Response to the Demands for Explanation of Atheist Charges

This list of issues was posted at poached egg, and attributed to Harry H McCall on John Loftus’ blog:

“Explanations for Luke Breuer and David Marshall (or Any Christian Apologist) to Answer:
A. Apart from myth and superstition, please name at least one scientific discovery the Bible has given humanity.
B. Please explain how theology is a valid approach to logic, especially in making the world a better place.
C. Based on medieval monasteries, please explain why books in these libraries were organized by monks based on truth and knowledge of the time and why in our scientific age, this order is totally reversed: 1. The Bible 2. Theology 3. Philosophy 4. Medicine Is now: 1. Medicine 2. Philosophy 3. Theology 4. The Bible
D. Please explain how any theology that justifies “C” above can ever be taken seriously.
E. Please explain why human knowledge is condemned in Genesis 3 with humanity eternally punished, yet the very same knowledge (gained by eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge) now must be used by Christian apologists to defend the very God who has cursed humanity forever.
F. Please explain how the Bible is any different from the mythological world of other false religions or why the Bible can’t objectively face itself in the historical religious mirror without denying reality.
G. Please explain why the Bible (The Word of God), which reveals absolute truth must be constantly defended especially in societies (such as the United States and modern Europe) that have freedom from religion.
H. Please explain why God, outside of the Bible, is seen functioning only though subjective interpretations and why the words faith, theology, or God are NOT found in Black’s Law Dictionary and why such words so vital to theology and doctrine as constantly argued by apologist would never hold up in a modern court of law.
I. Please explain why no other field of objective inquiry is fixed on unproven dogma for 2,000 plus years, especially dogmatic religious faith that continually fails to provide advancement in stopping human suffering.
J. Please explained why a self professed ancient work known to Christianity as the Old Testament claiming to record at least 4,000 years of world history directed by God vanishes into thin air before 200 BCE.
K. Please explain why, apart from the New Testament’s Gospels, a Historical Jesus fails to have left any mark in Roman Palestine apart from the dubious comment of Josephus.
L. Please tell us, apart from theology, how you KNOW the Bible is objectively true.
M. Based on the above answers, please explain why any future apologetic objections should be taken with little more than a grain of salt.”

Let’s address these issues one at a time:

A. Apart from myth and superstition, please name at least one scientific discovery the Bible has given humanity.

Archaeologically speaking, there are numerous finds that have been predicted by biblical text, including the discovery of the existence of at least 50 historical figures who have only recently come to light archaeologically, but have biblical references. (Ref. Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol 40, No. 2, p42).

B. Please explain how theology is a valid approach to logic, especially in making the world a better place.

First: Aristotelian logic is the standard; Aristotle was NOT an Atheist, he was a deist.

Second: Theology claims that objective truth exists, as opposed to Naturalism/Materialism which, under Hume and Nietzsche, destroyed all possible truth. Logic works only if there is an objective set of First Principles which are self-evident and incontrovertibly true. Atheists, under Naturalism and Materialism recognize only the contingent factoids of science, and further are hampered by the Godelian requirement for a hierarchy of knowledge bases necessary for confirmation of material knowledge.

Third: The demand, ”especially in making the world a better place”, is a false allusion to a presupposition, unstated, that Atheism has, in fact, made the world a better place, which is historically false, given the millions killed under Atheist regimes in just the last century, AND, the presupposition that technology and science are not pursued by theists, which is demonstrably false, also, since a preponderance of engineers are theist. Further, science in the absence of technology is not a producer of a world which is a better place. Science, alone, is morally neutral, and it produces as much evil as it does good.

Atheism which claims logic and evidence has neither in support of its own claims. In fact, Atheism is based on rationalization, not rationality, contrary to the claims made in its behalf.

C. Based on medieval monasteries, please explain why books in these libraries were organized by monks based on truth and knowledge of the time and why in our scientific age, this order is totally reversed: 1. The Bible 2. Theology 3. Philosophy 4. Medicine Is now: 1. Medicine 2. Philosophy 3. Theology 4. The Bible

This has no bearing on anything other than the enlightenment capture of the supposed knowledge base of man, after rejecting (without evidence or logic) theism. Again, science offers no truth, only factoids; so the reduction of knowledge to factoids is a figment of Atheist control of what is allowed to be called “knowledge”.

D. Please explain how any theology that justifies “C” above can ever be taken seriously.

This is not a valid question, it is an unjustifiable rhetorical attack, especially in light of the falseness which inheres in “C” above.

It is science and Atheism which cannot be taken as truth, especially current science which has abandoned the empirical necessities for objective information producing processes, and instead uses story-telling as “evidence” for false ideologies such as evolution and cosmology, which are partially valid but corrupted by Atheist ideological influence.

E. Please explain why human knowledge is condemned in Genesis 3 with humanity eternally punished, yet the very same knowledge (gained by eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge) now must be used by Christian apologists to defend the very God who has cursed humanity forever.

Atheists who condemn literalist “fundamentalists” always take the literalist approach and want the literalist reading of the bible explained to their satisfaction. Since the bible is known and acknowledged to contain many types of literature, including metaphor and analogy as well as poetry, supplication, inference, etc., there is no need to “explain” anything to an Atheist, who would reject it on phony literalist grounds.

The use of the “tree of knowledge” in the question is false, because the biblical reference is to the tree of knowledge of good and evil; the Atheist truncation is done prejudicially and erroneously. Plus, Atheists don’t believe in good/evil, but make good/evil claims against theists and the bible, which constitutes yet another non-coherent position in a plethora of Atheist non-coherence.

Further, there is nothing about this or any other biblical reference which has any bearing on the existence of a creating entity for the universe, an agent with the power and desire to do so, and the power and desire to do whatever is seen as interesting or important to that agent.

So this attack is merely a Red Herring, designed to imply, falsely, that the bible is against the type of knowledge (factiods) which Atheists think they have exclusive credit for producing (they do not). Science originated well before the enlightenment and was pursued and developed by theists. It is an error to claim or suggest that theism is against physical knowledge of existence.

F. Please explain how the Bible is any different from the mythological world of other false religions or why the Bible can’t objectively face itself in the historical religious mirror without denying reality.

The bible does not claim that other religions are false, it claims that any gods which exist are subservient to the one necessary creating agent for the universe. This question is prejudicially stated, and should be stated thus: how is the bible vindicated? The answer is that archaeology has vindicated many aspects of the bible, and that Atheism cannot prove otherwise, so it merely casts aspersions.

G. Please explain why the Bible (The Word of God), which reveals absolute truth must be constantly defended especially in societies (such as the United States and modern Europe) that have freedom from religion

Attacks on Truth have become more frequent ever since Hume, and especially since Friedrich Nietzsche pointed out that there are no first principles under Atheism, and therefore no truth (Ref. Beyond Good and Evil; pg. 24); that there is no free will (ibid pg25); that there is no knowledge (ibid pg 28); and that “in real life it is only a matter of strong and weak wills. Hence the constant Atheist attacks on the Other, not matter how irrational the attack.

That’s why Truth has to be defended. If it is not defended, only the chaotic anti-intellect can persist under the pursuit of the Will To Power.

H. Please explain why God, outside of the Bible, is seen functioning only though subjective interpretations and why the words faith, theology, or God are NOT found in Black’s Law Dictionary and why such words so vital to theology and doctrine as constantly argued by apologist would never hold up in a modern court of law.

First part: this is blatantly false, given the connection between consciousness and matter which is a confirmed principle of Quantum Mechanics. Science is not on the side of Atheists or Physicalist/Materialists. That they do not acknowledge that fact indicates that they do not know it, and rather than scientists they are merely aficionados of Scientism.

Second part: This is the height of ignorance. There are many, many concepts not mentioned in Black’s; that has no bearing on their existence. The concept that Black’s is the determiner of existence is intellectually juvenile.

I will post a response to the rest of the “issues” soon. This will have to do for now.