Atheists' Objections to Evidence for God's Existence, Part 3

In the first two articles of this series, I discussed some of the strategies contemporary atheists use to discredit the idea of evidence for God’s existence. Still another tack employed by today’s aggressive atheists is the notion that religious faith is a mental disorder. “It is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly,” Richard Dawkins contends, “that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness” (The Selfish Gene, p. 198). The philosopher Daniel Dennett wrote, “The kindly God who lovingly fashioned each and every one of us and sprinkled the sky with shining stars for our delight – that God is, like Santa Claus, a myth of childhood, not anything a sane, undeluded adult could literally believe in. That God must be turned into a symbol of something less concrete or abandoned altogether” (Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, p. 18, emphasis added). It seems that believers in God suffer from mental illness or delusion. Why, then, should their arguments for the existence of God be taken seriously? Rather, any attempt to dispute the evidence for the existence of God is to take faith and religion seriously. This can’t be done. Theism must be opposed as irrational and insidious, as the “moral hazard,” Steve Zara calls it (“There can be no evidence for god,” July 30, 2011). Sam Harris puts it most succinctly, if most chillingly, in his book, The End of Faith (pp. 52-53), when he wrote:

The link between belief and behavior raises the stakes
considerably. Some propositions are so dangerous that
it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them.
This may seem an extraordinary claim, but it merely enunciates
an ordinary fact about the world in which we live. Certain
beliefs place their adherents beyond the reach of every
peaceful means of persuasion, while inspiring them to
commit acts of extraordinary violence against others.

To be clear, Harris isn’t talking specifically about belief in God, but about belief that God wants His followers to destroy all that they interpret as displeasing Him, including those who believe differently. But Harris is just wrong. We justify killing people in self-defense not for what they believe, but for what they do. Harris conflates belief with action, a dangerous proposition, indeed. In his book, Harris is writing about extreme Muslims, but certainly he’s aware that killing for a cause isn’t the exclusive purview of theists. As well, given that power corrupts, it’s reasonable to fear that those who have the authority to kill in self-defense for this particular belief today may find it justifiable to kill in “self-defense” for other beliefs tomorrow. While some atheists deem religious faith as a mental illness, and argue for opposing faith as pernicious and disordered, Harris lays the foundation for an argument that could some day take opposition to religious faith to the next level: simply eradicating those who take the existence of God seriously.

Opposition to the idea of considering evidence for the existence of God doesn’t come only from atheists. There’s also a long and unfortunate tradition among some Christians that relying on or looking to evidence for God’s existence, either in philosophy or in Creation, evinces a lack of faith. Our faith should be a pure, simple faith in God and in the revelation He has given us. To look for evidence for God’s existence, then, is contrary to faith. “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? Or the Academy with the Church?” Tertullian, the second century theologian, asked rhetorically. Athens, the capital of philosophy, and the Academy, the champion of human studies, have nothing to offer the Church, Tertullian claimed, because the Church relies solely on faith. Philosophical arguments, and even evidence from Creation, are unnecessary. Faith in God’s revelation is all we need. Only a small minority of Christians have held this view, however, and the Catholic Church has never subscribed to it. The Catholic Church has a centuries-old tradition of philosophical reasoning on the question, and of seeing in both human experience and in the physical world that God has created evidence for His existence. This is a favor God has granted us as a support for our faith. In writing of idolaters and those who reject the glory of God, St. Paul said in his letter to the Romans, “For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse…” (Romans 1:19-20).

For most people, though, including most atheists, the question isn’t whether or not there’s any evidence for God’s existence, for there’s an abundance of evidence. The question is whether or not the evidence is convincing.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.