In reading the opinion piece published in the April 2 issue of The Hatchet, “Injustices proof of no God,” (p.5), I was very disappointed to see that you would choose such a poorly argued article to represent the views of atheists. It seems that you have intentionally included this article so that dozens of theists would write to you and tell you how ignorant they believe the writer, Klaus Marre, and by association all atheists, to be.
Marre equates believing in God to the belief in Santa Claus and claims that even the “brain dead” can find flaws in the scripture. This view is not shared by the majority of atheists, and certainly not by the Godless Society here at GW. Because I am certain you will receive many letters opposing the atheistic views of the article, I am submitting one of the official arguments of the Godless Society, which attempts to show one of the flaws in Christianity and Judaism.
The Bible speaks of God as an omniscient, omnipotent and all-around perfect being. The scriptures also say that God loves all of his creations (which would be a necessity of the perfect creator). Yet the Bible also tells of how those who do not follow the word of God, and/or (depending on whether Christian or Jewish) do not accept Christ as their savior, will ultimately be damned to the eternal punishment of hell.
How could a perfect being send those he “loves” to hell? The standard reply is that we, as humans, have the free will to decide whether to follow the “straight and narrow.” However, because God is all-knowing, he must know all future events and thus knows, before a person is born, whether or not he or she will go to hell. Thus, God condemns those he “loves” to hell before they are even born. Such paradoxes are the foundation of the belief system of myself, as well as all members of the Godless Society.
What makes atheism a great belief system is that the non-existence of God implies an ultimate equality and respect among the life styles of all people. We understand that a fulfilled life can come in hundreds of forms and that there are no absolute morals by which to be judged.
Converse to the opinions expressed in Marre’s article, atheists are open minded and non-judgmental. I hope that this letter has corrected any misconceptions about atheism which the original article created, and I would urge any who are interested in atheism (whether atheist or theist) to become involved in the Godless Society by e-mailing [email protected] writer, a sophomore, is president of the GW Godless Society.
