Some Worthless Arguments Theists Make Against Atheism

What constitutes a good argument is somewhat in the eye of the person making it. Atheists hear the same arguments against them repeatedly. There might be some good arguments somewhere, but these we hear so often are not among them.

An argument I hear often is that atheists don't want a god in their live because they want the freedom to sin. I always refer them to actual statistics atheists are under represented in jails and prisons while Christians are over represented. I realize that self reported Christians like those in prisons may be different that some other Christians. I realize also that breaking laws may not always be "sins." What a sin is is quite arbitrary. Nevertheless, prison statistics are always fun to toss out there.

An argument certain not to work is, "Read this book I'm reading. It is the silver bullet that will bring you to Christianity." I heard that one so many times. I've bitten a time or two and found that person's reading material does nothing to persuade me.

"Atheism is foolish because the Bible says so." I'm sure it is correct that the Bible says so. But an atheist does not believe that what the Bible says is anything but the musings of wealthy goat farmers back in antiquity. Only the very wealthy could read and write.

"Philosophers back in time established powerful arguments for the existence of God and the arguments have never been defeated." Today in academic arguments, if one is making assumptions about something he/she is required to state at the beginning what the assumptions are. It is not acceptable to make the assumptions part of the "facts" in the argument. The philosopher most often quoted is Thomas Aquinas.

Aquinas used what science was known during his time and assigned his own assumptions as if they were agreed upon science. For example, he wrote, if objects that are fixed and others that are moving, those which are moving have to moved by something. And, if there was nothing, someone had to put something there or there would still be nothing. Aquinas' simple thesis was that because a god is needed there has to be a god.

These arguments against atheism do not change minds. They do help Christians feel good about themselves and in that way are helpful.

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