Is there a god, isn’t there a god? The debate continues ad nauseam on News24, with the YEC’s and religious fundamentalists posting incessantly how evolution is “only a theory”, and that the atheist “religion” is “Nothing exploded and created everything”.
What you guys fail to understand is, is that these questions and rebuttals of Science are all irrelevant.
There are really only three relevant questions in the debate for and against atheism, and they are:
a) Do I have a Soul?
b) If there is a soul, what is the nature of it?
c) Is there an afterlife?
These 3 questions alone, and how one answers them, determines whether or not one is atheist!
if your answer to question a or c is a resounding “NO”.
So let us tackle these questions and in doing so, clarify why the question of whether there is a god or not is irrelevant. I am not going to tackle these questions in any particular order, but rather all at the same time
I once asked a Christian friend of mine, what is the soul and where does it reside?
His answer to me was, it resides outside of your body, in and around your body and it is your spiritual being.
I then asked, if it is your spiritual being, does this soul contain your consciousness?… in other words, is it you, is it your thoughts, your hopes , your dreams, your needs, your want’s , your loves, your desires.. OR is your soul something else entirely? Being reasonably intelligent, he could not answer this question. He knew that what essentially made him, him, was his mind and yet still clung to the need for a soul.
If these feelings, emotions, this essence and drive of life IS your soul, then what is the human brain and mind for? Surely human consciousness exists within the brain? The religious are quite prepared to accept that when any animal dies, it is dead. It has no soul. Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we can see emotions, feelings and a certain level of intelligence within our pets. Maybe not to the same extent as with humans but they are there. Surely then, it is human intelligence which is the difference between the lesser beasts, not the presence of a soul.
Another thing to consider is this. If all oxygen to your brain was cut off, you would lose consciousness and black out. You would not be aware of anything… nothing around you, no emotion, no thought, no hopes, dreams… nothing but blackness. Your soul does not “kick-in” and take-over. You have no conscious thought whatsoever. Cut off the oxygen even longer and the individual becomes brain damaged, and essentially, in a permanent state of oblivion. Again, no soul intervention. Cut of the oxygen for too long, and death occurs.
There are only 2 possible conclusions we can draw from this: -
a) Either the soul does not exist or
b) The soul does exist but is not responsible for our consciousness, our thoughts, essentially who we are.
This proves, as far as I am concerned, that our being, consciousness, id is essentially our mind and physical brain… so no need for a soul or if there is one, it is in essence, not us…
No soul (or at the very least, no soul that matters), no afterlife, no need to worship any gods.
Throw in all the other facts e.g. no evidence of any gods, the obvious inaccuracy of the bible etc...and what you have, my theistic friends, is essentially what makes an atheist tick.
If you want to convert me, or at the very least, prove to me that your god does exist, rather than spouting rubbish about the invalidity of evolution and/or the big bang, convince me that humans have souls.
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