Question for Atheists?

Question

What is your reasoning for not believing in God? I'm just curious, as I am able to back up my Catholic beliefs with evidence. What evidence do you have that God doesn't exist? How can you explain what happens when we die? What hope do you have if you think we just live and then die? I'm really seriously wanting to know your beliefs.

My evidence is the various miracles that I see every day. The mountains, the rivers the trees, even people are so complex that how can we explain it through anything other than a higher being's creation? How do you explain the fact that Noah's ark was found on the top of a mountain? This is a well-known bible story. There have been miraculous healings at various sites of the world where the saints lived. That is my evidence. I believe, because if I didn't, i wouldn't have anything to hope for. This world is so messed up at times, that it really does help to believe that something better will be waiting for us after we die. And, I've seen both my aunt and my uncle after they died. (my aunt of which i had never met. I only found out it was her after the fact seeing her in a picture and asking my mom.) that is why i believe in God.

Because the way I understand atheist beliefs, is that you believe in the concept of God, because in order to choose not to believe something, you have to at least have the knowledge that someone believes it exists.

My beliefs also have been there since I was about 1 1/2 years old. My mom would hear me say things that a kid that young usually has no understanding of. Like my grandmother died when I was about 1 1/2 years old. My mom says that I told her not to cry, because my grandma went to Heaven. I died when I was a baby, at least i think i did, but came back to life. When I was 3 years old, the doctors asked me if I could have 3 wishes what would they be. I still to this day remember what their reactions were and what i thought at the time (i'm 20 now). They looked at me like they were really amazed, and i remember asking myself why they thought it was strange. To this day, i still adhere to the principles that I had when I was 3. My mom died when I was 6, and saw Heaven, but came back to life. this is my evidence for my beliefs. Things that have happened in my life, that can't be explained any other way but through the belief in God.

what evidence do you have that Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist?

Actually, Santa Claus did exist. He is known as St. Nicholas, and the story of Santa Claus came about because of what St. Nicholas did. Wikipedia tells of the origin of the tooth fairy. "The most commonly accepted belief by academics is the fairy's development from the tooth mouse, depicted in an 18th century French language fairy tale. In "La Bonne Petite Souris," a mouse changes into a fairy to help a good Queen defeat an evil King by hiding under his pillow to torment him and knocking out all his teeth. Also, in Europe, baby teeth used to be fed to rodents and other animals in the hopes of getting sharper, more rodent-like, teeth in the future."

Both of those are known to be fiction, because those stories have an origin and they can be tested. God's origin however cannot be known, nor can it be tested.

Answer 1

First of all, there is no reason that atheists must have 'evidence' that god does not exist... it is sufficient that they do not find the so-called 'evidence' that god DOES exist to be credible or compelling.

I noticed that one answer stated that atheism is a religion; that us utterly absurd... atheism can be considered to be a religion only in the same sense that NOT collecting stamps can be considered to be a hobby.

Your question contains the implication that everything must have an explanation... for example, "What happens when we die?" Intelligent, rational people KNOW that we cannot explain everything; that's why we have science... to ficure things out. Religious people, on the other hand, do not accept "I don't know" as an acceptable state of knowledge. So, they habitually substitute 'faith' for evidence, and substitute willful ignorance and delusion for knowledge. In other words, where they find no answer in nature, they make up an answer based upon the supernatural, and accept it as a matter of 'faith'. Thus, they create the comfortable ILLUSION that they know, and supress the intellectually honest truth, which is that they DON'T know. Rational people, on the other hand, EMBRACE their ignorance... their understanding of what they DON'T know provides them with a map of the work that remains to be done.

Also, there are some subtleties at work here that seem to escape the notice of most people. They have to do with the nature of 'belief'.

A rational person might say "I believe in the Big Bang." A religious person might say "I believe in creation, as described in Genesis." But these statements are not even remotely similar, with respect to what is meant by the word 'believe'.

For the rational person, the statement of 'belief' in the Big Bang means that they understand that the concept provides a scientifically and mathematically consistent explanation, congruent with the evidence, which accounts for the evolution of the universe from a fraction of a second after the initiating event, up until the present. When the 'inflationary model' came to the fore, rational people said "Well, good... that clears up a few questions and makes things even more coherent." NOBODY threw up their arms and wailed "Oh, no... oh, no... ain't so... ain't so... the Big Bang is the inerrant truth... not this ridiculous, atheistic 'inflationary' model."

See... when we say "I believe in the Big Bang", we don't really mean the same thing as the religious person means when he says "I believe in creation, as described in Genesis," or "I believe in God." Our 'belief' in the Big Bang (or anything else) isn't really a 'belief'... it is more properly a 'paradigm'... a useful way of looking at something, or thinking about something. If additional information is uncovered that adds to the conceptual model, that is a good thing... not a disaster. If part of the conceptual model is discovered to be incorrect, and must be tossed in the trash and replaced with something completely different... that is also a good thing... not the end of the world as we know it. And often, no matter how highly confident we may be of the accuracy or completeness of a particular paradigm, we may have reason to apply a DIFFERENT paradigm to the same thing, in an effort to tease out new insights; for example, we might want to contemplate the potential implications of a change to a theory from the perspective of the Tao Te Ching, the Gaia hypothesis, or ecological homeostasis. We KNOW that all theories are approximations... and that is OK. We KNOW that we don't have all the answers... and that is OK, too. There is nothing wrong with saying "We don't know... yet; but we're working on it."

But these modes of thinking, perceiving, contemplating and understanding are utterly alien to the 'religious' mind. For the religious mind, a 'belief' is not a paradigm... not a useful way of thinking about something... it is an internalized conviction that one knows the absolute 'truth' pertaining to some aspect of existence and/or fundamental reality. 'Beliefs' are one of the key interpretive component filters of the religious person's 'self-description'... a part of what DEFINES them as a person... the very thing that creates their world-view... an underpinning of their 'subjective reality'. Any challenge to one of these internalized 'beliefs' is perceived and interpreted as a vital threat... an attack upon the 'self-description'... and an assault upon their subjective reality.

And here is the key difference: When there is a change in one of the paradigms dealing with a scientific concept, or a new insight into the workings of the universe, to the 'rational' person it merely constitutes an interesting new piece of knowledge and understanding... a new insight. However, if that same new insight, or piece of information (a feature of the universe, for example) seems to threaten a tenet of Christianity, everybody goes to battle stations, goes into 'damage control' mode... for fear that the whole edifice will come crashing down. And, ultimately, it will.

So, when a fundie disparages evolution, for example, it really has nothing to do with a genuine, intellectual dispute regarding scientific details... they are generally scientifically illiterate, anyway. Any 'scientific' arguments that they present are inevitably not even understood... they are just lifted from the pre-packaged lies and misrepresentations that are found on dozens of 'Liars for Jesus' (LFJ) web sites, and parroted. They are in a battle. They are trying to sink science before science sinks them. They are desperate... and science is (mostly, and unfortunately) oblivious to the fact that they are even in a fight, and that somebody is trying to sink them. They are just blithely bopping along, doing what science does... figuring out how nature works.

No... none of this has anything to do with a mere disagreement pertaining to evidence and understanding. It has to do with minds that deal with fundamental issues in an entirely different way. It has to do with a flexible, open-minded, intellectually honest (willing to question and doubt one's own presumptions) curiosity about the universe, contending with a rigid, unyielding world-view that depends from a certainty that certain delusional faith-based (willful ignorance and magical, wishful thinking) 'beliefs' represent the absolute 'truth' of reality.

We might as well be talking to an alien species, from a distant planet.

Answer 2

I don't know about God, but I do know the Bible has some horrible things in it.

From an atheist point of view, your conciousness ends when you die. There is no afterlife, and no soul. Atheists feel that the material world is all that exists, i.e. there is nothing outside of what we can observe, no such thing as the supernatural. Therefore, they don't need proof that God does not exist as lack of evidence is sufficient to discount existance.

As for hope, I cannot speak for everyone, but I imagine that many atheists would _love_ to have evidence of life after death, or that this short time on this earth is not all we have, and are reluctant to conclude that these things do not exist. I also imagine they therefore have resolved to make the best life they possibly can while they can, for themselves and their loved ones. Not a bad way to live, actually.

Here's a site where someone attempts to prove God doesn't exist, it's a 50 step plan some dude posted on yahoo answers earlier, very interesting for anyone of any faith:

Answer 3

My evidence that god doesn't exist is that there is no proof or support for the idea of a "supreme being" that creates things out of thin air. The bible, which is supposed to be the 'evidence' for God, is full of examples of events that clearly could not happen. For example, Noah's Ark (there are a million sources that have shown how impossible it would have been). So in my mind, if some of the events in the bible are clearly made up, there is no reason to take any of it as real. There is just no logic, in my mind, to believing that some guy snapped his fingers and made everything.

The explanation of what happens when we die is that our bodies shut down and we are no longer living. End of story. Like when you squish an ant, it is dead. No afterlife, no reincarnation, etc.

I don't need to hope for heaven or some afterlife, I enjoy my life as it is now and am content knowing that it is finite. I make the most of it while I'm here, and I have enough inner strength and morals that I don't need the rules and control of the Church to tell me what to do.

What is your evidence for your Catholic beliefs? Just curious.

Hmmmm you mention that the world is really messed up and belief gives you hope. But if your God was at all good and caring about his creations, wouldn't He take better care of them?? Guide them in the right direction? You might think "He can only lead those who accept him in their hearts" or whatever, BUT there are clearly many God-loving Christians who cause pain and suffering in the world (think of all the wars!).

Answer 4

Basically, I go where the evidence leads me.

"What evidence do you have that God doesn't exist?"

I don't have any that he does exist, so why should I believe in something if there's no reasonable sign of him being there? Now, if God were to perform some cool miracles like in the Bible or Quran, sure, I'll convert :)

"What hope do you have if you think we just live and then die?"

Some live for the present, basically, eat/drink/be merry, others help improve the world for the next generation, some do both.

"How can you explain what happens when we die?"

Well, what's the evidence tell us? You die, your body ceases to work, you're either buried or cremated, end of story. Not a single shred of evidence suggesting that we'll rise up again.

Answer 5

It had NOTHING to do with science. Evolution, etc. never even came up when I was thinking about it.

There's more to it, but the short story is that over the years, people have had many religions. Pretty much everyone worshipped or feared something. So why are christians so sure they're right? But to me fear is the key. Fear of the unknown mainly. I believe god was invented to explain things that people didn't understand.

My thought processes are all the evidence I need.

I can't explain what happens when we die. No one can. But this fact doesn't cause me to invent things to explain it.

If this life IS all there is, then there's every reason to enjoy it. I think it's just plain silly and SUCH a waste to restrict yourself with silly beliefs and rules and regulations on the offchance that this is just a trial run. This is all the life we know.

Answer 6

My evidence is I don't believe your evidence. Plus, science has given us great insight into the hows and whys that the Bible tries to cover, like Creation. Well, God didn't make the world in 7 days, and humans did not come from Adam and Eve. There are mountains of evidence to support this idea that's DIFFERENT from the Bible, so the Bible (which sounds like a bunch of man-made bologna anyway) is not the word of some diety.

Nothing happens when we die. We stop. Disliking that fact (as I'm sure you do) is what prompts most people to make this religious stuff up. Religion and ideas of afterlife are nearly universal (though varied) because fear of death is universal.

Answer 7

Thank you so much for being respectful. Most people ask the same question, but say, "I know God exists I have proof and you don't. What made you abandon God?" Thanks for not doing that.

The best explanation I can give is go to www.godisimaginary.com. It will provide explanations. Personally, I'd recomend reading the explanation entitled "flip a coin." As a Christian, you may find the site a bit offensive, but it provides better explanations than my reasoning.

Out of curiosity, you say you have proof of God. What is your proof. Is it the Bible? (Do you know if the Bible is true?) Did you get a message from God? Is it a feeling you get when you walk in a church? I'm really curious.

Answer 8

What evidence do you have for the existence of god? Please don't tell me the bible, because that is not evidence. Logically if that where proof than one could use any book to proof the existence of any number of "gods".
Since there is no evidence to support the existence of a god, I would suggest that the best you can do is look at the evidence that does exist that points to the universe being created by the "big bang" and the we are all star dust. Depending on you point of view that can be a wonderful thing in and of itself.

Answer 9

I don't believe in God because of the corruption of organized religion and what they want you to believe.

I don't have evidence that God doesn't exist ( I hope this question is for Agnostics as well..otherwise I answered anyways) I just have no faith in the Christian book.

Your brain shuts off when you die, therefore nothing more happens afterward.

Hope? Hope in what?

Answer 10

I have the same evidence that god exists as i have that the tooth fairy exist. So, who cares if they exist. It makes no difference to me if they do or don't. If you die your dead. If there was an afterlife and it was important we would be able to communicate with the people from the after life freely. It wouldn't be based on someones imagination.