I promise you, that although I haven't written anything here, I've been doing a whole lot of writing. I have been exchanging correspondences with a Christian friend, whom I will say, is very thoughtful and well mannered. I think we both learned a lot (or at least I did), and even though she does not read this blog, I would like to thank her. And because I do not wish to write the same material twice, I will publish some of our exchanges here. I have edited both the questions and comments, but I especially condensed her comments, since I have no idea how she feels about them being posted here.
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"Anyways, it seems like atheists have an answer to everything. Not one thing seems to make atheists sit back and say, humm?"
Haha, of course atheists don't know EVERYTHING, but I think explaining a bit about ether (also spelled aether) will help with my explanation - and I will mention it again later in this message.
May be you knew this already, but for centuries and centuries, Europeans thought that the universe was filled with this invisible substance called ether. After all, they had good reasoning behind it - a baseball does not just float on air, a rock simply just does not levitate; but the moon and the stars and the planets do! So the universe must be filled with ether and the moon and the stars must be floating, similar to objects in water.
And like everything else, people had a lot of questions about ether: Is ether hot, is it cold? What is the density of ether? Is it uniform throughout? Would humans be able to travel through ether?
But of course, there is a problem. There may be a convincing reason to believe in ether, but there is no evidence of it existing. So the modern scientists said well, there is no evidence of it existing, so let's say that it doesn't exist until we find a good evidence for it. And once scientists denied the existence of ether, all the questions regarding it became very easy to explain. I think the same thing is happening with God. It's not that atheists are smarter, but simpler model is simpler to explain.
"The pastor's sermon I directed you to - I understand how you may feel towards him and his "presentation." However, in the light of us discussing, I have listened without pausing or skipping or muting the videos you gave me because its important to you and helps me understand your "beliefs.""
"If this request is a no go, then I guess it really means you're not as open as I had thought and it's futile for me to present anything else. How do you feel about that?"
[I watched a clip of 30 minute video she had suggested, but I turned it off after 10 minutes]
It's unfair to compare you watching videos of atheists and me watching videos of pastors. The reason is, I've spent the majority of my life (and I'm pretty old as you know) going to church and listening to pastors, often 2~3 times a week, and usually 3 sermons on Sundays. And this doesn't even include all the books and pamphlets that I've read.
Excuse me for presuming, and I'll apologize in advance if I'm wrong, but I would guess that you didn't spend 16 years of your life listening to Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens or other atheists at least twice a week. So it's not that I'm not open-minded. I think it has more to do with the fact that I'm weary. I haven't heard everything, but 90% of the time, after the introduction, I know what the sermon is going to be about. I've seen enough.
And now, I want to make a very important point. I really couldn't care less about the weight of ether, the density of ether, or any other properties of ether. The only thing I care about is whether it exists or not. I'm not even asking for a proof; I'm just merely asking for a good enough evidence to convince me to believe in ether. Until this matter is settled, discussions about the property of ether is a waste of my time.
My feelings towards Christianity are similar. I first want to see evidence on whether God exists or not, and then, I want to see an evidence that the bible is his word. Not a proof, but good enough evidence to convince me. I no longer really care about the contents of the bible and whatnot, because to me, this is like talking about properties of ether when it's not even established that it exists.
And if you're wondering why I cite from the bible from time to time - perhaps you might even find it hypocritical - it's because I'm arguing through reductio ad absurdum (not my preferred method of arguing by the way) - its inherent contradictions that suggest, at least to me, that bible really isn't the word of God... at least not a benign or just God.
So naturally, I'm not really interested in hearing pastors like Bob Coy, because in essence, he is talking about properties of ether. But I am very open and interested in videos like Lennox vs. Dawkins, because they are not talking about properties of ether but the existence of it. It's not that I don't want to hear your argument - after all, you did send me links to two videos and I looked at one of them in agonizing detail. It's just that one of them didn't pertain. For future reference, I will probably prefer videos of apologetics.
I love the ether metaphor when explaining my problems with God. There is may be a good reason to believe in it (I'm even doubting that these days), but no good evidence whatsoever. Therefore, I prefer to take Occam's razor and zap - there it goes.
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