Apologetics: What’s the point?

Apologetics is derived from the Ancient Greek word ‘Apologia‘ (Απολογία) which means to defend, ‘apologíān poieîsthai’ (ᾰ̓πολογῐ́ᾱν ποιεῖσθαι) ‘to make a defence‘. Each person who reads this will have encountered an apologist at some point on Twitter and because they’re armed with religious scripture and faith they either believe they know the truth, or act completely disingenuously and attempt to refute what’s been proven by science. They hit a stumbling block instantly with their attempts to prove their chosen god as it falls flat against someone like me, a non-believer, who relies on evidence and proof to reach a conclusion and whilst I’m vehemently sceptical I’m not close-minded enough to reject proposals if they are argued using reason.

But this is sadly where they fail time and time again.

To use the argument that the universe was created and a creator must prove a god is ludicrous and frankly baffling, despite nothing whatsoever helping them reach that conclusion other than speculation, hearsay and blind belief. No rational person who uses reason, logic or even common sense could come to the conclusion that any gods exist due to the frail complexity of life, and the vastness and inhospitable universe we reside in. Everything points to naturalism.

Every god throughout history has needed a middle-man, or a prophet to spread the word and promote their said god’s word. If Allah is the creator of everything then surely he could speak on his own behalf, and this ridiculous notion that you must have faith and believe before he shows himself to you is the biggest scam in all of humanities history. Why did Allah need Muhammad to convert the gullible to Islam, and why did he leave it so late despite Judaism, and then Christianity making almost the same claims centuries before?

“Truth exists; only lies are invented” – Georges Braque

Let’s go back to the start and talk about truth. Truth is in accordance with facts and reality, and evidence alongside proof leads people to the truth. When people quote the Bible and make claims that it’s the truth, where exactly is the foundation of their claims? Because the Bible has hundreds of references to the alleged truth, how can anyone prove that anything written within its pages is credible? God and his worshippers allegedly say numerous times that god’s word is truth.

“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” – John 4:24

But what exactly is truth within the Bible as parts of the Bible claim that god is kind and merciful, but other parts claim that god must be obeyed, worshipped and feared and whilst he’s a jealous god with wrath, he loves us all despite murdering or ordering the murder of countless lives. Which part it truth? He’s either a genocidal maniac or he’s a loving god, he cannot ever be both, and this is where apologists cherrypick what suits their narrative and if they are unable to defend their claims they always, without fail, claim that without faith we don’t, and cannot understand the words of the Bible, and we take everything out of context. Apologists are the lowest of the religious charlatans that plague the reality we live in and they are never, ever to be trusted and prey on the weak, easily influenced, gullible and people that are too simple-minded to think for themselves and to question.

Advertisement

God of the gaps

If *insert your favourite god here* created the universe then why is it expanding?

The expansion is so specific there’s a scientific law and formula that explains it.

V = H_o d

• v = velocity of a galaxy, in km/s
• H_o = Hubble Constant, measured in km/s/Mpc
• d = distance of a galaxy, in Mpc

The ‘Hubble–Lemaître law’ shows that the objects are moving away from us with a velocity that’s proportionate to their distance, which means the further something is away from us, the faster the rate of expansion, and this has been observed by studying the ‘cosmological redshift’ (light emission) of the moving objects. Using the Hubble–Lemaître law, astrophysicists have accurately determined that the universe is 13.82 billion years old, and this points to a beginning or origin of the known universe.

There are two main theories which both involve a tremendous amount of dense energy and matter being violently released, causing a vast expansion of space almost instantly. The first is the ‘Primordial’ or ‘Primeval Atom’ theory which was proposed by ‘Georges Lemaître’ and that is the beginning was a ‘single quantum’ with the universe in an infinitely dense state. He suggested that if the universe is expanding then it must have been smaller in the past which leads to the conclusion; it must have had a starting point. The second is the ‘Initial Singularity’ which is similar in that the universe was infinite density and gravity and a tremendous release of energy and heat has been observed with the ‘Cosmic Microwave Background’ (CMB) radiation. It’s suggested by cosmologists that quantum fluctuations within the singularity allowed it to rapidly expand in a time known as ‘Planck epoch’, which is the beginning of time and space. Whilst these are both just theories, the science and mathematics both confirm the universe is expanding from a point of origin.

“The radius of space began at zero; the first stages of the expansion consisted of a rapid expansion determined by the mass of the initial atom, almost equal to the present mass of the universe.” – Georges Lemaître

Why did *insert your favourite god here* allow the most destructive force in the universe to exist; a ‘black hole’?

At the centre of a black hole is the ‘singularity‘, which is a point where everything we know about physics goes out of the window. In a singularity is an immense mass that’s crushed into a small space, where both gravity and density are apparently infinite. Once an object passes the ‘event horizon‘, nothing, not even light can escape. Within the singularity it’s considered that all of the mass and space time (three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time) of the universe was contained, and ‘Planck Epoch’ began. It’s difficult to imagine that all the energy and matter within the universe condensed into a tiny space, so whatever caused it to expand, it expanded with unimaginable force to escape the gravity of a black hole and expanded over a vast distance almost instantly at incredible speeds.

This puts God in an awkward position, as black holes certainly exist, and two were specifically studied. One, ‘Sagittarius A’, is located within our galaxy, the ‘Milky Way’, and the other is far away, ‘M87’, in the ‘Messier 87’ galaxy.

“M87* contains 6.5 billion solar masses. One solar mass is equivalent to the mass of our Sun, approximately 2×10^30 kilograms” – Source

So why would God create something so immense and with destructive power with no comparison? That’s because he didn’t, I know it, and many other people know it, but theists are so conditioned to accept God did it. There’s no reason why God would create black holes as they serve no purpose other than to destroy whatever is in their path.

If *insert your favourite god here* is all-knowing and loves us all unconditionally, then where is there so much unnecessary suffering?

If a supernatural being created everything we know then where’s the compassion if he loves us all? Theists will defend the actions or lack of by playing the old sin card. The very first humans disobeyed god so he punished every single person and animal since. He promised that every woman will go through painful labour during pregnancy. Regarding original sin, how exactly does this apply to animals that unnecessarily suffer, or children that live a brief, miserable existence as they die from an illness that despite continuous attempts, doctors cannot secure a cure. The ‘god works in mysterious ways‘ excuse is unacceptable considering the plethora of ways that humans and animals suffer around the world. Be it natural disasters, contaminated water, failed crops, and many painful diseases that destroy their victim without mercy. Why would a loving god create illnesses and diseases that are capable of destroying lives in such a cruel way?

“You can’t just say there is a god because the world is beautiful. You have to account for bone cancer in children.” -Stephen Fry

If *insert your favourite god here* exists then surely the objective evidence to support this would be them revealing themselves?

Many people are Christians and many of them believe some if not all that’s written in the Holy Bible, but it’s just a collection of religious texts amongst many who all make similar claims about creationism, yet none have any basis or evidence to support what’s written. Outside of those pages there’s no evidence of any scientific explanation being influenced by a god. Science is ruled by strict observations that’s extremely sceptical until evidence is repeatable and demonstrable. Evolution is a proven fact and because scientists can’t explain abiogenesis this doesn’t pave the way for the god of the gaps or make any argument in favour of creationism any more valid. Scientists can accurately date using several methods and are certain of not only the age of the Earth but all life shares the same genetic make up and all evolved from a universal common ancestor. Even if god was responsible but the first unicellular life and he programmed it to reproduce and adapt, it contradicts the Bible or the Qur’an. If god was responsible for evolution then the garden of Eden story is refuted, if evolution is denied then that’s purposefully and wilfully ignoring facts. Theists often say that a creation needs a creator but who created the creator? The answer that god always existed is nonsensical as what was he doing before he created the universe?

“You ever noticed how people who believe in Creationism look really un-evolved? You ever noticed that? Eyes real close together, eyebrow ridges, big furry hands and feet. “I believe God created me in one day”. Yeah, looks like He rushed it ” – Bill Hicks

Why I identify as an anti-theist

I will start by saying that I don’t directly hate religion, I just have serious concerns that I can’t ignore and for these reasons I can only say that I’m opposed to organised religion as a whole; especially Abrahamic faiths and their multitude of schisms that have broken away and formed little mini-cults. They all allegedly believe in some form of creator, but that’s about where the agreement on interpretation of scripture ends. Some want Sharia Law; others want dominionism. The idea that a country can run on Islamic Law; or a Christian governed nation primarily influenced by the Bible to rule as a theocracy terrifies me

I know some people find comfort in dark times; or solace when they are feeling alone, and this isn’t where my issues lay. People can go to church, they can praise the Lord until their hearts are content, and as they drift off to sleep that night knowing that soon they’ll be meeting the sweet little baby Jesus in Heaven, the angels will watch them sleep and ward off any evil spirits.

My issue is when religion becomes life itself. Where every decision and every action has to involve god, be for god, or to control under the name of god. When scripture is drummed into a child from an early age and they’re taught never to question. Those people grow into adults and register on social media sites. They attempt to compose genuine arguments using scripture, their own personal subjective opinion of scripture whilst proposing an objective standard of morality, that usually regard the things that they personally deem worthy and moral. They accuse you of misunderstanding scripture if you mention rape, slavery or mass genocide within the pages of the Bible; but in the same moment accuse you of being immoral because you’ve not chosen the path to god. Some fully support the death penalty yet claim to be pro-life. Some claim to be part of a religion of peace but wish for the world to be run under a caliphate that’s extremely strict and extremely brutal in punishment. Some claim to live their lives by the gospels of Christ yet own a collection of hand guns that you’d have to rip from their cold dead hands to take them away.

They ignore proven science like the expanding universe that must have had a point of origin. They ignore the fact that the universe is incomprehensible in size but think that their god thought he’d find a tiny planet deep within some random galaxy and give it the kiss of life; and suddenly man is made in god’s image. Some go so far as to completely disregard evolution as nothing more than a pseudo-science and an atheist religion. Adam and Eve were the first humans and the Bible is the truth. So the remains of fossilised early humans that date back over three million years was just god having a laugh and playing tricks on us? Oh god, you’re so funny.

They sometimes propose a world wide flood that some really old dude had a huge wooden ship that went all around the world collecting every single species of animal; whilst making sure that he remembered where he’d got everything from so he could take them all back home. God was pretty pissed off and drowned everyone else who wasn’t on that ship. I’d hazard a guess that every occupant on that ship was Jewish, and they restarted the human race as we know it. Yet the current population of Jews is around the 0.2% of the world population. So not only did Jews evolve into new ethnicities in just a few thousand years, but created thousands of languages and cultures.

People genuinely believe this shit. This shit influences people’s lives. They see every hardship as god giving them strength when they should be saying ‘fuck you god, gimme a fucking break‘. People are prepared to let someone in their family die because a medical procedure is deemed unclean in some weird belief systems, or thinking it’s perfectly acceptable to genitally mutilate your offspring because of your faith, yet it happens. Others make extremely important decisions whilst in office that allows a god to influence their mindset that could affect millions of people; many who don’t even share the same faith. I’m so tired of reading that religion has the advantage over morality and ethics when it’s historically the root of most evils.