I got this message in my inbox today from this guy named Joe. He's from New Jersey.

Hi, my name is Joe and I was wondering if I could ask you a serious question? I know this is a tough question but if you were to die tomorrow are you 100% sure you would go to heaven? If so, why?

I dunno why Joe felt the need to ask me in particular about this. I'm not his "friend" and he doens't know me from a stranger in the street. Maybe its because I'm a gay man who he thinks is going to hell, or maybe its because I'm an atheist, or maybe it was just pure, genuine curiousity. Or maybe this was his way to get me to think about my "eternal soul" in the hopes that i'll change my ways and stop being a "sodomite" who god must destroy (because god, after all, loves us.)

But if god exists, and if he is all powerful and all knowing, he MADE ME THIS WAY. If God didn't want me to be gay, I wouldn't be gay. It's not like God makes mistakes...because a god who makes mistakes isn't really a god, is he?

Here's how I replied.

no. when i die i'm not going to heaven. and neither are you. you see, there is no heaven. there is no hell. there is no god. its not something i worry about. i'd rather live my life without regret, without fear of divine punishment or retribution or judgment.
man is not a creation of god. god is a creation of man.

I just want to say though, these christians are an arrogant bunch. They think their God and their way is the only path to happiness and enlightenment. I find that arrogance incredibly insulting. But its not just limited to christians. All religions have that "ONE TRUE WAY" mentality.

The truth is a little more complicated though. What works for me may not work for you. Maybe you get strength and hope and inspiration from god.

I get it from other places. My friends, my family, the books i read, the movies i watch, the ideas in my head.  In short, I get my strength, my hope, my inspiration from the search for truth.

Others get it from the search for God. Others would argue that the search for truth is the search for God.

Part Two

Joe says:

Do you have an evidence or proof that God does not exist? It does not matter what we believe in, it matters what is true. People used to believe the world was flat, but its not. Unbelief does not change what is true. Have you searched out the truth?

Ask yourself the question "what if... " your wrong?

I responded by explaining that the burden of proof is not on me.

Outside a legal context, "burden of proof" means that someone suggesting a new theory or stating a claim must provide evidence to support it: it is not sufficient to say "you can't disprove this." Specifically, when anyone is making a bold claim, it is not someone else's responsibility to disprove the claim, but is rather the responsibility of the person who is making the bold claim to prove it. In short, X is not proven simply because "not X" cannot be proven

I asked him to prove pink unicorns don't exist to prove my point.

As for your, "what if i'm wrong" question, you're referring to Pascal's Wager, in which Blaine Pascal claims that the existence of God cannot be proved or disproved by humans. Therefore, we must "wager" whether or not god exists. Pascal argues that if there is no god, there is no penalty for "betting" wrong. However, if there is a god, the penalty for not believing in him is eternal damnation, therefore, we'd be smart to hedge our bets and "believe" just to cover our own asses.

Here's the problem with that.

Pascal's argument isnt really an argument that god exists. its an argument that we should pretend god exists, just in case he does.

And why, may i ask, do you so readily accept that the one thing we can do to please god is to believe in him? Wouldn't god reward kindness and charity and sincerity and honesty. What's so special about merely believing?

Indeed, some of histories greatest atrocities were committed by those who truly believed in God. So belief alone, is not really a virtue in my opinion.

Part Three

Read Richard Dawkins book called The God Delusion (now in paperback!). It's really a nice piece of work and all i'm doing is rehashing the arguments Dawkins makes. It makes my work a helluva lot easier when i have an Oxford Professor on my side.

Continuing my conversation with Joe, he writes in response:

yes but there is plenty of proof for God.  If i told you to prove to me that your computer had a builder.  what would you say? you would say thats easy, the computer itself is proof that there was a builder.  the same is true for the sun, stars, moon, everything on this planet, you, me... we are the proof that there is a God. 

There is no mathematical equation for the existence of God, you either believe in Him or you don't, but it takes a lot more "blind" faith to believe He does not exist that to believe that He does.  how you thought about how magnificently this universe is put together, how much design and order there is? how complex the human body is? DNA? all this does not happen by blind chance i'm sorry... its statistically impossible...

To which I replied:

No. There really isn't any proof of god's existence. I'm sorry, but you insisting there is just doesn't make it so. if there were evidence, real, actual, verifiable evidence that couldn't be explained through other natural processes, i'm open minded enough to accept it. But i've seen no such proof and neither have you.

The argument your making now, that the universe is far too complex to occur naturally is an argument from improbability which means that you think life is too complex to have any statistical chance to occur naturally. So it must have a "designer".

SOme natural phenomena is too complex, too beautiful, too awe-inspiring to have come into existence by chance. Therefore there MUST be a designer.

But design is not the only alternative to chance. Natural selection is a better alternative.

Who designed the designer? If all complex things need a designer, as your argument claims, then God must be the most complex thing of all, so who designed God? And who designed God's designer? And so on and so on...

The argument from improbability states that complex things could not come about by chance. But when you think about it, complex things DIDN'T come about by chance, but through millions of years of changes and tweaks and mutations. This is a process called natural selection. There really is no "chance" involved in this process. When an evolutionary change is beneficial to an organism, that organism is more likely to survive and evolve further into a more complex organism. You do this over a long enough period of time, and bingo-bango, you have complex life forms.

And its NOT statistically impossible because we're here, aren't we?

And Joe writes in another message:

Well if you believe the Bible is the Word of God, He says that if you believe in Jesus thats enough for salvation.  You can't earn a gift.  And I believe God does reward those good qualities you mentioned such as honesty, kindness, charity.  But that doesnt earn you brownie points. 

There is no denying that great atrocities have been committed in the name of God.  But that does not attest to the character of God, but to man.  We are sinful creatures.  Many people who profess to be "christian" are hypocrites.  But that is no excuse for not believing because only your actions are going to matter to God.

The opposite is just as true.  Hitler murdered millions because of his communist ideals.  But you must believe that these kind of actions are perfectly acceptable, because w/out God there is no absolute right or wrong.  Just your own personal opinion.  But everyone knows that murder is wrong, and that is because God has written His law on each of our hearts, whether you want to admit it or not. 

To which I replied:

First of all, Hitler wasn't a communist. Hitler HATED communists. Hitler was about as far away ideologically from communism as he was from democracy. As a student of history, I just couldn't let this inaccuracy go, no matter how irrelevant to our conversation.

The Bible also says that if you touch the flesh of a dead pig you must be stoned to death. I think the players in the NFL might have a problem with that. It also says in the bible that its okay for a man to sell his daughter into slavery if he so chooses. Does a god who would condone such behavior deserve our worship and praise?

And as far as Jesus goes, that's one way to salvation. Every religion has their own way to salvation. How do i know your god is the right god when there are clearly so many to choose from? How do i know buddha isnt the one true god? or shiva? or zeus? It seems as far as gods go, we have plenty to chose from.

If there were one true god, wouldn't that god be the same god no matter where you traveled in the world or the universe. How then, do you explain the many different religions in the world, and how am i to know which one is the right one?