My little search deally thingie (particularly attentive readers might remember that I use a search deally thingie to find stuff for me, so I don’t fall into the rut of looking at the same places all the time) found me a site called “Christian Activist Pro-Life News”. It seems they cut and pasted an essay (labeled “just for catholics.org”, so it’s quite possible they stole it) titled “The Cruelty of Atheism“. Don’t feel you have to visit–unless you are the very odd reader here, you have seen every bit of their argument before–but I had to place a bet with myself, whether they even had comments allowed.
I lost. They have comments.
I couldn’t help but comment.
Alas, comments are moderated. So you, too, get to place yer bets. Will my comment get through? Just in case, here it is in its entirety:
It is remarkable how skeptical you can be when you want to be. Do you have the courage, though, to examine your own beliefs to the same stringent standard you hold atheists to? While the atheist needs a universe to come from nothing (see Lawrence Krauss’s book—and youtube video lecture—“a universe from nothing”, to see that there is actually evidence for the universe literally coming from nothing), you need both a universe and a god, coming from nothing. Of course, you give your god a pass, but that does not mean that logic does.
The origin of the genetic information in our bodies? Some of it is known, and some not known yet. By the way, you should look into “genetic algorithms”, which are precisely a means by which software is written by chance and random processes (along with selection criteria, which you left out of your example, but which are the crux of Darwin’s theory—you may have heard of it—of “natural selection”).
As an atheist, I am one of those who claims we are here through millions of years of natural selection (“survival of the fittest” is a simplification, and you are quick to misuse it to your advantage); love, altruism, community, and helping are all ways that we improve our odds of survival. Helping one another is good for all of us, which is why we see it in other species as well as humans.
As an atheist, I am also offended that you would suggest that atheists would not value a child with Down syndrome. I have worked with profoundly retarded, self-injurious institutionalized individuals; their good Christian families warehoused them in institutions (and I do not blame them; self-injurious behavior is not an easy thing to deal with) and blamed everything on their sins. Christians as well as atheists (as well as Jews, Muslims, and many many others) sometimes choose to abort; atheists as well as Christians (as well as Jews, Muslims, and others) choose not to abort. Individuals choose to abort, and choose not to, and near as I can tell, their faith community has little to do with it.
Atheism is not cruel. Atheism recognizes that we get one life—only one life, and nothing is more precious. We work to make that one life better for our friends and family, because we love them. We love them, because it is good for us, good for them, good for all of us, to love one another. I want my children to have a better world than I do, and their children to have an even better world. If that’s selfish, I don’t have a problem with that. There is no eternal life, only this mortal one.
I am so terribly sorry you have so little regard for life that you think it would be meaningless without god. I love life, and I wish you a long one. It’s all you have.
(Now that I am posting, I see that you are moderating comments. What are the odds this one will make the cut?)
This is a great example of how to be gracious, compassionate, and fair without giving ground or compromising on important matters. You didn’t call anyone names or straight-out insult them, but you didn’t pretend like they had valid points where they did not, nor hold back on calling them out on their falsehood. This is a much more well thought out, cool-headed, and eloquent response than I would have written. I’ll bet that they don’t let it through, but I really wish they would.
You’re arguing against their prejudices. I doubt your comment will be allowed.
Wow, thanks, Emily. And ‘Tis, I will not take that bet.
I looked at a half dozen or so articles there, and none of them have any comments. Since they’re not fishing for emails, I’m hard-pressed to understand why they’d even have a comments feature apparently nobody can ever use. Ah well, another one of life’s great mysteries.
I’ve often wondered why believers’ lives are meaningless without a deity, but they don’t go to the next step and ask why their deities existence isn’t meaningless without a super-deity?
Not terribly surprisingly, as of this moment there are NO comments at all.
It seems to me that the height of arrogance, or fear, is to make a blog post and not allow comments. Either the blogger feels that no one else should be allowed to comment, or they are fearful that they will be criticized.
I’ve never understood what it is about a deity that is supposed to make believers’ lives so “meaningful.” Where is the “meaning” in constantly fawning over some supposed all-powerful being (that yet is so emotionally needy that it has to be given credit for everything)?
Very well put.
And one’s faith community has almost nothing to do with one’s decision to abort, but correlates nicely with one’s hypocrisy about allowing the same freedom to others.
Still showing “0 Comments” over a week later.
What are the odds?!?