The clothes have no emperor

Some years ago, I debated a Muslim lecturer at Manchester University (the debate can be viewed here) on the question of whether life has meaning without God. I opened with my contention that life has no intrinsic meaning, whether there is a ‘god’ or not, and then asked, ‘Can I go home now?’

These debates start with an unspoken assumption. I must, according to the organisers’ rules, accept the assumption that there is a god and merely debate what effect or power ‘he’ supposedly has. In other words, they’re rigged!

Of course, I contend that, since there’s no evidence for any god, any dispensations that ‘he’ may confer on us are entirely fabricated by ‘his’ human supporters. It always reminds me of Hans Christian Anderson’s fabulous story, ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. Famously, in that fairy tale, the emperor was fooled into believing that the clothes he was being sold were so fine that only intelligent people could see them. Not wishing to appear stupid, he paraded around in the nude.

Christianity is the backwards version of that story: despite there being no evidence for any god, believers have dressed ‘him’ in a whole wardrobe of apparel! The fashion show consists of some fantastically regal robes magically floating down the catwalk with no wearer inside them.

The Christians’ invisible ‘god’ is credited with all sorts of amazing abilities. Allegedly, ‘he’ is the source of all morals, values, and meaning, which ‘he’ can dispense to us from on high. If only we worship ‘him’, that is. Poor chap: despite having created an entire universe, ‘he’ apparently has a massive lack of self-esteem and needs ‘his’ ego to be constantly massaged by ‘his’ admirers. A celestial Narcissus!

Recently, I took part in a debate at a high school for Premier Christian Radio’s Unbelievable? show. That discussion was called ‘Did Christianity Build the West?’ The same elephant was in the room—again we were essentially expected to start by accepting that there is a creator deity (and, in this case, that it was the Christian version!).

Another subject I’ve debated in the past is whether we can be good without God. Do you get the picture? I’m required to give in to my opponent’s presupposition of god’s existence before I can argue against it!

Going back to the Manchester University event, my opponent told how he had doubts about his faith until he dragged himself out of depression by engaging in Islam more fully. To me, it sounded like a masturbatory kind of Damascene conversion!

And then he went where a lot of apologists go—to value. He held up a ballpoint pen and asked the lecture theatre audience of mostly Muslims, ‘Which is more valuable, this pen or me?’ Of course, to them it was no contest. Then he pulled the best arrow from the preacher’s quiver of non sequiturs: ‘Therefore, Allah!’

Whenever I contest religious activists’ use of the value argument, they respond with, ‘You have values too!’. Indeed I do, but that’s not the point. Yes, we each have our own individual values and principles, but where’s the evidence that there is a Father up above issuing universal values?

Nothing has real value unless someone wants it.

Value is a conceptualisation by, and of, brains. It doesn’t fall like a golden shower from an invisible emperor above.

We mustn’t allow these claimants to influence us unchallenged.

We must BreakFREE!

We have to BreakFREE!

We’ve got to BreakFREE!

Atheism UK (AUK) launched the Break FREE! campaign at ‘Hitchmas’, which featured Sir Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins, Douglas Murray, and Lawrence Krauss celebrating the life of their late friend Christopher Hitchens in the Royal Geographical Society’s hall on 14 December last year. You can join AUK or make a donation and receive a Break FREE! button badge at our website: atheismuk.com.

Look out for our forthcoming BreakFREE! youtube channel.

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