Are atheists open-minded?
Many atheists I talk to say, “Of course,
I’m open minded, show me the evidence or
proof that God exists and I’ll believe.”
But when they are presented with proofs for
the existence of God those same atheists will
say, “That’s just fallacious God of the
gaps reasoning.
Your evidence for God comes from ignorance.
You say, ‘I don’t know what caused the
Big Bang, therefore God did it.’
I’d rather wait for science to provide the
correct explanation and not rush to put God
in a gap of my knowledge.”
But if you say that any possible evidence
for God isn’t good enough, then you aren’t
really open-minded.
You assumed beforehand that no evidence is
good enough so you’ve already made up your
mind beforehand.
If you’re an atheist take a minute and try
to honestly answer this question: What specific
evidence would convince you that God exists?
Don’t say what type of evidence would convince
you; come up with a specific example.
A common one I hear is that if after praying
an amputated limb grew back, then that person
would believe in God.
But isn’t that a God of the gaps argument?
Aren’t you saying, “I don’t know what
caused this limb to grow back, therefore God
did it?”
The arguments for the existence of God don’t
take the form of “I don’t know, therefore
God.”
Instead, they take the form of, “There are
good reasons to believe effect X can never
be explained naturally, therefore it must
have a supernatural explanation, or God.”
If you agree that limbs can’t come into
existence from nothing and therefore any such
regrown limbs require a divine cause, then
if the universe came into existence from nothing,
wouldn’t that require a divine cause?
If not, why not?
If you’re truly open-minded, then check
out the reasons for God that the best philosophers
past and present have put forward.
Even if they don’t convince you, at least
after critically examining them you’ll be
able to say why they don’t convince you.
That’s better than just assuming they don’t
succeed and not bothering to do some critical
thinking on one of the most important questions
of all time.
For Catholic Answers, I’m Trent Horn, and
thanks for watching.
