I received the following comments in response to my critque of Campus Crusade for Christ’s article on http://www.everystudent.com titled “Does God Exist? Six Reasons to Believe that God is Really There.” The article was written by one Marilyn Adamson, who claims to be a former atheist. You can read Part 1 of my critique here and Part 2 here. Anyway, here are the comments:

You know, you basically just proved Marilyn’s point. No matter how many points lead to God’s existence, you simply don’t want to believe in him, so you aren’t going to. I think it’s kind of silly to demand that God be proven to you through science. If he does indeed exist (and I believe he does) he would be far beyond anything science could explain. -”Slightly Jaded”

As a reminder, Marilyn’s point was this: “If a person opposes even the possibility of there being a God, then any evidence can be rationalized or explained away.”

Slightly Jaded makes a simple but seemingly common mistake. My critiquing arguments in favor of God’s existence somehow implies that I do not want to believe in a god. In other words, she is essentially accusing me of dismissing these arguments not because the arguments themselves are wanting, but because my alleged aversion to believing in God causes me to reject them out of hand. In doing so, she tries to shift the fault from Marilyn’s arguments to myself.

Let me put it this way. If God exists then I want to know about it. If there are good and compelling reasons for believing that God does exist, then I will believe. It is as simple as that. The fact of the matter is, as I explained one at a time in my posts, the reasons that Marilyn presents are not good and are not compelling. By shifting the fault to my alleged doggedness, Slightly Jaded is attempting to avoid addressing head on the critiques that I presented. And I won’t stand for that. So, Slightly Jaded, if you are convinced by Marilyn’s reasons, then please explain why. And then please explain why my critiques fail to sway you. Otherwise your comments are not particularly useful.

Moving on, Slightly Jaded claims that it is “silly to demand that God be proven” to me “through science.” Forget the part about science – it is never silly to demand proof before believing in any claim, let alone an extraordinary one. I can assure you that Slightly Jaded probably does not apply this same lax standard when it comes to most everything else in her life. We don’t think that it is silly to demand proof from a used car salesman concerning the claims he is making about the car he want sto sell us. Why should we behave any differently when it comes to believing in God? If God is beyond what science can explain, then what can explain God? Magic? If nothing can explain God then God is inexplicable and cannot be known to exist. If God cannot be known to exist then God doesn’t warrant any belief.

Slightly Jaded believes in God, though. Why?

I personally have experienced things that have proven his existence to me beyond all doubt. I KNOW he’s real. I can’t back it up with science and I won’t claim that I can. It’s just something I’ve seen for myself.

Seen what? Experienced what? Did you speak to God face to face like Moses did (Exodus 33:11)? Thanks for being so utterly vague and nonspecific!

And finally:

I’m curious…why does it bother you if people believe in God? No one is forcing you to…why do you try to force others not to believe? (I’m not being snooty here, I genuinely would like to know)

I always find the accusation of “forcing” others not to believe amusing but also troubling. I can only wonder in what sense posting some words to the internet which people voluntarily read qualifies as force. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t care much that people believed in God if they kept that belief to themselves. But we all know how visible religion and religious beliefs are in the world today. Beliefs matter because they influence how people think and how people act. If you are not convinced of that just visit Jerusalem, where three religious faiths are all fighting over the possession of a small tract of land. Or you can remain right here in the United States, where the Christianity of the majority of our citizens and politicians on government policies, the way we spend our time, and the way we spend our money (is spending $160,000 on a steeple the best use of that kind of money? or how about $27 million for a musuem that teaches the literal truth of Genesis and that humans and dinosaurs once lived together?). It can also lead otherwise normal people to act absurdly, for example, when Webster Cook took a communion cracker from a Catholic Mass without chewing and digesting it.

Slightly Jaded was not the only one to question my open mindedness or sincerity simply because I critiqued a few arguments and found them to be unconvincing:

Better than most things I read about online for God’s existence. At least it was not a “Jesus touched my life on this date at this time” argument. I am sick of those. IT does make a good point… are you open to the POSSIBILITY of a deity existing or do you consistently seek evidence to the contrary or seek to disprove evidence rather than search for evidence in favor? – “Chess83″

I sought out and found these six reasons, did I not? And if they are better than most of the things you have read online arguing in favor of God’s existence, then, well, I think I will have to pass on those…