IV. <B>Atheism: Arguments against God's existence</B>
<UL>
<LI>
<I>God's omniscience is incompatible with human freedom.</I>&nbsp; Reply:
when God creates, He creates some determinate thing; so He knows what he
creates and what we (on our own) will freely (without interference from
anything other than ourselves) choose to do.&nbsp; We do our actions, not
God.</LI>
</UL>

<UL>
<LI>
<I>Problem of evil.</I>&nbsp; Replies: (A) Things are considered evil only
from our perspective as individuals. [Counter-reply: then we cannot say
that the world is good either, since it would be only from our perspective.&nbsp;
Besides, no one really thinks that evil is not real.]&nbsp; (B) Evil is
necessary to balance the good. [Counter-reply: this again denies that evil
is real by making it something that is ultimately good.]&nbsp; (C) Evil
is necessary to highlight the good. [Counter-reply: why so much evil?&nbsp;
And why could God not have simply given us such knowledge?&nbsp; We may
learn better and become persons through struggle, but what does an infant
who dies learn?]</LI>
</UL>

<UL>
<LI>
<I>Omnipotence is incoherent, impossible: God cannot do everything (if
that includes the impossible). </I>Reply: To say that God cannot do the
impossible is no limitation on God; even God cannot and would not do what
makes no sense.</LI>
</UL>

<UL>
<LI>
<I>God's goodness is incompatible with his creation of the devil and eternal
punishment.&nbsp;</I> Reply: the devil is simply the embodiment of the
ever-present possibility for evil; and hell is the eternal affirmation
of one's choice not to have a significance or meaning.&nbsp; Any suffering
in this life is more than made up by eternal happiness. [Counter-replies:
(Dostoevsky): no theodicy or reconciliation of evil and the existence of
God is possible.&nbsp; Suffering is unavengeable: not even in an afterlife
can all be made right, for those who have suffered never erase the suffering.&nbsp;
Belief in God ensures that the reality of evil is never lost.&nbsp; (Hume):
why should I believe in an afterlife in the first place--simply to balance
the perceived evil in the world?&nbsp; Why not acknowledge that evil as
evidence against an afterlife and a God?]</LI>
</UL>
V. <B>Motives for why people would choose (incorrectly) to believe in God:</B>
<UL>
<LI>
<U>Feuerbach:</U> traits of God are really projections of human characteristics
that have become alienated and intimidating grounds for self-effacement.&nbsp;
Religion keeps human beings from retrieving these characteristics (their
subjective essence) from the foreign, artificial God.&nbsp; Human alienation
(the frustration of human aspirations) is really due to religion.</LI>
</UL>
<UL>
<LI>
<U>Marx:</U> Marx asks why Feuerbach's religious alienation would have
occurred in the first place.&nbsp; The critique of religion does not correct
the social conditions that cause alienation.&nbsp; Religion (the opium
of the people) is the way that human beings try to compensate for social
alienation by means of idealizing social (family) relations and thus minimizing
the reality of human misery caused by social structures.&nbsp; The illusions
of religion (peace, happiness) kill the pain and do away with the need
to correct the real social problems (left unsolved as well by science).&nbsp;
Once social alienation is overcome, the need for religion will disappear.</LI>
</UL>

<UL>
<LI>
<U>Freud:</U> religious beliefs are born of infantile feelings of helplessness
and fear.&nbsp; Infants recognize that they are not all-powerful, and this
produces fear and resentment and the need for a protector from pain and
unhappiness.&nbsp; The father provides this protection, and the infant
grows up wishing that such a belief is true, unconsciously adopting a delusion
shared by others (and thus reinforced).&nbsp; Religion makes us think that
the real value of life lies beyond life (e.g., in an afterlife), and this
depresses the value of life and diminishes intelligence by emphasizing
how we are unable to take care of ourselves or understand why we exist.&nbsp;
depresses the value of life and diminishes intelligence by emphasizing
how we are unable to take care of ourselves or understand why we exist.&nbsp;
We then resort to believing in something that transcends this life, namely,
God.&nbsp; By holding people at the level of their infancy and providing
a social support system, religion helps people avoid anxiety and neurosis
through this self-delusion.&nbsp; Religion can be escaped only by those
with the courage to face the scientific harshness of life or by those who
channel their anxiety-based delusions into socially acceptable forms of
expression (e.g., art).</LI>
</UL>

We then resort to believing in something that transcends this life, namely,
God.&nbsp; By holding people at the level of their infancy and providing
a social support system, religion helps people avoid anxiety and neurosis
through this self-delusion.&nbsp; Religion can be escaped only by those
with the courage to face the scientific harshness of life or by those who
channel their anxiety-based delusions into socially acceptable forms of
expression (e.g., art).</LI>
</UL>

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