Something I have learned over the years is not to get into an argument
with a fundamentalist Christian. What kind of argument can one have with
someone who says: ‘Of course God exists. The Bible says so’; or ‘If God doesn’t
exist, who wrote the Bible?’ I could have more useful conversations with my dog
or goldfish (if I had either) than with a fundamentalist Christian. Actually, I
could have more useful conversations with my imaginary goldfish. A little
harsh? Hmmm… No, not really.
Those who believe in God (and not just those of a fundamentalist persuasion)
apparently see the burden of proof as lying with those who don’t believe. ‘Prove
God doesn’t exist!’ I don’t have to; any more than I have to prove that fairies
don’t exist. After all, I'm not the one claiming there is some kind of superior
being out there, who created the world and me, who tells me how I should be
living my life, and to whom I owe allegiance and worship. (There are Oprah and
Dr Phil [and maybe Justin Bieber], of course, but I digress.) The burden of proof is clearly with those
who hold such a belief.
I don’t think those who believe in God even begin to understand the
magnitude of the task before them. Let’s be clear. Even if it could be
demonstrated that there was a being who created the world and me, it would take
much more than this fact alone before I would give my allegiance and worship to
such a being. Or to accept that such a being cared about me, or had the right
to tell me how to live my life. Proving that God existed would be only one
small step. Proving that God existed would not demonstrate that the Bible or Qur’an
or any other sacred text had anything useful to say about him, her or it. Let alone
that he, she or it wrote it. Demonstrating the existence of God would not prove
that Jesus or Mohammed or any particular prophet or religious leader had
anything of importance to say about God. It would not prove that any (let alone
every) word uttered by them or written in any religious text was true. Even
proving that every word of the Bible was true would still not induce me to
worship God. You would have much more work to do after that, believers!
I don’t believe in God, but the question is scarcely of more than academic interest to me anyway. If God exists, so what?
I'm often tempted to ask why, if God or via his book of fairy stories actually said that children shouldn't suffer for the sins of their fathers, children die from bombing every day and aren't protected. Why, if the meek shall inherit the earth it's usually the meek that get killed. Why, if we're told constantly to turn the other cheek the bible says an eye for an eye. The one time I did try asking why God appeared to have sloped off from his duty I was told it's because we were given free will as though that explains everything. All that tells me is that there isn't a good argument to offer.
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