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Atheism Question
I heard this line trotted out yet again on Sunday just gone, when the topic of atheism turned up in a TV debate program.
There was this Christian mouthpiece who trotted out this line; "But Pol Pot and Mao Tse Tung and Stalin were atheists, and they ran atheistic countries," and so on.
What's your response to this tired old attack?
Mine is "Two points with which I'll refute your argument. Firstly, they weren't atheistic nations. They were run like cults of personality centered on worshipping the dictators. Just like any religious regime, from the Vatican to Jonestown, questioning authority meant a swift and brutal death, just as if you were questioning the Pope's authority in days gone by.
"Secondly, atheists were even more persecuted in countries such as Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and Maoist China, precisely because they questioned - even if they never seemed to want to question their leaders' authority, they were persecuted simply because they could turn their attentions to that forbidden question at any time."
I'd also like, at some point, to mention two further things if any discussion on atheism crops up.
Firstly, that atheism doesn't risk an acrimonious schism on the issue of gay atheists, or gay marriage within atheism.
Secondly, that the line "there are no atheists in foxholes" does not include the innumerable young men who, having survived the horror of those foxholes, saw their naive faith in God destroyed by what they had witnessed.
This is what I can argue, should the debate arise again. Anyone else want to comment?
There was this Christian mouthpiece who trotted out this line; "But Pol Pot and Mao Tse Tung and Stalin were atheists, and they ran atheistic countries," and so on.
What's your response to this tired old attack?
Mine is "Two points with which I'll refute your argument. Firstly, they weren't atheistic nations. They were run like cults of personality centered on worshipping the dictators. Just like any religious regime, from the Vatican to Jonestown, questioning authority meant a swift and brutal death, just as if you were questioning the Pope's authority in days gone by.
"Secondly, atheists were even more persecuted in countries such as Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and Maoist China, precisely because they questioned - even if they never seemed to want to question their leaders' authority, they were persecuted simply because they could turn their attentions to that forbidden question at any time."
I'd also like, at some point, to mention two further things if any discussion on atheism crops up.
Firstly, that atheism doesn't risk an acrimonious schism on the issue of gay atheists, or gay marriage within atheism.
Secondly, that the line "there are no atheists in foxholes" does not include the innumerable young men who, having survived the horror of those foxholes, saw their naive faith in God destroyed by what they had witnessed.
This is what I can argue, should the debate arise again. Anyone else want to comment?
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Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God.
Epicurus