How can people really be atheists?What is their evidence for supporting their beliefs?

Question

I don't knock people for believing in whatever religion they follow. I just don't understand how a person can actually beleive there is no God or intelligent force behind the creation of the universe, nature, people, and animals. All of this can't be an accident.

Answer 1

One thing that erks me is when theists make a claim that God exists and don't back it up, and when atheists make a claim that God doesn't exist and don't back it up.

One thing that the two camps like to do is shift the burden of proof from one to the other. This is a fallacy. Theist say, God exists, there is no evidence for the contrary, so he must exist until he is proven to not exists. Atheists say the polar opposite. This is poor logic and really a sign of weakness in argumentation.

It only seems fair that if a camp makes a claim, then they have the burden of proof to back up the claim. If I claim God exists, then I have to provide argumentation that God exists, and the same holds true for the atheists.

Answer 2

Many of the most intelligent people are or have been atheists. Why can't the universe be what you call an "accident"? (You don't quite have the right idea.) If there is an intelligent force behind it all, tell him that I have some complaints. I want my money back for having kidney failure and painful surgery. I would design someone better than this if I was a creator. If you say there is a creator, how do you explain his origin? Yes, many people "actually believe there is no God". Thomas Jefferson told his nephew in a letter to study the Bible as he would any other book, i.e. critically and objectively, and that after such a study the lad might conclude that there is no God. Jefferson would not disagree with such a conclusion. He didn't want the Bible taught in public schools. George Washington didn't want God or Christianity mentioned in the Constitution. There are many things you cannot understand, but that does not make them disappear. I don't have time to go into evidence, but I could write a book about that. Your question is too broad, and I know I won't get ten points, so why waste more time?

Answer 3

Everything in the universe, including galaxies 13 billion light years away spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope, follows the same rules of physics. No exceptions or half-fitting theories. "You don't need a God to explain the universe." Even with all the expansions and contractions that take place, there is no hard evidence that matter and energy were somehow created by some supernatural force -- they've always been here.

What you're probably afraid of, the thing that gives you intellectual vertigo, is the probability that there was no time zero. For some reason, a God is more comfortable than an infinite, uncreated physical past. That emotional preference, and the fear of death, created all the Gods. So God is a crutch, a fairy tale, to deal with the horror of death and the unspeakable insignificance of living in an infinitely ancient universe.

All the living things we've found are based on self-replicating DNA. It's the central "gimmick" of life.

DNA is MOSTLY JUNK. We've got insect DNA and inactive DNA strands in us -- it is "inelegant" and full of useless, switched off strands like a messy file cabinet. No God or intelligent foce would make such a mess.

There is NO EVIDENCE that evolution isn't a fact or doesn't work. And it's a progression -- simpler life forms evolving into more complex, never the other way around. Disease resistance is a laboratory method you can use yourself to prove the existance of evolution.

So why do we need a creator for that first bacteria? A couple of hundred million years in the soup of primordial earth with constant rain and thunderstorms, and that should stir the pot enough.

God serves a third, ghastly purpose. The fairy tale of his breathing life into mud and creating us is a lot more palatable than the probable truth, that of the 15 huminoid species more advanced than chimps, we clawed and schemed and murdered the other 14, that humans are the product of their own greedy genocide against nearly-similar related species. We don't want to face the fact that we're all the children of Cain.

Answer 4

The answer is the converse of your explanation. Some people simply believe that there is not sufficient evidence to make them believe in God. After all, religion is faith. Faith is rarely supported with evidence. Christianity, fo instance, is supported mostly by the Bible. How do we know if the Bible is true? The fact is that nobody has successfully been able to verify the Bible's complete accuracy.

Think of it like this: Why don't you believe in ghosts, Santa, the Easter Bunny, etc.? Your explanation would be the one used by Aetheists to explain their views.

As for the idea of this not being an accident. Think about the amount of worlds in the universe. The universe has so many planets , meteors and other stuff where life could have started. Let's say that there is a .000000000000000001 chance of life being formed one each planet. Since there are probably more than 100000000000000000 planets, the odds of this occuring could happen based on probability. If you didn't understand what I just said (I'm bad with words) and are curious, google "abiogenesis."

By the way, the evidence Aetheists use to support their beliefs is that religion has no proof.


Thank you so much for asking a question about another group of people without being rude.

Answer 5

"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality." ~Carl Sagan

"What I'm saying is, if God wanted to send us a message, and ancient writings were the only way he could think of doing it, he could have done a better job." ~Carl Sagan

"You see, the religious people -- most of them -- really think this planet is an experiment. That's what their beliefs come down to. Some god or other is always fixing and poking, messing around with tradesmen's wives, giving tablets on mountains, commanding you to mutilate your children, telling people what words they can say and what words they can't say, making people feel guilty about enjoying themselves, and like that. Why can't the gods leave well enough alone? All this intervention speaks of incompetence. If God didn't want Lot's wife to look back, why didn't he make her obedient, so she'd do what her husband told her? Or if he hadn't made Lot such a shithead, maybe she would've listened to him more. If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn't he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why's he constantly repairing and complaining? No, there's one thing the Bible makes clear: The biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. He's not good at design, he's not good at execution. He'd be out of business if there was any competition." ~Carl Sagan

"In many cultures it is customary to answer that God created the universe out of nothing. But this is mere temporizing. If we wish courageously to pursue the question, we must, of course ask next where God comes from? And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always existed?" ~Carl Sagan

Answer 6

The evidence is simply that there is no evidence for God. While it may seem very easy to you to see "all of this can't be an accident" it is just as hard for others to see that as it is for you to see "all of this was the after effect of some molecules hookin' up."

It certainly could be an accident or not. No one can with any actual proof or observable evidence show that they have any idea what the hell happened at "the beginning of time". And that's fine. Why try to lay down "facts" when there is entirely too little of any kind of evidence to do that?

Answer 7

Okay. Let me try to illuminate for you. Why not?

Let us do a small scale experiment shall we?

1 Put a glass of water on the edge of your table. 2. Blast a steror playing bach right next to the glass. Eventually the glass will vibrate off the table.

Then Lets try this. Put the same glass on the edge of the table but do not play music. It will NOT fall off the edge of the table.
(not going for the semantics of the table will rot.... etc)

We aethists believe there are explainable forces at work in the universe that cause things to happen. What was the first cause? We don't know but were looking into it.

Whereas those who beleive in deities think that the glass of water on the table with out the stero will magically fall of the table with no discernable reason for it. We prefer to understand the world as it is. we prefere to live our lives NOW not for some AFTER life. Thats the basic jist.

Answer 8

can't you see that your religion is just as irrational?! you think it's logical that the universe was created by a god or a force, but yet your arguement completely and totally leaves out any room for any rational thoughts like where it came from in the first place. "god always has been and always will be". ok. is that why we're still finding out so much that's FACT and completely contradictary to religion? the more illogical stance is YOURS, sorry. some people are mature enough to accept a lack of knowledge and strive to someday delete that gap, while others like yourself just want to sit around and play make believe. get a life.

Answer 9

That's because what serves you as a substitute for logic and reason is a logical fallacy (a flaw in thinking) known as the "Argument From Incredulity"... which is a sub-category of the "Argumentum ad Ignorantiam" (Argument From Ignorance). It goes something like this: "I can't conceive of how this might have come to be; therefore, God did it."

That does not represent a limitation of nature... it represents a limitation of knowledge or intellect. Also, it is intellectually dishonest, since it does not ACKNOWLEDGE the limitation of knowledge or intellect... it merely invokes the fanciful idea of a supernatural creator-entity to manifest the ILLUSION that cognitive dissonance has been resolved. It substitutes 'faith' for fact, and 'belief' for knowledge... but neither faith nor belief are sufficient to sustain reason... they are only sufficient to sustain willful ignorance.

That is the epitome of self-delusion.

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion." ~ Robert M. Pirsig

Answer 10

Yes, it can.

Anyway, the evidence is all around you. It's basically every scientific discovery ever made in the history of mankind. As for religion, do you honestly think that the obvious mythology that is Christianity and Islam is more believable than proven scientific discoveries?

Atheists simply seek the truth. And religion is not it. We know this. This is abundantly clear, as the origins of the dominant religions of today have been exposed for the frauds that they are. Whether there is a god or not, is not truly the debate for an atheist. The debate is whether or not the theists know who or what this supposed "god" might be, or what he/she/it wants.

We atheists know for a fact that all of the dominant religions are full of dingo's kidneys. So until someone comes up with a better god, we will continue to laugh at the old ones...