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This is Why I Don't Believe in God

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my name is Alex uh I am a graduate of

philosophy and Theology and I'm a

YouTuber and that's about all there is

to me I'm afraid uh but I'm ready when

you are if you could let me know when

I've got two minutes remaining by saying

two minutes that would be very helpful

thank you thank you uh of course Brian

and Jonathan and Satler college and

ladies and gentlemen for coming uh this

is the second time that I've engaged

with uh Jonathan publicly uh I'm glad to

pick up where we left off we didn't

quite get to the bottom of God's

existence last time I'm confident might

get there

today uh I wonder it' be quite

interesting just to get a fill of the

Christians is that is that the

time okay well it looks like I've got my

work cut out for me but that's my

favorite kind of debate I think um of

course this is an opening statement so I

won't respond to the arguments you just

heard just yet instead I want to uh make

my own case that upon uh an honest anal

of the world we find ourselves in it

should compel us to dismiss the

hypothesis of a supernatural Creator I

will not be asking you to look in

ancient scripture nor to the beginning

of the universe nor indeed down a

microscope instead just to your uh

direct experience of the world and fact

about the lives of people within it I

will however indulge in a brief biblical

recital um because I want to begin with

a book uh with a reading from The Book

of Psalms so if you could all turn to

Psalm 13 9 unless of course you've

already committed this famous passage to

memory verse 7 onwards reads where can I

go from your presence or where can I

flee from your spirit if I Ascend to the

heavens you are there if I make my bed

in the depths of the shal you are there

if I take the wings of the morning and

settle at the farthest limits of the sea

even there your hand shall guide me and

your right hand shall hold me fast this

poem in its entirety is given by the

nrsv a title the inescapable God it's a

message of bold reassurance to the

believer reminding them that since God

is present everywhere pervading every

inch of our universe he is in the

happiest sense possible inescapable but

my first argument and it's going to be

the first of

three uh against the viability of theism

flows from the demonstrable fact that

this Divine consolation is seemingly not

offered universally and often in fact

restricted from those who want it the

most I'm going to be making the claim

specifically that atheism or naturalism

provides a better account for three

facts of our universe the first being

the hiddenness of God the second being

the geographical uh statistical

uh uh Arrangement shall we say of

religious belief and the third will be

the problem of gratuitous suffering and

we'll see if we get time to finish it

off far from being unable to escape God

there is a very real contingent of

non-believers and I would count myself

among among their number who are unable

by any means to discover him who seek

and do not find who knock and receive as

it were no answer this strange

phenomenon is known as the problem of

divine hiddenness if there is a God then

simply why is he hidden from so many of

us so much of the time if theism is to

offer a sufficient account of reality

then it must offer an account of what JL

shellenberg has famously labeled

non-resistant non-belief which he

distinguishes from resistant non-belief

it's sometimes said by a theist who

wishes to explain uh the problem of

divine hiddenness that people simply

disbelieve through their own fault

they're too stubborn they're

purposefully blinding themselves to the

evidence because they don't want it to

be true they're not approaching the

arguments honestly with an open heart

and that if they would only do this then

God would surely reveal himself such a

person would be what shellenberg calls a

resistant non-believer he disbelieves in

some sense because he actively resists

it for what it's worth I do think that

such people exist I think many such

people exist uh there are people who

come to this debate with their minds

already made up there are people who

want it not to be true that God exists

and in fact wouldn't submit to that

truth even if it were true there was a

recent poll run by The Atheist

Experience YouTube channel which I know

Jonathan you're a fan of uh which asked

if there was a God would you worship it

to which an astonishing 85% of

respondents said that they would not

there are however also people who

disbelieve in God not out of resistance

or stubbornness or a hardened heart but

rather due to sheer lack of conviction

indeed many such people actively want to

be convinced of God's existence and

would jump at the chance of entering

into a relationship with him if they

thought that he did but no matter how

hard they search they simply find no

answer forthcoming from the heavens and

this is the

non-resistant non-believer formerly then

shellenberg problem of divine hiddenness

can be stated as follows premise one if

there is a God he is perfectly loving

something I'm pretty sure Jonathan

agrees with premise two if a perfectly

loving God exists non-resistant

non-belief does not occur premise three

non-resistant non-belief does occur for

therefore no perfectly loving God exists

and the conclusion from the first

premise is that therefore there is no

God a loving God like the Christian God

would surely not refuse any willing

person from developing a relationship

with him and so if somebody is truly

non-resistant and open to receiving

God's grace we should expect them to

receive it thus shellberg assertion that

if God exists then non-resistant

non-belief does not exist the question

then is there such a thing as

non-resistant non-belief a non-resistant

non-believer to which all I can really

say is nice to meet you the last time I

debated Jonathan a number of years ago

when I was just a few months out of

being a teenager I said that even if I

thought even if I found Christianity to

be true I still wouldn't want to worship

the god uh that it promotes I now since

then have realized how irrational and

self-defeating this assertion is and

stand before you today as an example of

a non-resistant non-believer I think it

would be great if God existed I really

do I would I would absolutely love to

escape death I would relish being the

recipient of unconditional love less

selfishly I would love to be able to

worship that which deserves to be

woried I just don't think it's true I

try as I might look where I can I find

no response no hint nothing I don't

choose to disbelieve in God anymore than

I choose to disbelieve in Aliens despite

how much I might want them to so when

faced with a Psalm like Psalm 139 I'm

overwhelmed with a sense not of beauty

and consolation but envy and

disappointment where can I go from your

spirit where can I flee from your

presence where can I go I should ask in

response to find it of course you cannot

know my heart you can't know if I'm

truly as non-resistant as I claim but I

hope that my actions here might betray

me uh as as a Catholic child I was once

an an alter boy I would serve the altar

of mother church every Sunday dressed in

a white robe um in the time since then I

have to put it mildly been looking for

God I went to Catholic schools I studied

philosophy and theology at a levels I

made a career out of engaging with

religious arguments I have explored

arguments from contingency from

fine-tuning from motion from mathematics

from indeed from uh irreducible

complexity and the alleged resurrection

of Jesus of Nazareth it may surprise my

followers online to learn uh that at

University I visited numerous churches

on the invitation of various friends I

spent hours talking with religious

friends until the sun rose again if you

like I spent I attended Bible groups

regularly too which might surprise

people uh as well and in fact I I still

do attend such groups just recently I

agreed to embark on a series of study of

the wisdom literature specifically

reading it again in the hopes that this

time I might finally feel a divine

presence seeping from between the lines

I moved into a house for a year with two

devoutly Christian housemates with the

express intention of seeing if the

obvious truth of Christianity and theism

that people like to talk about can be

found in the minutia of daily

life I have looked in other words in a

great deal of places I read athanasius

and anel I read Augustine and aquinus I

I looked in Julian of Norwich and

Katherine of Sienna I looked at the

sociological origin of religious belief

in durheim and Marx and Freud and young

I looked at religious experience in

William James and Rudolph alsoo I've

looked in the modern works of people

like Ed faser and Bill Craig and Michael

Murray and Richard swinburn and Alvin

plantinga I've looked in poetry I've

looked in the Psalms I've looked in job

I've looked in Ecclesiastes I've looked

in dooi I read CS Lewis I listened to

worship music I prayed I studied the

gospel I even got an actual degree in

theology from a university and nothing

nothing not once not nearly not ever not

even briefly have I experienced anything

that speaks to the existence of a God in the

the

universe I think it's asking a lot of

any atheist to seriously engage with a

religion that he does not believe is

true in any circumstances but I think

like I have gone above and beyond what

can be reasonably expected of any

atheist who wishes to entertain the god

hypothesis and for my efforts I have

been awarded radio silence the

inescapable god of the nrsv in other

words is for me the invisible God or The

inapproachable God the deaf distant God

the best account that I can give of this

experience of complete and utter Silence

from De heaven is that all that truly

exists to me is impersonal space and air

and rocks I know I know it sucks I'm

sorry it's it's it's a shame but there's

no need to cry about

it and nothing more my question to

Jonathan then is simple how can theism

account for this lived experience how

can it account in other words for

non-resistant non belief and if atheism

and doesn't atheism offer a better

explanation at the very least am I a

non-resistant non-believer if so

what offers a best account or a better

account of such a condition a universe

in which there is a loving God who does

want to be my friend but is for some

reason refusing or hiding or toying with

me or a universe without one or is there

no such thing as a non-resistant

non-believer which is the only remaining

option do we all secretly resist in some

way or other after desperately in other

words trying to convince myself of God's

existence for years and being left

painfully unconvinced will you just

submit as if to add insult to this

spiritual injury that this is in some

way my fault and if it is then what

could I have done differently what

should I be doing differently what could

I possibly have done differently given

the course of my life now assume for a

moment ladies and gentlemen the

alternative hypothesis of naturalism of

atheism and ask if it provides a good

account of non-resistant non-belief and

I think the answer is obvious

but it does get worse yet you'll

remember that my second fact that I said

that I would bring up is the

geographical predictability of religious

belief not only does theism need to

account for non-resistant non-belief but

also for the fact that such belief is

unequally present across the globe

Steven maton has pointed out that the

populace of Saudi Arabia is 95% Muslim

and therefore 95% theistic whereas the

populace of Thailand is 95% Buddhist and

therefore at best 5% theistic How likely

you are to be a theist in other words is

intimately tied to the place in which

you happen to be born what can better

explain this geographical spread theism

or naturalism or atheism well let's

consider our two competing hypotheses

could it be that God does exist but that

the tie are simply naturally 20 times

more likely to be resistant to belief in

God than say the Saudis are they just

naturally 20 s more stubborn or

something this seems implausible this

doesn't seem to be their fault okay so

maybe then it's not their fault and God

just has some reason to hide his face

disproportionately more from the ti than

from Saudis or indeed from those born

here in Massachusetts which uh has a

theistic according to one statistic is

75% theistic if theism is true it seems

to me that God has a lot to answer for

here is it not troubling Jonathan for as

a Christian that your place your place

of birth is a reliable statistical

indicator of How likely you are to be

saved I'll say that again your place of

birth which is entirely arbitrary is a

reliable indicator of How likely you are

on Christianity to be saved you're

significantly more likely to be a theist

if you're born in Rwanda than if you're

born in Thailand can this situation

really obtain under the supervision of a

God who wants to come to know us and

makes his existence equally accessible

to all the chances seem infinitely small

now consider naturalism or atheism

religion varying by region is exactly

what we would expect if it is a man-made

cultural phenomenon and nothing like

what we should expect if there is in

fact one true God who loves all equally

again I think atheism provides a much

stronger account of this fact of our

world finally

then the third fact of our universe

which is gratuitous suffering

gratuitous here means something like

unjustified or unwarranted or

meaningless I do this because it's easy

to see how some instances of suffering

may be uh beneficial in certain

circumstances or necessary to bring

about some desirable State of Affairs

some desirable end but the existence of

meaningless or unnecessary suffering

does seem to be incompatible with the

existence of a God who loves us and has

the power to prevent it from happening

we're sometimes told that God has

morally sufficient reason to allow

suffering to exist indeed if God is good

then he must have such sufficient reason

perhaps suffering is necessitated by

human Free Will perhaps suffering helps

to develop a person's moral character or

maybe it's necessary to achieve some

other end that God wishes to bring about

but intuitively there appear to be

instances of suffering that cannot serve

any such end and if even one example of

these turns out to be an actual case of

unnecessary or meaningless suffering

this would be enough to cause a

problem I want to propose something that

might sound a little strange at first

which is that the biggest problem for

theism here is not famously the the

great intense sufferings of the world

like holocausts or earthquakes but

rather me uh menial less significant

suffering like being caught out in the

rain or stubbing your toe or tripping

over a curb on the street why it seems a

Tad absurd I'll I'll grant you that but

consider this when we experience a great

suffering like the death of a loved one

or a devastating earthquake or indeed a

holocaust it's easy to imagine that this

might somehow be part of a grand plan

the depth of our suffering uh may make

us into better people the people who die

may be experiencing a much happier State

of Affairs in the afterlife now perhaps

by allowing the Jewish Holocaust to take

place God uh makes it such that we are

far less likely to allow even worse uh

projects of genocide to occur in the

future but what could possibly be served

what possible end could be served what

possible meaning could there be in

subbing your toe or tripping over a curb

or having a pigeon use your new suit as

a restroom such instances are not

significant they're usually forgotten

within a day or two and therefore do not

and cannot develop the soul nor do they

seem plausibly part of some Grand Design

or plan they seem that is to say

meaningless and

unnecessary more meaningless uh more meaninglessness

meaninglessness

than instances of let's say great uh or

intense suffering much more meaningless

than these and truly meaningless

unnecessary suffering is certainly more

expected in a world without benevolent

supervision than in a theistic paradigm

a successful theodicy in other words

then needs to provide not only an

account of the great and intense

sufferings of the world but also the

menial sufferings which pervade Human

Experience now I'm actually quite

surprised uh that I've made it this far

without mentioning animals yet it's

quite unlike me but that's a final

consideration that does deserve our

attention whatever theodicy might

explain human suffering the existence of

animal suffering seems infinitely more

difficult to explain animals are not

free in the way that we are and so are

immune to the Free Will defense they

cannot morally develop in the way that

we can and so are immune to Soul making

theodes they are on most accounts not

going to heaven and so they will not be

compensated for their suffering yet

their suffering is immeasurably large

somewhere right now billions of animals

are suffering in the wild from predation

from disease from Hunger from Fear

imagine a deer with its leg caught under

a Fallen Tree dying of starve

confusion it doesn't know why it's there

it feels hungry it's starving to death

and it's trapped under a tree and it has

no idea why

what could possibly be the purpose or

meaning of this I'll remind you that

this is exactly exactly the kind of

thing that we should expect to see if

the natural world is an amoral Arena of

accidentally existing organisms fighting

with each other to stay alive but can we

really expect this on theism should we

expect this on theism what offers a

better account keep in mind that in

other words I'm not arguing that theism

can offer no account of these kinds of

situations and sufferings though I am

skeptical that it can I'm only arguing

that assuming that theism is false

offers a better account of it than

assuming that theism is true assume

atheism assume that human beings and

other animals are nothing more than

evolved creatures who developed pain

receptors to make them more prone to

avoiding the menial and great sufferings

that upset our survival prospects on

this account the existence of all

suffering small and great is not only

explained but

expected thus atheism offers a better

account in my view than the of three

crucial and unavoidable facts Divine

hiddenness geographical religious

statistics and the existence of

gratuitous human and non-human suffering

and I am truly excited to hear how

Jonathan might account for these uh on

theism in defending it as a more

plausible account of our reality thank

you the full conversation that the clip

you just watched was taken from is

available via the link that just

appeared on your screen don't forget to

subscribe thank you for watching and

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YouTube Transcript:This is Why I Don't Believe in God

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YouTube Transcript:
This is Why I Don't Believe in God