Historical Non-Belief

Considering this is the second anniversary of the Land of Disillusionment, I thought it might be a good idea to take a look back into history, the history of Atheism, that is.

Although many refuse to believe it, Atheism has been around for many centuries in many forms. It has always been there to define cultures, philosophies, and logical thinking. And yet, there are many who honestly believe that Atheism is a recent movement, something that began in only the 18th century. While there is some truth to this, it is still far from reality.

"Just how old is Atheism?"

Believe it or not, Atheism has always existed, though not in the same form. Even before Theism, Atheists walked the Earth.

"The earliest evidence of religious ideas dates back several hundred thousand years to the Middle and Lower Paleolithic periods. Archeologists refer to apparent intentional burials of early homo sapiens from as early as 300,000 years ago as evidence of religious ideas."
~Wikipedia

As described in many blog posts, Atheism is simply a lack of belief in gods. As such, all it takes for Atheism to be around is to not believe in gods. Without knowledge of gods, there is no belief in them.

However, Atheism, as an opposite to Theism, arrived significantly later. Before then, Atheism was simply a lack of belief, a philosophy without a name. It wasn't until the 6th century BCE that Atheism became an opposing philosophy, and we didn't even have a name until the 16th century CE. That was when the greeks came up with the name Atheos, godless.

As I said, though, there is some truth to those that think Atheism didn't show up until the 18th century. Modern Atheism is slightly different from the older philosophies. While older Atheism was completely pacifist and more geared toward belief than actual knowledge, Modern Atheism is not willing to roll over to anyone and is very focused on science, logic, and rational free thinking. This actually started with a romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who submitted an anonymous paper to the dean of Oxford University titled The Necessity of Atheism, and was subsequently kicked out. If not for this man and many others like him, Atheism would not be what it is today.

So there you go, a brief history of Atheism. I hope you've learned something, or at least didn't fall asleep while reading all of it.

Good Intentions

As I have mentioned many times before, the one thing all Atheists must do is defend their position, their reason for not believing in any deities. Just like all theists must defend their reason for believing in their chosen god(s). Although I am firmly against this blog directly attacking any religion, Atheistic or otherwise, I also feel it is important to offer ampule evidence, reason, and logic to help those who must defend themselves.

I'm sure you can see my dilemma.

As such, I must offer a refutation, one that can be seen as an attack. And while my refutation will be specific, its use can be quite generalized. I would just like to clear up that this is not an attack, just a specific example, like the ones I have used in the past. In fact, it is a response to the Problem of Evil argument.

"Just because God CAN do something, that doesn't mean he WILL do it!"

I can see where this is coming from, but under the circumstances, I'm afraid I must disagree.

For those who are not familiar with the Problem of Evil argument, it typically goes as follows:

If God is willing, but not able, why call him omnipotent?
If God is able, but not willing, why call him benevolent?
If God is both willing and able, why is there evil?
If God is neither willing nor able, why call him God?

The above quote is a generalization of the typical answer. It usually takes the form of "No one understands his ways" or "Perhaps he requires something from us?"

The reason I disagree is because we are not using the actual God as the example. We are using what we have described him as in various conversations and documents. God is almost always described as All Knowing, All Powerful, and All Loving. Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnibenevolent. If these are the characteristics and abilities we are attributing to God, then there are certain things God will and won't do.

For example, God would not cause harm, as he is omnibenevolent, God can do anything, as he is omnipotent, and God knows everything, as he is omniscient. One characteristic and two abilities.

If God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnibenevolent, all at the same time, then there are three things we can infer from this.

1) God is able to do good
2) God knows how to do good.
3) God is willing to do good.

This falls into the third premise of the Problem of Evil argument, "Why is there evil?" If God wants to do as much good as possible, and can do anything, and knows both of these things, why has he not eliminated evil? Why does it still exist?

As stated, one of the arguments I have received on this topic basically said "He is expecting something from us and will not help until then." That's all well and good, but that means he is not yet willing to help. He is unwilling to do good in this instance. Which brings us back to #2, why call him benevolent?

As for the final argument, "God works in mysterious ways," there is only one response. There must be something that is more good than removing all that is bad. If this is the case, then there is only one thing left to do, one question left to ask.

What good act could be greater than eliminating everything that is bad?