My Conversation with a Neo-Atheist (Or is God a Moral Monster)

I’ve written a few blog posts about talking to someone who identifies themselves as a skeptic or a member of the FreeThought Society. To some degree I got the chance to put my money where my mouth is and use some of those tactics. One thing I learned is that theory on paper is much different than theory in practice. On paper, things are static and the world operates as I want it to. In practice, things are fluid and people are involved. What I learned was not that I was wrong in my method or conclusion, but wrong in my delivery. I did not expect the kind of ferocious arguments presented, though I should have known better. Members of the Neo-Atheist community are known for bringing up many issues at once while forcing the other side to show burden of proof for their defense, mostly through clever word play. It was a challenging, though exciting, debate. Though the Atheist used many logical fallacies, I myself did not walk away clean as I made my own mistakes, including failing to see the fallacies and calling them out.

In the coming blog posts, I will look at his other fallacies and reveal how I should have handled them in the hopes of better equipping you, dear reader, to stand firm on the Truth of God.

(Note: While I realize that not all atheists hold to the views discussed below, the person who I spoke with used many of Dr. Sam Harris’ arguments concerning God and morality. For the duration of the blog I will not be naming the person in question simply because I did not have a chance to get his permission to name him before writing this post. From here on out he shall be named as “The Atheist”.)

On Sunday evening, I had the opportunity to engage someone who identified as a Neo-Atheist and we discussed whether or not God existed. Like most Neo-Atheist, the person in question stated that even if the Judeo-Christian God did in fact exist, He would not be someone worth worshipping as He is morally bankrupt, egotistical, misogynistic, and racist and anyone who believes in this God is just as bad as He is (Note: towards the end of the evening, he nearly owned up that he thought I was stupid for believing in God and thus as morally bankrupt).

Most of the time was spent debating God and morality. In large part, he kept maintaining even if the Judeo-Christian God existed, He is morally bankrupt and therefore not worthy of worship. The conversation engaged on whether or not God was morally right in slaughter. How does this equate with the God of the New Testament who seems to be all about love and peace and not killing? After dispelling the myth of the Hippie Jesus and discussing God’s action against the Canaanites in Jericho, he then asked me if I believed God was morally right for doing this. In this moment the Atheist committed a logical fallacy of the Loaded Question. In this fallacy, by asking me that question, no matter how I answer I look guilty; I either look like I support the wonton slaughter of people or I appear to disagree with God and think He’s immoral. (I did not do a good job of answering this question. He baited me with this trap and I walked right into it and it was only while I was in the middle of it that I realized what happened.)

What I should have said: The problem with this fallacy is that it takes the view off of God and puts it on me. The argument isn’t about whether or not I THINK or FEEL what God did was morally wrong, the argument is about whether or not it is wrong independently of my thoughts or emotions. In terms of objective moral values, my feelings and thoughts about something make them no more right or wrong than my wish to go to the moon will get me to the moon. Something is objectively right or wrong independent of me. Based on who God is (Just, King, Judge, Creator) and because He does not act against His nature, we can conclude that God was just in actions against the Canaanites in Jericho. (Neo-Atheism finds much of its ideology rooted in Post-Modernism and therefore rejects many authoritative claims unless they themselves ascribe it authority over their lives. Thus if they reject the authority of Scriptures, they feel they are not bound to believe anything about Scripture.)

So was God wrong for what He did? In the next blog post we will discuss this topic further, but I want to leave you this: We must be careful about ascribing our thought process to God. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We must also realize that the event in question, Jericho, was not solely about taking over land; God brought punishment on the Canaanites for their despicable acts including child sacrifice. Scripture shows us they were given ample warning (400 years) to get their act together and still they refused to obey God. Until next time, dear reader, God Bless.


Soli Deo Gloria,
Brian Ceely


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Brian Ceely

 
is a researcher for Wycliffe Bible Translators, a College Age/Young Adult Minister at River Run Christian Church, and a very talented musician (specifically drums and guitar). He enjoys reading, writing, researching, philosophy, apologetics, playing drums like a crazy man and sharing the person and work of Jesus with young adults. Brian is also a regular at Starbucks and uses his many talents to bring glory to his God and Savior Jesus Christ.