Living in a bubble of stupidity

Rebecca Watson made a good post about living in a bubble. Coming across a post/article at the Evangelical Examiner, I couldn't help thinking about it again. Where Rebecca's bubble is one of rationality, the author of the EE piece live in a bubble of ignorance and stupidity.

But don't take my word for it. Let's go through it together.

The accidential atheist by Jake Jones

Every week I see articles from various sources about Atheism, and in general non-believers. Merriam Webster OnLine describes the word “atheist” as “one who believes that there is no deity”. Christians on the other hand believe in a deity who has created the Universe including the Earth, all of the life forms on planet earth including man himself. Christians believe that God (the Christian deity) is in control of the Universe and our lives and we should be obedient to Him.

The dictionary definition is a bit imprecise. An atheist is someone who doesn't believe in a deity. In other words, it's a lack of belief rather than a belief, something which the dictionary make it sound like.

Most Christians would say that they believe they have what is commonly called “free will”. In other words, Christians can make choices that even Atheists can make and visa versa. However, some of those “free will” choices can be, or lead to sin for the Christian, but, Atheists don’t have to worry about a darn thing because they don’t believe in any kind, form or type of deity! Nothing for them to worry about at all because everything is ACCIDENTAL!

Atheists also believe in something which commonly can be called "free will", and unlike religious people, they actually mean it. We don't believe that any deity controls or directs us, thus invalidating the whole concept of "free will". What we do believe, however, is that there are certain actions which are unacceptable in a modern society, which results in laws against these things. Think of it as "sin", just with consequences.

And everything is not accidental. The existing of our lives is cause by a number of random chances and responses to outside simulation (e.g. evolution).

Atheists say that they do not worship a deity or have to answer to a higher authority But do atheists worship a deity? Hmmmm.... they seem to worship the ACLU! I guess not, but the atheist organizations look to the ACLU to save their tails when things don't go their way. Na! The ACLU is not a deity. Just a thought.

"Society" could be considered a higher authority, and as members of the society, we all have to answer to it. If we don't we face direct consequences (legal or social).

The ACLU is an organization focusing on defending core parts of the US constitution, including the separation of church and state, and is as such, much appreciated by the US atheists. For us atheists living outside of the US, it sounds like a good organization, but it has little relevance to us.

So if there is no God, what is the rhyme or reason for Atheists making a big stink about prayer almost anywhere and any time?

Maybe because they are frequently forced to participate? Or because they respect the Constitution? Do note that it's not only atheists who dislike public prayers. People belonging to other religions are also not too fond of them.

They try to tell us that the Constitution prohibits prayer in school when it doesn’t, it was the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court does not, in itself, have the power to prohibit something. The only thing they can do, is to look at the evidence, and to rule if something is legal or not. It happens that the Supreme Court looked at the evidence, and found that public prayer is illegal.

They are offended when anyone prays, or prays in Jesus name or uses the word God in the public square.

Atheists might not like any prayer, but they are not able to do anything against other people praying. What they can do, and have done, is to stop publicly endorsed praying, like school praying, as it's against the US Constitution.

If people want to pray on their own, they are welcome to do so. But that's not what they want, is it? They want to force their religion down everybody else throat.

What gives? Why sould they care if Christians pray, worship in public, talk about Jesus, God or the Bible. There is no rhyme or reason to their complaints.

Of course Christians can do all that. They just can't force everybody else to participate.

Sure Christians look like fools in the eyes of the Atheists, but if the Atheists ever figured it out they would allow Christians to go on looking like fools. The Atheists would be on the winning side without having to "call on the deity of the ACLU" to save the day for them.

If Christians are allowed to force everyone else into participating in their rituals, it's not like the atheists can just ignore them, is it? I'm pretty sure that Christians wouldn't like to have to participate in Hindu or Islamic prayers, yet they feel no qualms in trying to make everyone else participate in theirs.

That leads me to the title of this article. Atheists believe that the whole universe was an ACCIDENTAL formation of millions of Galaxies, solar systems, suns, planets, moons and smaller objects simply obeying “no one” but ACCIDENTALLY remaining in the necessary locations so that there is no major chaos in the Universe.

No. The universe is a random occurrence, following the laws of the universe. There is nothing accidental about it - when the process is first started, it's going to result in something. The fact that it ended up like it did, is to some degree pure chance, but while the possible results were countless, they were not unlimited.

The positions of the astronomic bodies are a result of the expansion of the universe, combined with the natural forces, such as gravity. Nothing magic, or accidental, about that.

The word "chaos", as it's used in this case, is imprecise, but it could be argued that the collisions of planets, stars, indeed entire galaxies, would be considered chaotic.

In just our Galaxy alone the odds of that happening would be hundreds of trillions to one.

If I play a game of cards with my friends, the odds of us getting the cards in the exact order is astronomically small, yet no one would claim that it's impossible for us to have gotten those cards in that order.

That would mean that every mamal, insect, fish, amphibian and man himself was strictly an ACCIDENT!

Only if you're a moron.

It's obvious to me that the formation of the Universe was a calculated and precisely timed event at the hand of God.

That's nice. Of course, it doesn't make sense, but that hasn't really stopped you before, have it?

There is more proof that God is real than there is proof that there is no God.

It's generally not possible to prove a negative, so lack of proof of the negative is not impressive, and does not mean that we should take it as evidence of the positive. And there isn't really any evidence of there being a deity.

The proof is the Bible and the archeological discoveries that prove the Bible as an accurate and divine manifestation of God’s Holy Word.

Given the fact that the bible is historically wrong on many accounts, and that there is no (credible) sources for the authentication of the stories in the New Testament, this is a pretty credulous claim. Wouldn't the mere fact that the bible contradicts itself be a pretty good indication that it's hardly divine?

Which one makes sense to you? Atheism or Christianity?

Let's see, one side is based on the present evidence, while the other is based on a self-contradicting book without any real evidence on its side. You know what, I think I'll go for atheism.

I believe that this whole “ACCIDENT” of creation that the atheists believe is just plain silly. I choose to stand on the ‘solid Rock’, because all other ground is sinking sand.

This is what I mean about the bubble of stupidity. The author is so protected from evidence that he doesn't understand the subject he is writing about, and seem to think that just saying something makes it so.

There are many religious people who are keenly aware that their faith is not based on fact (hence, it being faith). These people understand that the existence of life, the universe, and all that, can be explained without a deity. They just have faith in something more.