The only intellectual problem is a belief in a "being" based purely on myth and NO facts or science whatsoever.

Dear Peter,

One technique of argument is to set up a strawman, a concept your opponent has not made. You have defined a God that atheists reject. I am an atheist and reject the concept of a supernatural whether it is in the simplistic form of an old man in the sky or in some other form. I do not have the arrogance to define what a Christian or religionist of other kind believes because I know that religion is a complex phenomenon and encompasses many beliefs. I don't think there is a supernatural of any kind. It's that simple.

All Christians are not fundamentalists, and I am quite aware of that. Some atheists come from a fundamentalist background, and they have rejected that faith. That does not mean they have taken on another faith. Atheists in general do not define a God that they don't believe in.

Death is a reality. I am 94. My life will reach its limit, and I will be no more. I don't deny death. Why are you so worried that there are people who don't believe what you believe?

"There is a sense in which COVID-19 is the voice of God.... But the pandemic has pulled many of us up short as if it were a voice from heaven".

The author is of course a religious man, but if an Islamic preacher shouted this at us... be would suggest he was living in the past. We all want more control of our live and who could argue against greater community awareness and actions.

The Pandemic has offered an opportunity to do this, and hopefully it will last to some extent, but that will be down to us, and certainly not a recognition that the COVID-19 is a "message from God". Its a message to us that human beings caused, mismanagement and try to benefit from this ('Greed-is- Good', still rules many peoples value set, a power is still an aphrodisiac for pollies).

The benefits that will come from the global event will only appear if we choose to do so, not governments, economists or I sorry even the words of wisdom form religious leaders.

That's the chanllenge for each of us.

"Most people declare they are atheists because atheism solves the intellectual problem of believing in the existence of God as the old man in the sky." Where is the evidence for this very broad and dogmatic assertion? It doesn't apply to me. I may be the only example but that seems unlikely. I would be surprised if it applies to any of the folk I know who are atheists, though I can see why the average citizen might resort to that simplistic explanation of their atheism when confronted by a real live Deacon. Also, I strongly object to the allegation that I am murdering myself. It may be poetic licence but it's rude and tactless. As for the claimed association between religious and political-economic opinions, that's also something testable via simple data collection and analysis. I would be very surprised if the writer's claims stood up.

It's just not the old man in the sky crap, but all the other fanciful myth and legend trotted out for one reason only? Mind control of the masses and to rule without being ever held to account!

If we are to believe in something? And believe in something we must!

Then let that something be, evidence-based, fact-checked, as the absolutely irrefutable, mighty Truth!

And for a start understand from nothing you get nothing, that energy cannot be created nor destroyed just transformed. That the universe and everything in it including all life forms is transformed energy vibrating just south if the speed of light

Can the universe think or dream? Well, you and I can and we are an intregal part of it!

And are left at the end of the day left with just two choices to believe in to understand creation Either divine intelligence operating with a planned purpose or magic!

Me? Well it may look magical but then so does intelligent design and created for a known purpose, some of it so splendid to completely boggle the mind/beggar belief!
Alan B.

Reading all of those incredibly boring oh-so-earnest Christian sermons, essays and books in response to Covid-19 one would think that the fact that death really does rule to here is a new discovery or phenomenon.

Death - the pause that refreshes!

http://www.beezone.com/DawnHorse/death_is_not_your_concern.html

It is also everyone's unexamined philosophy - especially in the case of Christians because Christian-ism is a death-denying "religion"
http://beezone.com/death_message.html

Essays on atheism and conventional mommy-daddy creator-"God" religion.
http://www.adidam.org/teaching/aletheon/dogma-atheism
http://www.adidam.org/teaching/aletheon/religion-not-ego
http://www.beezone.com/AdiDa/nirvanasara/chapter4.html