Atheists, why did you personally choose not to believe in God? And can you do this without an attack at others

Question

I would like to see the individual Athiests give the reason why they dont agree with something, instead of "bashing" or "name calling."

Also, I would ask those who do not believe in God, "Is it because of what you have seen how some people that do believe in God act?

or Is it because you believe that God must not exist because of what exists does around you (and what specifically)?"

Sometimes we all make assumptions and blindly make statements about what the other side believes, and many of those are blanket statements, not taking into account the individual.

Wow a lot of answers and almost immediately. First of all, let me thank all of you (well almost all) for your respectful answers. When the time comes for rating the best answer, I will let you all choose, because I wouldnt be able to, for many reasons.

Would it surprise you that, although I am a Christian, I agree with some of what you say, especially toward those who decided that God could not exist because if he created everything - then why did he create evil - disease - child abusers, etc. (I was able to resolve those issues myself - because I found something out that I had not known before)
And for those of you who chose to not believe in God because of what many people do in the name of religion - I am right there with you on the disgust of those things.

And, oh yeah, I dont believe in that the bad go to hell and the good go to heaven, that when you die, you just stop existing.

On the very last part, I mean that I believe that death means non-existence.

And, yes I agree that one needs scientific proof that God exists.

Thank you piraterachel for your compliment.

Sorry, folks, I did find a Best Answer - JP because, even though our end choices are wrong - I agree wholeheartedly with everything he said - that is how I came to my choice - only it was the opposite of his. But, I said that I would let you all choose, so I will.

To mellrae1116: First - I appreciated your answer very much.
I did not say that I learned something that wouldnt let me WORRY about those things happening now (everyone knows that they are going on at this time - and I hurt everytime I hear about it), but that I learned something that allowed me to understand, not only why it is there, but how it is going to be fixed - and I dont mean heaven/hell. If you truly want to know what it is, I would share it on email, but I found it in the Bible - so you may not want to hear it anyway.

And I said what I did about the "attacking" because, as you can see from a FEW (not the majority) that people will attack, even when the questioner really wanted to know the reasons why you chose. - see I could have gone that way - and I do agree with those of you who feel that religion, in the main, is incorrect, and has given itself a bad reputation.

addition to the above comment about best answer to JP - I meant to say - even if our end choices are DIFFERENT not wrong.

Answer 1

I have a policy that questions asked with intelligence and respect, and that interested me enough to answer, I will answer in kind. Yours falls into that category, so I will answer.

I look around me and I see a universe governed by mathematical rules. I look at my history and realize that humans have understood far less of these rules in the past than we do now. The formulation of these rules has dispelled one or more myths, anytime one of those formulations was better able to model the universe. The Greeks discovered that Earth was round, a knowledge that persisted in the educated elite even throughout the dark ages, despite the fact the common masses forgot. This formulation dispelled the myth of the flat earth. Aristotle formulated gravity as 'things falling to the center of the universe' as, of course, Earth was the center. Newton found a better formulation for gravity, and the myth of the geocentric universe began to unravel. We now know that we are not the center of the universe (or at least, it's very unlikely we are), and that the Earth revolves around the sun. Newton was found to be inaccurate, and newtonian gravity was found to be a myth, replaced with the better model of relativistic gravity, which is itself known to be an imperfect model of gravity because it doesn't incorporate quantum effects. It is logical to believe that as humans become more knowledgeable, this imperfect model/myth will be replaced with a model in complete agreement with the universe we observe.

Religion, on the other hand, has no method for changing and adapting to new information. The scientific evidence for the inflationary universe and evolution are out there for anyone to study, but because Christianity, in this case, has no structure for incorporating this new information, some fundamentalist Christians dismiss the inflationary model and evolutionary model as 'lies' or 'atheistic deceptions' instead of re-evaluating their Bibles to say, "Ah, God said he created, but Moses couldn't have understood quantum physics, so gave Moses a parable that captured the essence of the truth -- God Created."

If religion is a quest for Truth, then it must be subject to correction, otherwise it is dogma. Science is a quest for truth subject to certain rules -- primary among them the concept of negation of supernatural explanation and the concept of peer-evaluated research.

I place my trust in the quest for truth that has no qualms about being wrong, because only a system that admits it can be wrong can be corrected and become closer to the truth.

Answer 2

Well I didn't decide to be an atheist because of how some people who believe in God act, no.
I didn't have religious parents to force anything on me, so I was completely free to look at the concept of religion objectively. I've read the bible, and it didn't come close to convincing me. In hindsight there was really no point in reading it. The best any holy book is going to do is say "God is real" which they basically do. The fact is that just because you read something in a book doesn't make it true. When it comes to an invisible, omnipotent force creating the universe and everything in it, I'm not going to believe it without proof, it's much too ridiculous an idea. Just like I don't believe in the tooth fairy or alien abductions. The whole idea confuses me a little, really. I know a few Christians and whenever you bring up the whole 'no proof' thing they direct you to some part of the bible. When you ask them what proof there is for the bible they tell you that you need to have faith. Well why don't they have faith in another religion? Why don't they have faith in the tooth fairy?

But at the end of the day it's impossible to disprove the existence of an omnipotent being. So as an atheist I too must use faith to justify my beliefs. I have faith that I won't go to hell for my life of blasphemy. I just feel that atheism leaves less to faith than theism.

Answer 3

I do not believe that God is as the Bible says. I believe that God or a Creator or Higher Power, whatever put all this into action but did not stay around to "play" with the earthlings. I don't believe that any God would do that because I don't believe any God has a brain with which to think of things like that. This creation here on earth had to have something that started the ball rolling because there is an Order to things and things work in unison on so many levels. So I don't know what I would be classified as since I don't believe in the "human kind" of God.
By the way what did you learn that let you not worry about the bad stuff that happens to kids, the disease and etc. that is all around us with no one to "come down" and tell everyone the truth? Just curious.
Also, very good question and nicely put. I was not offended at all.

yasiru89, what an answer. It's like talking to myself. Thanks I enjoyed reading it. Do you have a web site? Could you email me? Thanks.

Answer 4

For the same reason I don't believe there are little invisible pixies at the bottom of my garden. The idea is ridiculous. Religion makes it even more so. The idea of some supposedly higher being demanding to be worshipped yet not even having the decency to make a personal appearance in fact it's insulted that you even expect it to is completely repugnant. A higher being should not require worship. It's illogical, inconsistent and quite frankly doesn't make you a better person regardless of however many times your preacher tells you so.

Your god is (according to most believers) all powerful and all loving yet a child dies of starvation every minute. I fail to see anything all powerful and all loving.

I've been an atheist for 18 years and I've never had any urge to rape, murder, steal or do generally evil things. People have commented on how kind I am. No jesus required.

I am also disgusted that believers find the idea of hell acceptable, even right - some genuinely think torturing people for all eternity for not believing the same thing as they do is a-ok - that is VILE! I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Not that I have any enemies.

Where do i think I'm going in life? Wherever it leads, I'm riding the rollercoaster.

Where do I think I'm going in death? No-where death is the end. It being sad doesn't make it less true.

And yes the world is amazing and no we don't understand everything about it, but thats more to do with our own limited understanding it's not evidence that GODDIDIT! People used to believe gods caused lightning because they didn't understand how it works.

Have you never noticed that all believers think they're going to heaven? Regardless of what they do - their particular flavour of religion is just compatible with them getting into heaven. How you all pick and chose exactly what parts of your holy book you're going to follow and what parts you're not.

People *want* to believe a god exists because heaven sounds nice and how to world works is beyond our comprehension.

Answer 5

I don't believe because there's no reason why I think I should. It's not that what I see keeps me from believing. It's that what I see isn't enough for me to believe. I think that if you are claiming that there is a god, you need to prove that, and until that happens, you can't expect us to believe, too.

I don't like religions no matter what believers act. I just don't want to base my life on a set of imposed values. I don't make assumptions on what actual people are. I don't like the idea of submitting myself to an imaginary superior being. Mind you, if I could have such a being that I could lean on, that would be wonderful. But I just can't believe, so I won't lean on something of whose existence I can't be sure.

Oh, and I one more thing. I am usually very harsh on religions. But you believers should not take it personally. When I say that Christianity has been murderous I don't mean you all are. I am only talking about the Crusades, the Inquisition, the invasion of the Americas, or now, when they prevent abortion from being legal, which makes girls do it anyway, but outside law, and with a greater danger for their integrity...

So, in a nutshell, I hate religions and I consider them my enemy. But I respect you for your beliefs. I may think (I DO think) you are wrong. But that doesn't make you a bad person for me.

Answer 6

I don't believe in god because I believe in science-- and I need scientific proof that god exists. And, until that happens (which I don't think it ever will), I will not believe in what I equate with a fairy tale. The bible was written by humans, just like fairy tales, and while I believe that historically some of those things may have happened, I believe it was a primitive society's means of explaining many natural occurences that they did not have the knowledge to explain using science.

I believe that humans are merely an evolved animal-- without too many drastic differences between us and the rest of them. We're just an evolutionary glitch, and we may or may not make it for the long evolutionary haul.

I certainly don't dislike people that believe in god, but I also don't want them to dislike me for not believing in god. As for your statement "I'd like to see the individual atheists give the reason why they don't agree with something," Iactually see it the other way-- I'd like to see the believers explain how they can believe in something just because--- with no proof and only because someone (like the pope or a minister) tells them that's what they should believe.

Answer 7

For me, it was not so much a choice as it was a discovery.

When I began the journey from Christian to Atheist, I began by researching the history of the biblical era, the early church (A.D 100 - 300), and the early and late middle ages.

I also research sociology (related to the need to believe in a high power), religious texts (Bible, Quran) and Philosophy.

When I finished a year later, I "discovered" that there is no god.

I do not bash believers (unless I am bashed first). If you believe in god because of faith, I can't touch you. It's an automatic tie.

Answer 8

Well, I think I'm not a nonbeliever, and I'm not a believer. But, on the other hand, I couldn't give you a good enough reason why God doesn't exist. I don't know enough about it, so how could I say it's not true. Plus, a person's reality is a person's reality; so that's your belief system. It's all perception anyway, isn't it? Beside I like to respect people for their believes (that’s what makes them... them), I leave you with this, do what you feel is right.

Answer 9

Thanks, I think, for asking a reasonably intelligent question. Check out my question re;Ghandi in this subject. As an atheist I welcome the opportunity to address this without malice. First atheism is for me the ultimate declaration of an open minded approach to 'right way to live'. If this god of others description exists, ie; omnipotent, omnipresent , omniscient, then we mortals could not grasp it. If this god beyond definition or proof exists, the she created our intellect and I would think expects us to use it for the 'god question'. For one thing we lack a common definition of god and heaven.. For too long now religious 'authority' has used modified concepts of this god to control human behavior using fear and violence in conjunction.The old model went something like " yeah, god made me a spokesman so I will be answering all your god questions for her. Got kids?
I didn't really make a 'decision' to be an atheist. It was the end result of asking deeply philosophical questios that religion and it's proponents failed to answer. Life is much simpler framed in terms of cause and effect. If I do this thing something good will happen. If I do that something bad will happen. We don't need a god to know the difference between right action and wrong action. God has been used by humans to commit andf perpetuate violence for so long now that it's funny, in a darkly humorous way .
Like I said if and when Christ comes back from the dead, he's gonna be pissed off bad.

Answer 10

Not an athiest, myself, but have had friends who are.

Being an atheist does not necessarily mean attacking others anymore than being a Christian, Muslim or anything else. "Attackers" are all faiths and non-faith as well.

My athiest friends rely of the scientific, the demonstrated for their belief. It can be a compelling argument, even if not one I agree with. Being an athiest is "easier" than having faith in a supernatural, because you only have to believe what you see. You can discredit the Bible for its inconsistencies and for the seeming hypocrisy of believers, without having an alternative.