I agree with Jack that this is problematic. However, I suppose beliefs in God are heavily skewed by interpretation, and different emphases may explain a lot of theistic differences.
In response to Jack, above, it is the fault of New Atheists that they argue about the existence of God by arguing with unsophisticated, undeveloped theist arguments. When they argue about the existence of God, they should certainly address the theological arguments explained by modern theologians. (For references regarding the inconsistency of their assertions about God with those of theologians, I recommend responses to New Atheism by Chris Hedges and Keith Ward).
When they argue about the existence of God, they should certainly address the theological arguments explained by modern theologians.
Why? If they are objecting to the religious beliefs of average believers then they should be responding to arguments made in defense of those beliefs. Do theologists have arguments in favor of traditional beliefs of your average American Christian that the New Atheists haven’t answered? This would be interesting. But proving theologists wrong wouldn’t do anything to change the minds of the average believer since the average believer isn’t motivated by those arguments—the average believer doesn’t even believe the same thing the theologist believes! Its like the New Atheists are having this one argument with run-of-the-mill theists and the theologists are saying: “Hey! Wait! Have this other, totally different argument with us instead!”
An atheist can’t argue against the most unreasonable belief in God (even if it is the most common one) to demonstrate that belief in God is unreasonable. While you can make progress by showing the majority of theists that important aspects of their concept of God is incompatible with reason, it’s disingenuous to say that belief in God is unreasonable just because there are unreasonable aspects to their belief. We must press, is it the case that belief in God is necessarily unreasonable?
Online, I see some atheists scoffing about how ridiculous it would be to expect atheists to provide arguments against every possible version of God. There are hundreds of religions! Well, with this problem of so many gods, it seems necessary to identify the most reasonable concept of God and provide arguments against that one. Theologians, the ones working on the details of belief in God, have developed better arguments about what sort of God is most reasonable.
In that case atheists should have to argue against my version of God. I define God as the Empire State Building. Surely that is the most reasonable version of God since lots of people see it every day, there are tons of pictures and videos of it. We have historical documents showing when it was built and how. The Empire State Building definitely exists. I would say that my God is the most likely to exist out of all the theologists Gods except that some theologists have defined God in even more inane ways. If God is merely “existence” then the likelihood there is a God is very very high. Indeed, in that case, saying “There is a God” is likely performatively redundant.
So yes atheists have to respond to the best arguments in favor of the existence of God—but only so long as the God being debated is a) not tautologous and b) somewhat similar to the God most people believe in. Even given all the religions there are still striking commonalities between them… until one gets to the theologists. I actually have nothing against theologists. I think that flexibility in their understanding of God (particularly of the theological non-realists) can lead to really inventive and insightful ideas about humanity’s relation to itself and the universe. But I’d rather not pretend what they say has much of any relation to the beliefs of real practitioners.
Btw, your view of what God is is still on the radical end of theologists. If a Catholic priest published your view, for example, he’d be excommunicated. If an evangelical said it he’d lose his church members and if an Imam said it there’d be a fatwa.
I agree with Jack that this is problematic. However, I suppose beliefs in God are heavily skewed by interpretation, and different emphases may explain a lot of theistic differences.
In response to Jack, above, it is the fault of New Atheists that they argue about the existence of God by arguing with unsophisticated, undeveloped theist arguments. When they argue about the existence of God, they should certainly address the theological arguments explained by modern theologians. (For references regarding the inconsistency of their assertions about God with those of theologians, I recommend responses to New Atheism by Chris Hedges and Keith Ward).
Why? If they are objecting to the religious beliefs of average believers then they should be responding to arguments made in defense of those beliefs. Do theologists have arguments in favor of traditional beliefs of your average American Christian that the New Atheists haven’t answered? This would be interesting. But proving theologists wrong wouldn’t do anything to change the minds of the average believer since the average believer isn’t motivated by those arguments—the average believer doesn’t even believe the same thing the theologist believes! Its like the New Atheists are having this one argument with run-of-the-mill theists and the theologists are saying: “Hey! Wait! Have this other, totally different argument with us instead!”
An atheist can’t argue against the most unreasonable belief in God (even if it is the most common one) to demonstrate that belief in God is unreasonable. While you can make progress by showing the majority of theists that important aspects of their concept of God is incompatible with reason, it’s disingenuous to say that belief in God is unreasonable just because there are unreasonable aspects to their belief. We must press, is it the case that belief in God is necessarily unreasonable?
Online, I see some atheists scoffing about how ridiculous it would be to expect atheists to provide arguments against every possible version of God. There are hundreds of religions! Well, with this problem of so many gods, it seems necessary to identify the most reasonable concept of God and provide arguments against that one. Theologians, the ones working on the details of belief in God, have developed better arguments about what sort of God is most reasonable.
In that case atheists should have to argue against my version of God. I define God as the Empire State Building. Surely that is the most reasonable version of God since lots of people see it every day, there are tons of pictures and videos of it. We have historical documents showing when it was built and how. The Empire State Building definitely exists. I would say that my God is the most likely to exist out of all the theologists Gods except that some theologists have defined God in even more inane ways. If God is merely “existence” then the likelihood there is a God is very very high. Indeed, in that case, saying “There is a God” is likely performatively redundant.
So yes atheists have to respond to the best arguments in favor of the existence of God—but only so long as the God being debated is a) not tautologous and b) somewhat similar to the God most people believe in. Even given all the religions there are still striking commonalities between them… until one gets to the theologists. I actually have nothing against theologists. I think that flexibility in their understanding of God (particularly of the theological non-realists) can lead to really inventive and insightful ideas about humanity’s relation to itself and the universe. But I’d rather not pretend what they say has much of any relation to the beliefs of real practitioners.
Btw, your view of what God is is still on the radical end of theologists. If a Catholic priest published your view, for example, he’d be excommunicated. If an evangelical said it he’d lose his church members and if an Imam said it there’d be a fatwa.