Quinto, Joshua J.

2011-18464

Eng 12 THY

Belief System of the Non-Believers

Atheism, we may have heard of this word a couple of times in our lives but we never dared wonder on what it really meant, or what the essence of being an atheist was. Many would stereotype atheists as those who refute the very existence of a God, of an omnipotent being and of a watchful eye over us. But this is just part of what an atheist really is. A person might be an atheist under one meaning but not an atheist under a different meaning.1 Let me share a certain experience I had, I was once browsing on news feeds of a certain networking site where a certain post appeared, which said: Person 1: What is atheism? Person 2: Do you believe in Islam? Person 1: NO, Im a Christian. Person 2: There, thats atheism. 2 This is a good example on how someone may be an atheist with reference to a certain belief system because he is regarded as a non-believer. This is why atheists in sense, have the same meaning as that of non-believers. Many would ask as I would ask myself, Why are there atheists? Asking people from our Church of a certain belief system and articles on atheism all together gave me a very wide idea on why there are atheists. One brother from our belief system answered my question with sheer certainty, Atheism is the product of mans denial of an ultimate judge that would try the rightfulness of their decisions and of their acts. Thus, they fear that their earthly vices which they love to do will be grounds for punishment.3 I was quite moved by this statement because it made sense.
1 2

Muehlhauser, L., Atheism in 15 Minutes Quoted from http://www.facebook.com/ 3 Credits to brother Neil Rojo

The truth is that the explanation given is just part of the bigger picture. There are so many reasons and ways where a believer would gradually be turned into a non-believer. One of which, and maybe one of the most popular is the conversion through the study of knowledge systems such as branches of Science, Philosophy and the like. But this is the same way as someone born in a family of atheists can be converted into theists. Some atheistic arguments on why they do not believe in God or gods are: If there is a god who is all good and all kind, why is there so much suffering in the world? Why would an all-powerful god let such bad things happen to good people? There is no point in hoping that a god would ultimately bring good things to happen, I would rather contribute on my own into lifting these sufferings. The last one I gave is one well-known atheistic argument. One example is Norman Borlaug, a popular atheist. Instead of praying that starving people would be fed, he got busy and got a Ph.D. in plant genetics and used this to figure out how to change plants so they would produce more food per acre.4 This is one clear example of atheists playing god or bending naturally occurring or god-declared process into their desires. One should not consider atheists as a stubborn bunch which does not want to kneel in front of an omnipotent being. They have a circulating belief system in which they all have counter arguments to Theistic arguments, namely, The Cosmological Argument, The Argument from Design and The Argument from Experience.5 If you have a weak foundation on your belief system then you will easily be converted and dragged into the depths of being an atheist.

4 5

Muehlhauser, L., Atheism in 15 Minutes Hsieh, D.M., Why Be an Atheist?

But theist to atheist conversion is not always the case as one would think that what may always happen is someone proving the inexistence of a god. There are some notable cases wherein an atheist became a theist. One amazing case is that of Dr. Antony Flew, a professor of Philosophy, icon and champion for unbeliever for decades.6 This is interesting in a way that he was once a very strong debater in giving counter arguments to theistic arguments but in a wonderful turn of events went into believing that the arguments he once refuted were now stronger than it was when he first met them. With all of these given and still it feels insufficient, further reading and deeper study on both atheism and theism is needed. Finally one may ask, What is it that I have against being turned against my belief system? The answer is simple; your resistance to being turned against your belief system is purely dependent with your faith and foundation on what you believe. So have faith, be strong and keep on believing what feels right.

Philosophia Christi, My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism