Listen, I get it. You don’t want God to exist. Or perhaps you do, you just haven’t been convinced. I understand. God is a big concept to wrap our heads around. But if you want to argue against His existence, make sure you don’t use bad arguments. Let me share with you the absolute worst argument you can use.
The #1 Worst Argument
God does really bad, awful things so He must not be real.
I’ve heard this argument made in two different ways. Let’s address both.
Argument 1: The God of the Bible did horrific things. He must not be real.
I’ll be the first to admit, there are some pretty gruesome and horrific things done in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. And some of them were done at God’s command. Wiping out man, woman, and child in some of the cities during the conquest was pretty vicious.
Now, I could certainly argue that God had good reason for it. But that probably wouldn’t answer the question at hand. Though, eventually, I would hope you were willing to consider what His good reasons might be, we need to start at a more fundamental place.
The fact that you don’t like what God did doesn’t mean He doesn’t exist. Why would it possibly mean that? There are lots of people whose actions I don’t like. It doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It is simply silly to base the argument of existence on whether or not you like what they did. If God exists, He exists. He may do some things you like, and He may do some things you don’t like, but His existence is not remotely based on whether or not you like or agree with what He does.
Argument 2: There are terrible, awful things that happen in our world. God must not be real.
Is this argument really any different from the first? I agree, tsunamis, earthquakes, mudslides, serial killings, mass shootings, genocides by tyrannical dictators are awful things. And they happen in this world all the time. In many ways, I’d like God to do something about them as well.
Of course, I think He has. But you probably aren’t interested in what I think He has done. I hope one day you will be, but that isn’t what we are working on now. Does the actuality of all these awful things mean God does not exist?
Why would it?
If a supreme, sovereign ruler of the universe exists, is He required to run the universe the way you see fit? If He were, He wouldn’t be a supreme, sovereign ruler of the universe. If He were required to run things your way, you would be the supreme sovereign ruler of the universe.
Can God only exist if He does what you and I want and understand? Of course not. If He exists, He exists whether or not He acts in accord with what we want and understand.
Oh, I know we can develop philosophical arguments that twist words and thoughts around and seem to demand that God act in a certain way. The problem is all of that is based on our thinking; and if a truly sovereign, supreme ruler of the universe exists, the one thing He does not have to do is behave in submission to our thinking and philosophizing.
You may be right. God may not exist. But claiming that He doesn’t behave the way you want or think He should is about the worst argument you can make against His existence. In fact, for that argument to remotely begin to work, we have to assume something. We have to assume He exists.
Please, work on a different argument.
Yes, this is a terrible argument! It is similar to people who say they don’t believe the Bible is the Word of God because they don’t agree with some of its teachings. That’s like hearing someone say they don’t like pizza and then replying, “I like pizza. So, I don’t believe you said you don’t like pizza.”
Absolutely, Heath. Thanks for chiming in.
What would you say to someone who says something like “if aliens exist because you cant see them, then God doesnt exist because you cant see him”
Thanks for the question.
I’m assuming there is a typo in your statement. I think you meant to say, “If aliens don’t exist because you can’t see them, then God doesn’t exist because you can’t see him.” If I’m wrong about that, then my response is simply that the second statement is a non sequitur. However, if I’m right and you meant to say “don’t in the first statement, then I would reply in the following way.
I don’t claim aliens don’t exist merely because no one has seen them. Rather, I claim there is no evidence empirically or philosophically or logically that aliens exist. Though having seen Him is not on the list of evidence for God’s existence, there is evidence that God exists. There is evidence from the seeming design of the universe, there is evidence from the presence of morality, there is evidence from the fact that the existence of God explains the universe as it is better than the absence of God does (for me, the main point here is the near universal experience of mankind that something is wrong with the world today). The list goes on.