"5 Reasons: Why I Still Believe in God" - DAY 22

Day 22 – the atheist’s 2^nd rebuttal: an illusory universe

[A] student...troubled his professor with a contradictory question, “Sir, how do you know that I exist?” The professor paused for a while, lowered his glasses, gazed at the student and demanded, “And whom shall I say is asking?”  –STEVE KUMAR

There is yet another way the atheist may try to rebut the Argument from Design. Instead of proposing new theories that leave open the possibility of an eternal universe, he or she may claim that the universe doesn't exist at all. The whole universe, it may be argued, could just be an illusion, and there would be no need for God if this were so. Only things that exist need a creator. 

If you think that this is somewhat farfetched and that no thinking person could find it believable, then look at the Eastern religion of Buddhism. Many of its millions of followers have tried to deal with the problem of evil in the world by rejecting its existence, saying it is but an illusion. If people can believe that all the pain and suffering in the world, even their own, is not real, would it be a huge leap to proclaim the whole universe illusory? No, it would not.

The problems with this line of thinking are twofold. First of all, no one lives his or her life consistent with this hypothesis. As Norman Geisler explains, "They may maintain that all is an illusion, but if one were to push them in front of an oncoming bus, they would quickly 'warm up' to the reality idea! Accepting the illusionist's position," he says, "demands that one admit that all of life as he experiences it is deceiving him." 

In addition to the problem it poses from a practical standpoint, the illusion theory doesn't make sense philosophically. If you believe the entire universe to be an illusion, then you must also believe that your mind, a part of the universe, is not real. Do you see the inconsistency? First you claim that everything, including our thoughts, is an illusion. A minute later you declare one thought—"the world is an illusion"—to be real. This obvious flaw was the source of Rene Descartes' famous assertion: "I think; therefore, I am." He knew all too well that his own thoughts made an illusory world impossible.

I am not in any way implying that the majority of atheists have embraced this view. In fact, not many have. During the Enlightenment, theists like Descartes and skeptics like David Hume dismissed the illusory hypothesis as impractical and nonsensical. A few atheists, however, hoping to find some way to negate the need for a Creator, have resorted to the silly notion that the universe is no universe at all. Isn’t it amazing the lengths some people will go before admitting they are wrong?

Daily Quotations

Steve Kumar, Christianity for Skeptics, 15.

Norman L. Geisler, The Roots of Evil (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), 18.

Norman L. Geisler, Philosophy of Religion (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), 312.

Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, trans. Donald A. Cress (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1979), 17.