'Who are You to Question God?' (Dumb Things People Say to Atheists Part 4)

Today I take a look at the classic question, "Who are you to question an all-knowing god?" Do atheists actually question an all-knowing god? And if a god existed, could we become confident that it was actually all-knowing, and should we ever reach the point that we never trusted it no matter what it ever did? Stick around as we explore these amazingly compelling questions and otherwise analyze this dumb thing people say to atheists.

[maingun]

Who am I to question God? I'm a real human being with questions. Who are you to answer for God?

[pollypockets]

Why wouldn't we question him if he knows everything? He's the best one to question.

[firstcynic]

Who am I to question God?

I am a member of the species that invented all deities.

[pauldhoff]

What god wouldn't let you question it. Only smalls gods have egos.

[thoperSought]

how about:
A: _"who are you to question an omniscient God?"_
B: _"who are _*_you_*_ to speak for an omnipotent God?"_

[bradypustridactylus]

We moved into a new neighborhood. A local Baptist preacher came by to invite us to the local services. I invited him in and we sat down for a pleasant chat. Eventually, I said, “I used to be quite religious, but I started thinking about things I had read in the Bible, and big boats overloaded with animals, talking snakes and donkeys, and magic sticks are more than I can swallow.”
He answered, “What you can or cannot swallow is beside the point.”
“If that is not the point, why are you sitting there trying to convince me that it is true?”

[HConstantine]

"Who are you to question an all-knowing god?"

I'll let you know if I meet one.


"Who are you to question an all-knowing god?"

Is there some reason he can't answer me? The all-knowing aren't shy of questions, but rather the vain and the megalomaniacal.

[joseph-thewatcher]

A couple of months ago during the time when I was still questioning my Christian faith,
my former pastor called me to express his concerns about me.
After several minutes of discussing questions about god's actions and motives in the old testament;
He presented a slightly different question to me, "Do you think you're smarter than god?"
I thought about it for a moment and then I responded by saying that I'm smarter than the men who wrote the bible.

Of course he processed to accuse me of being under the influence of a satanic spirit.
He also talked about the unforgiveable sin and eternal damnation.
He even suggested that something bad might happen to me in this world.
This man was my pastor for 20 years. I was very heavily involved in the ministry.
Yet within minutes I had become his enemy because I had questioned GOD.

[bengreen]

It goes hand in hand with the "God works in mysterious ways" get-out clause that they use to avoid having to deal with instances that show God to be a morally contradictory monster.

[AJ-kwvk]

"Who am I to question my parents?" is exactly what my friend with abusive parents says.

[theunholyhorseman]

I have been asked that question too many times. At the age of eight, I was taken into an empty room after one Sunday School by a red-faced church deacon (fundamental Baptist) who grabbed my shoulders and shoved me back against a wall, crouched down to get right in my face and growled, "You believe what we TELL you to believe and stop asking stupid questions!!" I was, of course, fairly well intimidated at that time, but I still resented it and never forgot the utter self-righteousness of it all.

As an adult, after I left this toxic religion behind, my answer to those who tried to 'bring me back to the fold' with this question---among others---has been: "I am a reasonably intelligent human being who was brought into this world by my parents through procreation; I had no say in the matter, and I never knew anything about your god before I was indoctrinated into christianity as a child, but there is no rule, no law, and certainly NO ethical or moral prohibition concerning my right to question your deity. Indeed, who is YOUR god that he/she/it cannot be questioned? Sounds like a monumental egotist to me, if it even exists. . ."

[George]

T: Who are you to question God?
A: I'd love to meet Him and to question Him (if He exists). He has a lot to answer for.

[BrianGay]

I really like the “I’m not questioning god, I’m questioning YOU” response!

I’ll have to remember that one.

[proculusjulius]

The best question is "why would an all knowing being be so intimidated by a simple question? " it's like he evaporates every time someone asks a logical question...

[perplexedpapa]

Boy! That's a line I've heard since I was nine.
By their logic, he's the one that gave me the questions to ask them, and since they couldn't answer my questions, it meant that they needed to study their beliefs more and/or that I needed to ask someone else.
Needless to say, I shook up quite a few preachers, and other apologists.
The Abrahamic "God" is a monster by any measure, and anyone that would call him "loving" is clueless to their "God's" real nature.
Question everything!

[alifmuhammadchicago]

"Who are you to question God?"
He's the Father, right? I just want to know why He never bothered to visit me when I was a child.

[darrylelam]

I've incountered this BS a few times, and it has never work with me as believers hoped it would. 'Who am I to question god?' I am part of an intelligent lifeform that as progressed our lives by questioning things that we see in the universe. We understand what causes storms because we asked the right questions instead of blindly accepting 'god did it'.

[timeshark]

When they say "who are you to question God?" I hear "who are you to question _ME?"_

[doug]

The "Who are You to Question God?" angle is one of my favorite things that the religious say to atheists - in that it's definitely one of the dumbest. I usually retort with something along the lines of "Who are you to question Zeus?" since the argument is just as valid and just as meaningless. They often have a difficult time wrapping their heads around the notion that we aren't questioning something that we don't believe in. We are questioning their belief in that thing any why they hold that belief.

[NotGoodAtNamingThings]

Who am I to question an all-knowing God? I'm a being who provably exists, unlike God. That's who I am.