PRATT Arguments
Why Arguments for the Existence of God Suck
All arguments for the existence of god come down to four categories: causal arguments, fine circular arguments, moral and emotional arguments, and personal experience arguments. Some arguments can be combined with elements or even entire syllogisms from the others. These arguments come in different forms, such as the cosmological argument having many forms. But no matter which form is chosen, the flaws are all the same with circular argument and argument from ignorance being the most common.
Causal Arguments (cosmological, design, fine-tuning etc):
The universe cannot come from nothing like in the big bang; therefore god made the universe.
Life can’t come from non-life and complexity can’t come from random chance; therefore a designer made life, and the designer is god.
The laws and constants are fine-tuned for human life, this could not come from random chance; therefore a creator had to fine-tune the universe.
Fine Circular Arguments (ontological, TAG, etc)
It is more perfect to exist than to not exist, god is the most perfect possible being; therefore god exists.
Science can create knowledge but not absolute certainty, god is most perfect and most wise and can have absolute certainty, with God there is absolute certainty; therefore, god exists.
God has imprinted knowledge of his nature into the minds and souls of all persons; therefore god exists, therefore the atheist lies when they say that there is no god.
Moral and Emotional Arguments
Evolution and believing in nothing gives humans no incentive to be moral, god is an authority where we can get perfect morality; therefore god exists.
Without god there is no divine justice or meaning of life and only random chemical reactions in a godless world, there is meaning and divine justice, therefore god exists.
If one is wrong about god then they will suffer in hell, therefore it is better to believe.
The LGBT lifestyle is ungodly and dangerous, while those who follow scripture are safer in society; therefore god exists and Christianity is true.
Personal Experience Arguments
I had a tumor, we prayed for god to get rid of the tumor, the tumor disappeared; therefore god answered our prayers, therefore god exists.
I suffered a terrible accident and was out of my body, I saw the operating table and then a tunnel with god and spirits, science has no explanation and cannot disprove it; therefore, they will never change my mind, therefore god exists.
God changed my life, therefore he exists.
Debunking Causal Arguments
First, there is no such thing as nothing for nothing would have no properties at all. Science does not say that the big-bang came from nothing either. So the argument starts out with a strawman of big-bang cosmology and presents a false-binary between the strawman and god existing; leaving out other possible causes including non-gods, spiritual forces that are not sentient, a universe that always existed, etc. Since there was no time and space “before” the big-bang, it is also absurd to even ask what is before time.
Abiogenesis has been demonstrated in a lab and some things such as viruses exist between the categories of life and non-life. Therefore, the first premise is false. Second, complexity does not matter in objective reality, it is an illusion created by our ignorance, much like all of these PRATT arguments. If Davison shows me code that he has written, it looks complex because I don’t understand it, but to him it looks simple. Likewise electrical engineering diagrams look complex to him but simple to me.
Life exists on a thin coat of paint of the eggshell that is Earth’s crust, all on a tiny blue dot in the middle of bumf**k space. Evolution and natural selection shows that life adapted and fine-tuned itself to the universe, not the other way around.
All causal arguments fail to show demonstrable evidence for their god, and none of them offer an actual explanation. An explanation is a detailed description, of specific processes and mechanisms by which something works or happens, which has been demonstrated to be true and accurate with sufficient evidence.
Furthermore, they all commit the fallacy of attempting to solve one mystery such as the universe with an even greater mystery such as god, a being that is basically imaginary. I could cut god out and paste in my shoes and the arguments would work exactly the same: circular arguments from ignorance that explain absolutely nothing. By constructing strawman arguments, these arguments presuppose the very thing they are trying to prove: a god.
The correct answer to questions such as “where does everything come from” is “I don’t know and neither do you, so stop inventing childish sky fairies to make yourself feel good”.
Debunking Fine Circular Arguments
First, one cannot define something into existence. In Davison’s writing, magic necessarily exists; yet it isn’t real either just like this god. Also, existence is not a category. So when someone says god exists, they are just saying “god is” and that’s all.
Science can create knowledge but not absolute certainty, Motherf**ker is most perfect and most wise and can have absolute certainty, with Motherf**ker there is absolute certainty; therefore, Motherf**ker exists. Prove my faith wrong.
God has imprinted knowledge that all fundamentalist Christians are thieves, liars, child predators, and adulterers, into the minds and souls of all persons; therefore god exists, therefore all fundamentalist Christians are lying when they say that they are not thieves, liars, child predators, and adulterers. Prove my faith wrong.
As you can see, any one of us can construct circular arguments that are designed to shift the burden of proof. These arguments are obviously circular and are absolute garbage.
Debunking Moral and Emotional Arguments
I already explained that religious morality fails and causes and has caused many atrocities over the years. Religious morality will necessarily cause evil, and that speaks volumes.
If an evil god exists, then there is no divine justice either. Also there is no meaning in being a pawn to a religious church where you are just a tithing source. Also this argument is an appeal to emotion and offers no demonstrable evidence for god.
If an evil god exists, then there is no heaven at all for I cannot find bliss with an evil god. Also there are millions of concepts of this god and thousands of other gods that humans have also invented and trillions of potential gods yet to be invented. There is no proof that this hell even exists and heaven is an empty promise that cannot be delivered. This argument is both a scare-tactic and a scam.
The LGBT lifestyle is dangerous because fundamentalist Christians work very hard to make societies that are hostile and violent towards us. They sleep with despots such as Putin to jail and execute us worldwide. This circular argument is a self-fulfilling prophecy that is no different than me going around and massacring Christians and then telling them “gee, isn’t the Christian Lifestyle dangerous? Wouldn’t you rather be an atheist?” The fact that theists actually use this kind of argument is a testament to the evil and depravity that comes from religious morality.
Debunking Personal Experience Arguments
The immune system cures cancer regularly. Prayer in fact does not even work. The Templeton Foundation even did a study on prayer and it was divided into two groups of hospital patients: one that was prayed for and another that was not prayed for. The result? It is a fact that prayer works at the same rate as a coin toss. But there was one major fact: the group that was prayed for was divided into two other groups: one where the patients knew that they were being prayed for, and the other where the patients did not know that they were being prayed for. The ones that knew that they were prayed for had worse recovery outcomes than all the others.
It is a fact that prayer doesn’t work and the other claims of prayers and miracles are not only not unique to Christianity and thus do not prove Christianity; they are also very poor “evidence” in general: they are not repeatable or verifiable, and are anecdotal at best. Also consider this: let’s say that your doctor diagnosed you with a tumor and people prayed for you and later the tumor disappeared.
What is more likely: that god ignored all of the 9/11 victims, holocaust victims, children with terminal cancer, amputees, etc. and suspended the laws of reality just for you in your favor; or that you and your doctor were mistaken: either your doctor misdiagnosed you (which does happen as all humans are fallible), or your immune system drove the cancer into remission as your immune system has evolved to do and does so regularly without us even knowing that our immune system is doing it.
The Bible clearly states that if two people are sincere believers and pray for the same thing that God will bring it to pass. And yet, terminal cancers affecting children, infants dying or being murdered, women being raped, POC and Native Americans suffering at the hands of those out of control with power, gays being disowned by families, being beaten to death, and subjected to conversion therapy, all happen despite millions of prayers.
And if the apologetic is “well its god’s will to not give you what you want, he has a plan” well fine. If god is going to do what he wants to anyway regardless of what we pray for, then as Carlin put it: Why the F**k bother praying in the first place???
Eyewitness testimony is the least reliable evidence that it is possible to have. For extraordinary claims, I give eyewitness testimony, testimony from normally-functioning brains, a credibility score of 0. A brain that is not functioning normally by injury or impairment will have credibility that is less than 0. There are many potential explanations such as Quantum Suicide and parallel universes, but, if such things are real then we will never find them if we just make-up a non-explanation that uses non-existent gods via ignorance.
Anti-theism changed my life, therefore no god exsits.
All miracle and personal experience arguments are not verifiable and are arguments from ignorance and personal incredulity. None of them provide real explanations or demonstrable evidence.
