by Jimmy G

Created on: May 25, 2007

Skepticism and Atheism: A Case of Judging The Book By Its Cover

Skepticism and atheism are the principal players in stating that God does not exist for the following reasons:

1. For the skeptics: they need evidence or proof before they could say a thing exists or not. That means that for a thing to be said to exist, they need direct evidence or proof; and, for a thing said not to exist, they also need direct proof or evidence. For example, if I say that "I have a pen in my pocket," then you should be able to see it (or not see it). Since there's no way to prove or disprove God's existence (since none of us has seen or not seen God to prove or disprove his existence), then it's best to keep silent and suspend our judgment.

2. For the atheists: they deny God's existence on the basis of the problem of evil. This is the stronger argument for God's non-existence because if God is said to be all-powerful and all good, then why didn't he prevent the most wicked kind of evil from happening. Now, many pro-God would say that evil is necessary in order for us to learn something from it, and be good next time; and that God is testing us. That God is testing us is the weakest argument for God's existence and wisdom because that would mean that God is insensitive to man's sufferings (never mind if Hitler suffered, maybe, he deserve it. What about the children who were gassed and burned What did they do to deserve this?) As a mother, you might want to let your child go through painful but necessary experiences in order for him/ her to grow into a better person. However, if you say that he is about to hit by a truck and there's time to save him from this, would you just standby and let it happen, and hopefully he will survive and learn from it? What would happen if he didn't survive? So, based on how God is defined and this kind of evil that does happen, then the atheists say that either God does not exist, or he is not at all good. If God is truly an all-good and all-powerful (both traits are incompatible, do you see that?) then I will have to side with the atheists.

However, skeptics can't stay undecided for long. That's when they become atheists. Meaning, they decided to go for evidence. And, since there's no proof or evidence for God's existence, then they decide to claim that God does not exist.

My argument against skepticism and atheism can be expressed in this way: if one has already judged something not to exist just because it doesn't meet one's standard, then, isn't it

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