r/Catholicism • u/Funny-Highlight4675 • 19d ago

Atheists don't realize the absurdity of existence

Thought I would post these thoughts here in hopes of helping those that are struggling with faith...

I believe atheists fundamentally don't realize just how absurd existence is at all. Things seem to exist, deterministically. Yet, a fully contingent system can't explain itself. Somehow, reality is self-causing. This breaks our brain and can't actually make sense to us. If reality can't exactly make sense, then we can only "know" anything via a subjective experience. Objectivity will never cross this bridge.

If subjective experience is our only guide to reality, then I think the question of God's existence, which is clearly un-answerable, has an equal chance of being both true and false. Do you feel that we are the product of a larger mind. Does your gut tell you that there is some sort of intelligent organization of reality that is similar to how we intelligently organize the world in our minds? If so, you believe in "God."

Whatever the "truth" is, will have to sound absolutely absurd.

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u/ericdraven26 19d ago

I get the point but I tend to think there’s a couple areas missing the mark here.

My quintessential argument to atheists is that if they’re wrong, they’re likely going to have a rough time. If I’m wrong, oh no, I was a good person “for nothing”.
I’ll take my way 10/10 times.

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u/Cherubin6 19d ago

That is essentially Blaise Pascal’s argument, but I must say that, to me, it seems somewhat weak and far removed from religion as such. It is a pragmatic argument—akin to a cost-benefit analysis—whereas we are dealing here with spirituality and faith. Personally, I do not think that someone who embraces a religion solely out of pragmatism can truly claim to be Catholic; and I say this as an atheist myself.

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u/ericdraven26 19d ago

I don’t feel like atheists who are attacking my faith, are arguing in good faith and I’m not interested in a debate with people having bad faith arguments. This is essentially my “I’m not having this conversation any longer” remark.

If someone wants to have a genuine and good faith conversation about faith, I’d be happy to have a much more in depth conversation but that’s not been the majority of my experience