How can atheists be so sure?

Question

If you are an Atheist answer me this one question or two?

1) How can you say there is no GOD when there is no proof that he doesn't exist!

2) What's the harm in believing in something good, and wanting a place to go after death. If (emphasis on IF) there is no God, if you die the outcome is the same, however if you were a Christian than you'd go to Heaven? Anyway what’s your thoughts?

My idea is if you're going to disprove a theory you must have evidence to back up claim, otherwise your "atheists" is a belief and not a fact!

Answer 1

Common sense.

Why must your believes be validated by my believing what you do? Have the courage to believe in yourself. Don't give in to peer pressure. Don't be a lemming.

Answer 2

Your question beats with me
My response indexes synchronized with your question.

1. True that would be my argument too. But Strong Atheist would shy away saying "You are asking me to prove a negative, We can't run through all the combination to prove you false". This is ridiculous, because how difficult is it prove 2.57566 is not within 3 and 4. Do we have to check the inifinite possibilities of real numbers between 3 and 4.

2.
" What's the harm in believing in something good, and wanting a place to go after death."
No harm, It's just an drug to forget your real world boredom/worries. What would you suggest to somebody in 20s and above believed in santa claus and Harry Potter. I would say "grow up,dude."

>If (emphasis on IF) there is no God, if you die the outcome is the same, however if you were a Christian than you'd go to Heaven? Anyway what’s your thoughts?

I do not believe in stories floated by religions such Christianity or Islam as compared to Buddhism which preaches goodness that is well aligned with my concept of goodness.

But I still think we have not found the cause of life and until we find I may still harbor the possibility of a creator. I do not believe in a supreme or benevolent God. There are lot pains in the world that can be solved by a supreme and benevelont creator. He could be one them may be but not both.


>My idea is if you're going to disprove a theory you must have evidence to back up claim, otherwise your "atheists" is a belief and not a fact!

Agreed. It is just another belief for simplicity.

Please note that I am supporting more of a "agnostic" view not a "theistic" one.

Answer 3

1. Let me reverse the question for you. How can you say there is a god when there is no proof that he does exist? You see, usually it's not necessary to prove a negative. The assumption is that something doesn't exist until it is proven that it does. If I told you there is an invisible, gian elephant standing next to you right now, would you expect me to prove it or yourself to disprove it?

2. The thing is, us atheists don't think that all the things involved in being a Christian are right. We don't think all your morals are right for example. Some of them are flat out wrong and bad in our opinion. So if there is no God we would have done wrongs and we would have wasted our life following the wrong set of morals. We think it's better to follow the morals that we believe to be good than to do what an old book tells us to.

IF there is such a thing as a just God, he will judge us on whether we were good people and whether we tried to do what seemed right to us and he'll let us to heaven. If he doesn't and wants to send us to hell for not believing in His Invisible Highness and the 2000 year old book despite being good people, that's his problem, I wouldn't want to do wrong just to please such a bad god. I'd rather be a good person in this life and take the consequences, knowing I did what seemed right to me.

As for your last comment... firstly, both atheism and all religions are beliefs and nothing more than that. Nobody can know will full certainty what is true in regards to our existance, God and such matters. We can only guess it and believe what seems logical to us. Secondly, if you are going to PROVE a theory you have to have evidence to back it up too, otherwise it stays a theory. That's exactly what both religions and atheism are, THEORIES, none of which can be fully proven or disproven.

Answer 4

Very good questions. so here we go.

1) You cannot prove somethings non-existence... There's no proof that flying pink unicorns don't exist... that must mean they are real. Do you see how that claim simply doesn't work. On the other hand there is no viable evidence that god DOES exist... To me, that's enough.

2) What is the harm... well, none really, if all you do is believe that god exists and you pray to him on your own in private... However, not everyone is responsible enough to do this. Let me give you an example. A smidge over 5 years ago there was a group of men who decided to fly a couple of planes into buildings killing somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 people. Why did they do this? Because they believed it was something god wanted them to do, and that they would be rewarded in heaven for doing so. Now i know what you're going to say,"that wasn't my Christian god" ... I've got news for you. Allah and Yahweh are one and the same. They are both the god of Abraham. Furthermore just take a look further back in history and you will see tales of people being burnt to death for things considered to be against god. More recently Andrea Yates killed her children because she believed that if they were allowed to live their lives they would have a chance to sin and she would rather have them go straight to heaven instead. Also belief in god and adherence to religion leads to ignorance. If you believe you have the answers to all of lifes questions you will stop looking for the real answers. Even worse some people will use their beliefs to stop others from finding the truth. Take a look at the evolution debate... the only reason there is any debate at all is because creationists refuse to understand the theory properly. Why? Because their Bible tells them the "truth" and anything else is evil to them.

The belief in god, heaven, hell, the devil, etc. are irrational beliefs because they have no basis in reality. In order to believe in these things you must have faith... and faith alone is the only reason one would believe in such things. Faith is no better than a trusted guess.

Hopefully this answered your question. and one final note, atheism isn't a belief... it's a lack of a belief.

Answer 5

What seems odd though is most people warrant atheism based on the lack of evidence for the existence of God. The problem with that is in an atheistic worldview, one cannot obtain evidence for the existence of God, which leads to circular reasoning. The argument goes something like this:

1.) The natural world is all there is.
2.) Because the natural world is all there is, the supernatural (God) doesn't exists.
3.) Therefore there is no evidence for the existence of supernatural (God).
4.) Therefore the supernatural (God) does not exist.

A weaker form may look something like this.

1.) The natural world is all that is knowable.
2.) Because the natural world that is knowable, the supernatural (God) can't be known.
3.) Therefore evidence for the existence of God is unobtainable, and therefore cannot exist.
4.) Therefore the supernatural (God) is unknowable, so there is no reason to believe.

The problem with these areguments argument is that no evidence for God existence can ever be obtained so it is therefore frontloaded with the notion that God doesn't exist or is unknowable rather than actually proving that God doesn't exist. The conclusion is the same as the premise, which is circular reasoning.

Second, the statements make an ontological judgment: God doesn't exist or one cannot have belief in God. Such statements can't be made empiricist framework, because empirical conclusions require evidence. If evidence doesn’t exist, then no conclusion can be made and the concept of God is meaningless because it can't be described.

However if an atheists wants to make an ontological judgment about God, he or she has to concede that one can have some sort of knowledge about God, which opens the door for some type of transcendental knowledge outside of empirical knowledge. So the atheist has to allow non-empirical evidence as valid evidence.

Answer 6

I think many of us are just sure that the God of the Hebrew Bible is no less mythical than Zeus or Thor. I am as certain of that as I am of anything in life.

You're welcome to believe in something good. But have you really read the Hebrew Bible?? That God is a petty, fickle, jealous, irrational God. Do you really think that the "all loving" God of your imagination could have made the laws listed in Leviticus??

If you want to believe in a higher power, go right ahead, just please don't let your life be dictated by the myths created by fearful desert nomads 3-4 thousand years ago!

If you relax your definition of God enough (and exclude most the the Hebrew Bible!) then I have to admit I am agnostic. Yes, I can't prove that there is no God. That is a logical impossibility. But I don't waste any time thinking about the promise of heaven, and I certainly don't think about hell! I stopped thinking about the Santa Claus and the Boogie monster a long time ago.

If you can believe in God and not suffer from the rest of the baggage that comes with organized religion and irrational beliefs and the denial of scientific knowledge, then go right ahead! I know come Christians that are open minded to Science and seem to live very happy and lives. It just seems that they are now the exception rather than the rule.

Answer 7

First of all your god does not exist because he can't logically exist. If you give him traits, definition, meaning, and explanations then you have to expect him to fit the bill of those traits. First of all with him being all good, powerful, and knowing he would be unable to create anything less than perfect.

Don't give me the free will excuse because free will doesn't exist.
Anyway, he made us just to suffer because he is all knowing and powerful so he knew from the start what could happen. However, because of the suffering he cannot be all good. He has in fact killed innocent people himself, including little children just to make a point. This is not good.

God's traits contradict themselves making his existence a logical impossibility. Now if you admit that his existence is illogical then yes, he can exist in a different form. However, he would be undefinable and unexplainable beyond our feeble minds. In that case, you would be an agnostic.

Speaking of minds, I am educated and have researched enough to come to the logical conclusion that God doesn't exist. You have chosen to believe that he does despite the unreasonably issues that religion has. So who is right? Are you right to not use the brain that God gave you and question? And am I wrong for thinking and applying logic, reason, and love to my beliefs and coming to the conclusion that the biblical God's are cruel, ignorant, and logically impossibilities?

Faith does not require reason or truth, in fact it doesn't contain any. The sole purpose of faith is to believe in something whole-heartily even if there isn't evidence.

Answer 8

If you say there is a God, you HAVE to ask the next question. Who created God?

You're right, there is no more proof for or against the existence of God. But from most of the things we are learning about ourselves and the Universe thru Science. We begin to see something much more grandeur than anything religion could touch. That there is another way to view the universe, without the need of a creator.

A universe that is "infinitely old" would require no prime mover. It has always been around. I find it much more humbling to know that in this "current" life of the Universe, life is abundant. It's very unlikely that humans are the only intelligent life in the Universe. There is never one of anything.

Answer 9

How can you be so sure that YOUR god is the right god? You know there are other gods don't you?

How about "RAH" the sun god, who predates your young christian religion by THOUSANDS of years.

What about the "Great Eagle Spirit" revered by american indians who also predates your christ?

I could go on and on about other gods.

Why don't you go ahead and believe in these gods? What would be the harm? I heard that RAH will give you all the grapes you can eat and a golden palace when you die (if you accept him). However, if you don't accept him you run the risk of being cast into the snake pit for 10,000 years!

Can you disprove the existence of the MANY OTHER GODS worshiped by man throughout human history?

Answer 10

1) Atheists DO NOT BELIEVE in god(s)... in the same way you can say there is no Thor, Zeus, Easter Bunny, pink unicorns, garden gnomes, bridge trolls and bogeyman.

Atheism is a 'belief' in the same way that not collecting stamps is a hobby.

2) The harm is that you are forming a world view based on willful ignorance and self-delusion.

The foolishness that 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 point to a limitation of nature... rather, it exemplifies a limitation of knowledge and/or intellect. Also, it is intellectually dishonest, since it does not (as scientists do) ACKNOWLEDGE the limitation of knowledge and/or intellect... it merely invokes the fanciful idea of a supernatural creator-entity to manifest the ILLUSION that cognitive dissonance has been resolved.

'Faith' (wishful, magical thinking) is a substitute for evidence.

'Belief' (the internalized 'certainty' that you are privy to the 'truth' pertaining to some fundamental aspect of existence and/or reality) is a substitute for knowledge.

faith + belief = self-delusion and willful ignorance

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

Answer 11

Well, Pascal, the problem is that you are concentrating on one religion, Christianity. There are so many religions out there, with different versions of the godhood. Many of them are mutually exclusive and believe that if you do not believe in their particular religion, you will go to hell. Even in Christianity there are sects that believe that other sects are just plain wrong. So which religion do I pick? What evidence do I have that one religion is the correct one and the one to lead to salvation? It is you who do not have "proof" that is any better than the "evidence" from all of the other religions out there.