God bless Professor PZ Myers...

PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris. He is (was) also a popular atheist blogger, who revealed a longstanding embarrassment about atheists who say that they "lack a belief in gods." In an attempt to try and legitimize the philosophy of atheism, he distanced himself from those who misrepresent his personal convictions. But in his effort to swat those who bug him, he hit a hornets nest. The reaction was stinging. He said,

"Only this time it isn't a mob of religious fanatics and anti-choicers who have called me pond scum who will go to hell, an insect souled vile man, ablack-souled amoral monster, pure evil, morally depraved, with a depraved mind, descend[ing] down the various stages into madness, and so forth…but I have this time managed to antagonize a bunch of atheists."

And no wonder. He made the mistake of pointing out the non-existent foundations of atheism. He showed how unthinking it is to say that you have no beliefs in any gods. Modern atheists changed the definition of "atheist" from "someone who doesn’t believe in the existence of God," and in doing so, thought that they had outwitted the opposition. They pled ignorance to the God issue. They believed that it was intelligent, but their "reasoning" wasn’t clever. It was stupid, and the learned professor said so.

He who says that he has no beliefs that there are any gods, believes that there is no evidence that any gods exist. Belief (trust) is the foundation for marriage, for our convictions about history, for all human relationships, for the health of our monitory system, for flying in planes, driving in cars, eating food prepared in restaurants, drinking bottled water, for taking medicine, our convictions about the age of the earth, for calling a number on your phone, having surgery, for accepting the hypothesis of evolution, and a million and one other things.

In reference to the many atheists who believe that they don’t have faith, Myers betrayed their trust when he said,

"Boy, I really do hate these guys. You've got a discussion going, talking about why you're an atheist, or what atheism should mean to the community, or some such topic that is dealing with our ideas and society, and some smug [obscenity] comes along and announces that ‘Atheism means you lack a belief in gods. Nothing more. Quit trying to add meaning to the term.’ As if atheism can only be some platonic ideal floating in virtual space with no connections to anything else; as if atheists are people who have attained a zen-like ideal, their minds a void, containing nothing but atheism, which itself is nothing. [He then calls them ignorant people]."

But the professor didn’t stop there. He also dismantled another foundational argument of modern atheism. One of their biggies is to say that we are all “born” atheists. As babes, we arrived with no belief in the existence of God. He said of such infantile beliefs,

"Nope. Uh-uh. Same problem as the Dictionary Atheist — it implies atheism is simply an intellectual vacuum. Babies aren't Christians or Muslims or Hindus, and they aren't atheists, either, because we expect at least a token amount of thought is given to the subject. If babies are atheists, then so are trees and rocks — which is true by the dictionary definition, but also illustrates how ridiculously useless that definition is. Babies might also have an in-built predisposition to accept the existence of caring intelligences greater than themselves, so they might all lean towards generic theism, anyway. Mommy is God, after all."

Then he took a swing at atheists who admit that they don’t know for sure that God doesn’t exist. He said,

"I have heard this so often, the hair-splitting grammatical distinctions some atheists think so seriously important in defining themselves. All you're doing is defining yourselves as [obscenity] retentive freaks, people! Get over it. Either way, you're an atheist — and that goes for the over-philosophized fussbudgets who insist that they're agnostics, not atheists, because they aren't 100% positive there aren't any gods, only 99 44/100ths positive."

But this is the "trivial" belief of the pope of atheism, Richard Dawkins. He said that he couldn’t know for sure that there was no God. He told Ben Stein that he was 99% sure God did not exist. Professor Dawkins said,

"Well, technically, you cannot be any more than an agnostic. But I am as agnostic about God as I am about fairies and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. You cannot actually disprove the existence of God. Therefore, to be a positive atheist is not technically possible. But you can be as atheist about God as you can be atheist about Thor or Apollo. Everybody nowadays is an atheist about Thor and Apollo. Some of us just go one god further."

No wonder angry atheists came at him from all angles. He even spoke to the nasty prejudice they had towards people of faith, lumping them in with murdering terrorists. He said,

"Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings. The second sentence is false. Religion does not turn you into a terrorist. The overwhelming majority of religious people have similar values to yours; my church-going grandmother would have been just as horrified at people using their faith to justify murdering people as the most hardened atheist, and there have been atheist individuals who also think they are justified in killing people for the cause. So stop saying this!"

Good advice professor. Those who love God don’t hate anyone. They love atheists, and even love their enemies. The professor then tried to build up what he has just smashed down. He said,

"You are an atheist — take pride in what you do believe, not what you deny. And also learn to appreciate that the opposition hasn't arrived at their conclusions in a vacuum. There are actually deeper reasons that they so fervently endorse supernatural authorities, and they aren't always accounted for by stupidity."

Yes, take pride in your scientifically impossible belief that nothing created everything, that you are nothing but a primate, and that you have no purpose for existence. Atheism leaves you with no knowledge of your origins, no knowledge of what you are doing here on earth, and tells you nothing about what happens to you after you die. It gives you nothing of substance because it is nothing. It keeps you from repentance and faith in Jesus that will put the truth into your hands and bring to everlasting life.

NOTES: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/02/why_are_you_an_atheist.php
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Steve Paulson, The Flying Spaghetti Monster

P.s. My apologies to Professor Myers for misspelling his name in the first posting.