| Isn't "blind faith" a dangerous thing? ... leads to killing people? |
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An atheist asks: "How can you believe in a God that would ask Abraham to kill his own son as a sacrifice? Should blind loyalty to God lead a man to commit evil, inhuman acts? And what sort of a God is that?"
Makes you think of the Nazis, doesn't it? And raises the spectre of Pastor Jim Jones telling all those cult members to drink poison in Guyana. If God tells you to kill someone, should you do it? It's a great question. But, like any good movie plot, there are several twists.
First, coming from an atheist this question is disingenuous - not entirely honest. An atheist lives in a world which is a random pile of atoms. Atoms have no morals. So it is illogical for atheists to recognize the existence of moral absolutes! They believe Man is the greatest thing in the universe - so who invented good and evil?
There are of course acts which most men agree are distasteful (like murder), or unprofitable (like killing your pension - your only support for your old age), or unkind (like killing your own son), or bad for the human race (like killing off all your descendants which will be "like the stars in the sky").
But in an atheist world how can anything be intrinsically evil? - there are no outside standards, only human opinion. In that world, "evil is in the eye of the beholder". So this atheist is adopting our standards to argue with us!
But it's still a good question. Why did God tell Abraham to kill Isaac?
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A keystone in Jewish and Christian belief is faith in God. The supreme example of faith is the Bible story where God commands Abraham to kill his own son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. Abraham agrees, and is praised for placing his loyalty above morality.
Comments
NoFoolin - you seem to be saying that atheists DO NOT have a plausible explanation for the fundamental questions (life's origin, life's purpose, etc). You say:
"The claim of the atheists is that those claims [God created it all] do not pass muster (i.e. there is no evidence for them)."
But if you have no other explanation for the existence of the Universe, how can you dismiss the Christian one?
Isn't that like saying: "I don't know who planted this tree, but I'm SURE it wasn't my father - I see no evidence"?
Doesn't scientific method require us to accept the *most likely* explanation available?
The CLAIM of religion is to have any kind of plausible explanation for these questions. The claim of the atheists is that those claims do not pass muster (i.e. there is no evidence for them). Just because you are an atheist does NOT necessarily mean you believe in evolution (although I am and I do).
Quoting Comment#4:
You begin from a standpoint of knowing where morals come from... you seem to point to a god for this. From a purely evolutionary point of view, many morals are easily explained. Cooperation, for instance, increased the competitiveness of individuals when they worked together as a unit. With community comes other moral guidelines like compassion, sharing, and the prohibition of murder, theft, and vandalism, as all of these things would keep the community strong. Without these traits essentially "bred" into us, we wouldn't be the social, community-based creatures we are today.
Quoting Comment#4:
First off this is called a straw man argument, as atheists do not claim anything (much less a "pile of atoms") "just happened". As an atheist myself (but not speaking for all) I would suggest there is no moral absolutes, especially having travelled some. What is considered "rude" or "unkind" in one country may be perfectly acceptable in another... however, for the reasons listed above, the more serious crimes are pretty well universally condemned.
Well, that's not really true, is it?
"Religion" is the quest for ANSWERS - where did I come from, what's the point of life, why do I exist, etc. Christianity provides one possible explanation. The CLAIM of atheists is to provide another, "rational", explanation for our Universe (without God).
But you do find moral absolutes in the world! So where did they come from, if not from a Creator?
How can a pile of atoms that "just happened" have moral absolutes built-in?
Also to say that, "it is illogical for atheists to recognize the existence of moral absolutes", Is also wrong, atheists are not constrained by any religious framework and are free to believe whatever they want, except to say that they cannot believe in God as a devine, omnipotent force, they would then not be atheists then. I believe that Moral absolutes exist that to go out of your way to do something good for someone even if he does not want or appreciate it is always Good and that to murder someone is alway evil, even if it is to prevent a greater evil because there are always ways to deal with someone like that without murdering them even if it means killing them (there is a difference).
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