Atheism and Agnosticism — Analysis

Let’s look at agnosticism and see if there’s something to discuss. If you’re an atheist, don’t bother with this as your position comes from faith (not critical thinking), and nothing will ever shake the dogma of your convictions.

Questions of Life

The basic questions of life are:

  1. How did I get here?
  2. Why am I here?
  3. Where am I going?

Number 2, and to a lesser extent number 3 can be relegated to philosophy if you wish, and assuming you take an agnostic view, they will be philosophical as if no supernatural being exists philosophy can be the only explanation (although it will always leave you wanting).

Which god is God?

But how did I get here? Since evolution admits a god is required — it could be Judeo-Christian or your coffee can — the issue immediately becomes which one?

But by your argument, if you can’t say A god doesn’t exist, then you can’t say ANY doesn’t exist and therefore all exist. :/

Not quite. You can’t say God doesn’t exist, but that does not mean all gods do exist. Logic does not imply proof. It only means a god can exist logically, and those stating flatly “God does not exist” display their faulty logic — atheism bases its belief on faith, not logic; many would call it religion (but that’s a topic for another time).

We’re left with the necessity of a “god” — a higher force even Dawkins admits evolution uses in natural selection. You can call it god, the force, or the tree in your backyard, but something (which we’ll call god) exists. Of course, that leads to the following problem.

By your argument, Zeus, Shiva, Anansi, etc. cannot be said to not exist. What then do you do with choosing one over others?

Well stated and correct. You can’t say (logically) those don’t exist. What you can do is examine them and see if they make sense. But unless you possess all knowledge, they could exist outside your experience, so it’s not proof. Remember, by definition no proof can exist of the supernatural so the position of requiring proof of the supernatural is an inherent contradiction. Reasonable conclusions, yes, proof, no.

But choosing one over the others is exactly the problem. First off, most religions are exclusive and claim to be the only way, and the only true god. Thus, by simple reasoning, only one can be correct — it’s your job to find it. But how?

Choosing a god

Back to our problem — how did we get here? Eastern philosophy excludes itself as it can’t answer the question. Zeus and others as well. Very few gods claim to be involved in creation, and some of them are not all-powerful.

In the end you basically arrive with Judaism, Christianity, Islam and perhaps a few other candidates — the monotheistic religions. Analyze those and find the best fit. As to further discussion on the various possibilities, the rest of our site deals with Bible study and so on, so we’ll leave it for further discussion for the interested seeker of truth.

Filed Under: Atheism

Recommended Citation:
Yeager, Darrin "Atheism and Agnosticism — Analysis" (2023-11-23 14:45),
https://www.dyeager.org/post/atheism-agnosticism-series-part7-analysis.html
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