A blogger who calls himself God's Advocate posted a list of 20 questions that "atheists struggle to answer," and claims that "there have not been any decent responses to them in the past 40yrs" (sic). Here's his list, followed by my explanation of why this list is stupid:
1. What caused the universe to exist?
2. What explains the fine tuning of the universe?
3. Why is the universe rational?
4. How did DNA and amino acids arise?
5. Where did the genetic code come from?
6. How do irreducibly complex enzyme chains evolve?
7. How do we account for the origin of 116 distinct language families?
8. Why did cities suddenly appear all over the world between 3,000 and 1,000BC?
9. How is independent thought possible in a world ruled by chance and necessity?
10. How do we account for self-awareness?
11. How is free will possible in a material universe?
12. How do we account for conscience?
13. On what basis can we make moral judgements?
14. Why does suffering matter?
15. Why do human beings matter?
16. Why care about justice?
17. How do we account for the almost universal belief in the supernatural?
18. How do we know the supernatural does not exist?
19. How can we know if there is conscious existence after death?
20. What accounts for the empty tomb, resurrection appearances and growth of the church?
Most of these questions are little more than another attempt to justify belief via a God of the Gaps argument. "Where'd the universe come from, huh?" the theist will ask, as though our lack of knowledge somehow implies that the theist is correct and we're wrong for not believing him. "God did it. How else do you explain it? What? You don't know? Ha! In your face, atheists!" The reality is, we don't have all the answers yet. We're all agnostics, regardless of what we claim to know. Making up an answer and proclaiming it confidently in no way makes your beliefs correct.
This brings me to Question 18: How do we know the supernatural doesn't exist? That's the wrong question to ask. Maybe what you call "the supernatural" does exist. You're the one making the claim, "God's Advocate." The burden of proof is on you to show us how you know the supernatural exists. Making up an answer and then trying to justify it by pointing out how it can't be disproved in no way makes your beliefs correct. All it does is show your lack of reasoning ability. This is my response for question 20 as well. All you've done is offer an argument from ignorance.
Questions 13 through 16 represent the old argumentum ad consequentiam fallacy commonly found in the theist's attempt to justify god via "objective moral standards." Even if you're right and "No God = No Morality," that still doesn't provide any evidence for god. Truth isn't contingent upon whether you like the outcome. That said, morality, justice, human rights and value are not meaningless to an atheist, and honestly, the existence of god doesn't make these things any more meaningful. I've written about this several times, so I'll just say this: If morality is indeed determined by god, then that is a morality that is entirely subjective, for it is determined by nothing more than the will and whim of this being called "god." So if god decides one day that raping children is virtuous, then it must be, if morality is based on god.
Predictably, religionists will argue: "Oh, god would never say that." But why do the religionists need to say this? Is it because they think raping children is wrong, regardless of whether their god agrees? Seems those who believe god is required for morality can't adhere to that belief with consistency.
The worst part of this list is the intrinsic arrogance. "I have the answers. You don't." You're half-right: I don't have all the answers. That's why I'm an atheist. I was a Christian until I admitted I couldn't support my truth claims. I had no reason to think they were true, so I set them aside. I know from experience that it takes some courage and humility to admit a lack of knowledge. I found the process extremely difficult, because I like to know things - I love knowledge - and humility isn't one of my strongest qualities. You are right about one thing, though: atheists do indeed struggle with many of these questions, because we want to know the truth. We won't settle for a faith-based answer. We don't want to just make up answers that make us feel good. We want to be able to back up our views with logic, reason, and evidence. We will continue to struggle until we reach that goal. You should too.
— Dead-Logic
