Here’s a nice little ontological argument piece based on the atheism monument bench installed in Florida next to a 10 Commandments monument. Yes, this short piece is based on the “intelligent design” argument, but I have always found that compelling. It did it for great minds Thomas Aquinas, so who am I to feel superior? Hah. Wholeheartedly agree with the author that listing Old Testament punishments do not express the tenets of atheism. It’s really just Judaism-Christianity-bashing, not Atheism-glorifying. But I love the ironic twist regarding the bench itself being a nice sleek design. I’ve actually visited the town where this atheism bench was installed. Makes me wanna go and try it out.
Atheists Argue Against Themselves With New Monument
C. S. Lewis said: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.â€
Let’s say you are walking down the street, and someone comes up to you, stopping you dead in your tracks. They hold out their arm, around which a watch is strapped, and they tell you that the watch was designed and manufactured by Timex. You examine the watch, observe its hands ticking, and see the Timex label etched on the back. Would you believe them? You would have no reason not too.
Now suppose the same person came up to you, and told you that the watch they were wearing had just appeared one day on their arm; where before, there was nothing. The watch carries the exact same complexities, but lacks any designer label. Would you believe them? Obviously not. Simply seeing the complexities of the watch, one immediately; instinctually knows that something that is that complex must have been designed by an intelligence.
This will be relevant; I promise. But for now, I’m going to change the subject. According to the Associated Press: “A group of atheists unveiled a monument to their nonbelief in God on Saturday to sit alongside a granite slab that lists the Ten Commandments in front of the Bradford County courthouse.â€
David Silverman, President of American Atheists, said: “When you look at this monument, the first thing you will notice is that it has a function. Atheists are about the real and the physical, so we selected to place this monument in the form of a bench.â€
Being that we live in a free society, people have the right to believe whatever they want to believe; or not believe, as the case may be. But what interests me the most about this bench of non-belief is the statement it is unintentionally making. One of the features of the bench is a carved out list of punishments from the Old Testament. This is clearly intended to mock believers. The inclusion of this feature is an aggressive act.
Atheists have within them an aggression; an aggression toward anything and anyone who believes in God. They will deny it, of course. They will say that religion is the great aggressor. But in the end, it is atheists who—in their mockery and disdain of belief and believers—position themselves as the agitator.
The unintended statement that this bench is making is that of an obnoxious child, trying to assert himself to his parents. He sees what his parents believe, and he wants to be different. The problem is, he doesn’t know why he wants to be different; or how to actualize his want. So, rather than create something new, he takes what already exists, and rejects it. His actions are a negative. He looks at a complex piece of machinery—like a wrist watch—and despite instinctually knowing that it cannot have come from nowhere, out of nothing, by chance; the need he feels to deviate from his parents drives him to reject common sense, in favor of absurdity.
Within the heart of every human being is the understanding that we were created. The atheists cannot remove that etching in our metal, so they cover it over. The problem is: hiding something is not the same as removing it. What is hidden still exists, whether or not we want it to.
That is what this non-belief bench represents: a vacuum. It represents the rejection of the actual, in favor of an empty space. The funny thing is, by its very nature as a designed and constructed piece of architecture (so that it may “function,†as David Silverman intended), the atheist bench is a contradiction of atheism. Anyone looking at the bench will know, due to its complexity, that an intelligence had to have created it. They will look at the bench and think: “I wonder who the designer was?†Indeed.
http://lastresistance.com/2520/atheists-argue-against-themselves-with-new-monument/