There are few American Catholic writers that I have read more than Dr. Peter Kreeft. I even wrote him a fan letter calling him “an American CS Lewis.” In my years as a teacher, I have found his wisdom, holiness, and insight invaluable in explaining God’s truth.
In a world where the believer is constantly bombarded with the atheist message, sometimes it is helpful to break down the different types of arguments that the unbeliever has against the faith. Dr. Kreeft noted that there are three types of arguments against the existence of God. What is fascinating is that almost all of them fail at what they claim to do: disprove God.
1. PSYCHOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS
These arguments claim that the believer’s faith is based on bad psychological reasons. Betrand Russell said that all belief is based upon a fear of death. Human beings are terrified that they could cease to exist, so we have invented a wish-fulfillment fantasy called “God” who gives us an afterlife if we are good. Karl Marx claimed that we use religious belief as the “opium of the masses.” This means that we use religion as a type of narcotic. The pain and suffering of this world is unbearable. To take away the sting of existence, we ease ourselves with the lie that there is a God who has a plan and will reward the righteous and punish the wicked.
Arguments of this type tend to disturb a number of believers. I had a former student who came and spoke to me after his first semester of college. He told me he had an encounter with an atheist at school. This atheist said that my student’s faith was only motivated by his desire to go to heaven. Shaken, my student said to me, “I didn’t know what to say, because I do want to go to heaven. So is what he said true?”
I responded, “I want to believe that my wife loves me. It is a belief that gives me great comfort. But does that belief have any bearing whatsoever on whether or not she actually loves me in reality.” He replied, “No.”
It might be true that I believe in God from a selfish motivation. Regardless, it has no bearing on whether or not God exists. You may not want to believe in God because of all of His moral laws. I may want to believe in God from a desire to go to heaven. Neither your belief or my belief have any bearing on the reality of God’s existence. If we flip a coin and cover it before either sees it, you may say it is heads and I may say tails. But neither one of our beliefs can affect the reality on whether it is heads or tails. So the atheist fails to prove that a bad psychological reason disproves God.
A final note on this: a desire to go to heaven is not necessarily a selfish one. CS Lewis said that a man who wants to marry the woman he loves is not motivated by selfishness. He simply desires the subject of his love. In the same way, if we love God, it is natural that we should want to share eternal life with Him.
2. SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENTS
These arguments take on two forms. The first is to point out that you cannot prove God scientifically. There is no test you can perform in a lab that will demonstrate the existence of the Supreme Being. Since He cannot be proved scientifically, He is not real.
The second is that in the last few centuries, humanity has made amazing leaps and bounds in science. In less than 70 years we went from our first flight to landing on the moon. Science has unlocked so many of the mysteries of the universe that there are many that think that science will unlock ALL the mysteries of the universe. This includes the mystery of God.
The arguments claim that all the things that we used to attribute to supernatural forces were simply natural forces that we did not yet understand. The ancient Greeks thought that thunder and lightning were caused by Zeus’ wrath. Now we know that it has to do with the build-up of electrons in the atmosphere. Many see Darwin’s theory of evolution as a scientific way to replace the creation of humanity by God. The scientific arguments for atheism claims that science will one day debunk all religious beliefs.
Regarding the first part, just because something cannot be proven scientifically, it does not mean that it is not provable. Not everything is science. The great source humor for shows like The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon is that the main character tries to look at human life purely in scientific terms. This results in a lot of humor because we all know that this is inherently ridiculous. Science cannot establish that your life has innate value or that courage is better than cowardice. And yet the things that make life worth living, like the love we have for our family and friends, is beyond the scope of science. Science is limited. It cannot disprove God because God is beyond the scope of science. Science could no more disprove God than it could disprove love, friendship, or beauty.
Regarding the claim that science will one day disprove God is a problematic position for the atheist. They claim that belief in God does not pass scientific muster because it is a scientifically unproven belief. But the belief that science will one day disprove God is itself a scientifically unproven belief. There is no way for the atheist to claim this belief with scientific certainty, and so it contradicts itself.
3. LOGICAL ARGUMENTS
These are arguments that claim that logic and reason can either disprove God or show that there is a better explanation for the way things are other than God. Of the three types of arguments, this is the one that the believer should take the most seriously in terms of arguments. While the psychological arguments can be more personal and disturbing to the individual believer, we have established that they have no real logical power.
But the laws of logic and reason were given to us by God. They are means to the truth. The God who wrote the Bible is also the one who wrote the laws of reason, therefore reason and faith cannot contradict each other.
First, it should be noted that there is nothing wrong if an atheist disproves a bad argument for God’s existence. Not all logical arguments for God’s existence are good ones. If I were to say, “I love things that exist and I love God, therefore God exists,” you would be correct to point out that this a bad argument for God. But notice that while you may debunk the argument, you do not debunk God Himself.
Most of the arguments here don’t claim to outright disprove God. They either claim to refute a popular argument for God’s existence or they devise an alternate explanation that they claim is more plausible than God.
The only argument that I have ever encountered that claims to disprove God is “The Problem of Pain.” The argument basically goes like this: an all-powerful and all-good God would not allow us to suffer. But we do suffer. Therefore God is either not all-powerful or all-good or neither.
The refutation of this argument would take more space than could be allowed in this article. Suffice to say that was wonderfully answered in CS Lewis’ The Problem of Pain, which I cannot recommend enough.
CONCLUSION
When engaging with arguments from unbelievers, it is helpful to figure out which category of argument their approach comes from. Figuring this out will better equip you in defending the faith.
W.L. Grayson
I am a devoutly Catholic theology teacher who loves a popular culture that often, quite frankly, hates me. I grew up absorbing every movie, TV show, comic book, science fiction novel, etc. I could find. As of today I’ve watched over 2100 movies and tv shows. They take up a huge part of my life. I don’t know that this is a good thing, but it has given me a common vocabulary to draw from in order to illustrate whatever theological point I make in class. I’ve used American Pie the song to explain the Book of Revelation (I’ll post on this some time later) and American Pie the movie to help explain Eucharist (don’t ask). The point is that the popular culture is popular for a reason. It is woven into the fabric of our lives and imaginations, for good or ill. In this blog I will attempt to bring together the things of heaven with the things of earth. Of course this goal may be too lofty for someone like me.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.