Atheism Proves Theism
Atheism is not so much an argument as an act of heckling: it consists of pointing and name-calling.
If you call what saves life and justifies virtue “superstitious nonsense” and you call what leads to astronomical mass murder “science” then any sane and sober man will take the superstition over the science any day. Changing the names of things changes not their nature.
Me, I do not have enough faith to be an atheist. It takes a lot of faith to ignore the facts of history, of science, and the conclusions of logic, and to maintain sub-neolithic ignorance about not just one or two, but all branches of knowledge.
Without God, or some form of supernatural first principle, there is no logical way to support realism rather than nominalism in metaphysics; idealism rather than materialism in ontology; teleological rather than mechanistic explanations in causation; reasoning from first principles rather than reductionist skepticism in epistemology; the objective rather than subjective in ethics; hence no principle of justice, only narratives told by the powerful to oppress and befuddle the weak; and, ultimately, nothing has meaning.
Of course, if nominalism is true, philosophy, including the philosophy of atheism, is a meaningless word game.
If materialism is true, philosophy, including the philosophy of atheism, is merely an meaningless set of brain measurements.
If the mechanistic explanation of cause and effect is sufficient and closed, then philosophy, including the philosophy of atheism, is a non-directional and non-purposeful set of chemical events in the brain, with no possibility either of being true nor false nor meaningful.
If skepticism is true, then knowledge, including the knowledge that there is no God, is forever unavailable to the human mind. Skepticism itself cannot be known to be true.
If subjective ethical thinking is true, the moral integrity needed to hold to any belief merely based on its truth value, including holding to atheism despite the slings and arrows of mocking skeptics like me, is a meaningless epiphenomenon of the brain, and as arbitrary as preferring pie to cake.
If nihilism is true, nothing, not even atheism has meaning or is worth discussing.
And, just, by the way, if there is no God, then the universe has to be without beginning and without end. But the Hubble expansion gives strong empirical proof of a beginning, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics gives inescapable reason to acknowledge there will be an ending.
Now, since atheism contradicts itself at an axiomatic level not in one, but in all branches of philosophy and science, I assume atheism to be more like a mental disease than a serious and sober philosophical posture.
If I were ever to meet an atheist who acted seriously and soberly, I would have cause to question my assumption. I have not, so I do not.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
