deadly to humans if people are so important to them? Why did they wait so long (14 billion years) before even adding people to it? Where is Heaven and Hell? Are there other places where souls can go after death? It goes on, and on. “God” begs hundreds, if not thousands, of questions.”
Asking these questions does not render God any more unlikely or improbable. An explanation does not need to be fully explained in order to be a good explanation. If I miss a week of school due to an illness, the illness does not need to be explained in order for the illness to be the reason why I missed a week of school.
“Why did god let evil enter the world? Why does god allow sickness? Why does god let bad things happen to good people?”
These are good questions. God let evil enter into the world because He would rather give us free-will along with the ability to abuse than being forced into a relationship with Him. God would rather have us choose to love Him than to be forced to, but in order for us to choose to love Him, we must have free-will. Due to our poor choices, the world has become cursed with sin, resulting in sickness, natural disasters, and death.
“Why does god hide?”
Since a majority of people are theists, most people do not believe that God is hidden.
“One of the biggest questions about god was put forward by Socrates: “Do the gods love good action because it is good, or is good action good because it is loved by the gods?” Called the Euthyphro dilemma”
God is not arbitrary, nor is He appealing to an external source, when He tells us what is good and what is evil. God’s nature is good and holy, so He is the source of what is good and what is evil.
Although most of your answer boil down to Nuh-Uh. Saying my questions are pointless, or irrelevant does not make them so. Many people are raise to never think of these things. Now, hopefully , they will.
When you say things like “God let evil enter into the world because He would rather give us free-will along with the ability to abuse than being forced into a relationship with Him. God would rather have us choose to love Him than to be forced to, but in order for us to choose to love Him, we must have free-will. Due to our poor choices, the world has become cursed with sin, resulting in sickness, natural disasters, and death.” And “God is not arbitrary, nor is He appealing to an external source, when He tells us what is good and what is evil. God’s nature is good and holy, so He is the source of what is good and what is evil.”
You are making specific knowledge claims of about a god that is specific to Christianity. When every other religion could refute your claims by simply asserting their own cliams about their god. Atheists say “sorry, claims are not enough”. You must provide convincing evidence for your claims. And these claims are extraordinary claims. You’re not claiming to have a puppy, you’re claiming knowledge of a God, what it wants, why it allows things. These extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
“Saying my questions are pointless, or irrelevant does not make them so.”
I presented logical and philosophical evidence why said questions are pointless or irrelevant. If you think that they are relevant, you must provide counter-evidence rather than just saying “nuh-uh.”
“You must provide convincing evidence for your claims.”
Since I’m making claims about God’s attributes, and not His existence, I can refer to the Bible for evidence. The evidence for claiming to know the Christian God’s attributes is found in the Bible. It’s similar to you asking me what Hamlet is like with me responding by pulling quotes from “Hamlet.” I hope you understand the difference between making claims about attributes and making claims about existence.
“I presented logical and philosophical evidence why said questions are pointless or irrelevant. If you think that they are relevant, you must provide counter-evidence rather than just saying “nuh-uh.” – I’m sorry, I didn’t see the Logic and evidence (philisophical or otherwise) in your statements pointing out how they were “pointless or irrelevant.” You simply said they were.. Maybe you can explain how they were a bit more.
“Since I’m making claims about God’s attributes, and not His existence, I can refer to the Bible for evidence. The evidence for claiming to know the Christian God’s attributes is found in the Bible. It’s similar to you asking me what Hamlet is like with me responding by pulling quotes from “Hamlet.” – Ok, as long as we can agree that we’re talking about fictional entities, that’s fine. But then why even bring it up. You didn’t bring it up, or specify that you were talking about a specific Biblical character, when you were making your specific knowledge claims about “God”.
“You simply said they were.. Maybe you can explain how they were a bit more.”
It’s rather simple: according to the law of causation, every effect must have a cause. Because God isn’t an effect, He doesn’t have a cause. Thus, your questions about God’s beginning are nonsensical.
It’s a little more complicated than that.. Just because there’s a cause, doesn’t mean that cause = Your God.. that’s a false dichotomy. It could be anything, A non-intelligent cause, another universe, an alien from another universe, a “god” of a different religion, a god that we’ve never discovered yet. Funny how you make ANY cause = Your Particular Cause, without any evidence.
I wasn’t trying to argue specifically for the God of Christianity, but rather show that asking what brought an eternal being into existence is a nonsensical question.