There Are Certain Realities

Introduction

It's a dangerous thing, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.

J.R.R. Tolkien

I am an atheist. For some, that is a concept that they simply cannot understand, not least because, not everyone properly understands what an atheist is, or why some people fit into that category. In this book I will be exploring some of the reasons why for some of us, Atheism is the only intellectually honest position for us to hold and why. That said, during the course of my life, from time to time, I have been asked why I do not believe in God. As a general rule, when I have explained, or more accurately, have tried to explain my reasons for not believing in the existence of any God or Gods, the theists who have posed the question to me have taken to supposing that my answers are some kind of an attack against them and their beliefs. This has never been the case. I value freedom of religion and defend the rights of theists to believe in whatever God or Gods they see fit, and with whatever evidence they are happy to accept.

However, I have never been given evidence that has survived scrutiny, and whilst I am perfectly prepared to accept evidence that does, to date that has never happened. I write this book not to attack theists or theism, but rather as an attempt to move the conversation beyond the already debunked arguments used by all too many religious apologists, predicated upon flawed and fallacious reasoning. This can never happen if the old flawed and fallacious arguments continue to be dragged out and touted yet again and again, as if repeating a debunked argument will somehow increase its credibility and make it true.

To be clear, I respect the religious beliefs of others, I just don't happen to share in those beliefs, and in this book I explain why.

To ensure clarity of understanding, it is best to define a couple of terms.

The definition of the word Atheist is someone who does not believe or accept without sufficient evidence, the proposition that a God or Gods exist. It is not required for an atheist to believe the positive assertion that no God or Gods exist, but more about that later.

In opposition to this position is the Theist, whose defining quality is the acceptance of that same aforementioned claim, that at least one God exists.

In this book I address many of the numerous theistic apologetics used to justify a belief in the existence of a God. For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the term, apologetics is a style of argument used to defend a position. The etymology of the term comes from the ancient Greek word apologia (ἀπολογία). This was a legal term in Classical Greece, where in a court case the prosecution delivered the kategoria (κατηγορία), which was the accusation or charge, and the defendant replied with an apologia, or the defence. In the case of modern religious apologetics therefore, an apologetic argument is not to be confused with an apology, so much as the underlying reasons used to justify belief.

Not all theists share the same world-view, not least because theists represent a wide multiplicity of religions and religious dogmas and doctrines. Equally, aside from holding the same position of non-belief on the one question, does a God or do Gods exist, there is no single or unified dogma, doctrine or perspective within atheism.

The intention here therefore is not to disprove the existence of God or Gods, nor is it intended to bash theists. Indeed, at no point in this book do I assert that no God or Gods exist, rather, I simply point out that I do not accept any of the claims I have thus far in my life encountered that make the assertion that a God or Gods exist, and then go on to examine and explain why I have rejected those claims, by evaluating their veracity and merit.

This examination will hopefully benefit both atheists and theists alike, whether you are looking to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the current arguments for the existence of God or Gods because you are seeking truth and understanding, or seeking to understand why someone you know or care for might be an atheist, or are simply trying to avoid some of the bad arguments that undermine your existent beliefs, you may well find what you are seeking here.

Again, this approach does not assert that no God exists, because aside from the improbability, if not impossibility of proving an unfalsifiable claim one way or the other, it does not follow that just because I have been presented with flawed arguments, that there are no good arguments for the existence of a God. Indeed, if any God or Gods do exist, I believe that there must undoubtedly be a good apologetic that can stand up to scrutiny, and I'm open to persuasion, but to date, no such argument has been presented to me personally.

But perhaps you are wondering about my deeper, underlying motives for writing this book. It's a fair question, so I'll try to explain.

The United States, the land of my birth, is one of the wealthiest, most powerful and technologically advanced Nations on earth, with the largest military budget and most destructive capabilities the world has ever known. It is also home to extreme religious fundamentalism, in which the concept of Armageddon is seen by many religious zealots as being desirable. Beyond that, it is nearly unthinkable that an atheist has, at this point in time, any chance of attaining high political office, regardless of qualifications or ability, unless that atheist is willing to lie and pretend to be a God-fearing theist. Considering that statistically speaking, a significant majority of individuals with high academic achievements and qualifications, who are best qualified for high office are in fact non-believers, a set of circumstances has arisen which Richard Dawkins described best in a speech he gave in 2002 in California, where he stated that High office in the greatest country in the world, is barred to the very people best qualified to hold it, the intelligentsia, unless they are prepared to lie about their beliefs. To put it bluntly, American political opportunities are heavily loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest.

It is worth noting that in some surveys carried out over the last couple of decades since Dawkins made that statement, it's been determined that in the United States today:

-42% believe in creationism.

-70% believe in angels

-51% don't trust the big bang theory

-Approximately 25% believe that the sun revolves around the earth.

Additionally, it has been found that approximately;

-22 million believe that the moon landings were faked.

-12 million believe that actual lizard people are in control of the government.

You may well take the position that some of these beliefs may be relatively innocuous, yet I think that most people, believers or otherwise, would agree that the judgement of at least some of these individuals, all of whom have the right to vote, and by extension impact society at large, may reasonably be described as being at least questionable. Indeed, as I write this, significant numbers of American Christian Nationalists are trying to move the United States towards becoming a Christian Theocracy, in which people of other faiths or no faith at all would have their rights as citizens reduced if not stripped. This, in a nation in which the very first amendment of its constitution explicitly states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. can never be acceptable.

We may well hope that such political movements will fail to achieve the traction necessary to achieve their goals, but hope is no guarantee.

Beyond the political realm, there are tragic examples of some individuals who, upon coming out to their friends and families as being atheists, become disowned, sometimes by friends, sometimes by parents or other family members. In some work environments atheists have been made to feel so uncomfortable, that they are effectively pushed out of their employment. I do not say that these more extreme examples are an everyday occurrence, but the loss of family, friends and work opportunities is far more common amongst atheists than you may realise, nor is this confined to the United States alone.

In some of the more Theocratic Nations, especially in the Middle East, Atheism has been turned into an actual criminal offence, punishable by long prison sentences, or in some instances, death. I could go on, but hopefully by now you should understand how and why I, as an atheist, consider the above to be a thoroughly unacceptable state of affairs. One of the key reasons I believe atheists face so much animosity, relates to a general ignorance regarding any epistemological understanding of atheism.

Epistemology is the study of Knowledge and can be most simply explained in lay terms with two questions...

What do you believe? & Why do you believe it?

These two questions bring clarity of understanding and are at the heart of any serious philosophical discussion relating to belief systems, and why they should or should not be deemed to be convincing.

The first question, what do you believe? is of course a good place to begin, although by itself it is not particularly enlightening. What is of far greater importance and offers significantly more insight however is the second question, the why do you believe this thing to be true?

In this book I try to shed some light on exactly what it is that atheists believe, and more importantly, I attempt to address the why. That said, Atheism particularly differs from religions inasmuch as it is a single position in respect of a single question. It has no universal dogmas and different individual atheists hold a wide array of different perspectives. Nevertheless, regardless of whatever position you may hold at this time with respect to the God question, my goal here is to offer you at least some insight, from an insider, with the hope that you find whatever perspective you may gain from these pages enlightening and beneficial.

One final point before we proceed, as I write these words I am inevitably in your past, just as you are inevitably in my future, and in between your past and my future new evidence and knowledge will no doubt come to light. I therefore ask you to consider carefully your perspective on the basis of not only that which I write and present to you here, or of that which has been written before me, but also on the basis of that which has yet to be discovered, or from your point of view, that which has been discovered since I first set my words to these pages. For unlike the assertions to be found in holy books, I make no claims here to any divinely inspired or infallible knowledge or insight, I base all I have to offer on the best evidence available to me at this time, and that evidence, like all evidence, can in the fullness of time be either supported or overturned by more and better evidence not currently available. This being the case, I can offer no better advice than was given to me as a child by my grandfather, himself a strong theist, when he told me to keep an open mind, but not so open as to let the wind whistle through your ears By which expression he encouraged me to evaluate all the evidence, old and new, and only then, after careful consideration of the facts and making the best use of my intellect, form any conclusions.

Simply stated, I am interested in truth, and if a God truly does exist, I want to know about it. In the following pages I express my perspective and my observations of the various arguments postulated to me over the years regarding the existence of God, and in some measure, how belief in a God has been misused. You may share my perspective or you may disagree with me, but at the very least, it is my hope that you will gain some insight and clarity from what follows.

It is my earnest belief that freeing your mind of logical fallacies, false or flawed dogma and beliefs unsupported by credible evidence is a good place to begin a quest for truth, which whether comfortable or not is, in the end, the most worthwhile quest one may seek to undertake.

Philosophical Trinity of First Principles of Theological Rationality.

All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by

John Masefield

Before we begin, in the coming pages I periodically pose a question to theists, specifically asking about what methodology they use in order to assess their theistic claims and determine their beliefs. So in the interest of balance and fairness, I feel it only appropriate I share my own methodology. The following three principles form a powerful and balanced conceptual structure which I use as a key part of my methodology in analysing the assorted arguments which have been presented to me in respect of claims relating to the Numinous, the Transcendent and the Supernatural. As with all such claims, the ability to objectively judge likely veracity is entirely dependent upon having an objective methodology for parsing out that which is true or likely true, from that which is objectively not. As each of these three principles holds true whether or not a God actually exists, they should be useful to both theists and atheists alike. I have found these tools to be useful in my journey, and offer them for your consideration, with the hope that you may find them to be equally useful.

Philosophical Trinity of First Principles of Theological Rationality.

Principle One: (Lippman's Razor) Regarding Claims of the Supernatural...

All things demonstrated to exist in reality have been found to be subject to natural law, therefore that which is proposed without evidence to be subject to the supernatural, may not be assumed to exist in reality.

Principle Two: Regarding Competing Claims...

If for the sake of argument a creator God does exist and created all that science has revealed, it is irrational to assume that that God would be offended by, or indeed not be responsible for, anything which is scientifically factual, including those facts which are inconsistent with assertions in scriptures, which unlike scientific revelations, lack sufficient corroborative evidence.

Principle Three: Regarding Fallacious Arguments...

Arguments designed to demonstrate the existence of a God which are predicated upon logical fallacies, become arguments against the existence of that God once the logical fallacies have been removed from those arguments. Therefore, it is antithetical to reason to argue for the existence of a God using such an argument.

Chapter One

Why do people become atheists?

It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.

Voltaire

The question as to why some people come to be atheists is not answerable with a single, simple response. For a start, there's not just one catch-all answer that applies to everyone. There are a variety of reasons, some quite good, others less so, as to why people come to self-identify as atheists. But before we can even get into this, it is absolutely necessary to clarify and define a few terms, not least, what is actually meant by the term Atheist. Atheism is the non-belief in a God, therefore an atheist is someone who does not believe in the existence of any God or Gods. It is a single position in relation to the single question, does a God or do Gods exist? If you are not convinced that the answer to that question is yes, then you are an atheist. Likewise, if you are convinced and accept the proposition that a God exists, then you are a theist. As a side note, absolute certainty is not required here. Where this sometimes leads to some confusion, is when we begin talking about agnostic vs gnostic theists and atheists.

The word agnostic was first coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1876, in a speech he gave at the Metaphysical Society. The word is a rational acceptance of a lack of actual knowledge regarding the existence of a God. An agnostic therefore claims to be uncertain, in light of an absence, or at least an incompleteness of sufficient evidence to meet the burden of proof for the existence of a God which is being asserted. Gnostic is essentially the opposite perspective, from which position one asserts that one is possessed not only of sufficient belief, but of sufficient actual knowledge to be entirely certain of the proposition. Thus the gnostic position claims to have absolute, certain knowledge of either the existence or non-existence of God. However, as the God claim is made absent falsifiable evidence, the gnostic position claims a knowledge it simply does not possess and cannot demonstrate to be true, which is why the gnostic position has often been referred to as an irrational position. Agnosticism and Gnosticism therefore do not so much describe whether or not one is an atheist or a theist, so