Outline Of My Case Against God

1) The word “God” denotes an incomprehensible concept. A nonsensical concept. A concept as contradictory and absurd as “married bachelor” or “four-sided triangle.”

C) Virtually all descriptive terms become contradictory and/or incomprehensible when applied to “God.” But unless such terms make sense, we cannot make sense of “God,” let alone believe that “God” exists.

—– Consider: God is often described as “alive.” But what does this mean? In what sense is God alive the way a cat, tree, or amoeba is? Is God made up of elements like oxygen and carbon? Did God come from another God? Does God take in nutrients and excrete waste? Does God reproduce? Does God age and die? Most theists would say no to these and other questions which biologists ask when trying to determine if something is alive. So, exactly what does it mean to say “God is alive”? Is “alive” merely a sloppy synonym for “exists”? Exactly how might we believe in anything that’s described so sloppily?

—– Consider: God is often called a “being.” But what does this mean? In what sense is God like any being we’ve ever encountered? Some theists say that God shares our image. Many of these same theists tell us that God is everywhere, all the the time. How can these two claims possibly be reconciled? If we must choose between the two claims, on what basis should one be preferred over the other? In what sense can a “perfect being” share our imperfect image? If God is everywhere, why can’t we detect Him/Her/Them/It in any way? Exactly how does such an undetectable entity differ from a non-entity?

—– Consider: God is often called a “non-being” or a “spirit.” But what does this mean? That consciousness or volition may exist independently of any physical brain or body? I’ve never encountered such a non-being or spirit, and there’s no good evidence that anybody ever has. If consciousness is independent of physical reality, why is my consciousness so clearly tied to my brain? Why is my consciousness so easily and predictably influenced by everything from instinct and habit to fevers and hormones to drugs and alcohol to loud noises and lack of sleep?

Exactly how might a spirit exist or sustain itself independently of a living body? How might two disembodied spirits be distinguished, one from the other? If two such spirit entities can somehow be distinguished, why not three? Why not an endless number? If we assume that consciousness might exist independently of a living body, how do we know that chairs and rocks aren’t conscious? How do we know that the floor beneath our feet doesn’t suffer unbearable agony each time we take a step? Should we treat chairs, rocks, floors and everything else as if they have feelings? Should we treat each and every empty space as if it might be the home of some invisible spirit? How do we know that every breath we take isn’t offensive to some spirit? Reason and sanity demand that we reject all these ideas and concerns as absurd and unworthy of serious consideration unless and until evidence or logic demands otherwise. Reason and sanity demand that belief in an undetectable, nonsensical “King Spirit” be rejected, too.

—– Consider: God is often said to exist “beyond the universe” or “outside space and time.” What can these terms possibly mean?

My dictionary defines “universe” as “all matter and energy regarded as a whole; the realm where something exists or takes place.” What can it possibly mean to say that “God is neither matter or energy”? Exactly how does that differ from saying “God is nothing at all”? What can it possibly mean to say that “God exists in a realm beyond the realm in which things exist”? What is that but a convoluted way of saying God does not exist?

What does it mean to say that something exists “outside space”? If “space” is defined as “everywhere,” what can “outside space” mean but “nowhere”? And if God exists nowhere, how does that differ from saying that God does not exist at all?

What can it possibly mean to say that something exists “outside time”? Time – the orderly succession of one event after another – seems as essential a component of meaningful existence as mass/energy. To say that something exists “outside time” seems to make as much sense as saying that something exists “at right angles to the color blue” or “under the bottomless pit” or “halfway between Chicago and melancholy.” There are virtually an endless number of such grammatically correct but logically absurd statements we could make. “God exists outside time” is merely one of them. Sane people recognize all such statements as absurd and reject all of them accordingly.

Of course it’s possible that “God exists outside time” is just a sloppy way of saying that “an unchanging God exists through all time.” But no theist seems to truly believe this. Instead, theists believe our prayers, sacrifices, and the way we live our lives can change God’s feelings and behavior. Many also place God in a heaven where time clearly exists and He participates in it. They imagine meeting God and being judged favorably by God. Few if any envision a trip to the “time-free” realm of an unmoving, unfeeling, and necessarily unreachable God. What would such a “time-free” realm be but a single frozen moment where not even photons of light could move and not a single thought or emotion could be known or felt? Exactly how would such a frozen moment differ from no moment at all? Exactly how does such a time-free existence differ from non-existence?

—– Consider: God is often described as “perfect.” But perfect beings are by definition self-sufficient beings who do not engage in pointless, unnecessary acts. Such beings do not need to create anything, and therefore don’t. They surely would not have created a universe as imperfect as this one, nor would they have populated that universe with creatures as imperfect as ourselves.

Bottom line: It is simply impossible to describe “God” in any clear, consistent, or understandable way. “God” therefore is no more worthy of serious consideration than such concepts as “married bachelor” or “four-sided triangle.”

Go to Part 1D