"Evil is just the absence of god"

[Navynukeman]

http://www.patrish.com/atheist.html

So.. I was in a taxi today getting a ride back to base with this guy and his girlfriend... Then the guy starts reading this shit off of his phone. Of how this student "destroys" this professor...

I was afraid to start an argument because the cab driver was a damn Pentecostal who believed in healing the sick by "laying on hands"; and I didn't want him to get pissed off and try to change the price... cause he did give me a good deal...

But fuck! I wanted to say something so bad... He is making the assertion that god exists in order to prove that god exists... Then he goes to bash science saying how flawed it is and how scientists don't even understand electricity... SMH. Then he goes on saying how the absence of god is leading to more evil; as seen on the news...  :Hangman:

"I would have thought that the absence of God's moral code in this world is probably one of the most observable phenomena going," the Christian replies. "Newspapers make billions of dollars reporting it every week! Tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?

The Christian looks around the room. "Some interesting points you are making, sir. Now I've got a question for you. Is there such thing as heat?"

"Yes," the professor replies. "There's heat."

"Is there such a thing as cold?"

"Yes, son, there's cold too."

"No, sir, there isn't."

The professor's grin freezes. The room suddenly goes very cold.

The second Christian continues. "You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold, otherwise we would be able to go colder than 458 - You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. Because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just..," [Silence fills the room] "...the absence of it." [More silence. A pin drops somewhere in the classroom.] "Is there such a thing as darkness, professor?"

[Thumpalumpacus]

You know who to avoid the next time you're looking to share a cab.

[Valigarmander]

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Evil_is_the_absence_of_God

The argument is nothing more than a play on words wrapped in an appealing analogy. The principal error is that defining cold as an absence of heat only means that cold does not exist only as a physical quantity - the sensation of cold as perceived by humans clearly does exist. Similarly, it is irrelevant whether evil exists as a positive or only as a lack of good - the perception of evil does exist.

Applying this argument to actual instances of evil results in really bizarre statements. If someone murders a man's wife, the apologists would tell him that his wife did not experience evil, she just experienced a temporary lack of God while the killer was stabbing her with a knife. However, the man still experiences suffering and his wife is dead, regardless of how the apologists describe this event. An omnibenevolent God would not absent himself/herself in ways that cause or allow suffering.

Furthermore, if some people can experience a "lack of God", then God is clearly not omnipresent.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Clearly Good doesn't exist.  There is only the absence of Evil.

Therefore, there can be no such thing as a Good God.

[FrankDK]

> We can hit 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold, otherwise we would be able to go colder than 458

I realize that I'm picking nits in a completely false argument (the "Christian" in the story is often identified as Einstein), but scientists have recently produced a temperature below absolute zero.

In classical physics, there is no such thing as negative energy, so when all the energy is gone, you have absolute zero.  But in quantum mechanics, negative energy is possible, which results in a temperature below absolute zero.

But the whole dialog is ridiculous anyway.

Frank

[Minimalist]

The shithead probably thinks Noah loaded up an ark and you expect to have a rational conversation with him?

[kilodelta]

A cheap trick on Mainstreet will "lay-on-hands" for five bucks. That's cheaper than tithe.

[FrankDK]

> The shithead probably thinks Noah loaded up an ark and you expect to have a rational conversation with him?

That was Noah and his wife: Joan of Ark.  (Polls show that between 7 and 15% of Christians believe Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.)

Frank

[ratzu]

God was supposedly around when he wiped out most of the worlds population by causing a flood.This would include lots of innocent children. Can't think of anything more evil than that.

[Surrogate]

Intrigued by this reasoning

[leo]

God was supposedly around when he wiped out most of the worlds population by causing a flood.This would include lots of innocent children. Can't think of anything more evil than that.

^^^ this

[Youssuf Ramadan]

That was Noah and his wife: Joan of Ark.  (Polls show that between 7 and 15% of Christians believe Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.)

Good grief.....  :rollin:

God was supposedly around when he wiped out most of the worlds population by causing a flood.This would include lots of innocent children. Can't think of anything more evil than that.

Yup.  =D>

[Plu]

Then the guy starts reading this shit off of his phone.

Hilarious irony.

[DigitalBot]

He is heretic. God is omnipresent! If God exists then there is no such thing as absence of God.

[WitchSabrina]

> The shithead probably thinks Noah loaded up an ark and you expect to have a rational conversation with him?

That was Noah and his wife: Joan of Ark.  (Polls show that between 7 and 15% of Christians believe Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.)

Frank

No. Fucking. Way ???????????????

omg :shock:  :shock:  :shock: