Response to Keller

Someone has commented on this blog and suggested I watch this video of Minister Tim Keller:



I appreciate the commentor joining the discussion and challenging me, as this is why I created the blog.

Keller says that many societies have become MORE religious as they have advanced (using China as an example). He says religion is now more popular than ever, despite the advances in education and science.

Actually it is not the advancement of science that causes people to move away from religion - it is a culture of OPEN-MINDEDNESS and a FREEDOM to discuss alternative ideas that leads people away from religion. Many societies have become more advanced, but those societies are also very restrictive and close-minded in their views, and their cultures are not open to people with alternative ideas.

Many OPEN and free-thinking societies (especially European nations) have become less religious over time because their cultures are very liberal and accepting of differing ideas...their citizens are free to question religion without persecution or ostracism. For example, about 50 percent of Europeans DON'T believe in god, as opposed to about 4 percent in America. If you criticize religion in America, you are viewed negatively...this makes it much harder for alternative ideas to have a fair chance.






Keller also states that it takes more faith to not believe in god, because if there is a god and you don't worship him you risk going to hell or angering god in some way - well, this is a weak argument because this assumes that god cares whether or not you believe in him...most religions preach that one must be faithful to god and worship him or risk going to hell - BUT, where did people get this idea that god is so concerned with punishing people? even if god did create the universe, the concepts of heaven and hell were simply invented by man, and there is no indication that these things are real. i will grant you that it is possible that god created the universe, but we do not know anything else about him...such as whether or not he watches us like so many religions claim. we do not know any of god's QUALIITIES, TENDENCIES, or his DISPOSITION - these are things that every religion claims to know, but these religions have no basis for their specific prediction of how god behaves - these ideas about god were randomly created on a whim by the inventors of religions. The only way it takes more faith to not believe in god is if the Bible is accepted as fact, which it is not.

my philosophy is that if you live good life and treat others with respect, you don't have anything to worry about...god doesn't care if you believe in him or not - if god is so smart, he knows that some people will question him, as it is human nature to question things that we cannot prove. how do we even know that there is an afterlife? It is possible that there is a god but no afterlife - who says the two have to go together?



Keller also states that human rights are an indication that god exists...this is just a weak argument. He says that nature is cruel and animals don't have sympathy for eachother, yet humans value eachother's lives. This has nothing to do with god. It is simply the result of having larger brains. Because we are intelligent enough to be aware of our own mortality and because we have a knowledge of biology and death, we are able to understand the importance of life and how fragile it is. THIS is why we value eachother's rights. We feel pain and understand the enormity of it...thus we can sympathize with our fellow humans and understand that it is bad to cause harm to others. This awareness is not the result of god, but simply the result of having large brains.





Another thing that is mentioned that bothers me is that Christians believe that humans were CREATED by god in his image. this is simply false because we know that the earth began LONG before humans showed up - remember the dinosaurs? how do Christians explain dinosaurs? There were many species that came and went before humans even existed on earth. We know FOR A FACT that humans originated in Africa and migrated outward to other areas of the planet. The fact that there are many different races who all originated from one race proves that evolution exists. The first humans all looked the same, and now there are many varying races of people (black, asian, european, etc.). If people evolved over time to develop different races, then it is obviously likely that humans evolved from another species. God may have started the universe, but he didn't create people. After the universe began, everything else after that happened on its own.




His argument that the "fine-tuning" of the universe suggests there is a god is simply flawed and lacking in logic. He says that the chances that particles and physics would align perfectly to create our earth are "1 in a trillion"...He says its "a long shot" that earth just happened to develop life. It's not a long shot. If the chances of life developing are one in a trillion, and there are 100 trillion galaxies in the universe, then the chances of one planet randomly having life are pretty good. Another thing that people overlook about the universe is how big it is - if god created our planet, why did he create an entire universe full of dead, worthless planets? Why would he do that? Why would he create a bunch of worthless spheres that just float around in space for no reason? Why would he create a GIGANTIC universe and only make one planet with intelligent life? This lack of logic suggests that the universe was not created by an intelligent being, because an intelligent being wouldn't have wasted its time creating a bunch of dead planets.



His argument against the blind men/elephant story is just incorrect and lacks any logic. He says that someone who claims it's impossible to know the truth about god is arrogant because they are claiming to "know" themselves that others can't know. This is simply a philosophical trick used to weasel his way out of logic. He is saying that by abmitting you don't know, you are in fact knowing - it's completey contradictory and lacking in logic. When someone says they don't know, they are just saying they don't know - there is no hidden philosophical meaning in there - there is nothing else to it. He is just talking in circles to confuse people into thinking he's smart.

No one knows the truth about god - that is a fact. It's not arrogant to say that, it is simply the truth. You can't use philosophical trickery to twist it around. Besides, he says later in his speech that you can't prove anything. Well saying you can't prove anything is essentially the same as saying you can't know the truth about god. He's a hypocrite here.



I pretty much shot down all of Keller's arguments. Wow, I'm smarter than a doctor and all I have is a Bachelor's degree. Keller shows you that anyone can become a doctor and anyone can write a book.

The man who asks the first question at the 42:11 mark pretty much sums up my argument. Basically the man addressing Keller says that even if god is real, we cannot understand him or predict how he views us or whether he even cares how people behave. Keller then uses a weak argument that the Bible and the ten commandments describe god's will...the Bible doesn't prove anything. The Bible didn't come from god - the Bible was written by people. The ten commandments didn't come from god - the ten commandments were written by people. Keller is making his argument based on the assumption that the Bible came from god and everything in the Bible is true...in fact it is likely that most of the Bible is untrue and totally fake.

The guy that asks the last question at 57:12 shares my argument as well.


I'm not saying there isn't a god. I admit that it's a possibility. But the idea of a Christian god or a SPECIFIC description of god is ridiculous. No one knows HOW god is...no one knows the extent of his power, his beliefs, his opinions. No one knows how he views humanity or even if he watches us at all. The idea that god watches us and governs us is completely fabricated...as is the concept of an afterlife. It is possible that god created our universe and then left it alone to run itself.