Death
Death sucks.
Really, that is what this site is here to say. People ask me for my motivation for this site, and the only answer I have is that it seems to be my outlet for contemplating life... and death.
Christians portray atheists as people who do not want to believe in God. They say atheists are not merely people unconvinced by the evidence, but rather they are people who don't want to find evidence. And, it seems that there indeed are such atheists. In one of Paul Copan's books, he quotes New York University philosopher Thomas Nagel:
Really, that is what this site is here to say. People ask me for my motivation for this site, and the only answer I have is that it seems to be my outlet for contemplating life... and death.
Christians portray atheists as people who do not want to believe in God. They say atheists are not merely people unconvinced by the evidence, but rather they are people who don't want to find evidence. And, it seems that there indeed are such atheists. In one of Paul Copan's books, he quotes New York University philosopher Thomas Nagel:
It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God. I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.
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I've never done any studies on atheists. I don't know how many of them share Nagel's view. However, I believe it likely very wrong to consider Nagel's view representative of atheists. Personally, I find Nagel's view bizarre. How could Nagel possibly not want there to be a super-being who loves you and wants to spend eternity with you? Who could be happy with the idea that death is death and that's that? I do not understand Nagel's view at all.
Now many Christians assert that even non-believers like myself who claim to wish to be believer and have tried to be a believer must be deluding themselves. They say that I may claim to want to be a believer--I may even believe that I want to be a believer--but really, I don't. I must really be like Nagel even if I claim or even believe that I'm not. But I can assure you this is not the case!
So, if I had the choice, what would I want the truth to be? Well, I'd want there to be life-after-death. I don't want to turn to dust. So at least in this sense, I could be happy if Christianity was true. But then when thinking about Christianity's punishment/reward system, it sure seems completely out of whack. The only crime that means anything to God is the crime of insufficient groveling to Him. Any other crime, no big deal. But insufficient groveling is worthy of eternal punishment. Doesn't seem like a very fair system to me.
Yeah, I decided to use the word "grovel." I'm sure some readers will say, "see, you just don't want to let go of your pride." Well, even if that is true, is that really a crime worthy of eternal punishment? I used the term "grovel" because that's what it is. What else would you call getting on your hands and knees and proclaiming, "I am so unworthy!" Isn't that a pretty good definition of "groveling"? But okay, if that really is God's price for eternal life, okay. I'm willing to do that, and have done so. I've gotten on my hands and knees and proclaimed my unworthiness. But I could not help ask myself, "is this really what an all-powerful Creator of the universe would want?" A being so powerful that I am like an ant to Him, and He is concerned with whether I grovel for Him or not? God is saying, "oh, Paul groveled for me, that is so precious! I guess Paul gets eternal life"?
So, lets get back to what I would want truth to be? So, I'm thinking a more balanced punishment/reward system would be reasonable. Like, if I do bad things, maybe I could go to hell, for a while, until I learned my lesson. That would seem reasonable. Now, some people claim that because God is infinite, a crime against him is an infinite crime and therefore deserves infinite punishment. But then again, he's the one who, in theory, came up with the idea of faith in Jesus is the escape hatch from hell. Which means he's obviously not really all that committed to that infinite punishment thing. And he could just as easily add additional escape hatches. He's God, ya know?
It would also be nice if what we do on Earth has some eternal value. The problem is, it just seems fundamentally impossible. If we do live eternally, of what relevance could our earthly life have? What do we do every day? We eat. We drink. We sleep. We brush our teeth and tie our shoes. We go to work. We pay our bills. Perhaps read a book or watch TV. Perhaps, we may engage in sex. What part of all that would we do as eternal, spiritual beings? None as far as I can tell. So, it just seems fundamentally impossible for us to have an eternal spiritual life and yet have our earthly life have any meaning to such a future existence.
So no, I'm not like Nagel. I'm not a non-believer because I wish there is no God. I'm a non-believer because I'm afraid there is no God.
Now many Christians assert that even non-believers like myself who claim to wish to be believer and have tried to be a believer must be deluding themselves. They say that I may claim to want to be a believer--I may even believe that I want to be a believer--but really, I don't. I must really be like Nagel even if I claim or even believe that I'm not. But I can assure you this is not the case!
So, if I had the choice, what would I want the truth to be? Well, I'd want there to be life-after-death. I don't want to turn to dust. So at least in this sense, I could be happy if Christianity was true. But then when thinking about Christianity's punishment/reward system, it sure seems completely out of whack. The only crime that means anything to God is the crime of insufficient groveling to Him. Any other crime, no big deal. But insufficient groveling is worthy of eternal punishment. Doesn't seem like a very fair system to me.
Yeah, I decided to use the word "grovel." I'm sure some readers will say, "see, you just don't want to let go of your pride." Well, even if that is true, is that really a crime worthy of eternal punishment? I used the term "grovel" because that's what it is. What else would you call getting on your hands and knees and proclaiming, "I am so unworthy!" Isn't that a pretty good definition of "groveling"? But okay, if that really is God's price for eternal life, okay. I'm willing to do that, and have done so. I've gotten on my hands and knees and proclaimed my unworthiness. But I could not help ask myself, "is this really what an all-powerful Creator of the universe would want?" A being so powerful that I am like an ant to Him, and He is concerned with whether I grovel for Him or not? God is saying, "oh, Paul groveled for me, that is so precious! I guess Paul gets eternal life"?
So, lets get back to what I would want truth to be? So, I'm thinking a more balanced punishment/reward system would be reasonable. Like, if I do bad things, maybe I could go to hell, for a while, until I learned my lesson. That would seem reasonable. Now, some people claim that because God is infinite, a crime against him is an infinite crime and therefore deserves infinite punishment. But then again, he's the one who, in theory, came up with the idea of faith in Jesus is the escape hatch from hell. Which means he's obviously not really all that committed to that infinite punishment thing. And he could just as easily add additional escape hatches. He's God, ya know?
It would also be nice if what we do on Earth has some eternal value. The problem is, it just seems fundamentally impossible. If we do live eternally, of what relevance could our earthly life have? What do we do every day? We eat. We drink. We sleep. We brush our teeth and tie our shoes. We go to work. We pay our bills. Perhaps read a book or watch TV. Perhaps, we may engage in sex. What part of all that would we do as eternal, spiritual beings? None as far as I can tell. So, it just seems fundamentally impossible for us to have an eternal spiritual life and yet have our earthly life have any meaning to such a future existence.
So no, I'm not like Nagel. I'm not a non-believer because I wish there is no God. I'm a non-believer because I'm afraid there is no God.