"Atheists' View Not Realistic"

free_thinker
Posts: 49
Joined: 2009-11-11
User is offlineOffline
"Atheists' View Not Realistic"

Stephen Flynn,

"The worldview of atheism is secular humanism."

Not all atheists are secular humanists...

"In 1957, two secular humanist organizations were defined by a U.S. court as religious organizations and granted tax-exempt status."

The only time secular humanism was mentioned as a religion was in a footnote.  It was giving tax exempt status "to grant support to elements in the community regarded as good for the community,”. 

Furthermore, In 1994, the Ninth Circuit soundly denounced both the classification of secular humanism as a religion and evolution as a religious tenet. In Peloza v. Capistrano Unified School District, the Ninth Circuit held: 

". . . neither the Supreme Court, nor this circuit, has ever held that evolutionism or secular humanism are “religious” for Establishment Clause purposes. Indeed, both the dictionary definition of religion and the clear weight of the caselaw are to the contrary. The Supreme Court has held unequivocally that while the belief in a divine creator of the universe is a religious belief, the scientific theory that higher forms of life evolved from lower forms is not. [Edwards v. Aguillard (1987). Peloza, p. 521.]"

"To ask taxpaying citizens who believe in a creator to tolerate censorship of their views in a public school is unreasonable. When schools want to speculate on the origin of existence, if teachings on intelligent design and creationism are excluded, I don’t call it an education."

Schools don't teach creationism (or the renamed creationism known as "intelligent design", because they are not scientific.  They do not have evidence to support them, and are not even falsifiable - they wouldn't even hold up as a hypothesis.

"No atheist is all knowing, therefore there is much he doesn’t know."

True, I admit there is much I do not know.

"For an atheist to arbitrarily decide there is no creator might be what he wants, but is it realistic?"

I don't know or claim to know if there is a god, but I feel it would not be rational to believe in one until sufficient evidence has been presented.

"No scientist has ever produced or observed something from nothing or life from non-life"

Not yet, but I think quantum fluctuations would count as "something from nothing".

"nor disproved the laws of thermodynamics."

Nope, we haven't disproved them.

"Since there is something and there is life and it is orderly and extremely complex, to believe this all accidentally evolved from nothing is a bizarre leap of faith."

I don't think you understand evolution. 

"If an atheist conforms to the mores of society because he believes it to be in his own self-interest, it does not make him moral. The test of his morality will be when society becomes destructive of human life in whatever stage of growth or he is put in a position of power."

Okay.  So are Christians only good because they believe it is in their own self-interests because it allows them to escape hell and get into heaven?

"How will he react?"

I don't know, atheists are all different.


Wonderist
atheist
Wonderist's picture
Posts: 2479
Joined: 2006-03-19
User is offlineOffline
Excellent reply. I had read

Excellent reply. I had read that piece as well and thought it was disgustingly brain dead. You did a great job of taking it apart. As you demonstrate, it's not always necessary to come up with detailed refutations to nonsense (like the biology crap), while at other times it can be devastating to thoroughly debunk one or two specific claims (like the secular humanism=religion part).

Wonderist on Facebook — Support the idea of wonderism by 'liking' the Wonderism page — or join the open Wonderism group to take part in the discussion!

Gnu Atheism Facebook group — All gnu-friendly RRS members welcome (including Luminon!) — Try something gnu!


Jormungander
atheistScience Freak
Jormungander's picture
Posts: 938
Joined: 2008-07-15
User is offlineOffline
free_thinker wrote:Okay. 

free_thinker wrote:

Okay.  So are Christians only good because they believe it is in their own self-interests because it allows them to escape hell and get into heaven?

The way people throw around Pascal's Wager, that might actually be the case. And others have claimed that God's existence is the only thing holding them back from rape and murder. But, they believe in God, and that somehow gives them the moral high ground.

"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
British General Charles Napier while in India