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Why is Atheism on the Rise - Final Response

A last word on "Why is atheism on the rise". A final response to the following posted arguments...
1.  "the atheist movement is not going around telling people that they must not, under any circumstance, believe in god and come over to our side, we have free sex and drugs."
There is a major influence by the secular media. Television, movies, magazines, etc. are promoting free sex and a worldly life.  "The world" has become much more worldly and enticing than ever before. Much fewer people take the time to think on the deeper questions of life. Questions like the incoherence of an eternally existing universe, why is there something rather than nothing, can things really come into existence without a cause (atheism), why were people willing to die for the believe that they saw the resurrected Jesus, what will happen to me when I die?
This combined with less suffering on earth (a great blessing) has made mankind apathetic. Life expectancy doubled in the last few centuries. Our generation see much less people of our own age pass away. So in our age people seem to have stopped contemplating too much about their final future journey.  Our "final hour" seems very distant to us, even deep into our sixty's. Gone are the times when people wondered if they would reach their forties.  When have you last think of that final hour of your life? I personally never think about it!
Many agree that the majority of the "Nones" (those increasing numbers that describe themselves as having "no" religion in surveys) are not "thinking" atheist. Rather they are merely "apathetic". Unthinking and uncaring and not wanting anything to pull them away from the selfish pleasures of this earthly world. 
2. "Science destroyed the mysteries that supported many people's believe in a false God called the "God-of-the-Gaps".
Don't you see that you are about to contradict yourself when you start to speak about 'fine tuning' and placing God outside of space and time."

No I don't thinks so.  The god-of-the-gaps fallacy is looking for God in the gaps of nature. But Christian thinkers of past ages recognized that nature could not require their God's assistance.  If their's were the true God then the world is a "machine" which could be explored! God made the world and it was good, says the Bible. And that is why many believe science would always have started in the Christian West rather than the Hindu East. 
The cosmological argument and fine tuning argument do not speak to gaps in nature! They speak to the cause of nature (or universe or multiverse) as well as to the amazingly fine tuned initial conditions and properties of nature. No gap in nature. Nature itself! The very cause and the very initial conditions that made stars, planets, discover-ability and life possible. 
3. "'He "sustains" the universe' do have any evidence for such a claim?" 
The Bible teaches that he "sustains" everything. It is in the sense that He created it with a word and could take it all away with a thought. Or like Frank Turek explains in his book "Stealing from God" (Chapter 3): "God is as necessary to the universe as a band is to music. Once the band stops playing, the music is over." 
4. "What do you have to say about the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve?"
Genesis one and two are clearly not written in the same genre as most of the Bible. This was recognized by Augustine of Hippo (354–430). He interpreted scripture to mean that the world was created ex nihilo (out of nothing). That even space and time came into existence with creation. He further argued that it seems from scripture that God created the world with certain potencies that allowed it to unfold. This was more than 1500 years before Darwin and the Big Bang theory! I believe Christians are free to follow the evidence where it leads. Christians can therefore be scientifically objectively, however for atheism Darwinian evolution is the only game in town...
5. "The lack of any scientific evidence of a soul?" 
There is also evidence to the contrary. Of mental states of consciousness existing without brains states ( http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-rediscovery-of-mind-eben-alexander-and-thomas-nagel - last 5 minutes of the clip makes the point). In other words evidence for consciousnesses without brain activity.  
The obvious fact that our "brain states" affect our consciousness have never been in doubt by believers. Ie if someone bumps his head or if someone is intoxicated he/she acts differently. Dualism is not a believe of an independent soul or consciousness. It is rather that the soul uses the brain like a piano player uses a piano. There is no scientific evidence that undercut this view. Also read: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/god-and-mind-body-dualism
6. "Also if fine tuning is necessary and a being is necessary for fine tuning, who or what fine tuned your god? He or she would have had to be tuned because it would have been required."
We know natural things operate on cause and effect. They need to be a certain way to enable them to work. Therefore a universe generating machine existing in the natural world would have to be "a certain way" or "finely tuned a certain way" for it to work. Same with the multiverse (if such a thing exists). It would have to be fine tuned as well. Therefor naturalistic causes of our universe would not escape the fine tuning argument. 
But God... A supernatural cause... We cannot presume to understand the inner workings of a supernatural and self existent eternal un-embodied creator of everything. If such a being was the cause of the universe (or multiverse) then we must admit natural laws and properties cannot be attributed to Him as he is outside nature. Outside space, time, energy and matter. 
Therefore the naturalistic explanation fails to explain the existence of the fine tuning phenomena (it could only attempt to kick the can down the road), while the super-natural opens the door for a possible explanation...

7. "How could it cause the universe to exist if it did not have the time to do so, the space in which to act nor the energy to do the work?"
Indeed! But refer to the previous answer to understand our shortcomings in our understanding of God...
And then we need to ask ourself: Would it be MORE realistic to believe the universe or multiverse could come into existence without time, space, energy AND without a being outside space, time and energy? Surely the absence of such a being would not make it "more" realistic? Atheism, it seems to me, has little choice other than to affirm an eternal universe with its absurd and illogical implications regarding infinitude's and absence of evidence. 
8. "I don't see how you go from objective moral values to sex, drugs and alcohol."
Not? Read the preceding atheist post "Atheism is simply a consequence of our rapidly changing world" for an explanation. 
9. "Yes we always have decided. We as a society have gotten better at deciding these thing once we started to leave religion out of the decision making process."

Those that suffered under communism, Nazism (yes Nazism) and other atheistic regimes - despots like Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Pol Pot would strongly object against that notion. More people died under these handful of atheistic regimes than from all the previous religious wars combined!

10. "So according to you it would be morally right and correct for me to own a slave."
No it is reprehensible to me. But I reckon it is just as reprehensible to me today than it would be 2000 years from today for those looking back at the minimum wages we pay in this country today. "Slave wages!" they would exclaim. How could they have done such an immoral thing! And yet. Would society benefit if we increase our minimum wages to something decent while putting millions of people out of work by inevitably reducing job opportunities? Maybe different measures are required for different societies? At least in Jewish societies 2000 years and more ago there were some rules that protected slaves to some degree - other than the surrounding people's slaves who were regarded as animals.  Few realize that the Bible also taught slave trading was regarded a sin. 
11. "You ... know about the Law of Moses. You should be following that law, why don't you?"
"The law" the apostle Paul refers to in his letters in the Bible is:
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 
All (or at least most) people deep down have a built-in realization that this is right and required from us. The Golden Rule is widely supported by most believing and unbelieving cultures. 
The "Law of Moses" was fulfilled by Christ when He came to complete His creation. You see when God created the world it was done through Christ (teaches the Bible). Jesus knew what the price would be for creating the world...   To have morally free beings in His creation would soon require a special act of redemption. A special gift. He knew He would himself have to suffer to pay that price. That His morally perfect nature would not allow Him to share a future eternal existence in a loving relationship with less than morally perfect beings. And out of love He created us anyway. And indeed He did pay the price on that cross. And He was raised so that we could believe the He was indeed truly man and truly God. 

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