The atheist – preacher:
All the major religions that exist today claim that everything on Earth was created by God and that everything in nature works according to the laws of God.
We atheists disagree with this. We claim that all phenomena in nature are subject to natural laws, that is, the laws of physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology, and so on.
The listener – atheist:
But it doesn’t contradict each other. We, believers, say that the laws of physics, chemistry and so on really exist, and natural phenomena are subject to them. But these natural laws themselves were once created by someone. They couldn’t have appeared in the universe by themselves. So, God created this world and immediately predestined it to exist according to certain laws. These laws were later called by people the laws of physics, chemistry, and so on.
The atheist – preacher:
This is our main contradiction. We claim that the laws of nature are natural, inexorable, that is, they do not depend on the will of people or some supernatural being. They work always and everywhere. They cannot be controlled. They cannot be persuaded not to work in certain cases when one of the people really wants to.
You, believers, claim that God created these laws and he is above them, that is, he can change them or cancel them altogether in response to people’s prayers.
For example, you sincerely believe that at the behest of God, the sea once parted before people and let them pass along its bottom to the other shore. That is, a certain being abolished the laws of gravity for the sake of certain people who were dear to him. You also believe in the immaculate conception, that is, that a woman can get pregnant without the participation of a man or a male seed. That is, you claim that according to the laws of biology, the participation of a man and a woman is required for human fertilization, but in one exceptional case this law did not work, and by the will of a certain being, a woman became pregnant alone.
Etc. All religions are built on non-compliance with the laws of nature. This is their essence. Religion inspires a person to believe in the supernatural, mysterious, beautiful, desirable, in what is stronger than nature. Otherwise, religion would not exist.
The listener – atheist:
I’m sorry, but with the development of mankind, we observe how many laws of physics and chemistry are violated, or rather, do not work under certain conditions. For example, the laws of gravity do not apply in space, or modern medicine allows women to have children without a man, thanks to artificial insemination. Just a few decades ago, no one could even imagine that such a thing was possible. Doesn’t this mean that the laws of physics and chemistry are not immutable? Don’t the materialists themselves, after new scientific discoveries, have a feeling that natural laws are not constant, but obey some force that is higher than them, and which gradually opens the veil of mystery over them?
The atheist – preacher:
No, there is a difference between the belief that natural laws can be abolished, and a scientific discovery showing that under certain conditions certain laws of physics do not work.
These are two different things.
Scientific discoveries do not destroy or question fundamental science, that is, all the laws and discoveries made before. They only expand or refine human knowledge and add new laws of nature to existing ones.
In our opinion, one cannot believe in the operation of the laws of physics and at the same time pray to God about the violation of these laws.
For example, you cannot know the law of the water cycle in nature, understand the patterns of precipitation formation, but at the same time pray to God for rain. There is one of two things: either you need to study hydrometeorology, increase the number of weather stations, increase the power of computers that calculate the movement of air masses, or pray to God that he sends rain, regardless of weather conditions.
If a person was crucified on the cross and died of wounds, then according to the laws of biology he cannot be resurrected. This rule always works. When people believe that Jesus has risen from the dead, they try to abolish the laws of nature.
When people believe that water can turn wine into one touch of a semi-divine being, they refute the laws of chemistry, which require the presence of grapes and a long time for fermentation and maturation of wine.
The listener – atheist:
It is probably difficult for atheists to understand believers because we do not require scientific evidence of the phenomena described in the scriptures. We just believe in the existence of God, in some force that created the laws of physics, chemistry, and so on, according to which this world now lives.
The atheist – preacher:
We atheists consider it pointless to believe in something supernatural if natural laws are always and everywhere, if everything in this life is predictable from the point of view of science and develops in strict accordance with its laws. What is the point of believing in the existence of something that cannot violate these laws? It turns out that with or without God, life flows the same way. Then what is the point of believing in something that is unprovable and does not affect our lives in any way? It’s like believing in miracles, in wizards. Fairy tales, of course, bring some variety to people’s lives, give them joy, give hope. But none of us seriously believes in the existence of wizards. I think that just as children stop believing in miracles and Santa Claus as they grow up, so with the development of humanity, with the development of science, fewer people will believe in God.
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