Apologetics for the Masses #531 - Conversation With An Atheist (Part 3)

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Topic

A "dialogue," of sorts, with an atheist about the reasonableness of considering God.

General Comments

Hey folks,

My apologies for no newsletter the last couple of weeks. I was on the road for several days giving talks on a couple of nights to some incredible Catholics (and a few non-Catholics) out in West Texas - from the 3 parishes in and around the fair town of Rowena. Also, while I was there, I recorded a podcast with the Rome Boys. If you haven't heard of them, look them up, they do a really good job with their podcast: https://romeboys.org/ Then, the day after I got back from Texas, I drove down to Mobile, that was a Friday, and gave a talk on Saturday to a breakfast gathering of guys from the Men of St. Joseph.

If you've never heard of the Men of St. Joseph, you might want to check them out. It's an awesome parish-based group whose goal is to give support to men to be the spiritual leaders of their families. It doesn't require a lot of time and effort to get it going, just in case you would like to look into maybe starting a chapter at your parish. They started in Mobile, but they've expanded to where they now have chapters in some 20 states as well as Australia, Canada, and Ireland. Here's their website if you want more information and/or to contact them: https://www.menofstjoseph.com/

Introduction

This week, I'm going to continue my conversation with Barry the Atheist. Given all of the travel I mentioned above, I got way behind on a number of things, and didn't have time to do a proper newsletter today. So, I'm just going to give Barry's response to the last reply I made to him. Then, on Monday...maybe Tuesday...I'll give my analysis of, and response to, what he had to say in this last go-round.

So, what you need to do is simply go back and read my last interaction with him from Issue #529 - Apologetics for the Masses #529 - it's not all that long, and then read Barry's response below. And I'll give you the weekend to see if you can hone in on the one thing that Barry the Atheist did, and the one thing that he didn't do, that is so common to what Protestants quite often do, and don't do, when you try to have meaningful conversations with them. It's so obvious. I mean his response is...well...rather pathetic. But, again, just read his latest response below, and then I'll be back on Monday or Tuesday with my reply.

Challenge/Response/Strategy

Barry the Atheist
I could write a book to address the numerous unnecessary verbiage you typically involve yourself in, but in your closing remarks you insist it is not "reasonable" for me to neglect the question of god's existence.

So please tell me: do I sin when I neglect the question of god's existence long enough to devote my mind entirely to avoiding the drunk driver headed toward me? What if I'm running to a child being attacked by a dog...do I sin if I devote my mind so entirely to rescuing the child that I totally neglect the question of god's existence in that circumstance?

If you answer "yes" to both, then do you harp at literally all unbelievers when you find them doing things that could possibly indicate they are not thinking about god? Or do you sometimes commit the sin of staying silent in order to prioritize peace over spiritual conviction? If you know the store clerk is an unbeliever and he or she hands you the change, do you jask whether they were thinking about the importance of god while they were handing you that change? After all, according to you, if they neglected to think about god long enough to hand you the correct change, this was totally irrational and unreasonable.

If you give a "no" answer to either question about possible circumstances in which it might be reasonable to neglect thinking about god, then you are agreeing with me that there can be times when neglecting the issue of "god" can be reasonable and rational.

What if I'm a school bus driver, and thinking about "god" when I'm trying to get proper sleep at night gives me insomnia, and of course the more sleep I lose the prior night, the more dangerous I become as a drowsy driver for those kids the next morning? Can I be reasonable to use the "dangerous insomnia" excuse to justify neglecting god when I'm in the process of trying to get proper rest? Or is the unbeliever's thinking about god so important that you'd tell me to keep god in my thoughts always, and if that means I end up falling asleep at the wheel and driving those kids off a cliff to their deaths, this is just god's mysterious ways?

If you dare answer that certain scenarios might justify the unbeliever to devote zero thoughts to "god", you open a Pandora's Box that you'll never close, and we'd have to wonder how many other situations would justify us to neglect thinking about god...and you might get a nasty surprise: the normal busy unbelieving mom or dad cannot justly be called "unreasonable" for most of the times that they refuse to consider "god". Only fools would accuse an atheist mother of sinning if she purchased food for her toddler at the store and didn't think about god during the entire act.

Secondly, the catholic church has not dogmatically defined what minimal level of brain cells an unbeliever must use and when, in order for their consideration of "god" to be minimally "reasonable". So it's likely that whatever answer you give me here will not carry the authority of the RC church, but will be only your speculation.

So unless you can show that the unbeliever of today is always unreasonable to neglect thinking about "god" in all possible circumstances in which they are conscious, you are going to lose this debate by opening doors of possibility that you won't be able to close.

Closing Comments

I hope all of you have a great weekend!

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