The Berkeley Mission -- Part 4

During the The Berkeley Mission we invited Mark Thomas of the Atheists of Silicon Valley to present his arguments against theism and for atheism to our students.  His presentation basically consisted of the arguments in his "Why Atheism" web article. 

Mark opened up by seemingly describing the history of Jesus' life:  "he was born of a virgin," "shepherds visited during his birth," "he was a great teacher," "he had twelve disciples."  However, at the end of the description, Mark let us in on a secret.  He was not describing Jesus of Nazareth but rather, Mithra, a mythological pagan figure.  Fortunately, Mark's introduction did not have its intended shock effect on our students.  We had already exposed them to the Mithra story and a thorough refutation.

Next, Mark moved into a characterization of the Christian position and in his mind, summarized our arguments by holding up a sign that read, "God did it."  According to Mark, "If a person doesn’t know how something works or why something happened, they can say, 'God did it.'  This is known as the 'god of the gaps,' or the 'argument from ignorance'...Science looks for natural causes, while religion looks for supernatural causes."  Of course, this was merely a caricature of our position and one which our students were prepared for.  We had given them some basic tools of logic so they were able to recognize a straw man when they saw one.  Indeed, our students would have argued against this position themselves!

To be fair to Mark, he outlined his seven basic arguments for concluding that the God of Christianity does not exist as follows:

1. The definition of Yahweh is logically inconsistent and describes a beting that cannot exist.
2. There is no need for any God to explain the universe.
3. There is no empirical evidence for God.
4. There is the moral failings of the Bible
5. There is no reliable historical evidence for Jesus.
6. The problem of evil proves that God does not exist.
7. All the arguments attempting to prove that God exists fail.

Unfortunately, these arguments were not well-developed and he seemed to fall back on caricatures of theism.  Throughout, the presentation was marked by the following kinds of statements and claims:

• Mark asked, "If our rights come from God, where did they exist before government started enforcing these rights?"
• He compared belief in God to belief in Santa Claus.
• He stated that "reason and evidence rather than religious faith are the sources of religious truth."
• Mark claimed, "The characteristics of Yahweh are man-made...Pretty much everything we can say about Yahweh can be said about Zeus and many of the other gods."
• Mark stated, "One of the biggest weaknesses in using God to explain anything scientifically is that the explanation is not falsifiable and thus, not even testable."
• He stated that Intelligent Design was a "god of the gaps" argument, it wasn't falsifiable, and is simply not science. (During the Q & A, I asked him which ID authors he has read and he said, "I don't read them because to me, it's garbage.  It's just saying well this is magic, we don't know how this is, so therefore it's magic!")

Well, the exciting part was watching our students during the Q & A time.  They peppered Mark with intelligent and articulate questions, not with ad hominens or angry reactions.  They were equipped with the knowledge to question his views on evolution, point out his "science-of-the-gaps" argument, and point to the inconsistencies and absurdities in his moral views.  Rather than weakening our student's faith in God, Mark actually helped strengthen it. 

Comments

[Tom R.]

Thanks, Brett, for this series of posts. They've been really encouraging. After working in college ministry for 8 years at a secular university, I know the kind of preparedness Christian students need to have in order to stand firm and to to have the courage to defend and share the truth.

While I do believe it's important to innoculate students against the arguments of atheism, it seems equally, if not more, important to train them to think through what I believe is the dominant view on the college campus, and that is that all of our major religions essentially teach the same things (at the core) and are all valid paths to God. In my experience, atheism is a minority view among college students. It seems that the majority won't accept Christ as the only way, but they have no problem with Christ as one of the ways among many to God/salvation. Of course, many of the arguments are the same from atheists and from those who reject the exclusive claims of Christianity.

Anyhow, thanks for your heart to strengthen the minds and faith of our youth and for the example you're setting.

[Christopher Taylor]

I wonder what this guy does with the Cosmological argument, a proof that for centuries has been unanswerable by any rational person. It is an argument which common sense, science, and logic all demand to be true.

Or, to put it like R.C. Sproul does:
If there ever was nothing... what wouuld there be now?