Atheists, Aliens and Sugarplum Fairies

Facebook seems to be providing me with much fodder for this blog lately. One of my friends who is a deist, not an atheist, often sends me typical atheist accusations of committing the God of the Gaps fallacy. That is, presuming since we can't figure out how it happened simply saying "God did it" is a valid justification for God's existence. Now a God of the Gaps argument is certainly fallacious, but that is a gross misrepresentation of why theists and Christians believe in God. While he is not an atheist, he often accuses me of being presumptuous by saying that I know God is as he is described in the Bible.

Now, what spawned the inspiration for me writing this is the fact that he often tries to convince me that aliens exist with similar logic. No joke. This is not just him, of course. It's atheists. Not just any atheists, but well-known ones like Richard Dawkins or agnostics like Bill Nye. These people are open to the possibility of aliens from outerspace on the basis of what is essentially their own "God of the Gaps" argument: an Alien of the Gaps argument. In his own words,

There are aliens. Just because we don't see them, it doesn't mean they aren't there. So we have all these billions of galaxies with quadrillions of stars like our sun, each with planets orbiting around them--and we are the only ones here? Heck no.

So essentially:

You don't see God either, David. You just conclude that beauty and good stuff that comes into your life is attributed to Him, but you don't know for sure. That's what your mind believes. But I'm not going to call you out on that. Personally, I like to keep an open mind to the possibilities. If we were in Christopher Columbus' times, you would be on the side that the Earth was flat. Not me. I'm open to the contrary.

There is much history and experience to justify the existence of God that isn't there for aliens. I'm open to the possibility of aliens (created by God, not through evolutionary processes) but until I see something that points me in that direction I see no reason to believe in them anymore than I have reason to believe in sugarplum fairies. In other words, if aliens exist it's not just because the universe is too big. That's faulty reasoning. Otherwise sugarplum fairies exist too. If they exist, it has to be for another reason.

And actually I do know for sure because I know God. I asked my deist friend if he knew any aliens. If I told your significant other doesn't exist, you'd say that's ridiculous. You know her/him. All the arguments in the world wouldn't convince you she/he doesn't exist.

Also, no one during the time of Christopher Columbus believed the world was flat. That was a myth perpetuated by Voltaire. I have yet to hear of any civilization that ever believed the world was flat. You can observed the roundness of the earth with math and physics, especially if you sail. You can't observed aliens. His response:

Sugarplum fairies? They actually may exist somewhere, since life can be random. Not any real reason to not believe that other worlds may have their version of a "platypus".

I can have a relationship with a rock, but that doesn't make the rock a deity. A manual on rocks doesn't make them holy. So no, you don't know God. God is an entity of incommunicable attributes, he doesn't communicate with his creations. But humans, in their never ending arrogance, attach communicable attributes to Him, so they can say they have a "relationship" with Him. God is not observable, it is merely peoples' perspective and mindset--their interpretation of things--which they use as a label for God.

I do agree that faith is good, however. But not when people take the Bible literally and believe that the Earth is only about 6,000 years old...

So there you have it. Sugarplum fairies. I find it all too common among deists, atheists and agnostics: they'd literally rather believe in actual fairy-tale fairies,  and sci-fi aliens before they'd believe in revealed truth, all the while accusing Christians of being the ones who believe in fairy tales. Notice his arbitrary assertion that God is not observable. A self-fulfilling prophecy: you start by assuming that you can't observe God, therefore nothing can convince you that he would ever reveal himself to us.

To my deist friend I responded, "There are no records of people interacting with rocks. But there are many of people interacting with God. Not through their own attempts, but God directly revealing himself to them. Prophecy is a big example. I've never read a book claiming to be written by an inanimate object that predicted future events, but I have read a book claiming to be the word of God that predicted future events that came true.

Jesus claims to be God. And he's a real living breathing person. Not an inanimate object or an abstract deity. So don't take it up with me, take it up with Him.

Faith is not good or bad. Faith is neutral. It depends on what you have faith in."

Turthbomb Apologetics wrote an brief but exellent post on how atheists commonly use their own God of the Gaps argument but merely replace "God" with "evolution". Here's a quote from it.

...I have experienced another gap-type argument that I have dubbed “The Magic Wand of Evolution.”  This is when a challenge is brought before a skeptic or atheist and they simply reply “evolution” or “I believe evolution created….” And POOF! Somehow, in their minds, they have magically provided a satisfying explanation to the problem at hand. How do you explain the existence of objective moral values? Why, evolution of course. How do you explain how we got life from non-life? [1]  Evolution my good man! How do you account for the vast complexity we find in living things? Evolution! Ta-Da! [2] From my recent experiences, it seems that proponents of neo-Darwinian evolution find this to be a fulfilling answer to such difficult questions. It’s just that easy friend.  

In reality, this is no type of explanation at all. This is merely an assertion and an assertion does not equal an argument. It seems that the atheist cries foul whenever the theist defends God as an explanation for a known body of data or problem...

If God tells me what he's like, it's arrogance not to believe him and tell him what's he's supposed to be like. It's not arrogance simply take him at his word and grant him that he knows more about the universe he made than I do. Many people so often want God to dance when they say so, and if he doesn't that proves he doesn't exist. But if God exists, he is not a puppet or a genie who bends to our will. We bend to his. In Psalm 2 it says,  

The kings of the earth set themselves,
    and the rulers take counsel together,
    against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
    and cast away their cords from us.”

Notice how they view God and his Anointed (Jesus) as one who keeps them down, as though they are shackled by him. "What's with this guy, always telling us what to do? Who does he think he is?"  
 What is God's response to such men?

He who sits in the heavens laughs;
    the Lord holds them in derision.

 ...

Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
    be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear,
    and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son,
    lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
    for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.