Email to Jerry A. Coyne about Atheism vs. Religion

This email was sent to Jerry A. Coyne on 7/5/18 

 

 

 

Hello sir. I read with interest your article entitled “Atheists could learn a lot from religious people about how to win debates” from 2014. I was particularly interested in the part about religious gaps and the following quote:

“... religion, despite centuries of theologizing, hasn’t begun to provide credible answers to the goddy puzzles above.”

In my mind, having read your list of gaps, I’m thinking “Most of these have been explained numerous times (credible answers) by my pastors, my father, in my own mind, and in Christian apologetic writings.” I saw it as relatively simple. So, I figured I’d write you and explain them to you. If you will be so kind as to indulge me, here we go..

1. Why would God allow natural evils to torment and kill people? Examples given: tsunamis, and cancer.

We as humans exist in the natural world. We cannot be immune to nature, illness, disease, calamity, and tragedy simply because God exists. The natural order on Earth demands dichotomy. Good/bad, hot/cold, up/down, light/dark, happy/sad, sick/healthy, etc. It is simply the way it is. It is this way because of sin. Sin brought this dichotomy to nature. Before sin entered the world all was good, and ONLY good (Eden). Once sin entered the world there was now holy/evil. There was also God/Satan. Into this bifurcated world we are born. Subject to the choices we make as individuals, communities, Societies, and cultures. Subject also to the dichotomies of nature. Some areas flood, some don’t, for instance. God provides us inner peace to cope with the bad things and be thankful for the good. God allows us to experience the bad things so we can appreciate the blessings of the good things. Let’s be honest, many bad things occur because of our choices. We are seldom truly victimized. On those occasions where we suffer through no fault of our own, or otherwise, we provide an opportunity to display our trust in the sovereign goodness of God. We then become the good that counter-balances whatever evil it is we faced.

2. If God wants us to know him why does he hide from humanity? Why did he wait so long to reveal himself?

Just as oxygen is essential to our life, faith is essential to spirituality. God requires faith. It is his greatest requirement. A suspension of disbelief, along with acceptance and adherence to His teachings are paramount to salvation. Thus God has revealed enough of himself to allow this. If he revealed too much of himself faith would no longer be necessary. Besides he DID walk among us, taught us, did miracles, and displayed His holiness (Jesus), and left us a guide-book to study, yet many people STILL do not believe. Only those with faith join God. Faith (in Christ) is the path to Heaven. As for His timing, who are we to determine the “right time”? It seems it was perfect timing as here we are in 2018 and the whole Earth knows about Jesus of Nazareth.

3. Why would an omnibenevolent God consign sinners to an eternity of horrible torment for crimes that don’t warrant such punishment?

First of all “omnibenevolent”, meaning all-good, God certainly is. But He is also righteous, all-knowing, ever-present, loving, and all-powerful. Like all beings, God has many facets to his personality. Make no mistake. The ONLY way we bring damnation on ourselves is by refusing to accept and follow the teachings of God through Christ. We must accept Jesus as Lord and savior and keep his commandments. Doing this, by God’s grace, through faith, gains us access to Heaven. Period. Rejecting God therefore, upon death, gets the unbeliever exactly what he asked for. Separation from God. This time though, it is complete and permanent separation. i.e Hell. In short God doesn’t send or “consign” anyone anywhere. We choose where we go through our own free will. For instance Christopher Hitchens, a man I greatly admired, spent the majority of his adult life teaching people to reject religion in general and God specifically. He knew the choices, he knew the stakes, and he made his decision. No one MADE him reject God. Upon death, I believe, Mr. Hitchens was provided with that which he so greatly desired in life. Namely to be away from God. I believe he now is apart from God. In a place of torment where he can no longer gain access to God and his mercy. A place he worked so tirelessly to get to. A dimension where God isn't. He made his choice and so be it. He was not forced. This will be the fate of all who reject God.

4. Why is God in the Old Testament such a narcissistic bully, toying with people for his amusement, ordering genocides in which innocent women and children are killed en masse, and demanding the death of those

who work on the Sabbath? How does that comport with the God that Christians and Jews worship today?

This is a loaded question! You imply in your question that God toys with people for his own amusement. I utterly reject that notion. I think it is clear that God did what he had to do in spite of it grieving him. Much like a father disciplines his child, punishing and correcting him in spite of how unpleasant it might be. The Old Testament is a record of how God preserved his people (the Jews) and separated them out from the world so as to bring into the world through them the Messiah. Along the way he corrected, protected, punished, and preserved them. The Old Testament is a record of these events.

The Old Testament is all about (among other things) the creation of the world and the rise of the Jews as God's chosen people. It also contains much prophecy about the coming Messiah that would later be fulfilled in the New Testament. The Old Testament also contains wisdom about life in general.

We no longer live in the Old Testament era. That time is gone. That is history. We live in the New Testament era. We live in the age of grace. We live under what is called the new covenant. Jesus came to fulfill the old covenant by becoming the new covenant. That is why there is a seeming difference to the God of the Old Testament versus the God of the New Testament. It is because The two Testaments or two covenants portray God doing very different tasks. The first covenant portrays God preserving and separating the Jews using what we might call "tough love". The New Testament is about salvation and God’s plan for the salvation of the human race through his Son. So in essence the Bible is a two act play that reveals God's masterplan to save humanity from damnation and allow us to access, through grace,eternal paradise through his son.

5. Why didn’t Jesus return during his followers’ lifetime, as he said?

He never said he would return in their lifetime. Allow me to contextualize what Jesus said. Your question is no-doubt based on the following scripture Matthew 16:28...

“Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

One often mentioned explanation is his transfiguration when he was seen in his glorified body by Peter, James, and John. This was all part of it. Later, the apostle John had a clear revelation presented to him where he saw, in a vision, Jesus return “in his kingdom”. I think this is part of it.

I think, more to the point though, the disciples and many others witnessed him personally usher in an entire religion, based solely on himself. They saw him in all his glory, divine, powerful, and Holy. They quite literally saw him "in his kingdom" (i.e. the Kingdom of God).

Additionally, consider this point. We don’t know every single thing that was revealed and shown to the disciples during Jesus time with them. It is possible he showed them other things that simply were not recorded in the scriptures. After all John 21:25 says:  “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” God did not reveal everything to us. He revealed what He thought was sufficient to lead us to Him.

In my mind, the fact that many of the people he spoke this to did have an opportunity to see the rise of Christianity on Earth where Jesus was worshiped as God, makes this passage easy to understand. After all he did NOT say that some will not taste death *until I return*. It is clear he was talking about many of them seeing the rise of the Christian religion in their lifetime (Christ essentially brought the Kingdom of God down to Earth and made it accessible to us through Him).

6. How do any believers know for sure that their faith is the right one, especially given the presumed penalty for guessing wrong?

The same question could be asked of the atheist. After all if the atheist is right nothing happens after death. But if the believer is right there will be Hell to pay (literally) for choosing wrong.

I am a Christian because:

1. It is unique among all religions.
2. The scriptures have a distinct ring of truth.
3. There is bountiful historical evidence Jesus lived as the Bible says.
4. The Bible has uniquely transforming powers.
5. Devotion to Jesus provides joy, compassion, love, and hope.
6. I wish to dwell in Heaven with God upon death, not in Hell.

I hope this answers your questions. I encourage you to open-mindedly seek to know God through Christ.

Thanks!

-Mike Walk

7 problems I have with the modern corporate church

The seven reasons I have all but abandoned the corporate church:

 

1. overpaid pastors. Many pastors today are millionaires. They make good money preaching the gospel. I believe it says something in the Bible about not profiting from the gospel. I could be wrong about that. 

2. Lukewarm congregations. Everyone goes in there to the church puts on their phony face and then when the church is over they all disperse back to their respective homes. There is no camaraderie, there’s no warmth... it’s all phony glad-handing plastic banana pseudo-friendliness 

3. They have abandoned the service mentality. The church's job is to help the community. Wherever there is a church, especially a big church, the surrounding community should be a zone of decency. Instead churches sit there isolated behind iron gates essentially functioning as a safe-zone for it’s overpriced preacher. 

4. Entertainment-centric. In the church today the primary goal is to “win the youth". That’s done by playing rock ‘n’ roll music or rap. Lots of instrumentation (especially drums), lots of music, a light show... all that mess. A church should be holy and set apart we are in the world but not of the world. And if I have to sit through another epic song where the self-righteous self-absorbed singer stands there with his acoustic guitar, eyes shut, singing "we love you Lord" for 25 minutes... I’m gonna eviscerate myself.

5. Go ask the church for help and see what happens. Some of them might help you. But it’s rare. It might be a smaller church that would help you. But go ask somebody in a mega church to help you. Better yet go to a mega church and try to talk to the pastor. He has an entourage, security guards, and he’ll act like he’s some kind a celebrity or something. What in the world is a celebrity pastor? Is there anything more horrible than that? 

6. It’s not just about the preaching or building a big church or receiving funds or tithing it’s about changing fundamentally the world around you for the sake of Christ. We also should show our Christianity not just talk about it. It says in the Bible they will know you are Christians by your love. But when I go to churches most of them are very cold and distant and nobody wants to commit. 

7. The political aspect. Yes the church is open to all political persuasions but how anyone could attend a church and be pro-choice, and pro-homosexual I’ll never know. Or how anyone could attend a church and be a leftist I don’t know. And yeah it happens a lot. Progressive liberal churches make me sick So too do the hyper-conservative right wing extremist churches. It’s very difficult. I see churches right now trying to make a living off of the church.

As more and more Christians fear taking a stand for what’s right, for fear of losing what they have in the name of Christ, the church becomes more and more lukewarm (neither hot nor cold). Just sort of there... and you know what Jesus said about that. I’m not saying we should all be activist churches but I’m saying we should be active churches. An active church is one that puts their money where their mouth is. These kind are few and far between nowadays. They are what is referred to as the “remnant”. It is what remains of the true church of God.

Here’s another couple of things. Do we really need special music? Do we really need Gertrude to stand up there and warble her way through some modern "devotional" song trying to drive a tear out of our eyes or get some sort of emotional reaction for her own personal pleasure? What is the point of sitting there and listening to some person, who wouldn't even get past the screening process on American Idol, ululating their way through some modernist Christian song designed to sound all holy-Joe, holier than thou,  Christ thy Lord with hollow sanctimoniousness?

Give me that old time religion!!!!!

Baseball: The Texas Rangers

(This post was originally written and posted on 6/23/18)

Starting in 2016 I started watching baseball again. I had taken a nice 20 years hiatus. At the time I remember thinking "Why in the &^@#* have I NOT been watching baseball all this time?" Since I couldn't come up with a decent answer, I decided to watch every Ranger game I could. The first game I watched during my baseball renaissance was the game on May 15, 2016 between the Rangers and the Blue Jays. That is the game when Rougned Odor punched José Bautista in the face. Here is the way the incident is described on Wikipedia...

"During the May 15, 2016, game against the Toronto Blue Jays, there were two benches-clearing incidents. Following a contentious meeting in the ALDS the previous season, many people thought the Rangers would target Jose Bautista for his controversial bat flip in the ALDS. However, the first six games of the season between the clubs were played without incident. Finally, in the last regular season game between the clubs, Rangers reliever Matt Bush hit Bautista in the ribs with a fastball. On the ensuing play, Bautista slid hard into Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor. Odor, taking exception, pushed Bautista, then proceeded to punch Bautista squarely in the face. This fight caused both benches and bullpens to clear. Bautista, Odor, Steve Buechele, and Josh Donaldson were ejected after the brawl. Later in the game, Blue Jays pitcher Jesse Chavez hit Prince Fielder with a pitch causing the benches to clear again, although this time no punches were thrown. Chavez and DeMarlo Hale were ejected following this incident. Odor would serve a seven game suspension for his actions. Toronto manager John Gibbons and Chavez would serve three games suspensions while Bautista and Elvis Andrus served one game suspensions."

Odor lands a beauty!

It was a lively reintroduction. I was hooked. My old team had spunk. And surprisingly, they were first in their division. So they eventually won the AL West in 2016 with a record of  95-67. Then they lost in the playoffs. Oh well.

2017 was a tough year. They didn't do too well. They finished tied for 3rd with a record of 78-84 [tied with the Mariners]. There were 16 blown saves. So we should have finished 94-68. But we didn't and that's that.

2018 - So now here we are 78 games in (as of this writing) and we are in LAST PLACE in our division. Darn!! We are at 34-44. But we currently have a 7 game win streak going (we just whipped the Twins today 9-4)

I don't know what this season holds, but we shall see. I will update the blog as we go.

Bottom line... I AM A HUGE BASEBALL FANATIC!!!! Go Rangers!!!!!

Update: The 2017 season. We finished 4th with a record of 78–84. It was the last season for Carlos "Gomi" Gomez, Mike Napoli, Yu Darvish, and Jonathan Lucroy. We acquired Willie Calhoun. Beltre hit his 3,000th hit.

Update #2: 10/26/18 - The rangers finished the season with a poor 67-95 record. Yuck! It was so bad, Rangers manager Jeff Banister lost his job. Oh well. Maybe next year!!!

Update #3: 9/27/19 - We have 3 more games to go and our season is over. It was a good season. We actually reached .500 at one point. Surprising as we are in a rebuilding year.

Springsteen Takes one step up then two steps back

Dateline June 22, 1018 - Tallahassee Gazette

Springsteen Steps Up

by Art Mayhew

Once popular rock legend Bruce Springsteen announced today his plan to take in more than 4,000 undocumented immigrants onto his sprawling 378 acre property in Colts Neck New Jersey. Springsteen, having been recently provoked by certain media articles presenting a very biased and limited perspective on a hugely complicated problem, decided to wade in and make public comments about the Trump administration’s recent border enforcement policies. More precisely, the separation of children from their mothers (a practice Trump has since suspended). From the stage of his exorbitantly priced Broadway show Springsteen said "...we are seeing things right now on our American borders that are so shockingly and disgracefully inhumane and un-American that it is simply enraging." and "...we have heard people in high position in the American government blaspheme in the name of God and country that it is a moral thing to assault the children amongst us. May God save our souls."

Now the 60-something former hit maker, who’s last hit climbed the charts 24 years ago, has decided to not just talk the talk, but to walk the walk. "I have decided to take in, house, clothe, and feed all the undocumented immigrants that come to this country illegally. Especially the children." said the soon-to-be septuagenarian rocker, whose massive estate now boasts a veritable tent-city where his prized horses once galloped in open splendor. The cost of this project, though astronomical, is worth the price according to Mr. Springsteen, whose album Born In The USA captivated the nation 34 years ago. I asked what would be the maximum number he would be willing to house. "Keep ’em coming." he said, as his wife Patti Scialfa, who was standing nearby, began to quietly cry into her Dolce & Gabbana scarf.

-----UPDATE!!!-----

Dateline July 25, 2018 - Tallahassee Gazette

Springsteen Takes Two Steps Back

By Art Mayhew

Once popular rock legend Bruce Springsteen, who last month decided to take in undocumented immigrants from the southern border, may have bitten off more than he could chew. According to sources close to the aging rocker he now regrets his decision. An un-named source close to the fading star reveals there are many problems happening in the once gorgeous Colts Neck New Jersey property owned by Bruce Springsteen. "The place is teeming with people. Thousands of people milling about, many are hungry, naked, and sick." said the source "Bruce and his wife Patti are trying to feed and clothe all of these thousands of people all by themselves. The last estimate was over 42,000 undocumented people packed in there. There is garbage everywhere, bon-fires, and we heard that some of his horses have been eaten." Springsteen’s goodwill gesture has gone unappreciated, not just by the refugees who often riot for more food, but also his neighbors and friends. He has received absolutely no help from local authorities, and his high powered Hollywood friends are ignoring him in droves. The only Hollywood "friend" who came to his aid, reportedly, is fellow 80’s relic Joe Piscopo. However Mr. Piscopo reportedly left after only 4 hours. "It is a nightmare." said the source "many of the men have escaped into New Jersey", which has coincided with the surrounding county seeing a 236% spike in the local crime rate, "On Bruce's property there have been some fatalities, and numerous rapes,and many of Bruce’s prized possessions have gone missing. It’s a damn nightmare." When contacted by phone, a person believed to be Springsteen himself simply muttered "Sweet Lord what have I done?" in his characteristic raspy voice, before the line went dead.

[Note: This article is a satirical article conceived and written by Michael V. Walk]

The Human Family Tree!

[This post was originally conceived on 2/28/2012. It was finished on 2/18/2021]

Okay, so we are told by enlightened scientists that "we descended from apes". This didn't work well so they retooled the terminology and came back with "we descended from the same common ancestor" as apes. Well this is now under attack by people who are intelligent and who don't automatically gorge themselves on whatever agendized scientists portray as truth.

Well here is is, my friends! The HUMAN FAMILY TREE! Let's shine a little common sense [and satire] on the subject and see what we come up with.

Current thought holds that we have 15 steps from there to here. In other words, modern humans have evolved over 15 distinct "steps" over the last 6 million years. Okay. So lets get started.

#01. Orrorin tugenensis - the "evidence" for this creature is made up of 13 fossils, including a partial femur, some framents of a lower jaw, and some teeth. It is controversial because some scientists disagree with it being a hominid at all. However clever artists have made this bust which is like catnip to evolutionists:

 #02. Ardipithecus ramidus - The "evidence" for this thing being an early human ancestor consists of a partial lower jaw from a child (catalogued as ARA-VP-1/129). Other fossil evidence for this critter includes some teeth, a mandible, a few pieces of a skull, and several arm bones. However that doesn't stop imaginative artists from whipping up an imaginary image that will be purported to be "accurate". Like this:

 #03. Australopithecus anamensis - all that has been found and attributed to this thing is a partial tibia and a jawbone with teeth in it. Here then is a work of artistic fiction claiming to show this animal.

#04. Australopithecus afarensis - Here is the first of the "monkey men" that scientists can really get excited about since they have convinced themselves that it is some kind of proto-human. The famous, or infamous, skeleton dubbed "lucy" is one of these. The specimen in this picture's name is Reggie and he was huge fan of slinging feces at intruders.

#05. Kenyanthropus platyops - This is an ape. But some artist claims that THIS is what it looked like. I say IT because IT is an animal. Specifically, like mentioned before, an ape.

#06. Australopithecus africanus - It is also an ape. But some artist claims that THIS is what this one looked like. I say IT because IT is also an animal. Specifically, another ape. Nice smile though.

#07. Australopithecus aethiopicus - Once again this shows an extinct brand of ape.

#08. Australopithecus garhi - Good lord, another extinct ape?

#09. Australopithecus boisei - Here is the next phase in human evolution. Still has nasal problems cuz it's just another extinct ape.

#10. Homo habilis - Dude looked like this. Oh wait, its a female. My bad. Really, I feel bad.

#11. Homo erectus - Hey, this isn't funny. Why are you smiling? I know, I know, either because I said "erectus" or because he looks like someone you know. Well, he isn't someone you know. He's homo erectus and he lived 82 gazillion years ago, give or take a couple billion. If he existed at all, he was a man. [Editor's note: NO ONE could possibly know what the nose of any of these creatures looked like, because the nose decays and rots away very quickly. The "artists impression" makes it look ape-like because of the nose, which, as mentioned, is pure speculation. Thank you.]

#12. Australopithecus robustus - A search of google images returned a hodge-podge of various other creatures (many of which are pictured above). I could not find one that was identified specifically as ol' robustus. (in other words: no usable picture available) Tell you what, let's slap this photo in here! Works for me!

#13. Homo heidelbergensis - Looks fairly bright eh? Bright enough to invent the wheel. This is the guy who did that. No really. Brow ridge is rocking.

#14. Homo Neanderthalensis - Even though scientist now admit that Neanderthal man had NOTHING to do with our evolutionary chain of development, I am listing it here simply because I want to.

#15. Homo Sapiens - Here we see man has finally reached a point where he resembles many modern males. Numerous famous football players, basketball stars, and artists resemble homo sapiens.

#16. Modern man - Every man on Earth now looks like this. As you can see we have come a long way baby. I'm proud of how we have evolved over the last bazillion years.

What you have just read is a lot of hooey based on guess-work and blind speculation, oh and a generous helping of satire.

Thanks for dropping by!

By the way, there is one specimen that scientists have had trouble classifying.

The Mugato...

Good luck scientists!!

Most of this info was ripped off of this site:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/humans/humankind/i.html