Blog 132: Conversation with a Believer

Pierre Marchand

2021-12-23

Atheism is indefensible. Belief is essential.

That remains to be seen. At least, atheists do not doom those who think differently from them to an eternity of torture. But have you ever seriously asked yourself the question, “Could my belief be false?”

No, no need. But thinkers much greater than you have believed in God.

Assuredly, but all through history there have been some that did not believe, so that proves nothing. They probably were more numerous than we think, but they remained silent to avoid being roasted alive.

You can’t explain the origin of life, therefore God exists.

Just because in the present state of science we cannot explain or reproduce the origin of life, that does not prove the existence of God. Even less the existence of your particular god. Furthermore, if there existed one or many gods, how do you know that it would be yours? It could be the god of your next-door neighbour’s religion, the one who wears a funny head-covering. Or perhaps the unknowable god of the deists?

The Bible is the word of God, it is a unique and invaluable collection of sacred texts spread over centuries.

Have you really read It all? Probably not and I understand you! It’s so boring. Yes, there are some beautiful passages but the rest is a collection of wars, genocides and stupid commandments (for example: Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother’s milk (Deut. 14.21)), commandments that no one thinks of applying entirely nowadays (for example, the death penalty for not observing the sabbath or lapidation for the rebellious son). One also finds therein contradictions such as the two versions of creation in Genesis and stupidities like Noah’s ark. Finally, is there anything more soporific than the multiple genealogies you find there?

But that’s the Old Testament. The New one is much better.

Yes, Jesus seems to me to have been a good devil. But for my part, the character I prefer is Mary-Magdalene. She seems to have been rather more exciting than these 12 illiterate simpletons of indeterminate sexual orientation.

You’re quite the joker! Seriously, now, the Universe must have a first cause and it’s God.

But God doesn’t have a first cause either. And what if it were the Universe that was eternal and didn’t have a first cause?

No, the Universe started with the Big Bang and that was the moment of creation.

Wise is the one who can determine the cause of the Big Bang if it has one, or what came before…

No, there is no before, because time started with the Big Bang

But maybe the primordial black hole was the result of a contracting universe, the Big Crush, in which case time would not have started with the Big Bang. Moreover, can one even imagine a time that starts at t = 0 without wondering what was before, at t = -1? And why should there be a single universe? On the seventh day, your god was tired and rested. But on the eighth day? And all the following days for 4.5 million years? Is he chilling out? Oh no, I recall, he’s too busy peeping at what’s going on in your bedroom! Unless he’s busy creating other universes, one every week and doesn’t have time to bother with humans.

Let’s move on to something else, these concepts make me dizzy. You’ll admit that without religion there are no morals.

Really? Do you think slavery is a good thing?

Of course not!

Yet even Jesus approved of it when he said that a slave should obey his master. Furthermore, is there even a single religion on this planet that forbids it?

Yeah, but the rest, the ten commandments, they’re good.

Yes, but they’re incomplete. Cannibalism, rape, pedophilia (catholic priests will agree with me on this last one), are not forbidden anywhere, so they are allowed.

Of course not!

So then? I could go on mentioning many things that you and I find repugnant but are not denounced in any religion.

That’s for evil and prohibitions. What about good, for instance the virtues promoted by the Catholic religion.

Ah yes, faith, hope and charity, unless I’m mistaken. Faith and hope are one and the same thing. Belief in something that’s unprovable and hope in something equally unprovable without asking questions because it was instilled in you as a child? Where’s the virtue, the merit in that? And that gets you into paradise? In my opinion, the only valid one of the three is charity, but one doesn’t need religion to feel compassion.

But don’t forget the love of God.

How can you love an entity you have never seen and has never answered you. Isn’t that a perversion of the meaning of the word love? I’m not talking about sex, but the love of a friend, a colleague, a neighbour. You love someone because of his or her character, intelligence, humour, wit, loyalty, or because you feel comfortable with that person, etc. But god?

But the mystics spoke with him.

Exactly, they were mystics. Isn’t that a kind of schizophrenia?

No no, God hears and answers our prayers.

You pray, and if events turn out as you asked for, you say your prayer has been answered. If matters turn out otherwise, you say god has other plans for you or punishes you for some sin. Don’t you think that with such a reasoning you’re right no matter what happens? It seems to me that with such a reasoning, praying to a telephone pole would lead you to the same conclusion: the telephone pole has answered my prayers.

Hey, really you have no respect for sacred things. You atheists, in addition to being arrogant and conceited, you are miscreants and blasphemers!