Wednesday, May 31, 2006

A reaction to some comments by Ed Babinski

Why should one believe that someone who ends up in a skeptical position with respect to Christianity is someone who is "has more questions" than someone who is a Christian. Agnosticism is sometimes one of my biggest allies as a Christian. The atheist says that if I don't KNOW who God permitted this, that, or the other evil, that this is proof that God does not exist. I may reply that I don't KNOW why the evil was permitted; it might be this, it might be that, it might be none of the above, why should I be expected to know. In this debate the atheist claims he has all the answers, the theist is open to all sorts of maybes and we're not sures.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why should one believe that someone who ends up in a skeptical position with respect to Christianity is someone who is "has more questions" than someone who is a Christian.

When it comes to metaphysical beliefs, the agnostic says he doesn't have any answers, or that he doesn't know of any answers.

When it comes to the Problem of evil you do have an ally in an agnostic. But that's just one issue.

An agnostic will definitely have more questions than a Christian because on all of the other metaphysical issues the agnostic will still not have any answers, whereas a Christian must have at least one, and certainly more.

An atheist simply declares what a Christian and an agnostic are reluctant to do. We say it's implausible in face of the amount of creaturely suffering in the world that there is a kind caring omnipotent father/creator God.

Victor Reppert said...

There are two types of agnostics: those that are asking questions and looking for answers, and those who say that the questions can't be answered. The latter, it seems, has disposed of his or her questions just as much as the one who believes the questions have an answer. The mere presence of questions is no great virtue unless there is some real effort that will produce answers in the future.