By Dave Hren

Argument/Proposition: Atheism is not logical because the atheist cannot know there is no god, therefore the atheist cannot logically assert that there is no god or even lack belief in god. Therefore it is logically impossible to be an atheist. (Referred to as A/P below.)

First of all, logic does not determine what does or what does not exist. A logical argument does not even need to lead to the correct conclusion. It just needs to follow a logical pattern and not commit any fallacies. For example, I could say that there are no married "bachelors". This is logical because if you were married, you would not be a "bachelor" as we define the word. However, it is possible that somewhere in the universe, the word "bachelor" is used to describe a married person. So using the argument above, it would be illogical to assert that there are no married bachelors, because I cannot know that there are no married "bachelors". The argument becomes that of definition, not of the word itself.

This is where the Christian/theist stops understanding. They need to dig deeper.

The definition of "god" is central to any argument for the existence of "god". It’s how the argument becomes logical or illogical. If a theist believes in his god or gods, then he must have some sort of definition of his god or gods. After all, why believe in something that you can’t even define? Christians believe that the god described in the Bible created the universe and the Bible defines certain characteristics of this god. Most Christians believe that this god is all powerful, all knowing, perfect and the "uncaused-cause" of everything. This notion can only be accepted on faith of course, because there is little if any, credible evidence for the Biblical god in the first place. From the Christian’s point of view, the A/P above really can be boiled down to this: "It is illogical to assert that MY god does not exist". However, this same Christian would think you a genius and completely logical if you were to assert that Allah, Zeus, or Hercules did not exist. Ha ha ha, how silly can you be to believe in some other god than mine! I mean, can you imagine?

Here’s the problem. By using the A/P, it would be illogical to deny the existence of any god. Not just a certain one.

If I were to define god as "Allah" described in the Koran, the Christian would have no problem disagreeing, denying this god’s existence and claiming that it was a logical decision to do so. But is this assertion logical? Of course it is, even if a tad hasty considering the conclusions they come to concerning the Biblical god. In the case of the typical Christian, you are only being illogical if you deny the Christian god. So we can see that denying ANY god using the A/P above is not logical, because you cannot possibly know that they do not currently exist or know if they existed in the past.

But the question still remains. Is atheism a logical position based on the A/P above?

For one thing, the A/P constructs a straw man because it defines atheism and atheists too narrowly. But primarily, atheism is logical because it commits no logical fallacies. It is a denial or lack of belief in something that has no consistent, observable or even credible evidence on its side. This does NOT mean that atheism is the correct conclusion. On the opposite side of the same coin, if I were to believe I had an invisible, fire breathing dragon in my garage, I may be able to do this without being illogical, especially if I had some objective evidence to support my claim other than hearsay or personal anecdotes… to paraphrase Carl Sagan a little. If something is invisible and undetectable, isn’t that pretty close to not really existing anyway?

Anyway, the definition of atheism is simply - without theism. Atheists do not hold a theistic outlook and do not believe in a god or gods. Some atheists actively deny the possibility that a god or gods exist, while others do not believe or lack belief in god or any gods because of the fantastic and unlikely nature of the claim itself. This is different than agnosticism in that the agnostic generally will withhold any judgment due to lack of knowledge or information. And there are many variations in between, all of which can be logically argued.

Is there an element of "faith" required to hold an atheistic worldview? Yes and no. First of all, to claim that an atheist has faith that something does not exist, trivializes the meaning of "faith" and makes the word apply to just about everything. For instance, someone could claim that he has faith that vampires do not exist, or he could claim to have faith that storks don’t deliver babies to expectant parents. This type of faith is somewhat meaningless, isn’t it? Atheism doesn’t require any faith using any meaningful sense of the world. You don’t need faith not to believe in something.

Using the logic of the A/P, it would be illogical to lack belief in anything. It would be illogical to lack belief in Allah, Vishnu, the tooth fairy and werewolves. It would be impossible to come to any real conclusions, because in real life you have to reject certain things to accept the existence of other things. Furthermore, the A/P is meaningless and destroys itself because the term "god" does not specifically define anything anyway. But replace the word "god" with any defined god and the A/P breaks down even quicker because then it actually does become theoretically and maybe even in practice, possible to disprove the existence of a deity that is identified and defined.

What’s amazing is that Christians and other theists seem to have such a hard time understanding atheism. So much so, that some theists try to define atheism and atheists out of existence.

"How could someone not believe that Jesus is the Savior?" the Christian asks himself. "How can someone NOT have faith in the Bible"? "How can those Muslims believe in Allah?" "We Christians should mount a modern day Crusade to convert the Muslims and atheists!" But suddenly, this Christian’s thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a passenger jet coming toward his office window.)

It is possible for theists and atheists to be logical. It’s just that generally speaking, an atheist has one less obstacle in his way. There could be a god or gods, but there also could be a universe in which the government pays the people taxes. But let’s be logical here.

- Dave Hren