Divine Incoherence

The concept of God is often described as incomprehensible or "mysterious," especially when traditional arguments fail or skeptics pose difficult questions. This "mystery card" is criticized as an intellectual abdication that discourages critical thinking.

• Meaninglessness: If God is entirely unknowable, the concept becomes "devoid of content." Asserting an unknowable being exists is a contradiction, as some knowledge is required to assert existence.
• "God of the Gaps" Fallacy: Invoking God to explain phenomena currently beyond scientific understanding is criticized for halting inquiry by prematurely filling gaps in knowledge with a divine explanation.
• Suppression of Reason: The appeal to mystery actively discourages doubt, which is a prime virtue for inquiry. This promotes "unquestioning belief" and makes faith seem "blatantly anti-reason."

Attempts to define God with traditional attributes lead to numerous logical problems and contradictions.

• The Problem of Evil: The most significant challenge. How can an omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good God allow immense suffering and cruelty? Theodicies (explanations for evil) are often dismissed as unsatisfactory.
• Omnipotence Paradox: Can God create a stone so heavy He cannot lift it? This paradox suggests that omnipotence, if it means being able to do *anything*, includes logically impossible tasks, making the concept incoherent.
• Omniscience vs. Free Will: If God knows all future free actions, are they truly free? Biblical accounts where God expresses regret, changes His mind, or needs to "test" people also contradict the idea of complete foreknowledge.
• Divine Hiddenness: If a perfectly good, all-powerful God existed, why would He not make His existence unambiguously clear, especially when eternal salvation is at stake? His hiddenness suggests His non-existence or questions His benevolence.

Traditional philosophical arguments for God's existence are widely critiqued as logically flawed or inconclusive.

• Cosmological (First Cause) Argument: Critiqued for special pleading. If everything needs a cause, what caused God? If God can be uncaused, why can't the universe be? It also fails to prove the specific properties of a theistic God.
• Teleological (Argument from Design): Shattered by Darwin's theory of evolution, which provides a naturalistic explanation for complexity. The "bad design" evident in nature (e.g., diseases, natural disasters) also contradicts the idea of a benevolent, perfect designer.
• Ontological Argument: Argues God must exist by definition of being a perfect being. Critiqued by philosophers like Kant, who argued that "existence is not a predicate" – you cannot define something into existence.
• Pascal's Wager: A pragmatic bet on belief. Critiqued for the "many gods" problem (which god do you bet on?) and for advocating intellectually dishonest, faked belief. The "cost" of belief is not negligible as Pascal claimed.

The Bible contains numerous passages that command or condone mass slaughter. God's commands for the annihilation of entire cities, including women and children (e.g., the Canaanites), are described as genocide. Historical atrocities like the Crusades, Inquisition, and religious wars are cited as being directly inspired by religious motives.

Case Study: Disproportionate Punishment. In 2 Kings 2, the prophet Elisha curses 42 "little children" for mocking his baldness. God then sends two bears to maul them to death, an act seen as a horrifically unjust punishment for a trivial offense.

The Bible, particularly the Old Testament, explicitly condones and regulates slavery. Leviticus 25 allows foreign slaves to be purchased as permanent, inheritable "property" who can be ruled over "with severity." Exodus 21 stipulates that if a master beats a slave and they die a day or two later, there is no punishment "since the slave is their property." Jesus's lack of any explicit condemnation of slavery is also noted.

The Bible often portrays women as property with their value tied to virginity. Consent is frequently disregarded.

• Rape as Divine Punishment: As punishment for King David, God declares, "I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor," an act fulfilled when David's son Absalom publicly rapes his concubines. Innocent women are sexually assaulted to punish a man.
• War Brides: Deuteronomy 21 allows men to take captive women from war as wives. Numbers 31 commands the killing of all non-virgin Midianite women, but instructs soldiers to "keep alive for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man" as spoils of war.
• Virginity Tests: Deuteronomy 22 outlines a law where a woman could be stoned to death if her husband accuses her of not being a virgin and no "proof" (blood on the wedding sheet) is found. This is biologically flawed, as only about 45% of women bleed during first intercourse, meaning over half would be wrongly executed.

A recurring theme is the punishment of innocents for the crimes of others, challenging the concept of divine justice.

• Generational Iniquity: God states He punishes children for the sins of their parents "to the third and fourth generation."
• Job's Family: God allows Satan to kill Job's children and servants, who committed no crime, simply to win a bet.
• David's Census: To punish King David for taking a census, God sends a plague that kills 70,000 innocent people.

Morality does not require a divine lawgiver. Secular ethics can be grounded in human reason, empathy, and a concern for human welfare.

• The Euthyphro Dilemma: This ancient philosophical problem questions whether something is good because God commands it (making morality arbitrary) or if God commands it because it's good (making God unnecessary for morality).
• Natural Origins: Morality is seen as having evolved naturally in human societies to facilitate cooperation and harmonious living. Empathy and fairness are built into us by social evolution.
• Moral Progress: Advances in morality, such as the abolition of slavery or the recognition of equal rights, have often come from secular reasoning and challenging religious dogma, not from it.

A secular worldview suggests that meaning is not something to be found, but rather to be created by individuals. This approach emphasizes human agency and intrinsic value.

• Self-Created Purpose: Individuals are empowered to choose their own purposes, values, and goals, taking responsibility for their own lives.
• Terrestrial Focus: Meaning is found in the "here-and-now" through relationships, community, altruism, and intellectual and aesthetic pursuits.
• Embracing Mortality: The finite nature of life is viewed not as a cause for despair, but as something that makes this life more precious and meaningful.

Science and reason offer a superior methodology for understanding the world, while secular governance provides a framework for a just and pluralistic society.

• Superior Epistemology: Unlike faith, which demands belief without evidence, science operates on supportive evidence, skepticism, and rigorous testing. It is an error-correcting process.
• Separation of Church and State: Secular governance, which separates religious institutions from state power, is essential for protecting individual freedoms, preventing sectarian conflict, and ensuring public policy is based on reasons and evidence accessible to all.
• Positive Societal Impact: Countries with high rates of secularism and non-belief are often among the healthiest, wealthiest, best educated, and most peaceful societies on Earth.