Christians who object to atheism usually demand that atheists answer the questions that they think their religion answers for them. I imagine believers in other traditions do the same but I haven't had much experience with them. Catholicism set the trend with the Catechism - questions and answers for young Catholics to learn.
There are two problems with the dialogue between Christians and atheists. The first is that Christians define the terms and control the territory. They have well-worn traditions behind them, but little experience asking the questions they should answer. They only "answer" the questions they have been taught to ask. There's also some psychological projection going on, in my opinion. They have so little idea of how others think that they can't conceive of their preconceptions not being shared, only that the conclusions differ. They seem very concerned about atheists' souls, as if they can conceive of not believing in a god but they can't imagine not believing in a soul.
They want us to have a list of answers that would be parallel to their Catechism (Even if they're not Catholic, they have one of sorts). So I've decided to give them one.
I've come up with some answers to their (often stupid) questions. Most of these are questions I've been asked, but I've also seen a lot of the same questions over and over on the interwebs. I think we've all been faced with most of these if we've been at all open about our atheism. My favorite online source for Christian stupidity is the archive of the
Atheist Experience call-in cable access show. (Check out the
Atheist Experience blog too!) They get some loop-dee-loos, and they have great answers for the loonies that call in. I bet there are plenty other zingers out there. Feel free to add to my list in the comments section. Part Two will be the questions I'd like to see Christians answer.
Q: Where do you go when you die?
A: When you're dead you cease to exist, so you don't go anywhere.
Q: Aren't you worried that you might be wrong and you might go to hell?
A: Everyone could be wrong, including Christians. I don't find the Christian stories convincing, so no, I'm not worried about Hell.
Q: How can you be moral without God?
A: The same way that everyone else who isn't a Christian can be moral, and Christians too, for that matter. Society dictates morals, not holy books, or else Christians would be stoning children that have been raped and giving all their money to the poor.
Q: You're really just angry with God.
A: You can't be angry at something you don't believe exists. That's like being angry at the Easter Bunny.
Q: You're really just angry at the abuses of the Church
A: The church's behavior has sometimes been atrocious (so much for belief instilling morality) but whether the church is naughty or nice has no bearing on whether a supernatural deity actually exists.
Q: The church has been responsible for great works of art.
A: So has Greek mythology. So have other religions. So has opium. Artists will be inspired by whatever stories they find in the culture around them.
Q: How do you know the Bible isn't true?
A: There's very little evidence to validate it, and what little there is merely validates a few names and places, not the presence of a supernatural deity.
Q: Isn't it arrogant to presume you're right and all those Christians are wrong?
A: Not any more arrogant than Christians believing they are right and all the people in the other 2/3 of the world are wrong. And anyway, which is more arrogant? Not believing in something unverified, or believing oneself capable of sorting out the truth from the non-truth of thousands of untestable claims?
Q: You think you know everything, don't you? (also: You think you have all the answers!)
A: Atheism is defined as not believing in stories of deities. It's not defined by what is known. Some atheists are quite knowledgeable, which probably isn't a coincidence. Many of us know the Bible better than Christians, and we know more about science than evolution deniers. (Granted, that's not difficult to do)
Q: Science can't answer everything. What about love?
A: Actually, neurosciences have established quite a bit of knowledge about love. Like other emotions, love exists within the brain.
Q: How do you explain the human need to believe in God? God made humans different from the animals.
A: While I agree that humans are different from
other animals (humans
are animals), the belie in god doesn't qualify as a sound reason for believing in the supernatural. Evolution explains a lot of strange behaviors. In the case of religion, there are several theories, mainly about social control and cohesion. Check out
this reading list or the books of
Michael Shermer.
Q: What about the miracles of the Bible?
A: What about the miracles of all the other holy books of the world? They are myths, propaganda, lies, and even trickery. They are stories without confirming evidence. Christians blithely dismiss the claims of other religions but are gullible regarding their own.
Q: [insert seemingly miraculous prayer story here] How do you explain that?
A: Prayer has been proven not to work in medical settings, yet people continue to believe prayer can heal and protect. Anecdotes about a person's prayers being answered are the result of the human tendency toward
confirmation bias. You will remember the "hits" and forget the "misses." (or rationalize them away) Not to mention, the people who were in life-threatening situations, prayed, and then died are not around to tell anyone that prayer didn't work for them, which creates a
sampling bias.
Q: Christianity has been around for 2,000 years. How could it survive if it were false?
A: The same way that Judaism can survive for 3,000 years and Hinduism can survive for 4,000 years. It's a social system, with a lot of purposes besides telling the "truth." Children are indoctrinated from a young age and the society is so steeped in the traditions of the religion that few people question the premises.
Q: There are millions of Christians. They can't all be wrong.
A: Yes, they can.
Q: Nothing can exist without a creator, so the fact that things exist proves there's a God.
A: This is the "
First Cause" argument. Things come into being in nature without an intelligent being pulling the strings every day, so the premise is false. Even if the premise were true, that would mean that there couldn't be a God because God would have to have had a creator. And if God
could exist without a creator, then so could the universe.
Q: You can't prove that God doesn't exist.
A: Of course you can't! You can't prove a negative about anything. So therefore, the burden of proof is on the theist to prove that there is a God. What theists offer as "proof" is not very compelling: heavily edited "holy" books, unverifiable personal experiences, and admiration for nature. Atheists can feel confident that the odds of Christian claims being false are high enough to be virtual proof.
Q: If you're an atheist doesn't that mean that you don't believe in anything?
A: Not necessarily. First, do you mean "anything supernatural?" It's possible to be an atheist and yet believe in a soul, or ESP, or some other supernatural idea. Atheism is merely not believing in a god... any god. Most atheists also happen to be non-believers about all claims of the superntural because those claims are as weak as religious claims, so you are partly right. There are many natural things to believe in: love, beauty, society, family, honesty, altruism, etc. There's nothing supernatural about any of those.
Q: If you don't believe in God, that means you want to be God.
A: I don't believe in the Easter Bunny, and yet I don't want to be the Easter Bunny (at least not without collecting a fee from whoever wants me to wear a costume at the Mall). You don't believe in Thor, and I bet you don't want to be Thor. This is shorthand for the argument that you can't be moral without God the Big Brother eavesdropping on your thoughts and looking over your shoulder 24/7. It's just plain false.
Q: You just left the Church because you want to sin
A: If I really believed in the concept of "sin" the last thing I would do is leave the Church! Unless you're hinting that you can game the system and run around sinning until the very last moment then accept Christ as your Lord and Savior and have it all erased. What has been considered a "sin" has changed so much over the history of the Church that almost anything a person does over the course of the day could have been considered a "sin" at some point in history by some religious group.
Q: So then your life has no meaning
A: Sure, it has meaning. It has more meaning than yours, in fact, because the time I spend on Earth is all there is, so I want to make the most of it. I value the people around me because we're all in this together. I empathize with their suffering and I celebrate their accomplishments. Those things have value in themselves without any kind of supernatural meaning attached to them.
