Does God exist? This is one of the most important questions affecting our modern world. Primitive man attributed almost everything in his natural environment to god or gods of some kind. Many devout ancient northern Europeans once worshipped the god Thor. Legend has it that he defeated the personification of “Old Age” in battle. Thor, whose name in Old English is “Þunor” gave his name to the day Þunresdæg, meaning the day of Þunor, known in Modern English as Thursday. Þunor (Thor) is also the source of the modern word thunder for which he was once thought to be responsible for. Primitive man would hear Thunder and attribute it to Thor having a bad day or dispensing judgment for some blasphemy.
The question we should ask is why Thor is no longer worshipped? Even today science has yet to fully explain the phenomenon of thunder. Aristotle thought it was the caused by cloud collisions. In the 20th century a consensus evolved that thunder must begin with a shock wave in the air due to the sudden thermal expansion of the plasma in the lightning channel.
The reason I bring up Thor and the phenomenon of thunder, is they are representative of what was once considered a gap in human understanding. What was once considered a mystery is now easily answered with the advent of science. Sure it’s a theory but it is one which can be tested and has a high probability of truth. Do you know any Christians who protest the scientific stance on the theory of thunder? No, to them the scientific data is sufficient enough to falsify the belief and worship of the god Thor. Why is it that they are willing to accept high probabilities based on Science when it relates to Thor, but cringe at the thought that we reconsider the improbability of talking donkeys?
Christians themselves are Atheist in regards to Thor, Odin, Mithras, Dionysus, Baal, Attis, Osiris, Horus, Ahura Mazda, Huracán, Zeus, Apollo, along with countless other gods, the difference being that we simply believe in one less god than they do!
One could argue that there is no point in refuting something which has yet to be proven. In this case, “God exists” is the positive claim. The burden of proof lies with the person making the claim, especially an extraordinary claim such as this. Simply positing a god with zero proof proves absolutely nothing. Often theists like to follow their unproven claim with “well you can’t disprove god” which is a false dichotomy. It must be proven first otherwise the claim to improvability could fall to any outrageous claim. You can’t disprove anything that has not yet had positive support. What if I said the Flying Spaghetti Monster was the true creator of the world and simply fell back to well you can’t disprove the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s existence? No reasonable human being (Christians included) would accept that without some sort of proof, yet this is exactly what we find all over the world.
Burden of proof aside, I will address the unproven claim in detail. This will be done using several systematic topics and techniques. The first topic I will address which speaks to the god of the bible (GOTB) being false, are the incoherency arguments i.e. (all just but all forgiving etc.) attributed to him. This part of the case I call “the logical case against the creator”. Secondly, I will address the more technical aspects of the books reportedly inspired by him. I have a fairly good lexicon of both Hebrew and Koine Greek which will be employed when evaluating many of the contradictions, redaction and interpolations found throughout the Tanakh and Greek Testament. I will also use Archaeological materials from Ras Shamra (Ugarit) , Khirbet el-Qôm and other pre-Israelite cities in antiquity to show this supposed tradition of monotheism was unfounded. Judaic monotheism rose out of a Henotheistic belief system which is heavily attested to in the Tanakh itself. Many Christians love to call this an evolution of religion. "People used to worship many gods but now we know better, there is only one god" - N.T. Wright.
Well if the evolution from many gods to one is progression, whats the next logical sequence?
to be continued.....
The question we should ask is why Thor is no longer worshipped? Even today science has yet to fully explain the phenomenon of thunder. Aristotle thought it was the caused by cloud collisions. In the 20th century a consensus evolved that thunder must begin with a shock wave in the air due to the sudden thermal expansion of the plasma in the lightning channel.
The reason I bring up Thor and the phenomenon of thunder, is they are representative of what was once considered a gap in human understanding. What was once considered a mystery is now easily answered with the advent of science. Sure it’s a theory but it is one which can be tested and has a high probability of truth. Do you know any Christians who protest the scientific stance on the theory of thunder? No, to them the scientific data is sufficient enough to falsify the belief and worship of the god Thor. Why is it that they are willing to accept high probabilities based on Science when it relates to Thor, but cringe at the thought that we reconsider the improbability of talking donkeys?
Christians themselves are Atheist in regards to Thor, Odin, Mithras, Dionysus, Baal, Attis, Osiris, Horus, Ahura Mazda, Huracán, Zeus, Apollo, along with countless other gods, the difference being that we simply believe in one less god than they do!
One could argue that there is no point in refuting something which has yet to be proven. In this case, “God exists” is the positive claim. The burden of proof lies with the person making the claim, especially an extraordinary claim such as this. Simply positing a god with zero proof proves absolutely nothing. Often theists like to follow their unproven claim with “well you can’t disprove god” which is a false dichotomy. It must be proven first otherwise the claim to improvability could fall to any outrageous claim. You can’t disprove anything that has not yet had positive support. What if I said the Flying Spaghetti Monster was the true creator of the world and simply fell back to well you can’t disprove the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s existence? No reasonable human being (Christians included) would accept that without some sort of proof, yet this is exactly what we find all over the world.
Burden of proof aside, I will address the unproven claim in detail. This will be done using several systematic topics and techniques. The first topic I will address which speaks to the god of the bible (GOTB) being false, are the incoherency arguments i.e. (all just but all forgiving etc.) attributed to him. This part of the case I call “the logical case against the creator”. Secondly, I will address the more technical aspects of the books reportedly inspired by him. I have a fairly good lexicon of both Hebrew and Koine Greek which will be employed when evaluating many of the contradictions, redaction and interpolations found throughout the Tanakh and Greek Testament. I will also use Archaeological materials from Ras Shamra (Ugarit) , Khirbet el-Qôm and other pre-Israelite cities in antiquity to show this supposed tradition of monotheism was unfounded. Judaic monotheism rose out of a Henotheistic belief system which is heavily attested to in the Tanakh itself. Many Christians love to call this an evolution of religion. "People used to worship many gods but now we know better, there is only one god" - N.T. Wright.
Well if the evolution from many gods to one is progression, whats the next logical sequence?
to be continued.....
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2 Comments:
I love the classical "We just believe in one less god than you do" line.
I'll be sure to use it when confronted with my Catholic family.
Greek gods, demi-gods...
First of all, nice site, webmaster.
Hi, I'm a Christian. But I am not an 'atheist' of sorts toward Thor and his buddies. Thor? Sure. Horus? Okay. Ashael? Who?
Christians don't believe that they are in possesion of the 'single truth.' To believe that one has it together is arrogant, and it sounds as if you are making that claim, but saying that Christians do also. This is false.
The Bible and other historical books (unnamed) mention God making animals, man, and... 'extra-human' entities which some call angels. Some are angels, just like some diapers are Pampers, but all get the label. Some Christians, including myself, believe that the myths are true, just not accurate. For example, if I said that I were 27, that would be true, but not completely accurate, unless it's the day after my birthday.
Simple explanation: supernatural creatures created by God tricked humans into worshiping them. Now, through evolution, secular humanism and similar religions, they've tricked men into worshiping themselves, thinking that they are wise for partly understanding something that God completely designed.
Thanks for letting this post.
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