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Atheism's Unanswered Questions

P

Pinoy

New Member
I found this site while surfing the net

http://www.rationalchristianity.net/unansweredq.html

I would just like to asked the atheists in this forum if there are truth in the said claims? That the following questions have never been answered by atheists.

Thank You

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The universe: How did the universe begin? How did life arise from non-living matter? The claims that the universe always existed or had a "natural" cause and that life spontaneously arose are just as extraordinary as the claim that an intelligent being created both the universe and life. If the universe is in its present state because of the Big Bang, what caused the Big Bang, and where did the matter that exploded come from? If the universe has always existed, why is there such a large quantity of mass and energy, not to mention intelligent life?

Science: Science exists because the universe operates in a consistent way and has phenomena that we can describe as "laws," such as the law of gravity. If the universe and/or things in it were formed by chance, why should the behavior of the universe be predictable instead of random?

Nature: Why do people uniformly admire nature? Why do we see so much beauty in it? It's no longer our natural surroundings, for we live in urban areas surrounded by pavement and man-made structures. Why do we prefer nature to what we ourselves have made? Why do we prize window offices and decorate walls with landscapes, instead of being content with our climate-controlled environment?

Psychology: Why do people seek for meaning and purpose in life - why are we not content simply to live in the moment? Why do we keep trying to explain how and why the universe came into existence? Why would evolution have given us this need for a purpose, when the instinct to survive would suffice and when lack of a purpose leads so many into despair and self-destructive behavior?

Religious experience: If there are no gods and nothing spiritual or supernatural exists, how can religious experience be explained, and why do the vast majority of people believe in God and/or spiritual and supernatural things? If religion is a placebo for the weak-minded, why do even intelligent, committed atheists convert - and why do people have a need for religion in the first place?

Morality: Why do people feel guilt? Why are monogamy, altruism and humility regarded as virtues, if morality is the result of evolution?

Love & emotion: From an evolutionary standpoint, emotions (except fear and possibly paternal feelings) are a waste of resources. Other creatures only need instincts to survive; why should we have the capacity to love and feel happiness? More to the point, why should we be able to feel emotions like annoyance, grief and hopelessness, when they only retard our ability to survive and reproduce?

Art & music: Why do we spend so much time and energy in making our surroundings attractive rather than merely functional? Why should we have an appreciation for art and music at all?
 
Pah

Pah

Uber all member
From the inroduction to the referenced web page
The atheistic world view fails to plausibly answer many questions and explain common observations about the universe and human nature. Theism, however, does provide answers and explanations, and so these questions lead us to evidence for the existence of God.
Click to expand...
I would rather have unanswered questions than ones that prove themselves by circular reasoning - theism proves theism - yeah right!
 
greatcalgarian

greatcalgarian

Well-Known Member
Pinoy said:
I found this site while surfing the net

http://www.rationalchristianity.net/unansweredq.html

Religious experience: If there are no gods and nothing spiritual or supernatural exists, how can religious experience be explained, and why do the vast majority of people believe in God and/or spiritual and supernatural things? If religion is a placebo for the weak-minded, why do even intelligent, committed atheists convert - and why do people have a need for religion in the first place?
Click to expand...
"Why God Won’t Go Away" , Andrew Newberg, Eugene D’Aquili, and Vince Pause (2001)
The above book may answer your question partially
Quote:God cannot exist as a concept or as reality anyplace else but in your mind. In this sense, both spiritual experiences and experiences of a more ordinary material nature are made real to the mind in the very same way – through the processing powers of the brain and the cognitive functions of the mind.
The urge to understand God as a specific, literal being only leads us astray. You should not wish to understand anything about God, for God is beyond all understanding. If I had a God that I could understand, I would not regard him as God. If you understand anything about him, then he is not in it, and by understanding something of him you fall into ignorance. God is by his nature, unknowable. He is not an objective fact, or an actual being; he is, in fact, being itself, the absolute, undifferentiated oneness that is the ground of all existence. When we understand this truth, then all religions connect us to this deeper, divine power. If we fail to understand it and we cling to the comforting images of a personal, knowable God – a God who exists entirely apart from the rest of the creation as a distinct, individual being – we diminish the ultimate realness of God

Why God Won’t Go Away
Andrew Newberg, Eugene D’Aquili, and Vince Pause (2001)
Chapter 3 Brain Architecture
Tracing spiritual experience to neurological behavior does not disprove its realness. If God does exist, for example, and if He appeared to you in some incarnation, you would have no way of experiencing His presence, except as part of a neurologically generated rendition of reality.....
Chapter 4 Myth-making: The Compulsion to Create Stories and Beliefs
The cognitive imperative drives the higher functions of the mind to analyze the perceptions processed by the brain and transform them into a world full of meaning and purpose. By doing so, it has given human beings an unsurpassed genius for adaptation and survival....
Chapter 6 Mysticism: The Biology of Transcendence
14th century German nun Margareta Ebner perceived a wondrous presence “the name of Jesus Christ, was given to me then with such a great fervor of his love…”. Was Sister Margareta really visited by the mystical presence of Jesus in that lonely chapel, seven hundred years ago? Victim of some emotional or psychological imbalance?......
Chapter 7 The Origins of Religion
When philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, in 1885, made his famous proclamation that God was dead, he was saying, of course, that God had never really lived at all. As Marx, Freud, James Frazer, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Bertrand Russell, Nietzsche regarded God as just another vestige of an unscientific past that humanity would soon outgrow, the irrational appeal of religion would simply fade, and God, in all his incarnations, would simply go away. God, however, has not obliged. Are humans clinging to God because they lack the strength and courage to face the world without Him?...
Chapter 8 Realer Than Real
Can all spirituality and any experience of the reality of God be reduced to a fleeting rush of electrochemical blips and flashes, racing along the neural pathways of the brain? Based upon our current understanding of the manner in which the brain turns neural input into the perceptions of human experience, the simplest answer is yes......
Chapter 9 Why God Won’t Go Away
The urge to understand God as a specific, literal being only leads us astray. You should not wish to understand anything about God, for God is beyond all understanding. If I had a God that I could understand, I would not regard him as God. If you understand anything about him, then he is not in it, and by understanding something of him you fall into ignorance. God is by his nature, unknowable. He is not an objective fact, or an actual being; he is, in fact, being itself, the absolute, undifferentiated oneness that is the ground of all existence. When we understand this truth, then all religions connect us to this deeper, divine power. If we fail to understand it and we cling to the comforting images of a personal, knowable God – a God who exists entirely apart from the rest of the creation as a distinct, individual being – we diminish the ultimate realness of God, and reduce his divinity to the stature of the small, “deaf idol” that C.S. Lewis’s poetry so poignantly describes......
 
LoPar

LoPar

Member
I believe that it isn't necessary for anyone to 'prove' their beliefs. One should just believe. If one feels compelled to prove their beliefs, I hope, for their sake, that they are attempting to convert others. Otherwise they are trying to convince themselves.
 
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