Atheism and irrationality

A common and legitimate criticism of the atheist worldview is that atheism is irrational.

A common and legitimate criticism of the atheist worldview is that atheism is irrational. In short, atheism is a fundamentally incoherent worldview with a number of inconsistencies. See also: Atheism and critical thinking

Atheistic worldview cannot account for the laws of logic

See also: Atheism and logic and Transcendental argument for the existence of God

The atheistic worldview cannot account for the laws of logic (See: Atheism and logic).

Atheist worldview cannot explain consciousness

See also: Origin of human consciousness and Atheism and transhumanism and Atheism and cryonics

The atheist worldview cannot explain the existence of consciousness either and the theistic worldview can offer a reasonable explanation.

Atheist advocates of mind uploading (Mind uploading is the notion that someday mankind may be able to scan and upload their minds to computer storage mediums) are often strong advocates of cryonics as well (See also: Atheism and cryonics). Mind uploading is not a feasible hypothesis (See: Atheism and transhumanism).

Naturalism is incompatible with reason

See also: Atheism and reason and Causes of atheism and Atheist mindset

If naturalism is true, then we ought not to trust our capacity for reason for the human brain would be a byproduct of blind/unintelligent natural forces. Naturalism and reason are incompatible. Therefore, believing in naturalism is self-defeating.

Irreligion and superstition

See also: Irreligion and superstition

The Wall Street Journal reported: "A comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows ...that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians."

In September 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported:

“

The reality is that the New Atheist campaign, by discouraging religion, won't create a new group of intelligent, skeptical, enlightened beings. Far from it: It might actually encourage new levels of mass superstition. And that's not a conclusion to take on faith -- it's what the empirical data tell us. "What Americans Really Believe," a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of astrology. It also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians.... This is not a new finding. In his 1983 book "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener," skeptic and science writer Martin Gardner cited the decline of traditional religious belief among the better educated as one of the causes for an increase in pseudoscience, cults and superstition. He referenced a 1980 study published in the magazine Skeptical Inquirer that showed irreligious college students to be by far the most likely to embrace paranormal beliefs, while born-again Christian college students were the least likely.

”

For more information, please see: Irreligion and superstition

Atheists commonly use logical fallacies in their arguments

Atheists commonly use logical fallacies in their arguments.

One of the most common logical fallacies atheists, agnostics and evolutionists employ is the fallacy of exclusion. For example, the evolutionist Dr. Scott Todd, an immunologist at Kansas State University, wrote: "Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such an hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic". See: Methodological naturalism and Atheism and naturalistic intelligence

List of logical fallacies that atheists commonly commit: Atheism and logical fallacies

Debates and the lack of confidence of atheists

See also: Atheism debates

Despite atheists commonly adopting pretentious monikers such as rationalist, freethinker and brights (see: Atheism and arrogance), in recent years there has been a number of conspicuous examples of atheists showing a reluctance to intellectually defend atheism in formal debate (see: Atheism and cowardice).

As far as atheists lacking confidence, in 2010, Professor Eric Kaufmann, who specializes in religion/irreligion/demographics/politics, wrote:

“

Worldwide, the march of religion can probably only be reversed by a renewed, self-aware secularism. Today, it appears exhausted and lacking in confidence... Secularism's greatest triumphs owe less to science than to popular social movements like nationalism, socialism and 1960s anarchist-liberalism. Ironically, secularism's demographic deficit means that it will probably only succeed in the twenty-first century if it can create a secular form of 'religious' enthusiasm."

”

Irrationality of the atheism and the logic of belief in the existence of God

General articles:

• Atheism by Matt Slick
• Putting the Atheist on the Defensive by Kenneth R. Samples, Christian Research Institute Journal
• Atheism is more rational?
• Atheists don’t own reason by Tom Gilson
• Christianity as progress: A review of The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success by Rodney Stark
• Why the Burden of Proof is on the Atheist by Professor Ralph McInerny
• Theism, Atheism, and Rationality by Alvin Plantinga
• The Irrational atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens by Vox Day
• Naturalism's Hot Water

Atheism and the laws of logic

• Atheism: An irrational worldview by Dr. Jason Lisle
• The Christian Worldview, the Atheist Worldview, and Logic by Matt Slick
• Can Atheism Coherently Explain the Laws of Logic? by Answers for Hope

Transcendental argument for the existence of God

Dr. Greg Bahnsen became known as "the man atheists fear most" due to Michael Martin's cancellation of their scheduled debate.

See also: Transcendental argument for the existence of God

• What is the transcendental argument for the existence of God?
• Responses to Atheist Philosopher, Michael Martin
• Naturalism Defeated A recent transcendental argument by Alvin Plantinga.
• Derrida, Van Til and the Metaphysics of Postmodernism An appraisal of Postmodernism, specifically Deconstruction, in light of Van Til by Jacob Gabriel Hale.
• The Transcendental Argument for God's Existence by Michael Butler.
• The Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God by Matt Slick.

Debates on the transcendental argument for the existence of God

• "The Great Debate: Does God Exist?" or The Great Debate: Does God Exist? (YouTube video) - Dr. Greg Bahnsen versus Dr. Gordon Stein - Audio of a formal debate between Christian Greg Bahnsen and skeptic Gordon Stein at the University of California, Irvine.
• The Martin-Frame Debate A written debate between skeptic Michael Martin and Christian John Frame on the transcendental argument for the existence of God.
• "Is Non-Christian Thought Futile?" A written debate between Christian Doug Jones and skeptics Keith Parsons and Michael Martin in Antithesis magazine (vol. 2, no. 4).

"The heavens are telling of the glory of God. And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands." (Psalm 19:1 NASB)

Existence of the universe

• The failure of atheism to account for existence

• Can the laws of science explain the origin of the universe?

• In the beginning God created—or was it a quantum fluctuation?

• Why is There Something Rather than Nothing? The Only Six Options

Argument from contingency

• Argument from contingency
• Aquinas' Argument from Contingency

Existence of consciousness

• The Argument from Consciousness for the Existence of God by John Piippo
• Consciousness: One of Atheism's Irresolvable Problems by John Piippo
• The enigmatic human brain
• The human brain: The most complex structure in the universe

Mind uploading: Wishful atheist thinking

Mind uploading is the notion that someday mankind may be able to scan and upload their minds to mechanical storage mediums. Mind loading is not feasible. According to the Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrum, the notion that one can upload one's mind into into mechanical storage mediums has its roots in atheistic/secular humanism and evolutionary ideologies. The atheist, evolutionist and eugenicist Julian Huxley coined the term transhumanism. See: Atheism and transhumanism

Information on the unfeasibility of mind uploading:

• Against Naive Uploadism: Memory, Consciousness, and Synaptic Homeostasis, Seth Weisberg, H+ Magazine, May 6, 2011
• Why Transhumanism Won't Work, The New Atlantis, June 10, 2010
• Will we ever be able to upload our minds to a computer?
• You Might Never Upload Your Brain Into a Computer by George Dvorsky posted at 4/17/13 12:02pm at io9.com
• What's the Likelihood of the Singularity? Part Two: Uploading the Brain by Alex Knapp, Forbes, 6/24/2011

C.S. Lewis's argument for reason and for the irrationality of materialism

• C.S. Lewis' argument from reason
• C.S. Lewis and the Argument from Reason by Jay W. Richards, November 25, 2013
• C.S. Lewis and Materialism by John G. West
• C.S. Lewis On The Validity of Reasoning
• C.S. Lewis on Rationality and Materialism
• Atheism and the Inability to Think
• Book Review: C.S. Lewis's Dangerous Idea: In Defense of the Argument from Reason by Victor Reppert

Atheism and incoherence and inconsistencies

J.P. Moreland

• 10 atheist inconsistencies
• Why atheism is inconsistent by Dr. Scott Sullivan (podcast), August 19, 2014
• The Incoherence of Atheism - video by Ravi Zacharias
• The incoherence of atheism
• More on inconsistent atheists

Incoherence/inconsistency of naturalism:

4 part series by Dr. J.P. Moreland

• Scientific Naturalism with J.P. Moreland, part 1
• Scientific Naturalism with J.P. Moreland, part 2
• Scientific Naturalism with J.P. Moreland, part 3
• Scientific Naturalism with J.P. Moreland, part 4

Articles relating to postmodernism and non-theistic Buddhism

• A Response to Philosophical Postmodernism
• The Consistently Inconsistent Worldview Objection

Logic and theism/creation

• Loving God with all your mind: Logic and creation by Jonathan D. Sarfati
• Who created God: It's an illogical question by Dr. Don Batten
• If God created the universe, then who created God? by Jonathan D. Sarfati
• Rules of the game by Dr. Carl Wieland

Common logical fallacies that atheists employ

• Fallacies everyone should know - Pastor Chilton explains various logical fallacies and gives some examples of atheists using them

• Atheistic logical fallacies

• Ten fallacies of atheism

• Look Both Ways: Two Atheistic Logical Fallacies

• Fallacy of exclusion

Videos

• Proof atheism is madness - this is hilarious!!
• Ex-Atheist conquers atheist experience show exposing the madness of atheism
• Atheist Matt Dillahunty proves atheism is madness
• Atheism is Irrational - The Crazy Atheists Compilation

Brain studies of atheists

Brain researchers have conducted a number of studies focusing on the differences between atheists and the religious. See: Atheism and the brain

See also: Atheism and the brain

Brain researchers have conducted a number of studies focusing on the differences between atheists and the religious (see: Atheism and the brain).

See also

• Atheism and reason
• Rebuttals to atheist arguments
• Atheism and logical fallacies
• Atheism and critical thinking
• Atheism and postmodernism
• Atheism and free will
• Atheism and the no true Scotsman fallacy
• Atheism and truth
• Atheism and meaninglessness
• Atheism and epistemology
• Evidence for Christianity
• Atheist hypocrisy
• Evolution, Liberalism, Atheism, and Irrationality
• Causes of atheism
• Atheism and intelligence

Books

• The Atheist's Fatal Flaw: Exposing Conflicting Beliefs by Norman Geisler and Daniel J. McCoy, Baker Publishing Group, June 2014
• The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, And Hitchens by Vox Day, March 11, 2008
• The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success by Rodney Stark, September 26, 2006
• C. S. Lewis's Dangerous Idea: In Defense of the Argument from Reason by Victor Reppert
• C. S. Lewis and the Crisis of a Christian by Gregory S. Cootsona, September 26, 2014

External links

• Atheists: you're not as rational as you think – video, The Guardian