My story: I was a Christian church planter. I am in my 30's now. I grew up in a Christian environment, and as Templeton predicts, therefore become a Christian. I was versed in the theology and on pressure of being accepted became an outspoken advocate of belief and Christianity in particular. However, experiencing several churches blow-up first-hand caused me to begin to question the foundation of my faith. In particular, Paul promised that if the spirit of God which raised up Jesus from the dead were in believers, they would be different. The disbelief started to settle when I realized I had never met a Christian who acted better than they would have without their religion and the 'indwelling' spirit of God, which was supposedly the same powerful one that raised up Jesus from the dead. If that power, were powerless to do what God said in the Bible that it would, how powerful could God be? This was the initial (and still most powerful) argument against the Christian deity for me.
This awakening led to massive depression and panic disorder, as I was certain that God was going to smite me down for my disbelief. I was medicated for the problem and literally could not sleep for two years. I am nearly through it down - but still lapse into periods where I feel like I am imminently going to be dropped into hell - though I know realistically it doesn't exist, and that God does not have the moral right to condemn anybody to it. I have been to a far worse hell and back - thanks to my childhood indoctrination.
Now I have started picking up Hitchens, Dawkins and Harris for comfort. Kaku, Greene, Hawking & Lederman for the sheer joy and wonder of realizing how dwarfed I had allowed my thinking to be.
Here's my 2-part question: [b]if you [i]had to[/i] play the 'devil's advocate' and defend the notion of God, what is the strongest argument on his behalf? Also, what for you is the strongest evidence against a God?[/b] This is part of a therapeutic process for me, to cogently and consistently reason through all arguments for God, to reduce the inane terror that has been instilled in my mind from my birth.
For instance, Antony Flew uses the Anthropic Principle as his strongest position to argue for the existence of God.
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If I had to defend a god that god would lose. There's my answer to the 1st part of your question. It's not to say that my intent would be to dismiss a god. It's to say that I am incapable of the facade your request presents me with.
My strongest evidence against a god would be man's need to have one, and his admission that all gods before the currently adopted one were mistakes made by him. This is an open testament to his propensity to create gods for himself. This is his confession about fabricating deities. Without any more evidence for the existence of the currently adopted god than the multitude of preceding gods, why should this current god not be anything more than just another conjuring of man to give himself comfort?
All the now considered false gods of antiquity have volumes written about them. This validated them to the period multitudes no differently than the later writings of the current god.
It's all been with a very needed purpose. It controlled the masses of the ignorant. It's evident in the catholic phrase "hold mass", meaning, bring together the masses for lecturing (indoctrination). Nothing is secret about any of this if you have ever been even a casual student of theism from an atheist's perspective. Gods and religion have always served to provide effective control over the multitudes of uneducated and often easily provoked simple folk. To harness that kind of power in numbers took something much greater than a man in a far-off city, aka a ruler. It had to be other-worldly. It had to be a god's will. So, create a god or gods and the power of the people was in-the-bag.
By this you are referring to what many contemporary apologists are referring to as the "god-sized hole in our hearts"?
Defend which god?
Theistic? Christian?
I think religion best attribute was that it kept people under control.
Which is the good part of mind control.
Mind control is evil, but like everything, it has some advantages.
So the best argument for religion would be that without it, empires would have fallen sooner and you might not even exist today.
The roman empire brought with it "civilazation" in Europe.
Which without religion to keep it together more ancient knowledge might have been lost then what has been lost already.
This is just 1 of the good things religion did, by committing so much more evil in the process.
So one could argue that religion was a necessary evil.
Surly today it lost even that purpose since there are no empires or need of them anyway.
“what is the strongest argument on his behalf?”
To be honest, I can’t think of one that persuades me in the least. From any point of inspection Christianity unravels at the seams. Historically, geologically to just reading the bible (which most Christians don’t) it doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
I congratulate you on waking up, despite having been so deep in.
The strongest argument for god? The best I can come up with: That some people find comfort in believing.
But there are much better alternatives than such a vile, petty, bastard of a god as Yahweh.
Strongest argument against god? Scientific progress, pure common sense, the religious scriptures themselves.
There are about 2870 documented deities since the beginning of recorded history. What if you have been wrong about any of them instead? There are (according to Wikipedia) approximately 41,000 Christian denominations. What if your wrong there? If you start calculating the odds, it just gets ridiculous. It is so obvious that it is all made up.
Keep reading the kind of books your already reading, keep working on thinking rationally. When you feel those thoughts of fear, try to find a way to break the train of thoughts. Don't allow them to take over.
This is the logical variety that got me thinking courtesy of Charles Templeton in Questions to Ask Yourselves - in which he asked that if I was born in Egypt is not more likely that I would feel as firmly about Allah and certain of his existence as I do of Yahweh.
The Atheist Experience: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAtheistExperience
Is another good source on the subject of Atheism vs Religion.
Here a Christian caller gets completely stumped by exactly that kind of question, and it's an overall great clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGuVZmUVwcM
That is by far my favorite Dillahunty moment. I was glad to watch it again, thanks.