To whom it may concern,
I came across your site while looking for information on God’s contest with Baal. It looks as though you’re trying to build a case against God, so I just wanted to write and suggest that you remove “Compare God and Baal” as this one doesn’t build toward that objective very well. You seem to be working from the notion that God is just an organ grinder monkey, ready to dance – or, in this case, send fire from the sky – whenever someone chooses to crank the music.
In this passage, neither Elijah nor the prophets of Baal are suggesting the non-existence of God. Their question is – “Is Yahweh God, or is Baal God?” This isn’t really a consideration of A) God, B) Baal, or C) None of the above. Both sides agreed that a creator existed, they just disagreed as to which god was the true Creator.
Just as you are not required to order the same menu item each time you enter a particular restaurant, God is under no obligation to set another altar ablaze just because you or I request it. He’s allowed a little variety! I would certainly be interested in you calling on the power of evolution or the big bang to light an altar and prove that they created life and the universe. Frankly, that seems every bit as likely as the notion that all the order and beauty of the universe resulted from billions of coincidences, as such ideas suggest.
Okay, the last two sentences were me being a little silly, so I beg your pardon if you found no humor there. My point is, God met the challenge of Baal that one day; He met the challenge of atheism “In the beginning…” when He created the heavens and the Earth. He invented fire – and everything else – so it is unnecessary for Him to meet this particular challenge to prove His existence. And, truthfully, I feel that if it happened that way, you’d call the fire from the sky a “coincidence” anyways.
Full disclosure – I read the “Baal” argument, your first argument on the site, and the titles of the other arguments. As an aside, “Proof # 1” attempts a little hard to pull at the heart strings in what reads like an attempt to compensate for what it lacks in logic. I’ll admit that I didn’t take the time to read all the rest, but most atheists I’ve known have tended to place their faith in atheism either because of a desire for no moral authority or because of a feeling of disappointment in either God or in Christians they’ve encountered in the past. In most cases, it’s been a combination of both.
If you fall into the former category, I get it. There have certainly been times in my life where a lie would be more convenient than truth and times when I didn’t really want to choose the right thing. Sometimes I haven’t chosen the right thing. But I’m a human and fallible, so cut me a little slack, please? And if you could do the same for the divorced Christians one of your argument titles mentions, that would be very benevolent of you!
If you fall into the latter, I’m sorry for whatever pain you’ve endured. Whether it’s a hard situation you wish God had intervened in that didn’t turn out like you’d hoped or whether it was someone who hurt you, I truly am sorry you went through that. God isn’t a genie and prayer doesn’t work like rubbing a lamp (sorry to bust the premise of your Argument # 1). Just know that, whether you believe in God and whether you hate Him, He loves you very much. I hope that someday you change your mind, so He can eventually help you understand your hurt. I have to get back to my original study, but I just wanted you to know it isn’t how you seem to think and I pray you someday realize that!
