Reconsidering Atheist's Wager (Part II)

In my previous post, I considered a recent blog entry titled "Atheist's Wager" and posted what I hoped would be a successful rebuttal. My hope was that a limited use of statistics would show that atheists too have engaged in murder of their fellow man. I was not trying to get into a contest to see who could discredit the other side's beliefs by using the actions of people long dead.

Instead, it seemed reasonable to conclude that if I could show that atheistic humans have killed humans as readily in history as did religionists, then I could also discredit any argument based on a false claim - that religions murder people when atheism does not. I was neither trying to invalidate atheism nor prove that atheism is evil.

I believe the blog post was moderately successful judging by the quality of the feedback it elicited from its readers. Helpfully, anonymous cowards reminded me that atheists are by and large good people too and that the crazy dictators I cited setup power structures not entirely unlike those found in large religious organizations, all of which perpetrate evil on humanity. Jeff pointed me to this great post discussing how Stalin, Hitler, The Inquisition, and The Crusades are often misused in debates over religion and irreligion. (Thank you, Jeff, for the good read!) However, I do think that bringing up Stalin and Hitler were appropriate in this context because we are discussing the historical actions of those with religious and secular ideologies.

Next, I would like to respond to Paul's comments: "Secondly, using a religious document to rebut a logical argument about religion is pointless - if you really want to turn back his argument (and honestly, I really do want to hear a well-thought out reply to this, I think it's certainly possible), you have to use reason, using Bible verses is like ending an argument with ''cause God told me so'."

The Bible verses I quote contain a rather concise and logical argument even when you discount the fact that Christians believe it to be the divinely inspired Word of God. This passage states the following:

1. God made the facts about Himself plainly known to humankind.
2. These facts include God's attributes, divine nature, and eternal power and are clearly observable in the natural world.
3. As such, there is no excuse for anyone to say that they do not know God.
4. Humans created idols that look like man or the animals which they foolishly worshipped instead of God.
   

I chose Romans 1:18-23 because it offered a reasonable explanation of where the many different world religions originated (in human action) along with providing an answer to Atheist's contention that God must be evil because He has not provided humanity with absolute proof of His existence. Unfortunately, those verses were rejected nearly out of hand without due consideration to their logical content.

In closing I would like to restate Atheist's argument concisely (and fairly) and provide a reply as Paul politely requested. It is as follows:

1. God is evil because ideologies exist that conflict with each other.
2. To worship God is an act of treason against humanity.
3. Unless God proves His existence and changes the outcomes, we as a race should not worship Him.

Statement 1: As stated above, humans created ideologies that conflict with one another and with God's religion after rejecting Him. You can't say God is evil if we misuse our free will.

Statement 2: Worshipping God is not an act of treason against humanity. In fact, it's the only way out of the mess we made to begin with!

Statement 3: As we know, God is all-wise and all-knowing by definition. By claiming that He does not deserve to be worshipped until He changes outcomes here on earth assumes that we know better than the All-Wise, All-Knowing Being. Such is mightiness of our human arrogance!

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9 (NASB)

Reconsidering Atheist's Wager

In his first blog posting, Atheist's Wager discusses Blaise Pascal's Wager which was posed by the famous 17th Century mathematician and scientist to convince himself of the rationality of his faith in God. (I plan to return to this very important piece of logic in a later blog posting because it deserves a proper treatment.)

After accurately describing the Wager, the author proceeds to use the fact that one has to consider more religions in this day and age than they used to try to disprove Pascal's logic. The argument employed consists of the following:

1. More religious choices are available to someone than those Pascal specifically discussed in his Wager.
2. Relgion of all types is harmful because it divides humanity instead of unites it.
3. Descriptions of different massacres carried out in the name of religion throughout the years are provided. These include Christians and Muslims killing one another during the Crusades, Jews conquering the Biblical Land of Canaan, Protestants, Catholics killing one another in Ireland, and Shiites and Sunnis killing one another in the Middle East.
4. Citing #3 above, he states that unproved religious beliefs are responsible for having killed millions of people over the years.
5. Therefore, he twists the wager to the Atheist's Wager stating that it is more moral to be atheist than theist.

Fair enough in theory. However, our good friend the Atheist's Wager overlooked one fact of history. More people have been murdered in the name of the atheistic state than any other belief. According to scholar R. J. Rummel, the godless are responsible for all of the following in the 20 Century alone:

Chairman Mao (China)	77 million
Stalin (Soviet Union)	43 million
Hitler (National Socialist Germany)	21 million
Khmer Rogue (Cambodia)	2 million
Kim Jong-Il (North Korea)	1.5 million
Godless' Total Murders	144.5 million

Many atheists would have you believe that it's a case of either choosing religion which murders people in its name or the saintly anti-religionists who just want to be left alone. Unfortunately, the above data shows that a more honest accounting of the historical record shows that the religion of godlessness causes more suffering and harm than any other system of beliefs.

Atheist's Wager continues his argument with "If God only rewards those who follow the 'correct' faith and faith is inherited from one’s parents, then the God who refuses to prove his existence is playing favorites over his creation based on tribal lines pitting groups of humans against each other just like our aliens." Here he is misguided because Christianity is open to anyone who is willing to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior regardless of his or her ethnic group or parents.

Finally, Atheist's Wager concludes with this statement: "Unless God proves his existence and changes the outcomes, we as a race owe it to ourselves to not worship Him."

On this matter, I shall let God speak for Himself:
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures." Romans 1:18-23 (NASB)

Reference:
Wikipedia entry on Pascal's Wager:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager

Wikipedia entry on R. J. Rummel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rummel

Rummel's Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War:
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/welcome.html

Romans Chapter 1:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%201;&version=49;