Okay, I’ve been here for a while and have been wanting to ask some even handed questions to hopefully get some realistic and even handed answers. As my profile states, I am an atheist. I hold no belief in any higher power. I was a Roman Catholic for the first decade of my life, but I began questioning things about 7-8 years old and fully made my switch to atheism at 11. I just turned 40 in January. I am open-minded towards spirituality and faith, but believe that organized religion has been a very destructive force on this planet for a long time and may one day be the human race’s undoing.
Since you had so much to write, you left little room to respond statement by statement (as there is a 6,000 word limit to these things)! So, my responses will be short. In order to answer your dilemma (above), you should read Vox Day’s book entitled,
The Irrational Atheist. It’s short, too.
- God is omnipotent, omniscient, all loving, and all good. Why did he allow Lucifer to rebel and thus set in motion the creation of Hell?
He did not
allow Lucifer to to rebel. He merely gave Lucifer
Freedom. “Freedom” comes with certain, shall we say, potential pitfalls. One being that such a free entity can choose not to “see” God’s Face, and to be satisfied in his own being, which, as an angel was pretty good.
Similarly, why did he allow original sin?
He didn’t allow OS; rather, He allowed Freedom.
If he knew what the outcome would be and is all good, why would he let his children suffer?
Honest answer: that’s a tough one. But, one thing’s for sure, God has a purpose.
- Why does he allow bad things (even death) to happen to good people?
Why is death a “bad” thing? Of course, if we absolutely know - beyond any shadow of reasonable doubt - that a particular person is only going to Hell, I suppose it would be.
Why does he take babies, children, and other people long before their time?
Lots of surmises would be required of this multi-question. Again, I will say that there is one thing for sure, God has His purposes.
Why would he make those people’s loved ones suffer so?
This is as tough to try to answer as your above question. But, it must be answered the same way.
- I don’t have links to proof, but it’s long been pointed out that Jesus is nothing more than a literary/astrological hybrid, and that many of the Christian doctrines were adapted from Jewish ones, which were all but lifted from ancient Egyptian belief systems. Where’s any proof that he was real? Of all the time humans have been on this planet, why did God specifically choose roughly 2000 years ago to send Jesus to earth? Why doesn’t he just send us proof now of his existence and put this all to bed once and for all?
If I were God, I could probably answer these questions easily. But, any answers I give would be little more than conjectures. To those who recognize His answers to such questions, He has sent proof. To others, not yet.
- There are over 2 billion earth-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone. For us to think that we’re the only life in the entire universe is not only extremely arrogant,
On the contrary. It is arrogant to propose as fact that we’re not alone. All we can do is conjecture, or postulate.
it’s downright scary. Why does the church teach that we’re so special, so unique, when it’s nearly statistically impossible that we’re alone in all of the cosmos (and that’s not even counting if there are multiverses).
Because “nearly statistically impossible” is conjecture - not proof, as science would have it.
- Why must God exist at all?
Because things that begin do not cause their own beginnings. Moreover, in the absence of any other thing, a thing cannot cause its own beginning. We therefore, reason our way to that which is uncaused (God exists
through himself) causing, or creating, all else.
I’m an atheist, yet I’m as good of a person now than if I were a devout Catholic, Christian, or other religion.
Hmmm. Are we sure?
Do we really need this antiquated, threatening edict of Hell for eternity if we don’t behave or believe?
No. All we need is the joyful love of God and our neighbor.
I mean, the universe is so magnificent in its wonder that I’ve got to think that if there were a supreme being or whatever out there, they wouldn’t care about what we’re doing here on this miserable planet.
So, what “out there” is greater than the human mind?
- Why is it those that claim to be more devout and committed to their religions are usually the ones doing the most harm to their fellow humans? Priests sexually abusing kids,
First of all, have you bothered to take a good look at the real statistics? They’re quite plain on the internet. Without doubt, they show that the safest place a kid could be is
in a Catholic School! It is “out there” where the plethora of dangers lie.
religious leaders bilking the flock out of money and doing other unsavory deeds, etc.
Religious leaders are human beings, too. They can be bought by Satan as easily as any man. Fortunately, this sort of thing seems to be much less common in the Catholic Churches.
- Same-sex relationships appear in almost all, if not all species on earth.
What? Are you sure you want to assert that?
Why is it that some humans are the only ones who abhor it?
Some humans abhor it. Most (good) Catholics do not
abhor it. Most (good) Catholics decry the sin in precisely the same way they decry the sins of illicit satisfactions of concupiscence. Since such satisfactions are not productive of new life, they are in and of themselves selfish.
continued . . .
