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I gave "30 Questions to Ask Atheists" a try. Here is the result. [1]
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Date: 2025-03-01
My adult son got this from someone he knows. It’s from the Christian apologist Joel Settecase of The Think Institute,
The goal is not to win the argument but to engage in meaningful dialogue, to seek "truth in conversation"….Encouraging an unbeliever to really examine their own worldview can be a powerful apologetic tool.
Well, I am an unbeliever and my boy wanted me to give his 30 Questions to Ask Atheists, Agnostics & Skeptics a try. I think he wants crib notes. Anyways, here is the result:
1. Are you certain that God does not exist, or that you can’t know whether He exists?
No, I am not certain God does not exist. I don’t believe He does. I am literally an a-theist: “without theist”. Without the god belief.
2. How do you know that?
I don’t know. I distinguish between knowledge and belief. I am an agnostic atheist. Meaning, I do not believe in the theist claim “There is God.” Just as I do not belief the Scientologist claim “There is Xenu.” I don’t claim to know for certainty, I don’t believe it.
3. Did you use your five senses to come to that decision?
We have many more than five senses. But, to your point, yes, in part, I use my senses. I also use logic and reason, philosophy, scientific findings, the expertise of others, my personal experience and empathy and imagination to form my beliefs. On everything. The god claim is just one more claim about the nature of reality, as far as I am concerned.
4. Given that God is by definition a Spirit, how much sense does it make to decide whether He exists using your five physical senses?
First, you’re assuming that God exists (I make no assumptions either way); and, second, I don’t know what you mean by “a Spirit.” If you mean, “non-material” (or supernatural, or metaphysical, etc) I don’t know what that means.
5. Did you use your reasoning to determine God does not exist?
Yes, see above.
6. How do you know your reasoning is working correctly?
There are different kinds of reasoning: deductive, inductive, abductive, analogical, critical, etc. Each kind has its place depending on what you're trying to achieve.
7. Did you use your reasoning to determine your reasoning was working?
No, I didn’t. I use various methods of reasoning that were worked out long before I was born.
8. Do you see the problem with that?
I don’t view it as a problem. It takes hard work, but after many years, we can get pretty good at using the various reasoning tools to achieve certain results.
9. The Bible says that skepticism about God is the result of a mind suppressing what it knows to be true. Have you ever tried doubting your doubts about God?
I don’t have doubts about God, so no.
10. The Bible contains hundreds prophecies fulfilled hundreds of years after they were written. How would that be possible without God?
I do not accept the predicate that “the Bible contains hundreds of prophesies….written.” In fact, ever single time I’ve looked into one of the alleged Biblical prophesies, they turned out not to be. Not once. Ever.
In short, give me your best one. And we’ll talk about it.
11. The Bible says that objective moral values are based in God’s morally perfect nature. Without God, what do you think they are based in?
First, the Bible does not say that literally. It doesn’t. You can, and obviously have interpreted a few bits and bobs to mean that, and that is not the same thing, now is it? Second, your Bible condones slavery, and women as property. That’s about as far as morally perfect as imaginable.
I do not believe in “objective moral values.” Our morals are based in our human nature (as moderately sexually dimorphous social mammals/troupe primates ) and a long history of hard work in ethics and technological advancement. To overcome things your Bible didn’t and couldn’t do, like, oh, I dunnow, OUTLAW SLAVERY.
12. Jesus’ disciples went from being terrified of death, to being willing to die for their belief that Jesus rose from the dead. If Jesus didn’t rise, what do you think changed their mind?
I don’t believe the Gospels are historically accurate, nor were written by people with the same intended devotional meaning. That is, Marc differs greatly from Luke on the meaning of the alleged resurrection. So, there’s that.
13. There are hundreds of varieties of unbelief. How do you know yours is the right one?
You have it backwards. There are hundreds of varieties of the theist claim “God is”. How do you know yours is the correct one?
As I see it, there is one and only one, variety of atheism: you do not accept the god claim.* Either you accept it, yes, or you don’t, no. It is a single answer to a single question. There is no “I don’t know.” If you don’t know, then you are a non-believer in the god claim. Logic is a pain, ain’t it.
14. Archaeology is constantly confirming the details of the accounts in the Bible. Why do you think that is, if the Bible isn’t true?
Name one relevant to the issue of if there is or is not a God. There are hundreds and hundreds of things in Spider Man comics that are confirmed in real life (there is a New York, there are cars etc) , and that don’t make Peter Parker a real boy.
15. There is more evidence that Jesus Christ lived, died and came back to life than for just about any other event in ancient history. If God did not exist, or Jesus’ claims to be God were not true, then how would you explain his resurrection?
There is no evidence that Jesus came back to life. None. The Bible has some claims in it that he did, and….that is not evidence. Those are claims.
Jesus only claimed to be God* in John. He did not claim that in the three earlier Synoptic Gospels. That strongly evidences that the historical Jesus never made any such claim.
What’s more, even if he did resurrect, even if he did claim it (he didn’t) it’s a leap in reason to say God did it. How did you rule out aliens didn’t do it? Or that he found a glich in the Matrix?
Finally, just because I cannot explain something doesn’t mean you can just say God did it. That is a logical fallacy called the Argument from Ignorance. Look it up.
16. What do you think makes so many Christians able to live radically different lives from the way they used to live prior to becoming Christians–even to the point of forgiving their abusers for terrible crimes?
I am not sure what you mean by “so many.” Nor do I accept that they changed radically. You have a bad habit IMO of asking loaded questions. Regardless, granting that so many have radically changed because of their belief in god goes to show that, shock!, beliefs informs actions. The problem for this question is I’ve met hundreds of people who tell me their firm belief or faith in this, that or the other has radically changed their lives and made them a better person, from Scientology to Big Foot. No shit. Big Foot.
17. One of the most basic principles of philosophy, confirmed by science is ex nihilo nihil fit (“out of nothing, nothing comes”). Without God, how do you think everything came into being?
First, that is not a basic principle of philosophy. That’s a basic principle in Christian theology. What’s more, I have no idea, and no one does, what “nothing” (nihilo) could possibly be. To be mean to exist; nothing in the sense here is meaningless. “Before space and time” is as meaningless as burglemanergleglikon And, how did God come into being, then? Oh, I get it: that is what makes god, well, god. That’s called “special pleading”, which actually is a fundamental error in basic logic.
For all we know, the cosmos has always been, and there is no beginning.
18. The Bible says that we were created to live forever, and that death is an unnatural enemy, brought about by sin. If you are a naturalist who believes death is simply part of life, how do you explain why we feel like we ought to live forever, and why pain and death feel so unnatural and wrong to just about everyone?
I don’t believe death is a part of life. Death is the end of life for an individual. The death of individual organism is part of ‘the circle of life.” Nor do I think pain and death are unnatural.
I don’t want to live forever, because I cannot fathom what ‘forever’ means. I know I don’t want to die, that is nearly universal, and certainly explains why people want there to be a heaven.
19. If your brain is merely the unplanned result of evolution by natural selection, aimed at survival and nothing else, what makes you think you can trust your reasoning to discover the truth, rather than just whichever belief is best for survival?
I don’t believe your understanding of how evolution works and the nature of our capacity for reason is very good. Reason is useful on our day-to-day, and, along with empathy, a reliable means to increase human happiness.
20. If no God, why would anything objectively matter?
Objectively, nothing matters. That is what it means to be “objective.” God is subjective. He wants things, lots of things. He’s a jealous god, remember?
Subjectively, life matters to living things. Because we are alive. That is more than sufficient reason for me to eat my Wheaties.
21. If no God, why is there so much good in the world?
Life engenders the creation of value. That which we find good for life, such as a good bowl of chili, we deem good.
In complex social mammals, its much more complicated, of course. Here in America, many people who say they believe in your Bible, for example, has convinced them it’s good to take away from women the legal access to abortions. Go figure.
22. If no God, how did our DNA get programmed with such incredibly complex language and instructions?
DNA was not programmed. And it is not a language. You’re confusing common analogies we make which are useful so long as you don’t get confused. Which you are.
23. Is everything in the universe really just matter and energy?
I don’t know. And neither do you. We do know that everything in this universe is in the universe. Funny that.
24. If you just thought, “Yes,” was that thought made of matter and energy?
In the simplistic manner in which you’ve loaded the question, yes. It is for that reason that I call myself a “philosophical naturalist” rather than a materialist. But, word games aside, all the evidence, and I mean all, shows that thoughts are products of our brains. No brainy, no thinky.
25. The Bible says every good and perfect gift is from the Father above (i.e. God). To whom are you grateful for the good things in your life?
My wife, family, friends, and all the people I don’t know alive and dead who work(ed) hard every day to make this world a better place to live. Ben Franklin for example. And that guy or gal who invented the paper clip.
26. Where do you think the laws of logic come from?
I don’t know where logic comes from. I don’t think they are ‘laws’ in the way you are using the word. They are very useful given the right conditions.
27. Are the laws of logic made of matter and energy?
I don’t know. This is a thus far unsolvable question of whether they are discovered or invented. Until we come across a totally alien intelligence and can compare our math and logic to its/theirs, we cannot answer that question. But, again, that don’t mean the answer is god. I refer you again to the Argument from Ignorance, which goes, “Ha! You don’t know, therefor God!!”
28. What evidence would actually convince you that Jesus Christ is God, the Lord, and the only Savior?
A lot of good, reliable evidence. Even then, I couldn’t rule out other explanations, like an advanced alien species that can do things so amazing that I couldn’t distinguish it from a god, or the Matrix.
I do know this: Jesus should know. And hasn’t come through for me. And, your god has given me a brain capable of reason and empathy, yet the people who claim to speak for Him tell me the worst reasons to believe in him, a world full of needless suffering, and for many others a cosmology that is downright gross (blood sacrifice) and deeply offensive to human dignity.
29. How much do you know about the heart of the Christian message, AKA the “Gospel” or good news?
A lot. Funny how atheists often do.
30. Are you ready to learn more about Jesus? Start here with the Gospel of John.
The Jesus as portrayed John is the second worst one. You really ought to to know your Bible better.
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