Answering 3 Atheist Memes
I ran across some atheist memes recently. Here are some quick answers. Of course, the full answer to a meme sometimes requires an essay. But in the day and age of short snippets of information, it’s best to say something brief rather than nothing at all (or a long essay no one will read). You can direct them to an essay if they’re concerned about going deeper into a topic.
Meme #1
Answer: God created humans in a state of original holiness and justice. They were not “faulty” in the sense of having a natural tendency to commit evils. On the Catholic Christian worldview, Adam and Eve chose to turn against God, leading to the loss of original holiness and justice, and various consequences for their sin.
God is not blaming them for his own mistakes; He’s holding them accountable for their decisions.
Meme #2
Answer: This meme presents the problem of evil and suffering. The tone that shows the person most likely considers evil as an emotional problem rather than a logical problem (I explain that distinction here).
Here’s the short reply: God does not owe or promise anyone a happy, pain-free life on Earth. He offered that type of paradise to our first parents, but it was lost when they turned against Him in the garden of Eden. His promise is that if we trust in Him, despite the fallen nature of our world, and any pain and misery in this life, we will enjoy Him forever.
Meme #3
Answer: I think Zeus was a finite, contingent God of Greek mythology, and that there is no good reason to think he actually exists (as Aristotle also recognized).
The God of classical theism is the infinite, necessary, creator and sustainer of all that exists at any time it exists. There are good reasons to think God exists. In fact, even if Zeus exists, he would require an explanation (see: the contingency argument), and ultimately the God of classical theism would be needed to explain him.
Conclusions
Some atheist memes probe deep questions in a snarky way. Proposing quick answers to memes can open a path to future conversations that delve deeper into the topic.
What atheist memes have you seen on the internet? Comment below if you come across any of your own!
Confirmation bias replies to your select atheist meme’s.
What I think you’re missing first and foremost is the agreed status one must afford when speaking of Bible God.
Do you agree Bible God is Sovereign Omnipotent Omniscient Omnipresent when the one and only source for all that is, was, or ever shall be?
Have you read Isaiah 45:7? God is the creator of the evil and the good. God is the creator of sin due to God creating his laws which as laws afford a consequence for non-compliance.
What is sin? A violation of God’s law(s).
How could Adam and Eve choose to obey God concerning the prohibition to eating of the fruit of the tree of good and evil when they did not possess the requisite knowledge of consequence of good vs evil in order to make an informed free choice?
And being God is omniscient and allegedly omni-benevolent (sending his death angel to kill the 1st born of every Egyptian house refutes that one), it is God who created the forbidden fruit tree and it is his omniscience that foreknew Eve would eat of it. After Omnipresent Bible God permitted Satan, in God’s capacity as one who is Omniscient, to enter into Eden to tempt Eve.
There is no place Omnipresence cannot be. Psalm 139. God is in heaven and in Sheol/Hell.
Satan isn’t God’s adversary he is our adversary and with God’s permission. (read job).
Read each and every scripture wherein God tells you in his own words, all things are predestined by his sovereign self. Due to his will and zeal for his own glory.
This then makes void the idea of human’s having free will. As God tells us in Proverbs 16:9 The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.
Have you noticed? God, in all the scriptures, has the same personality as we do. What God calls sin from us is called holy in him.
He’s jealous, vengeful, murderous, selfish, angry, etc…
Some say, well he’s God he can do as he will with his creation. Clearly that’s true of any god or goddess in any persons faith.
However, in Christianity when we’re suppose to aspire to be Christ like, and Jesus Christ was God in flesh, if a human never repents of being what Omniscience predestined them to be, they’re already Christ/God like.
Do you know what the salvation message is telling you? You’re asking to be saved from God! Who foreknew our race (human race) would be damned because God predestined our fall.
And then God , who created “hell” to receive Satan later opened it to receive the fallen unrepentant humans. The names of which Omniscient God knew before creating the world. Just as he knew the names of the saved prior and wrote those in the Lambs Book of Life.
Satan!Who God confers with from time to time is allowed to re-enter heaven from whence he was cast out. God let Lucifer/Satan live as well as that 1/3rd of the angels that joined Lucifer in that war, and cast them all down to the earth where God was going to create the first humans to live. Allegedly intending that they flourish in Eden as the sinless beings he first made. But then God allowed Satan/Lucifer to enter the garden and tempt Eve. (Omniscient Omnipresence)
How does an angel turn against God in heaven if heaven is a paradise and God is omniscient creator of that angel Lucifer?
And the fall? Predestined! How would anyone know to seek out God if they weren’t taught they were in a precarious position as humans damned to suffer eternally if they don’t seek our the source that predestined them to need him in such ways?
That also lets God to example the sin of pride, ego-centrism, and malignant narcissism.
Bible God is an amalgamation of the worst of human faults. And we’re to strive to renounce who we are as God made us? Asking to be forgiven for that which God predestined? So as to be God(Christ)-Like?
We already are!
The Bible is inerrant? No. Read the Old Testament books, I’ll let you seek them out, wherein there is the account of king David being commanded by God to take a census. In a different book king David is commanded by Satan to take that same census.
Guess what? God IS Satan!
All things are of and from God! That’s scripture too.
Why is Satan evil when God let him to punish the evil ?