I took the Atheist test....

Ray Comfort (from the banana video) has for sale an Atheist Test. I think it's one of their pamphlets. I have decided to entertain it, despite the obvious that it's not a test. It's a list of questions with A)B)C) answers, and someone who doesn't think outside the box could, potentially, get tripped up by them.

First, it compares a Coke can to a banana, stating that both must be designed. This is of course true; man designed the Coke can & man designed the banana.

The person who thinks the Coca Cola can had no designer is:
___ A. Intelligent
___ B. A fool
___ C. Has an ulterior motive for denying the obvious

They don't give an answer, but you can tell they bait you to answer B or C. They then quote scientists out of context to kinda make you think these scientists believed in a creator.

The first is a quote from Charles Darwin's origin of species: "To suppose that the eye...could have been formed by natural selection, seems I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree." Of course this quote is missing words & out of context. Darwin continues "Yet reason tells me that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple, each grade being useful to it's possessor, can be shown to exist...then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection... can hardly be considered real."

He says if you use reason, it's not difficult to believe in evolution.

The quote by George Gallup is pointless; with a universe of billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars & billions of planets, and billions of years to play with; life as we know it isn't that unlikely to occur randomly.

Einstein also said "god does not play dice [with the universe]," but he did not believe in a personal god; he used the terms spirit and god very loosely.

TEST TWO
A. Do you know of any building that didn't have a builder?
___ YES ___ NO

B. Do you know of any painting that didn't have a painter?
___ YES ___ NO

C. Do you know of any car that didn't have a maker?
___ YES ___ NO

If you answered "YES" for any of the above, give details:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

Here's my answer
A: Yes; caves. Many people & animals live in caves.
B: Yes; the sky, the mountains, flowers, etc. These things all influence those painters who use ink & canvas.
C: Yes; horses! Cars were once called "horseless carriages" so before auto-mobiles there were horses.

Am I cheating with my answers? Perhaps. For A, in my mind I replace "building" with "dwelling," since building implies "built." *tsk* baiting. For B, for the same reasons, in my mind I replace "painting" with "artwork." And again for C I'd replace "car" with "mode of transportation."

So when he goes on to ask if he dropped 50 oranges onto the ground, and by chance they'd fall into ten rows of five oranges; I'd say if you dropped them a few billion times, it'd probably happen.

TEST THREE
A. From the atom to the universe, is there order?
___ YES ___ NO

B. Did it happen by accident?
___ YES ___ NO

C. Or, must there have been an intelligent mind?
___ YES ___ NO

D. What are the chances of 50 oranges falling by chance
into ten rows of five oranges? ______________________

If you answered "YES" for any of the above, give details:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

A) No... or we're not sure. When you get down to what atoms are made of, some strange stuff goes on; random stuff. This is why a unified theory of physics hasn't happened yet.

B) Did the universe or the atom happen by accident? The universe I'd say yes, but atom; no. The atom formed due to the physical laws of this universe.

C) No. (And this shouldn't be an "or" question. Baiting.)

D) *shrug* That's not really something one could calculate & put numerical odds to, but I understand it's not likely if I did it. If everyone on earth did it, maybe one of them would have the oranges fall like that. What's the point again?

While saying "there is no god" may sound absolute; you cannot be made to prove a negative. In science you form a hypothesis, which is a positive (There is a god), and then test it & come up with a conclusion. This makes test 4 pointless;

TEST FOUR
What do I need to have for that statement to be true; "There is no gold in China."
A. No knowledge of China.
___ YES ___ NO

B. Partial knowledge of China.
___ YES ___ NO

C. Absolute knowledge of China.
___ YES ___ NO

They say "C" is the correct answer, but the question is wrong!
The testable hypotheses is; "There is gold in China."
The answer then is; go to China & look for gold where you'd be most likely to find it. If gold exists in China (aside from jewelry stores), using geology & science, we'd probably find it. So while I can't say that there aren't any ghosts or dragons in China, I'm fairly certain no one's ever found any.

Then they bait you some more; "If you are reasonable, you will have to say, "Having the limited knowledge that I have at present, I believe that there is no God." In other words, you don't know if God exists, so you are not an "atheist," you are what is commonly known as an 'agnostic.' You are like a man who looks at a building, and doesn't know if there was a builder." Then they move on to:

TEST FIVE
The man who sees a building and doesn't know if there was a builder is:
___ A. Intelligent
___ B. A fool
___ C. Has an ulterior motive for denying the obvious

Basically the same as question 1. So they want you to think that if you're agnostic; you're a fool. (a=b, b=c, therefore a=c)

Someone saying "I believe there is no God" does make them an atheist. If they say "I dunno" then they're agnostic. Not being able to prove there isn't a god doesn't make anyone anything.
But wait! The confusion tactics continue:
"...we have faith in plenty of things we don't understand. Did you understand the mechanics of television before you turned it on?" Er, turning on a TV isn't faith! If I try to turn on a busted TV, just believing it will work doesn't make it work. (I think that really is an insult to faith.) And saying god is like TV waves would probably be kinda insulting to god, if there was one.

The last test is the 10 Commandments; if you don't believe yet, let's guilt you into believing in god. I'm not about to post here which commandments I've broken. That's a personal thing; between me and whoever I hurt, no one else.

So, after all that, their argument is that you should just stop thinking. "Please, forget your arguments, repent and put your trust in Jesus and be saved from God's wrath."

Why did your god give me a brain if I'm not supposed to use it?