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Looking for a counterexample to an argument for God (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by arensb@lemmy.world to c/atheism@lemmy.world
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At some point, I ran across an argument along the lines of: "We hunger, and food exists. We thirst, and water exists. We feel horny, and sex is real. We yearn for God, and so I conclude that God exists."

Now, I can easily pick this apart a bunch of different ways, the easiest one being that just because you want some to exist doesn't mean that it really exists. But what I'm really hoping for is a couple of counterexamples: something like "Yes, well, we all want a unicorn, too, but unicorns don't exist."

This particular one doesn't work because wanting a unicorn isn't a universal desire the way food or sex are (even counting asexual people, we can still say that the vast majority of people want sex). But maybe some of you can think of something.

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[-] bostonbananarama@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

You don't yearn for opiates until you've had them. I've never had it, and don't desire to. However, if a doctor, who I trust, gave me Vicodin, I might have taken it assuming he was right. I would eventually become addicted and crave it. Even feeling pain that doesn't exist, convinced that my body needs the drugs to survive.

Similarly, we are exposed to religion by our parents who we trust. And over the years are indoctrinated to need religion. We are convinced of phantom transgressions that we need salvation from.

Both needs are created, and not intrinsic to us.

this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
26 points (93.3% liked)

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