If you say there is no God, that we are just physical beings meant to return to oblivion and dust, what’s inside us that makes us desire love, appreciate beauty, or laugh out loud? Is it possible that the molecules of our brains somehow mix at just the right proportion to create emotion?
If there is nothing more within the capsule we call our bodies, how are we not a puppet to its whims?
If our mind was just an evolution of the physical being of our brains, without an Intelligent Creator, how can we trust our thoughts?
If we somehow evolved out of chaos, how do we have the moral capacity to know right from wrong?
Do we just react to the elements that have randomly crossed the span of time in which we live? If we do, how is it that we have free will?
If we are a mass of inhabitants on Earth that have multiplied by the millions, while we forever spin on a planet that came together by the forces of the universe to somehow sustain life, why would it matter what we did with our lives?
If we have intelligence to design, build, and create, what was the very first creation?
If we can save lives with a scalpel, where and when did original skill begin?
If we can cultivate the earth for food, who made the seed? If you say the fruit, who made the fruit?
Who or What created creativity?
If there is no God, then What or Who has brought on the origin of good? In the expanse of space and nothingness, where did kindness begin? How was benevolence conceived?
Where is the hope beyond destruction and heartache? Is there vindication of evil to satisfy our deep-seated need for justice and an end of the pain of this life?
If good and evil had an absolute beginning, won’t there be an absolute victory of one or the other? Can you or I utterly end this struggle? Won’t whatever or whoever orchestrated the beginning also have the capacity to bring about the end?
How is it that we can contemplate eternity?
Can an undefined “life-force” of energy possess good to instill compassion within man? Can it distribute intelligence? Can it bear emotion to be able to pass on a capacity to love and grieve, to be glad or to anger?
“He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.” Eccles. 3:11
Well said.
AN OPEN RESPONSE TO A THEIST
As an atheist myself, one who does not believe in the existence of any god or gods, I feel comfortable in responding to your letter and try to give answers to your questions as I see them. So folks don’t have to keep scrolling up, I’ve taken the liberty of quoting the questions in their entirety below:
“If you say there is no God, that we are just physical beings meant to return to oblivion and dust, what’s inside us that makes us desire love, appreciate beauty, or laugh out loud?”
Desiring love and laughing out loud are, I think, a result of empathy and community. Humans are social creatures and we can empathize with the feelings and desires of others, placing ourselves in their shoes and imagining their experiences. We know what makes us feel happy and we share that with others. There is nothing mystical or even that mysterious, as it would be an evolutionary advantage to cooperate within a group and increase chances of survival. This mundane explanation does not diminish the importance of those feelings, or their strength. As for beauty, that is very subjective. I am not an art historian or an anthropologist, so I don’t know much about the evolution of art appreciation or why we generally seem to prefer symmetry over asymmetry. But what one person considers beautiful, another may not. Some people enjoy abstract art. Others don’t. Some people enjoy classical music. Others prefer punk rock. Some people prefer bright colors, others more muted hues. It’s very subjective and that’s part of its power because everyone can find art that they like and make more of it. It’s another way to appreciate and share our thoughts and feelings with others, strengthening those community connections. And again, this does not negate the power of what we find beautiful.
“Is it possible that the molecules of our brains somehow mix at just the right proportion to create emotion?”
Essentially, yes. This is why people like me, who suffer from chronic depression, take antidepressants. Or why a schizophrenic takes medication. I don’t know the exact science of it, but there are plenty of studies on the chemical mix that creates emotions, the environmental (or sometimes purely mental) triggers for them, and how they can be manipulated. This does not negate their power, and by understanding where emotions come from and how and why they are triggered, we can better understand and control ourselves so we rule our emotions and impulses rather than the other way around.
“If there is nothing more within the capsule we call our bodies, how are we not a puppet to its whims?”
In a way we are, but we can be aware of those impulses or whims and decide whether or not to indulge them. We are not completely at the mercy of our bodies the way a puppet is to a puppeteer, but our bodies and the environment we find ourselves in does create certain tendencies, desires, and even whims, which can be very powerful.
“If our mind was just an evolution of the physical being of our brains, without an Intelligent Creator, how can we trust our thoughts?”
We can’t. This is why we have to be sure to question the heuristics we use to get through each day, to regularly check in on our beliefs and the evidence we use to support them to make sure that we comport with reality. I don’t see how the involvement of a Creator would make any difference, since people have hallucinations, mental illnesses, and injuries to the brain which can completely change their personality. I suppose one could blame the failure of our brains on the Fall, but that only works if the Christian mythos is correct, and still reflects poorly on a supposedly all-powerful being whose perfect work can be marred so easily.
“If we somehow evolved out of chaos, how do we have the moral capacity to know right from wrong?”
Chaos has nothing to do with morality, so the question as stated is a bit nonsensical. If you drop out the chaos part, you have the question, “How can we have morality if we evolved naturally?” This also goes back to empathy where the big picture moral questions tend to fall back on avoiding what is detrimental to survival. But when one zooms in and starts asking moral questions on a small scale, morality becomes a fuzzier question that varies from culture to culture and from time period to time period. Is it moral to steal? What if the person stealing is robbing from the rich to give to the poor? Or is stealing always wrong, no matter what? Is it moral to own slaves? The Christian Bible gives specific instructions on how to take care of slaves and the United States considered slavery both legal and moral for decades. In some places it is still considered a moral duty to kill the victims of rape or for those who leave a religion. Morality has everything to do with humans and nothing to do with any god.
“Do we just react to the elements that have randomly crossed the span of time in which we live? If we do, how is it that we have free will?”
Essentially, yes, we do react to and are shaped by the time and place in which we live. If I was born in working class London in the 1800s, I would probably be dead of black lung or childbirth by now. I would have lived a very short, brutal, uneducated life. If I was born into a vastly wealthy family, perhaps I would be at an expensive West Coast college ordering sushi from New York City to be flown over to me for my lunch. As for free will, we operate as if we do because what else can we do? The nature and existence of free will has been debated by philosophers for a long time, so I have no idea if such a thing exists or not. But consider: how can we have free will if there is a god who is omniscient and omnipresent? If that god knows everything, then it knows everything we are doing/have done/will do and that’s that, which means we can’t influence any of that because it’s already written, so to speak, which means we are puppets following a set path because we can’t do anything else because god has already seen it and knows what we will do. If we do something god can’t foresee, then it can’t be omniscient, and thus has one less god-attribute, which is a major problem for monotheism.
“If we are a mass of inhabitants on Earth that have multiplied by the millions, while we forever spin on a planet that came together by the forces of the universe to somehow sustain life, why would it matter what we did with our lives?”
This is one I don’t understand. Just because we are finite, natural beings, doesn’t mean that we are worthless or that what we do has no meaning. What we do has meaning NOW. If you are kind to someone, it means something to them. You can brighten their day, improve their week, even save their life. What you do with your life matters to your family, your friends, the people you interact with, and hopefully it has some meaning for you. Just because it doesn’t last forever, or that we weren’t shaped by a god doesn’t strip that importance away. In fact, because our lives are limited and finite, it makes what we do mean even more because we have so much less of it available to give. Why is water precious in the desert? Because it is so scarce.
“If we have intelligence to design, build, and create, what was the very first creation?”
That depends on what you mean by “creation.” If by “creation” you mean things forming, like atoms coming together to form molecules through atomic bonds, well, that’s a question for an astrophysicist. I assume it would have been after the Big Bang, but beyond that I don’t know. If by “creation” you mean the first thing that a human made, well, you’d have to ask an archaeologist, and there’s no guarantee that the “first” thing that was made by humans was preserved. And even then, would you mean the creation of a tool? A piece of decorative art? An idea or concept? The term “creation” is a vague one laced with religious connotation, and thus not very useful if you want an actual answer.
“If we can save lives with a scalpel, where and when did original skill begin?”
I am not well-versed in medical history, but like so many things, I am sure humans slowly learned through trial and error. Apparently, obsidian scalpels from the Bronze Age have been found in Turkey and there is evidence of brain surgery in skulls from the same time period over 4000 years ago.
“If we can cultivate the earth for food, who made the seed? If you say the fruit, who made the fruit?”
Like everything else on the planet, fruits, and their seeds, evolved. There was a time when grass as we know it did not exist. (Grass didn’t show up in the fossil record until 10 million years after the dinosaurs went extinct.) Not being a scientist who studies the evolution of fruit, I don’t know the exact tract, but I’m sure there are scholarly papers out there discussing that very topic.
“Who or What created creativity?”
Creativity is a descriptor for things we do, not a state of being, and it isn’t limited to humans. Animals can be creative as well, finding things to play with, causing havoc among humans (or among their own kind) and in finding solutions to problems, such as ravens and crows making simple tools to reach food.
“If there is no God, then What or Who has brought on the origin of good? In the expanse of space and nothingness, where did kindness begin? How was benevolence conceived?”
Goodness, kindness, and benevolence are all human concepts and their root, like morality, is with empathy. Humans agree on things that are “good” or “kind” based on empathy and wanting to be treated the same in return. Over time, these concepts also evolved and changed and are not always the same across cultures. Anthropologist Margaret Mead said that the first sign of civilization, of humans going above and beyond the baseline of animal survival, was a healed femur. According to Mead, “…[I]n the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery.” Those who help each other do better than those who do not, and the things that help each other became “good.”
“Where is the hope beyond destruction and heartache? Is there vindication of evil to satisfy our deep-seated need for justice and an end of the pain of this life?”
Wow, that got… dark. I mean, I think there’s more to life, than destruction and heartache and pain, but it’s something we have to actively work towards and not everyone gets a fair shake at it. Far too many people have lives cut short by pain and misery, but I think that just means we need to work harder towards creating a better world for as many people as possible in this life rather than just waiting for it to end. Especially when there is no guarantee of a second life.
“If good and evil had an absolute beginning, won’t there be an absolute victory of one or the other? Can you or I utterly end this struggle? Won’t whatever or whoever orchestrated the beginning also have the capacity to bring about the end?”
This question is entirely dependent on good and evil both existing independently of humans and of having a definite beginning. Which, as I think I answered above, isn’t a real thing because these concepts evolved out of empathy. I don’t see a point of a god wanting to have such a struggle anyway, unless they get some kind of pleasure watching people and animals suffer. One would think that a god powerful enough to create such things would also be able to conceive of an existence that wouldn’t require it, but still maintain choice, free will, etc. But it is a compelling story, which is why it shows up in various forms throughout our art.
“How is it that we can contemplate eternity?”
As a writer, I contemplate all kinds of things. We have imaginations. It’s what we do. Personally, I find the concept of eternity rather depressing/terrifying, at least if I’d have to be conscious for all of it. But I don’t think we can actually conceptualize eternity any more than we can conceptualize nothingness. These are states completely alien to our experience. We can try to come up with comparisons, but we don’t actually know what “eternity” is like. (We have enough trouble convincing people the Earth is older than 6,000 years! Humans don’t do well with large numbers.)
“Can an undefined “life-force” of energy possess good to instill compassion within man? Can it distribute intelligence? Can it bear emotion to be able to pass on a capacity to love and grieve, to be glad or to anger?”
Maybe…? But if it’s undefined, how would we know what properties it has, how or even if it could instill those properties in others, or if it could have emotions? If it’s undefined then it can really fill any gap you want without having to prove itself, which makes it useless. We already know humans have compassion, intelligence, can love and grieve, be glad or angry. Without definition or characteristics for this life-force, we can’t tell if such a thing exists or not, or if it would have any effect.
You quoted, “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.” Eccles. 3:11
And I quote, “For the fates of both men and beasts are the same: As one dies, so dies the other—they all have the same breath. Man has no advantage over the animals, since everything is futile. All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth? I have seen that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will come after him?” Eccles. 3:19-22 (Berean Study Bible)