What’s missing from August Berkshire’s list?
August BerkshirePhoto by Stormi Greener
Star Tribune
02/24/2006
“August Berkshire wasn’t preaching to the choir.
As the communications director for Minnesota Atheists laid out “18 Unconvincing Arguments for God,” 50 fresh-scrubbed, stony-faced young evangelicals in a Christian theology class at Northwestern College in Roseville listened intently, scribbled notes and marshaled their questions and rebuttals.
None appeared persuaded. But none was bored, either.
“Unconvincing argument for God No. 1,” Berkshire said, chalking a “1″ on the board. “The holy books say he exists, therefore he exists. Holy books are written by fallible human beings. Won’t convince us….
Berkshire could count on one friend in the class — Ronn Johnson, the Northwestern professor who five years ago began arguing with him about the existence of God and inviting him to speak to his classes.
Johnson, who had heard it all before, can hold his own powerfully in a debate with the loquacious, affable atheist. But now, sitting in the back of the room, he was attuned to his students, watching them learn about their faith by having it challenged.
Berkshire told the students he wasn’t trying to talk them out of their beliefs. “I don’t care if you accept my arguments or not,” he said. “I just want to show you that yours are based on faith, not reason. And that’s OK, as long as you don’t try to force them on me or our government.” Read on…
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune and reporter Pamela Miller.
Here are the arguments for God that atheist August Berkshire said won’t work on him, with his commentary on each:
1. The holy books say so: “Stories written by humans.”
2. People have had revelations of God: “Subjective. Hearsay. Could be delusions.”
3. Many people have a personal sense of God: “You’re sincere, but it’s not proof.”
4. If you open your heart, God will enter: “Emotion.”
5. Miracles and resurrection stories: “Unverifiable.”
6. Fear of death, hope for heaven: “Wishing won’t make it so.”
7. Fear of hell: “An attempt to get you to believe through fear what you won’t believe through reason.”
8. Pascal’s wager (briefly stated, it’s a good bet to believe in God): “You can’t just pretend God exists.”
9. It’s your choice not to believe: “I can’t help it that I don’t believe. Why blame the victim?”
10. The end of the world is coming: “A scare tactic.”
11. Faith gives life meaning: “Atheists find plenty of meaning without faith.”
12. God, like love, is intangible: “Love is tangible. It’s a feeling defined by actions.”
13. Morality depends on faith: “A moral code can exist independent of belief in God. … Christians don’t even agree among themselves what’s moral.”
14. Faith inspires altruism: “I could argue there’s no such thing as altruism, that people do heroic things because it advances themselves, their family, society or the species.”
15. Without God, there’s no free will: “Atheists have no problem admitting that free will might be an illusion.”
16. People suffer for religion, an indication it’s real: “Belief motivates them. That doesn’t mean God exists.”
17. False dichotomies, which is what he calls statements such as “No one would die for a lie” or “Either Jesus was insane or he was God”: “Not necessarily true. There are many other possibilities.”
18. Many things aren’t explained except by God: “That’s the ‘God of the gaps’ argument: ‘We don’t know where the universe came from, so God must have made it.’ Atheists are content to say we just don’t know.”
I was intrigued to study Mr. Berkshire’s list and see what my responses would be. His list is actually pretty unremarkable. What do you think of his list? What would your responses be? Also, there are several major Christian doctrines (points taught by scripture) missing from his list. Either no student picked up on it or the reporter chose not to report it. Can you guess which doctrines? The first point I noticed missing is a pretty big.
Update: Further research on August Berkshire in the local papers led me to this letter to the editor printed in the U of M Daily about a year ago. The big word I am looking for is all but shouted out in this letter, yet he chooses not to use the word. Again, what word is missing? By now, I’m thinking it is on purpose.
Argument for God is off the mark
In her Monday column, “Grasping the universe is a stiff challenge,” Sara Simmers’ defense of her incompetent, indifferent or evil God fails, like her God, to do the job. Why must a planet contain genetic birth defects, genetic and acquired diseases, and natural disasters for us to be “free”?
By Simmers’ logic, people who have almost died in a tsunami are “freer” than those who haven’t. People who infect themselves with every disease known to humans are “freer” than healthy people. And babies born with their brains outside their heads are “freer” than us.
Would any of us take a syringe full of malaria and inject it into someone we love? And yet that is exactly what “God” does to the people he claims to love, using a mosquito as the syringe. As my late friend Harold Kahm once said, “If we are all God’s children, then God should be arrested for child abuse.”
Are doctors violating “God’s will” by mopping up after “his” mistakes? The reason people have to do “the Lord’s work” is because “the Lord” isn’t doing it. And if we’re doing the work, shouldn’t we take the credit?
August Berkshire
Minnesota Atheists president
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