Thanks to John Cmar for pointing out this excellent cartoon from NonStampCollector by way of PZ Myers. In eight minutes, nearly everything an omnibenevolent, omniscient and omnipotent god could have done (but did not) to absolutely and incontrovertibly prove his existence is spelled out in an amusing and clever cartoon.
Comments welcome as always!
Possibly related posts:
Ahhh, that was a great laugh!
I’d say more, but that really sums it up quite nicely.
Thanks for sharing the video in the first place! NonStampCollector has a whole series, all very pointed, some more hard-hitting and less funny than this one. Very thoughtful atheist, that one.
People didn’t pay much attention to love your neighbor so what makes you think they would listen to hygiene advice?
Hah! That’s funny. Still, shouldn’t an all-loving god at least have given them them access to knowledge that would improve their lives?
I don’t think that’s a given. To God the body is a temporary thing. The Wisdom Jesus brought was of eternal import. His coming was not about “improving your life” or your best life now. Let me ask you a question. Let’s assume that he did everything that the video suggested. Would that be enough?
Before I answer the question, I want to address your comment.
At its core, that cartoon isn’t about what Jesus did or didn’t do… it’s about the fact that God, who is supposed to be omnibenevolent, omnipotent and omniscient isn’t portrayed that way in the very book that is supposed to be his revealed word: the Bible. The list of horrible things God is credited with (listed by the angel Gabriel near the beginning of the cartoon) do not reflect the actions of a God that loves his creation. This is part of a classic argument you’re probably familiar with:
A perfectly good and loving being must act to prevent all evil and suffering.
An omniscient being knows every way in which evil and suffering can exist.
An omnipotent being has the power to prevent evil and suffering.
A being who knows every way evil and suffering can exist, who is able to prevent evil and suffering and who wants to do so, would prevent the existence of evil and suffering.
If there exists an omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good being, then no evil exists.
Evil and suffering exists.
An omnipotent, omniscient and perfectly good being does not exist.
Note that this doesn’t rule out the existence of a god… but that god, if it exists, is not the God of the Bible or Christianity. Note also that in the matter of suffering and evil, God’s perspective of the body being temporary is beside the point — suffering and evil exist, God allows his creation to be affected by evil and suffering — that’s not the act of a perfectly loving being.
Now to you question:
Remember, the point of the video is to show God doesn’t exist. But putting that aside… would it be enough to prove his existence?
Let’s look at Gabriel’s suggestion that God impart specific scientific knowledge to a Bronze Age community. Imagine that Jesus comes to earth and describes, in no uncertain terms (no parable, no metaphors, no analogies) the speed of light in a vacuum. This statement and attribution to Christ is recorded in a tangible form (papyrus, parchment, what have you) and that artifact is discovered centuries later. Then, once humanity has the technological / mechanical ability to test this, we discover the speed of light in a vacuum is exactly what Christ said it would be back in the Bronze Age Middle East. I’d say that would be very, very convincing evidence that God exists. Not perfect evidence, of course… but much better than the second hand accounts and mythological stories we have now.
Also, as I said on my blog, God isn’t all loving in the sense that you seem to think he should be.
I respond to this here.