THE MORAL ATHEIST - Can an Atheist be Consistently Pro-Life?

A Christian friend of mine challenged my continued pro-life involvement recently. He wrote:

"Just curious here. You're an agnostic/atheist type now? Is that right?

Just wondering from whence you derive your ethic for the unborn given a naturalistic/materialistic worldview.

That is: given (presumably) that you believe there is no God, or any transcendent being who created everything, and that all things came into existence by non-purposeful, random chance (ie. nothing) and that all things are evolving, hence humans are just a branch on the evolutionary tree, albeit highly complex, here through a long history of natural selection favoring our genes in death, disease, and struggle of the fittest....

WHY are human babies' lives intrinsically valuable? Why is abortion "WRONG"? And HOW, again given an atheistic worldview, in which death is final, can we expect any JUSTICE for all the lives killed from the womb???

I don't see any consistency in an atheist type getting angry about killing the unborn. Traditionally, atheists and other secularists have favored a PRO-DEATH culture of abortion, etc.

Just curious to know how you remain CONSISTENTLY pro life FROM AN ATHEIST, SECULARIST STARTING POINT."

The following was my reply:

Easy. Science makes it clear that the unborn are members of our own species. If I value my own existence and life as a human being, it only makes sense to want to see other human lives protected from harm, suffering, and wrongful death.

IS GOD a LITTLE TEAPOT?

I don't have enough faith to be an atheist.

It's a Christian saying I've often heard, and one I've been inclined to agree with. After all, isn't an atheist making a HUGE claim? Isn't he claiming to know that in this entire vast universe, there is no God somewhere therein, perhaps undetectable to our current scientific instruments and means of knowledge? It's as bold a statement as that of a scuba diver swimming at the ocean beach for a few hours with goggles and saying "Nope! I looked - that ring you dropped in the Atlantic on your cruise to Europe? It's not in this ocean!"

Of late, I've been reading a variety of books and watching videos from the mouths of atheists themselves. I'm beginning to realize that while most of us as believers have always assumed that an atheist believes there is no God, in actually, it turns out that most atheists simply do not believe in God. This is a vast distinction because one is an assertion of knowledge ("I believe/know that there is no God"), whereas the other grants a lack of evidence and a lack of knowledge ("I don't have substantial evidence of God")

Hilarious Example of Circular Reasoning by Creationist

I can't believe that I ever found Christian arguments like this one to be the least bit compelling. LOL

This is a clip from a Christian TV Show (whose name I haven't yet discovered). They are interviewing a guest, Eric Hovind from Creation Minute,

Here are classical examples of Christian Circular Reasoning that I've pulled out of this video: (my thoughts in italics)

THE RAINBOW CONNECTION... No Rainbows Before the Flood?

Why are there so many songs about rainbows?  I don't know Kermit, but one thing's for certain, that whole rainbow thing sure has me stymied too - and I'm not even the least bit worried about lovers and dreamers!

I mean it's one thing to say that a single man managed in times of antiquity to build a structure big and sturdy enough to not only withstand 40 days and nights of rain and another year or so of floating, but to also house the genetic grandparents of every living land-creature.   Even granting that Noah took in small and immature creatures and that God helped him pull off the miracles of barricading the meat-eaters from the vegetarians, dealing with waste management, and the feeding of everyone and everything on board throughout a year at sea, it still seems rather... - well good thing we're granting miracles! (I intend to go into more depth on scientific problems with the Ark story in a future post)

But as a matter of fact, many cultures have similar flood stories.  The Hindus tell of a man named Manu who was spared by a global flood because he was a righteous man, Native Americans have a longstanding flood tradition, and a flood story even exists in Greek mythology.   The likelihood of an ancient flood or floods, global or otherwise, is a possibility I won't entirely discount.  It certainly has made its way into the folklore of many traditions.

That said, I do take issue with the Biblical rendition of the flood story, the account of the rainbow:

Christian Cliché #1

Source: FB contact
"When you are in deep water ... trust the One who walked on it."

And what does that accomplish? Does the water evaporate? Do you suddenly grow gills?

Having a God you can trust during hardships doesn't really amount to much if that God doesn't in any way intervene or help. Knowing God is there is irrelevant if God is just sitting there. If your best answer to suffering is that if God doesn't pull the plug on the deep waters then you can be assured that this invisible bystander will take you to some other better world after you drown... ? Well, excuse me. I'll take my chances on being spotted by the coast guard!

(DON'T) GIVE ME THAT CHRISTIAN SIDE HUG!

Don't think about pink elephants.  No!  You just did it, didn't you?!  Your mind flashed to an image of a cute little pink elephant you're not supposed to think about.  Come on now.  You can do it.   Let's draw our attention away from elephants as a whole.    Don't think about Dumbo or circus elephants.  Don't let your thoughts wander to their trunks or to their tails.  No elephants in your thoughts, you hear?

Chances are, the more I talk about avoiding elephants, the more they'll be on your mind.  According to psychologists the brain doesn't hear words like "don't";  it bypasses "don't"  for the tangible word in the sentence: "elephants."    Sports enthusiasts know that focusing on where they don't want the ball to end up often leads the body to send the ball to that very place.   Tell a child not to pick the grass, and even a child who'd never considered the idea, suddenly wonders how much fun it might be to pick the grass.

So why do we think we can take teens who live in a culture where they've been constantly exposed to sexuality since childhood, throw them a few "don'ts",  and expect this to miraculously curtail the pull of biology?

THE DEAD WALKED... AND EVERYBODY FORGOT?

Given that the gospels are dated at least a few decades after the events they depict, skeptics of the Bible have long suggested that the gospels are a compilation of oral tradition compiled not from eye witness accounts, but from the retelling of events passed on through oral tradition. This would explain the variations and inconsistencies between the gospel accounts, as well as allow for the possibility that embellishments and/or myths made their way into the oral tradition.

Matt. 27:52-53 adds this great story to the resurrection account "and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people."

What an amazing story! An awesome footnote to the already miraculous story of the resurrection of Jesus! But hold on a sec! ... If this really happened, why does no one else - not even the other gospel writers or apostles - mention this? You mean to tell me that DEAD people showing up to their relatives and friends doesn't cause enough of a stir for historians everywhere to take note?? ... Sure smells of fiction to me!

DANCING ON THE STREETS OF HEAVEN?

With the very recent death of a Christian friend from cancer, I've been spending a lot of time contemplating (strangely enough), death and the afterlife. Please note that by raising these questions I do not wish to bring additional pain to my Christian peers who are grieving with me this week, but the time seems appropriate to me as I ponder these important questions.

As a Christian-raised child, I've attended many Christian funerals and regularly heard people quote 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus."

WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOSE?

"What have you got to lose by giving your life to Jesus?"

The question is usually asked by a prosperous white American living comfortably with a spouse, a house, three children, and a white-picket fence. In an evangelist setting it sounds something like this:

"If God isn't real and Jesus isn't the truth, and this life is all there is, what has it cost me? I had a good life following God and loving my family, and if I die and there's nothing else, I have nothing to lose. But IF God is real and Jesus is the truth and there is a heaven and a hell after this life, then YOU have EVERYTHING to lose!"

MAKE ME A BELIEVER

Everyone has a bias. I am no exception. I grew up in Christianity and I want it to be true. I've invested 32 years of my life into this faith system, I've laid out my life in a way that I thought would please God, and I've said no to a lifetime of sexual opportunities because I was waiting for Christian marriage like a good Christian girl should. I want Christianity to be true because I don't want to have built my entire life on a lie.

"You just need to repent," said a Christian acquaintance of mine recently. "You're just looking for an excuse to rebel and do things your own way." The accusation stung - because it couldn't be further from the truth. If ever there was a girl who was "sold out for Jesus", I used to be it. I was a full-on evangelizing, Bible memorizing, pleading/praying seeker of God.

AGNOSTIC

I'm an agnostic. I don't worship Satan and I'm not an atheist. There may be a God, or there may not be one. I don't see evidence of a loving omnipotent deity, but I won't rule out the possibility. "Agnostic" comes from two greek words: 'A' as in "Not" and 'Gnostis' as in "Knowledge". My faith creed is simply this: "I don't know".

I used to know. For more than two and a half decades I was a born-again and baptized, Bible quoting, evangelizing, theology debating, sex-saving, apologetics studying and sold-out believer in Jesus. I had all the answers, I knew I was going to heaven, and my goal was to get you there too.