I went to a Atheist vs. Christian debate last week, Matt was kind enough to let me know so I went to my uni where the debate happened to be. I was actually expecting the Dr. (the atheist) to do a lot of damage since the Mr. (the christian) has not even finished his uni degree yet. I mean, the credentials of the atheist is just so over whelming.
Firstly, the christian went in first on the floor, but actually he should have gone in after the atheist because the atheist is in the affirmative, his thesis is that religion is a delusion and the christian is on the negative. At any rate the christian boy did a good job specially in the middle of the "debate" as he focused on Christ and his Cross.
Unfortunately the atheist did not even do a dent. The atheist made assertions even to the point of asserting that Jesus did not exist! Now you may try and prove he did not rise from the dead but there was a Jesus who pagan historians said that was crucified and whom Christians addressed as their Lord. To assert that is to be taken out of the realm of being serious. So plenty of assertions but nothing to back up that substantially can be taken with much seriousness. Then comes the kicker, the atheist stated that atheists are moral people and that you do not have to have a God to have morality. Hence, he believes in being moral but he does not believe (or he doubts) if there was a God. Now his definition of his type of atheism is already subject to equivocation, but the justification for morality is...passe'.
Here is what I mean by passe'. I remember when I was a young college sophomore, in my Philosophy class, we studied Immanuel Kant and his work - Critique of Pure Reason. I do not remember the full details of the book but in summary, Kant showed that there was no positivist evidence one can use to convince that God exists. There is no empirical test one can use. Whether we agree with Kant on that or not is another issue. But the atheist in the debate was sounding off Kant, but with a sad incoherence. Unlike him, Kant showed that for practical reasons we should believe in the existence of God because morality and social order has no basis at all. In fact social order has no foundation or basis to be. One's idea of justice also becomes irrational and absurd. Rather than order, it will produce anarchy (yet the atheist's solution to world peace is to chuck out religion).
So the position of the atheist, I conclude is passe'. Did you observe today that there are not too many becoming atheists? What are people becoming? They are becoming spiritual! The issue today is no longer does God exist? The issue that people are working on now is - which God should they believe in? They are shopping for a God or some form of spirituality they can latch on to.
The Gospel does not give spirituality, it tells and gives the love of God for poor souls wandering in the dark, in demonstration. It does not simply say God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Yuck.
Rather God says I love you and here is how - see my Son hanging on the Cross for you, an enemy worthy of my wrath.
Psalm 14:1
2 comments:
Kant was wrong about there being no evidence for God's existence. The fact that some find that evidence unconvincing owes to their own sinfulness. Without the blinders of sin and Satan, they would be convincing.
All we can do is pray and let God work.
Kant based much of his work on the efforts of David Hume. Hume was skeptical about everything. He even doubted the reliability of science.
The debates are necessary. Christ's Cross is the point, but that can hardly be understood without His person.
I'll re-read Kant. His book is setting on my shelf.
JK,
The point we are making is that the atheist parrots Kant but he does not go all the way with Kant and thus makes himself rediculous . Kant says that morality pre-supposes God; if you are going to have a sense of justice, you need an ultimate and perfect judge and that is God.
What Kant argued was that-- if there are no positivist evidence for God, there is moral evidence based on our moral senibilities.
Try using Kant on atheists that believe in morality, they are acting passe'.
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