If there were no God, there would be no atheists

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St.Eric

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The title of the post is my signature line from G.K. Chesterton. I love it. I never really thought about it but how true! I would like the atheists and anyone else thinks. Does this present a philisophical problem for the atheists?
 
I think it would be helpful for your discussion to flesh out what GKC meant by that comment. Did he mean they wouldn’t exist because no one would exist or that if God didn’t exist they wouldn’t have anyone to blame/hate/fear/fight against, etc.? You see what I mean? Perhaps the context of his statement might be helpful. 😉
 
Can anyone answer Della’s question? I will have to look into that. Good question. I was just thinking of the sentnece in and of itself and the philsophical implications.
 
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St.Eric:
The title of the post is my signature line from G.K. Chesterton. I love it. I never really thought about it but how true! I would like the atheists and anyone else thinks. Does this present a philisophical problem for the atheists?
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I don’t see how this statement can be considered logical. It seems circular.
 
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Maranatha:
I don’t see how this statement can be considered logical. It seems circular.
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Is your belief in Transubstantiation logical? Does somehting have to be logical in order to debate the issue?
 
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St.Eric:
Is your belief in Transubstantiation logical? Does somehting have to be logical in order to debate the issue?
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Transubstantiation needs faith in the teachings of the apostles to be believed but it does not contradict logic. There are no contradictions between faith and logic.

I suppose what G.K. meant is that if there was no God to disbelieve in then their would be nothing to be atheist about. His point being that atheism is an active belief.
 
St.Eric said:
The title of the post is my signature line from G.K. Chesterton. I love it. I never really thought about it but how true! I would like the atheists and anyone else thinks. Does this present a philisophical problem for the atheists?
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If there was no Marduk, there would be no Catholics!
 
St.Eric said:
The title of the post is my signature line from G.K. Chesterton. I love it. I never really thought about it but how true! I would like the atheists and anyone else thinks. Does this present a philisophical problem for the atheists?
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That’s a silly quote that completely misses the point of skepticism about the monotheistic ‘God’. It would be more accurate to assert that "if there were no-one who claims there is a god, and insults, disenfranchises or kills people who disagree with them about what god is like, then there would be no atheists.
 
I always assumed he meant that without a creator they wouldn’t exist.
 
Well, the statement presupposes that God must exist in order for people not to believe in him. To me it just seems like someone trying to make a joke at atheists’ expense. Perhaps I am wrong.
 
IanCorrigan said:
That’s a silly quote that completely misses the point of skepticism about the monotheistic ‘God’. It would be more accurate to assert that "if there were no-one who claims there is a god, and insults, disenfranchises or kills people who disagree with them about what god is like, then there would be no atheists.
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Or shorter: Without people believing in a god, there wouldn’t be a label for those who don’t.
 
whatever said:
Or shorter: Without people believing in a god, there wouldn’t be a label for those who don’t.
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Or, perhaps: "Without the existence of people believing in God, while yet not actually embodying what they believe God is (i.e., Love); there would not be people who, noticing the hypocrisy, deny that God exists.
 
Yer right, if there were no God, there would be no-one
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😃

This quote deals more with the conception of a divinity than it does with its reality. In other words, since we believe in God, he must exist, in some form, even if only as a concept (much like Zeus exists, even though he is not a true god). Atheists cannot rightly say they “oppose God” because that would contradict their belief system. Rather, they may say, “I oppose the conception of God,” etc. Make sense? What Chesterton (God rest) was saying was clever indeed, but little contemplation is required to conclude that it does nothing to prove the Reality of the Divinity–nothing to conclude beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a transcendent, personal Being who created and sustains everything.

Yahweh left THAT much up to the majesty of his creation, innate moral codes, and logic, *of course *…:rolleyes:
 
G.K.'s comment is more of an “off the cuff” comment than anything else, so I’m not sure all of our conclusions can really be extrapolated logically.

However, let’s get a little deeper here because there are some implicit results that can be drawn from what he says. Does “If there were no God, there would be no atheists” imply that atheists would not exist if God didn’t? I’m not so sure. Not that it would be a good world obviously, but imagine a world in which the resounding theory was of an anti-God — for example, the majority of people worshipped the lack of a God. I know it might sound like a nightmare, but in this world the minority might believe in God. In which case, the comment would be something like this:

“If there was a God, there would be no believers.”
 
To continue my point,

“If there was a God, there would be no believers” seems to be a ridiculous statement, right? Like, totally illogical?

If you believe this, then G.K’s statement is equally illogical.
 
I think GKC was assuming that if there were no god, no one would believe in a god, so there would be no term for “atheist”, as there would be no such thing as a “theist.”
I think this is illogical. It is trying to relate two unrelated things.

To simplify things, imagine a completely made-up world. On that world there IS a god.
On that world there could be people who believe in that god (or other gods) & people who don’t.

Imagine another world where there IS NO god, as the quote imagines.
On that world there could be people who believe in a god(s) & people who don’t.

It doesnt matter if there actually is a god(s) or not, it is still possible that some people will believe in a god & others will not.

That is why it takes FAITH to be either a believer OR an athiest. Both base their beliefs on faith, not proof.
 
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