Wednesday, March 26, 2008

TurretinFan, the Dead, Homeless Atheist

One frequent tired argument that one hears from atheists, is that we monotheists are basically atheists, because we reject all of the gods, except one.

The problem for the atheist is that this is rather like saying that a person is homeless who has only one home, because he lacks all the other homes that there are. It's worse than that, though, because there is no other god besides God, the other "gods" are just mute idols, demons, and figments of imagination.

In a way it's rather like saying that we are dead, because the only thing that differentiates us from being dead is that we are alive.

According to such reasoning, I would be a dead, homeless atheist, though I live, have a place to lay my head, and trust in the true and living God. It's a throwaway argument, but its been thrown enough times that we must be ready to bat it away.

-TurretinFan

4 comments:

Carrie said...

is that we monotheists are basically atheists, because we reject all of the gods, except one.

I have never heard that one before. That's quite lame.

Anonymous said...

Its a holdover from the Roman empire. Anyone who would use it today must be on crack.

BJ Buracker said...

I agree 100% with Carrie.

At least I have my bat now, if I ever do hear it. Thanks!

BJ
Stupid Scholar

Saint and Sinner said...

The argument basically assumes that we believe in one God arbitrarily as if we dismissed the other gods for no reason and didn't go far enough.

Of course, they ignore the fact that Christians (and the Bible itself!) have been making arguments against polytheism since...the Biblical writers.

There is a fundamental difference between believing in one eternal, self-existing, all-sovereign Creator and believing in many finite beings who popped out of the chaotic void.