One Less god... or God
Everyone says dumb things. Some of do so often. But the job of an internet commentator is to find those dumb things and make fun of them.
Ok, no, but seriously it is true that some dumb things are rather important, and need to be dealt with. One such dumb thing is a statement which atheists bring to certain debates. It looks something like this: “You, as a Christian, reject thousands of gods. I, as an atheist, just reject one more.”
Let me give an example of this kind of logic in another form:
“Some people believe that the human species is made up from dozens of different races. You claim you only believe in one race, the human race. I join you in rejecting all of those other races. I just go one race farther.”
Do you see the problem? You can go from a thousand races to one race and, for the most part, still accept the idea of race. But to go from one to zero is to reject the very idea of race. It is to opt out of the very discussion.
How many Angels can Dance on the Grave of an Atheist?
The first and most obvious ‘spiritual’ loss that happens when on goes from one god to no gods is the loss of any spiritual beings. Now, this isn’t technically necessary. Technically an atheist could admit to an entire spiritual realm, excepting only the ‘god’ level.
But logically this fails. Because if one has the natural realm, and then the spiritual realm, and that realm includes any sort of hierarchy at all, then eventually one would come to a being whose position in hierarchy would cause them to be looked up to by those under them, and they would become ‘god’. Or at least a god.
Even natural society has that problem. To the ant, the elephant is god. The differences in their size and power and intellect is so large as to make their supposed equality meaningless.
So right after the atheist gets rid of God, they lose angels. Now the atheist may be quite happy to get rid of angels. They may have no use for angels. But my point here is they do not merely have ‘one less god’. The polytheist can have, almost certainly does have, angels. Secondary spiritual beings which carry out the will of Gods, and who engage in all sorts of spiritual hanky panky behind their backs.
The theist can have, does have, angels. Good angels, bad angels, Michael and Satan.
But unless someone has invented a new kind of atheist, they can’t have angels. When they throw out God, they lost angels.
The Laws of Logic
In the famous Bahnsen/Stein debate Doctor Stein asked Doctor Bahnsen if he knew of anything, outside of God, that was non-material in nature. Doctor Bahnsen, to the amusement of the crowd, replied ‘The Laws of Logic’. The statement was funny because the two of them had just been arguing about the laws of logic. Whether they actually existed and could be used in a debate.
Which brings us to the next thing that atheists have to give up. If they deny all non-materiality… if all that exists is matter and energy… then they also lose things such as beauty, justice, righteousness… and logic. Or at least logical laws.
And truth. If all that makes up a human being is atoms in action, then the concept of ‘understanding’ is meaningless. A given set of circumstances will cause a human being to act in a certain way, but there is no meaningful way for him to make a correspondence with truth.
A Mind, or just a Brain? Evil or Broken?
And the difference gets even closer. Do human beings have a mind, or just a brain? Is a psychopath evil, or is his brain just broken? Or perhaps just different?
With the denial of god, atheists lose all possibility of meaningful moral judgement. One does not blame a car whose tire goes flat for swerving off into a crowd and killing hundreds. The barge that drifted into that bridge bears no moral culpability.
The lack of any spiritual or supernatural component to the human being puts them in the same category as any complex object. The river floods when it rains, the car runs when the key is turned… and no one blames them for it.
Perhaps the atheist is OK with that. Perhaps that is even his goal. Moral culpability is a heavy thing, after all. But it is not a mere ‘one less God’ phenomenon.
Conclusion
In the end being an atheist as opposed to a theist is not like a man going from having two arms to having one arm. Or even no arms. It is like a man going from one head to no head.
As a Christian I do not believe that any atheists exist. I am atheistic on atheism. From a logical standpoint, I do not believe that there are any atheists… they are a logical contradiction.
But regardless of those beliefs, one thing is very clear. The atheist does not merely believe in ‘one less god’ than I do.
Thank you for reading Von’s Substack. I would love it if you commented! I love hearing from readers, especially critical comments. I would love to start more letter exchanges, so if there’s a subject you’re interested in, get writing and tag me!
Being ‘restacked’ and mentioned in ‘notes’ is very important for lesser-known stacks so… feel free! I’m semi-retired and write as a ministry (and for fun) so you don’t need to feel guilty you aren’t paying for anything, but if you enjoy my writing (even if you dramatically disagree with it), then restack, please! Or mention me in one of your own posts.
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Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,
Von
Links
Creation Discussion-ish
I have written several posts about Creation and Evolution.
and I were hoping for it to evolve into a letter exchange, but so far he has only commented.