The Paradox of Atheism
Knowledge of the Metaphysical
Logical Fallacy of Shifting the Burden of Proof
I was thinking about the “Liar’s Paradox” this morning when I realized its application to atheism. Essentially the Liar’s Paradox says, “This sentence is false.” However, if it is a lie then the sentence is true! If one says, “This sentence is true,” then it is also a true statement. When taken without context the statement is true either way. The same can be said for atheism.
Atheism is the belief that God, or gods, does not exist. At its most fundamental level atheists demand empirical “evidence” for the existence of God and here is the paradox. The empiricist believes only in the material, that which can be verified through one or more of the five senses (see, hear, taste, feel and smell). Thus, their “burden of proof” demands verification via the “scientific method”. This sounds reasonable to the “modern man” who has been indoctrinated with the scientific worldview (that all things can be verified through empirical methodologies). Did not the scientific method give us the marvels of mass communications, medicine, and other improvements of life? Yes, but with significant limitations because of the limits of our empirical scientific method.
Logical Fallacy of Faulty Comparisons
The Atheism Philosophy frequently commits the logical fallacy of faulty comparisons as illustrated in the preceding graphic. On the left is the scientific description of the world while on the right Christians mumble, “God did it.” What is not said is that the atheistic worldview suffers from the same dilemma it accuses the Christian worldview of retreating into. There is no explanation of the true nature of energy, behavior, or abstract concepts such as morality. No one can explain what energy is; by energy I mean, heat, light, nuclear, gravity and so forth. We can describe and measure the effects of these energies. We can harness these energies but we cannot say with any specificity what is the nature of these energies [See this article on heat as an example]. Therefore, the atheist has formulas describing the effects of forces while satirically mocking the Christian worldview for relying on God (He 11:3). The atheist deflects attention from the fact that he has no explanation by focusing on the Christian’s metaphysical viewpoint that God is the source of energies at work in this physical creation. In essence you have those with no explanation laughing at those with an explanation. What the atheists glossed over is that the early natural philosophers, whom we would call scientists today, were religionists who believed in a reasonable God and set about finding out via a reasonable manner (scientific method) how God’s universe worked as part of God’s command to “understand the world” (Ge 1:26-31). They are guilty of a faulty comparison and they shift the burden of proof onto the Christian while having no proof themselves.
Herein is the heart of the issue. Atheists confine themselves to the empirical as the only source of truth and reality. By imposing this limitation on themselves they cannot have any “proof” that morality [right or wrong] exists. This also includes such non-empirical human concepts such as beauty, happiness, mind, and the list goes on. They have imposed their worldview on the modern world even though it is incoherent. For instance, modern atheistic pseudo-science psychology/psychiatry seeks to control behavior (metaphysical) by controlling the brain (empirical). There is no evidence that chemical reactions store memories, originate concepts or even that the brain controls behavior! Yet, Americans have become the largest uncontrolled medical experiment in the history of the world in the use of medicines to control behavior. I believe that while seeking to adjust the brain to control behavior, the true source of behavior, the soul, becomes more uncontrollable. The result has been such wanton behavior as had not been described in human history. The 20th century was the bloodiest century in documented history and it was mainly an atheistic century ruled by atheistic governments!
Atheists are bankrupted on another level. They say they rely only on the empirical but, like all people, they also rely on the metaphysical since they use the concepts of right and wrong, beauty, and so forth. The very idea of the mind lies beyond the empirical method to prove its existence; like energy, this method can only define outward behaviors but cannot define the how or what of the mind — thus, they ignore it. They say that there is no credible proof of God so they do not believe in God. They know their scientific method is limited to the empirical o scientists can never prove, or disprove, the existence of God because He is metaphysical, outside the realms of the scientific method!
But, even more importantly, they claim omniscience. No, they do not claim this outright but it is implied in their statement that, “God does not exist.” To make this statement, or any absolute statement, requires that one process all knowledge. When one makes an absolute statement, “All people are liars,” one must either have intimate, personal knowledge of each person or one must be able to quote a reliable source(s) which proves this statement with explanations about why. By making the statement, “There is no God,” atheists posit that they have omniscience thus claiming for themselves one of the prerogatives of God! By their own pseudo-science (psychology) anyone who believes they are God must be mentally ill. Though they claim to be the ultimate in rationality they are the very picture of mental instability! A brief glance of the numbers of people killed in the last century shows that those nations that labeled themselves as atheistic slaughtering millions of their own citizens and millions of citizens of other nations. Even modern Israel was primarily founded by atheistic, socialistic Zionists!
So, what does the Christian have? We have the Bible. This book claims to be given to man by God. Atheists claim this is circular reasoning and invalid. This would be true if it were just the Bible; however, no study has yet proved the Bible inaccurate in areas pertaining to the physical such as history or natural sciences. Archeology has proven, rather reluctantly, the truth of the Bible. Though the Bible is not a science book, those statements pertaining to the natural world have not been disproved. Since the Bible has been verified in the areas where it can be verified we can trust its veracity in the areas that cannot be empirically verified. This is no difference than atheists. They rely on natural forces even though they cannot state the nature of these forces.
Therefore, atheists violate their own religion of logic by relying on multiple logical fallacies to disprove or dispute God’s existence. By making a metaphysical statement they overstep their own empirical limitations and don the mantle of omniscience. Denying God, they act as gods. As their influence has grown in American society, so has the level of violence. Though they claim Christians are unbalanced, they have demonstrated unbalance in claiming omniscience and made their societies unbalanced to the point of being dangerous to everyone. Thus, the clamor for a tyrant has never been greater, even by Christians.
