Yesterday on Twitter I came across this interesting Tweet:
“animals didn’t get here by evolution. Evolution is an imaginary alternative for people who don’t want to believe in our factual God.”
Now it is needless to say, that the person who wrote this is wrong about two things, namely evolution being wrong and evolution being equivalent to a rejection of Christianity.
But I’m interested in the last part where she claims that we don’t want to believe in God. Is this really the case?
I can only speak for myself but I have to disagree with this claim. I think to many of the people who know me this may come as a surprise, since I often engage in antitheistic rhetoric so allow me to elucidate:
As of this moment I don’t think it would be a good thing if the God of the Bible existed. I came across way too many verses that I find appalling. I wouldn’t want it to be factually true.
But that is not the issue at hand. The issue at hand is whether I want to believe it or not. If the Bible is true and this God exists, then I most definitely want to believe that this is the case.
I take truth quite seriously and if God is truth, then I want to be on the right side of the issue, whether I like the truth or whether I detest it is utterly irrelevant. My personal comfort and my personal feelings do not matter in this issue.
I am very willing to adopt a belief which I do not desire to be true but which is true. Likewise I am not willing at all to adopt a belief which I do desire to be true but which isn’t. If I didn’t hold to that, then I would believe that I’m the human equivalence of a phoenix, who is stuck in an infinite regress of finite lives. I do want that to be true but I simply don’t believe this is the case, because we have no evidence supporting it.
I’ll take it further though: I am willing to enter into a beneficial relationship with a deity under various conditions.
The first one and most obvious one is that I’ll have to be convinced that this deity actually exists.
Furthermore I need to be convinced that this deities moral outlook is compatible with mine. It is of course not the case that I think every proponent of Divine Command Theory is fundamentally immoral, neither is every proponent of Kantian ethics. I can get along perfectly fine with these people on a day to day basis, even though we have stark disagreements on various nuanced situations. I myself am a consequentialist and a rule utilitarian who bases his morality on human well being and I will butt heads with Kantians and certain types of DCT proponents, because I don’t think actions like killing, stealing, lying and various others which would be too hard to explain right now are always immoral. FYI murder is by definition always immoral because it is the killing of another human being without sufficient justification. Important to draw a difference.
But I can get along with these people in general. If God exists and I can agree with his moral views in general and we only have slight disagreements then I’m fine with a beneficial relationship.
The third condition would have to be, that he and I are equals. I do not want to be anybodies servant. I’ll treat him with his respect, he treats me with respect. I am nice and do things for him just so long, as it is a two-way-street.
If he exists and he’s a nice dude and treats me with respect and kindness then why would I not want to have that bond? Friendships are a good thing and if I can have a new one with a deity then all the better. Before that the three conditions would need to be met.
In summary I do want to believe in God if it’s true that he exists and I want to have a bond with him, if he treats me and others well and is an overall moral dude. Question answered.
Goodbye from yours truly,
Rene von Boenninghausen @Renevelation
Tarsier Renevelations 