On Atheists and Agnostics

The battle between religious Christians and atheists has existed for a long time. The Christians argument that God (being omnipotent, omniscient and the creator of the world) exists. The atheists deny the existence of a God of that kind. Neither tension has so far come up with proof that has been accepted by the other camp. The arguments from Atheists have been mainly logical, while the arguments of the Christians have been mainly a matter of belief. Atheist do not believe and therefore disagree with arguments like: “I just know that he is there, how can't you see it?” “But it has been written in the Bible and the Bible has been created by God.” These arguments are based on belief and not on logics and therefore will never persuade atheists or agnostics. On the other hand we have the atheists coming up with arguments like the evolution theory by Charles Darwin or theoretical proof induced by logics. Neither of these arguments will ever persuade a true believer, because he or she will contest the proof. If you have what you believe to be the word of God on one hand and a theory created by some guy on the other hand, you will never read the texts unprejudiced next to each other.

Agnosticism Versus Atheism

By the creation of the term agnosticism by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869, there comes another player into the field. Now it is possible to hold none of the arguments of atheists, nor Christians to be true. Agnostics accept most sciences and scientific proof, but they argue that one can never know everything. Basically you can use the "empty room example". An Atheist will say that God is not in the empty room. He will tell you that he can neither, see, hear, smell, feel or sense the presence of God, so God can't be there. The agnostic will counter that you can never be sure. Maybe God cannot be sensed in any way the Atheist tried. Of course the agnostic will never say that God is therefore present. He will merely say: “Maybe God is there, I don't know.”

Agnosticism Versus Christianity

While most agnostics will not attack Christianity, they will not be very inviting towards it either. You can imagine someone trying to convert an agnostic and saying: “Come on let's go to church and praise the lord.” To which the agnostic will reply that he's not about to worship a God, who he is not sure exists. Then the Christian will try to proof to him that there is a God and the agnostic person will say: “Maybe you're right, but you haven't convinced me.”

Personal View

I think that all sides can go wrong. Atheists can make the mistake that they believe they are right and there is no place for others. They can consider the people who do not believe them being ignorant. Agnostics can have a view that is extremely a-religious and therefore they can sometimes fail to see the good or interesting sides of religion. Studying a religion and religious texts can still be interesting if you don't have a religion. Christians can fall into the trap of trying to convert someone to their religion, rather than trying to spread out their true value. Isn't the Bible trying to teach you how to be a good person and giving you some guidelines? If Jesus had to choose between burning a Bible and saving an innocent person from death, what would he do? You can still preach moral values without having certain things you have to do. One can be a good person without reading the Bible and without going to church. One can also be a bad person if you still read the Bible and go to church a lot. So that is not where the true value of Christianity lies. It lies in the aspiration of being a good person, rather than the worshipping without a clue.