Presents
Pamphlet #316

The Atheist Professor

The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class
and then asks one of his new students to stand.

"You're a Christian, aren't you, son?"

"Yes, sir."

"So you believe in God?"

"Absolutely."

"Is God good?"

"Sure! God is good."

"Is God all powerful? Can God do anything?"

"Yes."

"Are you good or evil?"

"The Bible says I'm evil."

The professor grins knowingly. "Ahh! THE BIBLE!"
He considers for a moment. "Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick
person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would
you help him? Would you try?"

"Yes sir, I would."

"So you're good...!"

"I wouldn't say that."

"Why not say that? You would help a sick and maimed person
if you could...in fact most of us would if we could..
.God doesn't."

-No answer.

"He doesn't does he? My brother was a Christian who died
of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How
is this Jesus good? Hmmm? Can you answer that one?"

-No answer.

The elderly man is sympathetic. "No, you can't, can you?"
He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give
the student time to relax. In philosophy, you have to go
easy with the new ones. "Let's start again, young fella.
Is God good?"

"Err...Yes."

"Is Satan good?"

"No."

"Where does Satan come from?"

The student falters."From...God..."

"That's right. God made Satan, didn't he?" The elderly man
runs his bony fingers through his thinning hair and turns
to the smirking student audience. "I think we're going to
have a good semester, ladies and gentlemen." He turns back
to the Christian. "Tell me, son. Is there any evil in this
world?"

"Yes, sir."

"Evil's everywhere, isn't it? Did God make everything?"

"Yes."

"Who created evil?"

(No answer)

"Is there sickness in this world? Ugliness, immorality,
hatred? All the terrible things--do they exist in this
world?

The student squirms on his feet."Yes."

"Who created them?"

(No answer.)

The professor suddenly shouts at his student. "WHO CREATED
THEM? TELL ME, PLEASE!" The professor closes in for the kill
and climbs into the Christian's face. In a still small voice:
"God created them, didn't he?"

(No answer.)

The student tries to hold the steady, experienced gaze and
fails. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace the front
of the classroom like an aging panther. The class is
mesmerized. "Tell me,"
he continues, "how is it that this
God is good if He created all evil throughout all time?"

The professor swishes his arms around to encompass the
wickedness of the world. "All the hatred, the brutality,
all the pain, all the torture, all the death and ugliness
and suffering created by this good God is all over the world,
isn't it, young man?"

(No answer.)

"Don't you see it all over the place? Huh?" Pause. "Don't
you?" The professor leans into the student's face again and
whispers, "Is
God good?"

(No answer.)

"Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?"

The student's voice betrays him and cracks. "Yes, Professor,
I do."

The old man shakes his head sadly. "Science says you have
five senses you use to identify and observe the world around
you. Have you seen Jesus?"

"No, sir, I've never seen Him."

"Then tell us, have you ever heard your Jesus?"

"No, sir, I have not."

"Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelled
your Jesus...in fact, do you have any sensory perception of
your God whatsoever?"

(No answer.)

"Answer me, please."

"No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't."

"You're AFRAID you haven't?"

"No, sir."

"Yet you still believe in Him?"

"...yes..."

"That takes FAITH!" The professor smiles sagely at the
underling. "According
to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science
says
your God does not exist.
What do you say to that, son? Where is your God now?"

The student does not answer.

"Sit down, please."

The Christian sits...defeated.

Another student raises his hand.

"Professor, may I address the class?"

The professor turns and smiles. "Ah, another Christian in
the vanguard! Come, come, young man. Speak some proper wisdom
to the gathering."

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 veryquiet.
 

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 than that. There is no such thing
as cold, otherwise we would be able to go colder than
negative 458--you see, sir, cold is only a word we use to
describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat
we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy.
Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, it's just the
absence of it."

Silence. A pin drops somewhere in the classroom.

"Is there such a thing as darkness, professor?"

"That's a dumb question, son. What is night if it isn't
darkness? What are you getting at?"

"So you 'believe' in darkness?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, but science says you're wrong again, sir.
Darkness is not something, it is the absence of something.
You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing
light, but if you have no light constantly, you have nothing,
and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we
use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it
were, you would be able to make darkness darker and give it
to me in a jar. But you can't give me a jar of darker
darkness, can you Professor?"

Despite himself, the professor smiles at the young effrontery
before him. This would indeed be a good semester. "Would you
mind telling us what your point is, young man?"

"Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is
flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must be in error..."

The professor goes toxic. "Flawed...? How dare you...!"

"Sir, may I explain what I mean?"

The class is all ears.

"Explain...oh, explain." The professor makes an admirable
effort to regain control. Suddenly he is affability itself.
He waves his hand to silence the class, for the student to
continue.

"You are working on the premise of duality," the Christian
explains,"that,
for example, there is life and then there's
death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing God as a
concept, as something finite, something we can measure. Sir,
science cannot even explain a thought. It uses electricity
and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood
them. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant
of the fact that death cannot exist as a stantive thing.
Death is not the opposite of life, merely the absence of it."

The young man holds up a newspaper he takes from the desk of
a neighbor, who has been reading it. "Here is one of the most
disgusting
tabloids this country hosts, Professor. Is there
such a thing as immorality?"

"Of course, there is, now look..."

"Again, I'm sorry sir, but you are wrong. You see, immorality
is merely the absence of morality. Is there such a thing as
injustice? No,
injustice is the absence of justice. Is there
such a thing as evil?"

The Christian pauses."Isn't evil the absence of good?"

The professor's face has turned an alarming shade of red. He
is so angry, he is temporarily speechless.

The Christian continues."If there is evil in the world,
Professor, and we all agree there is, then God, if He exists,
must be accomplishing a work through the agency of evil. What
is that work God is accomplishing? The Bible tells us that
it is to see if each one of us will, of our own free will,
choose good (the result of the love of God) over evil the
result of independence or the absence of the love of God).

"There is nothing greater than love. God is love and God is
good. If He is good, then the innate act of his goodness
would be to give man the opportunity to experience the greatest
thing that exists -- love. But love cannot be forced on someone
or else it is not love. There must be a choice involved. God
loved us enough to allow us to make the choice. Evil is the
result of the choice of independence from God."

The professor bridles. "As a philosophical scientist, I don't
vie this matter as having anything to do with choice; as a
realist, I absolutely do not recognize the concept of God or
any other theological factor as being part of the world
equation because God is not observable."

"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?"

"If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process,
young man, yes, of course I do."

"Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir, or
are you placing your 'faith' in the unobservable?"

The professor makes a sucking noise with his teeth and gives
the student a silent, stony stare.

"Professor, since no one has ever observed the process of
evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process
is an ongoing endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion,
sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a priest?"

"I'll overlook your impudence in the light of our philosophical
discussion.
Now have you quite finished?" the professor hisses.

The student replies:"May I follow up on the point you were
making earlier to the other student?"

The professor wisely keeps silent.

"I believe you have a great mind Professor, but with all
respect let me ask the class a question regarding it. Is
there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's mind...
felt the professor's mind, touched or smelled the professor's
mind?"

The class remains silent.

"No one appears to have done so. No one here has had any
sensory perception of the professor's mind whatsoever.

"While I would not dare to imply it myself, but wouldn't the
limitations of
what you 'believe in' (the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable,
protocol, science) say that you have
no mind? Wouldn't the same apply to your emotions and your
will?

"I believe your great mind is hidden within your brain
although I cannot observe it within the small box, or
within the limited parameters which you want to place
God within.

"If I want to know your mind or better yet the real you
(your mind, emotions, will and even your spirit), all I
have to do, if you are willing to be known, is be willing
to seek to know you and to spend time with you. "You can
know that God exists, .... if you are willing ... Are you
willing Professor?"

Silence Silence Silence Silence Silence Silence Silence

The bell rings.

"Class dismissed," replies the professor. "Time is up!"
~unknown

is

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