Too Bad for Atheism

In the WaPo's On Faith, there was recently a debate on whether belief in God is wishful thinking or the sign of an innate desire for the divine. I said a few things at the outset but here is what I posted yesterday.

The alternative to believing in the reality of God is believing that He exists only in human speaking. See the work of Daniel Dennett for more on this.

This creates a big problem for atheists.

Why is this a problem? Because if God only exists in language every time you talk about Him furthers His existence.

You can't kill God. Once you talk about Him, He is. Even if He exists outside the universe, which I believe he does, he exists within it because we talk about him (since spirit is an aspect of language).

Why again is this a problem for atheists?

When they talk about not believing in God, that discussion calls the concept into existence. The Soviets tried to kill God. They lost. You can't persecute religion away. You can't tell people not to talk about it. That is like trying to tell people not to talk about sex.

The only way you can kill God, or at least end his existence on earth, is for no one to talk about Him. Fat chance doing that. The conversation on God is the ultimate catch-22. Even the term atheist includes the root for God. This is why some atheists call themselves Brights. However, being bright is also a function of language. No one is really bright independent of their ability to use language. There is no such thing as pure thought without reference to words. Again, the problem is, the language is laden with God talk. There is no escape.