Whenever the concept or personal attribute of “atheist” comes up, it is natural to think of this approach as non-belief. Certainly an atheist is not a believer in God or any theistic reality. But an atheist is a believer. For an atheist to acknowledge that this universe is real and not a dream, he or she of necessity must believe certain things about the universe.
The “a” of the word “atheist” in the Greek language can be translated or interpreted as meaning “not”, or “without”. The Greek word “theos” is simply the word for “God”. So atheists are making the assertion that the universe is without God.
But atheists must believe in some set of facts or understandings about the universe. How it came into existence. And what produced such order and design. So I propose the following as a Defacto Atheist Manifesto:
- Nothing took the initiative and created matter from nothing.
- Nothing chose to do this by using random cause and effect.
- Nothing randomly chose the pursuit of order, rather than disorder.
- Nothing utilized trial and error to fine tune all attributes of animal life. In their primitive states of existence, the animal life forms lived long enough to randomly pass along to their progeny information that would make improved changes to the design of the animal forms, which would thereafter make life viable. This happened even though the existing conditions in the first organism would produce immediate death. (For example, the heart of a mammal has four chambers and four valves. Any state of evolutionary development less than this would produce death and there would be no opportunity for progeny to exist and engage in subsequent development).
- Nothing caused the first molecule of DNA to come into existence from nothing, and instantaneously and randomly formed it into its complex state.
The belief that the God of the Bible created the universe has been mocked by intelligent people. But the platform upon which they launch their ridicule of God is built upon the above tenants of atheism, expressed in one form or another.
And so here is where we find ourselves. We all are believers. Either in God, or in some sort of personified “nothing”. I am criticized for believing in God who is not seen. But the people criticizing me believe in “nothing”, who is not seen. Why is my belief illogical and simpleminded?