Ouch! The Logic! It Burns!

June 3, 2008 By Guest Contributor 7 Comments

Can God be an atheist…?

Shannon Wheeler explores this in his webcomic Too Much Coffee Man (click image for larger version):

godsatheism.gif

My head hurts.


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

Filed Under: General 7 Comments
  • Darryl

    Not so fast, buckaroo.

    Since God can do all things, He must be able to believe in Himself–a power higher than all others.

    Since God is not real, He is not a fact.

    Since God believes in a higher power that is not a fact, God is a theist.

  • http://thatatheistguysblog.blogspot.com/ NYCatheist

    Wait, if God can’t have faith, then he can’t do anything. But if he can have faith, he can’t know everything. Agh, it’s the old rock-too-heavy-He-can’t-lift-it thing!

  • James

    One minor point: Shannon Wheeler is, in spite of his name, a man.

  • Brian E

    But how would god know that there wasn’t a higher power existing in a dimension outside of himself that created him and was observing him? Even if god thought that he existed for eternity, that is simply a measurement of a single time dimension, and another dimension of time or some other unknown boundary could contain the time dimension and thus god would not be eternal to that dimension! Thus god could have faith in a being higher than himself!

    Now my head really hurts…

  • http://friendlyatheist.com Hemant Mehta

    One minor point: Shannon Wheeler is, in spite of his name, a man.

    My bad. Fixed. Thanks!

  • http://www.bernerbits.com Derek

    Since God is not real, He is not a fact.

    Since God believes in a higher power that is not a fact, God is a theist.

    I believe the correct analysis is: If God is real, he is an atheist. If he is not real, he is a theist (an autotheist?).

  • Darryl

    Since God is not real, He is not a fact.

    Since God believes in a higher power that is not a fact, God is a theist.

    I believe the correct analysis is: If God is real, he is an atheist. If he is not real, he is a theist (an autotheist?).

    No.

    If it is assumed that to believe in a non-factual God is theism, then since God, to be God, must be able to believe in something unreal–not a fact, He must be able to believe in Himself despite the fact that He does not exist.

    Since God is not real, He is the theist.
    Since God is not real, I am the atheist. I am not able to believe in something unreal when it is a God.