A Christmas gift for atheists -- five reasons why God exists

I don't usually write on this blog. It's typically just used to aggregate stories from around the internet, but this time I feel compelled. This is a talking list of the main points theists (particularly Christian theists) usually make, inside their head if not outside. I am a relatively common sort of atheist and I will show you how unbelievably simple it is to demolish these arguments if you just know how to look at them in the light of logic. Be warned, what you're about to read comes from Fox News:

By William Lane Craig 

For atheists, Christmas is a religious sham. For if God does not exist, then obviously Jesus’ birth cannot represent the incarnation of God in human history, which Christians celebrate at this time of year.

However, most atheists, in my experience, have no good reasons for their disbelief. Rather they’ve learned to simply repeat the slogan, “There’s no good evidence for God’s existence!”

In the case of a Christian who has no good reasons for what he believes, this slogan serves as an effective conversation-stopper. But if we have good reasons for our beliefs, then this slogan serves rather as a conversation-starter.

The good thing is that atheists tend to be very passionate people and want to believe in something.

The atheist who merely repeats this slogan after having been presented with arguments for God’s existence makes an empty assertion.

So what reasons might be given in defense of Christian theism? In my publications and oral debates with some of the world’s most notable atheists, I’ve defended the following five reasons why God exists:

1. God provides the best explanation of the origin of the universe. Given the scientific evidence we have about our universe and its origins, and bolstered by arguments presented by philosophers for centuries, it is highly probable that the universe had an absolute beginning. Since the universe, like everything else, could not have merely popped into being without a cause, there must exist a transcendent reality beyond time and space that brought the universe into existence. This entity must therefore be enormously powerful. Only a transcendent, unembodied mind suitably fits that description.

Can we talk about how a transcendent reality beyond time and space might have come about? Maybe it just "popped into being without a cause"? And how exactly do you get from a transcendent reality to an entity? This point raises more questions than it answers.

2. God provides the best explanation for the fine-tuning of the universe. Contemporary physics has established that the universe is fine-tuned for the existence of intelligent, interactive life. That is to say, in order for intelligent, interactive life to exist, the fundamental constants and quantities of nature must fall into an incomprehensibly narrow life-permitting range. There are three competing explanations of this remarkable fine-tuning: physical necessity, chance, or design. The first two are highly implausible, given the independence of the fundamental constants and quantities from nature's laws and the desperate maneuvers needed to save the hypothesis of chance. That leaves design as the best explanation.

The universe is not fine-tuned to us, we are fine-tuned to it. If the laws of physics had accidentally ended up being such that life couldn't have existed, we wouldn't be here having this discussion. And if those laws had been subtly different, we'd be some other form of being sitting here discussing how perfectly "designed" everything is. This is an ego trip, not an explanation.

3. God provides the best explanation of objective moral values and duties. Even atheists recognize that some things, for example, the Holocaust, are objectively evil. But if atheism is true, what basis is there for the objectivity of the moral values we affirm? Evolution? Social conditioning? These factors may at best produce in us the subjective feeling that there are objective moral values and duties, but they do nothing to provide a basis for them. If human evolution had taken a different path, a very different set of moral feelings might have evolved. By contrast, God Himself serves as the paradigm of goodness, and His commandments constitute our moral duties. Thus, theism provides a better explanation of objective moral values and duties.

So, how do you deal with the fact that different ideas of morality come from different ideas of god? How do you deal with the fact that atheists are, on average, more moral and more intelligent than religious people (don't take my word for it, look it up, that is how fact works)? Was there no morality before your religion suddenly popped up and took over? God is a concept from the human imagination, but morality comes from the social contract. It's easy to see that if you don't want your neighbor stealing from you, you shouldn't steal from him. Actually, it's easy to see that if your morality is based upon an imaginary being, you shouldn't be trusted to make moral judgements.

4. God provides the best explanation of the historical facts concerning Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Historians have reached something of consensus that the historical Jesus thought that in himself God’s Kingdom had broken into human history, and he carried out a ministry of miracle-working and exorcisms as evidence of that fact. Moreover, most historical scholars agree that after his crucifixion Jesus’ tomb was discovered empty by a group of female disciples, that various individuals and groups saw appearances of Jesus alive after his death, and that the original disciples suddenly and sincerely came to believe in Jesus’ resurrection despite their every predisposition to the contrary. I can think of no better explanation of these facts than the one the original disciples gave: God raised Jesus from the dead.

Setting aside for a moment that there is no evidence for a historical Jesus... I, or probably you or anyone you know, could write a more believable, more compelling story. Even if you assume that there was a historical Jesus, no amount of philosophical bending and twisting can get you to the point that miracles also exist and he did them. Is it easier to believe miracles happen, or that some people are liars who make up stories?

5. God can be personally known and experienced. The proof of the pudding is in the tasting. Down through history Christians have found through Jesus a personal acquaintance with God that has transformed their lives.

Lots of imaginary things can be known and experienced. Usually we lock people up for that shit.

The good thing is that atheists tend to be very passionate people and want to believe in something. If they would only put aside the slogans for a moment and reexamine their worldview in light of the best philosophical, scientific, and historical evidence we have today, then they, too, would find Christmas worth celebrating!