For Atheists, Agnostics, or other non-believers.......Why don't you believe?

Question

Why don't you believe in God? I'm Lutheran, a Christian, and I can accept your beliefs, but I don't agree with them at all. What causes you not to believe? I don't think there's one good reason not to believe, I know its risky for me to write that on Yahoo Answers, but sometimes controversy just simply needs to be stated. Feel free to email me with any questions pertaining to my faith or Christianity ,etc..and I will answer them. Ask, send me your reasons by email if you want a response...I assure you, that whatever your reasons for not believing are, I can prove that they aren't vaild. Please note that NO offense is meant by this. Please, just realize that I am not setting out to insult you, I'm here to question respectfully, not offend.

Answer 1

To summarize, I don't believe because a god does not exist.

I base this statement on the several years of research I did while trying to deepen my faith. As I began to read the historical records on how the church developed (I was raised Christian) I began to see how man modeled jesus to make his teaching fit the times.

As I dug deeper, I began to understand why early man began to believe in god (or gods). There were things in the natural world that they could not explain (the sun rising and setting, the starts going across the sky, the tides, etc.) Since there was no explanation, it was often attributed to a god or goddess.

As we began to understand the scientific reasons why these phenomena happen, the concept of a "sun god" moving across the sky didn't make sense. I see the monotheistic god of the jews, christians, and muslims the same way.

That's a quick summary, feel free to semd me an email and I can explain more.

Answer 2

Agnostic here.

You seem to think about this issue in a different way than I do. You ask why I don't believe, while I ask why should I believe. For me, reasoning and evidence is taken in before belief is formulated. Perhaps you believe first and then look for reasoning and evidence to support it. I don't believe simply because I have never seen any evidence that points towards the existence of influential Gods or spirits and it is not hard for me to conceive the universe without a creator. If God is real, then he's never made himself apparent to me, and I think such a being should be readily perceptible, not hiding until someone decides to seek him. To me, believing in something that can't be sensed or measured sounds delusional, and I don't really want any part of it. A non-religious view of the world makes more sense to me.

Now, like you, I am just being honest and not intending to offend. But I must ask you, why do you believe? Is it because that what you were taught growing up? Does the idea of there being no grand creator and arbitrator of justice scare or unsettle you? Have you actually experienced God in a place other than your imagination? If you pick this as best answer, tell me your answer in the comment.

Answer 3

There is a fine but definitive line between having the freedom to choose what you want to believe and having special protections from ever hearing about something you don't necessarily want to believe. The Constitution guarantees the first, but it makes no provisions for the second. There is no way to force Christianity on someone else because it is, by its very nature, the concept of having a relationship with God. The decision to have that relationship comes from within someone's heart and cannot be forced on you anymore than trying to force you to love someone you don't want to love. But the same laws that protect your right to freedom of speech and freedom to vote and petition your government according to what you believe or don't believe also apply to Christians. So, telling Christians to keep their religion to themselves is really in affect an attempt to deny Christians some of the rights you currently enjoy. With that said, the only advice I can give you if someone comes up and wants to share God's word with you and you don't want to hear it, walk away and don't listen. There's really no need to get upset. Believe me, I hear things every single day that go against my faith, but hey.. that's life.

Answer 4

I'm an agnostic, and I don't necessarily *believe* in God for the same reason that I don't believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy or pink unicorns. I just don't see that there's convincing evidence that he exists.

I am aware that quite a few Christians find all the proof of their beliefs in the bible: "I know for a fact that it's true because it says so in the bible." But one must admit that the bible is no more or less inherently valid as a source of Truth than, say, the Koran or the Torah or the Vedas or Upanishads or what have you. Each of those sources of supposed truth contains elements that contradict the others (and, sometimes, themselves). Therefore they can't all be the ultimate Truth, so how does one know which book, which religion, to follow? And so how can one claim corroboration in the bible as empirical evidence of your "Truth"?

Answer 5

I'm not trying to insult you either and I am not an atheist. Open your Bible to the part where Jesus tells us to not look at the speck in your brothers eye until you have removed the log from your own. Read the part where he tells us that He without sin should cast the first stone. Then read the prayer of St Francis. It is better to understand then it is to be understood.Work on the self, work on our own sin, then after we clean our own hearts do we become the light. Then people want what we have. If Christians lived it, showed it, and did it,with our smug mouths shut. more people would want it. However we go tell them there wrong,point the finger at them. that in itself goes against the direct word of God. What is the result. 2000 years of WAR. Your question is offensive your question is insulting. Live and let live Do what Jesus says, and people will want what you have. Your question tells me you don't have faith. If you really had faith people not believing what you believe would not threaten you. If you honestly look in your heart you will see that your question is based on fear. Fear is lack of faith. I'm telling you this because it applies to me too and everyone else and imagine what would happen if everyone looked at themselves instead of everyone else.

Answer 6

Because I see God and the Bible as a fairytale. I was raised by a deeply atheist father and an extremely, devout, Catholic mother. I was shown both points of view and then left to make a decision of my own for my religious beliefs. After much consideration, I realized (much to the shame of my mother) that God is a bunch of hocus pocus and chose my father's atheist beliefs. I have absolutely no prove that there is a God, none whatsoever. And if one person tells me that I just need to follow my faith I'm gonna get so pissed off; I've got no faith. My brother was also left to make his own choice, religion wise of course, and he too choose atheism.

Answer 7

My dear, one very good reason for not being a Christian is that religion results in people like you that take the attitude that there is no way that my views are valid. Funny thing is I was a Christian for 20 years, most of my life. I have seen things through from your perspective, and I now see them from a new perspective. You have no idea what processes have led me on my path.

And what is it you would have me believe? Only in your God, when there are thousands of others? I don't think so.

Have you studied Mithras, Osiris, Krishna, Buddha, Horus, Attis, Dionysos, and any number of other deities that predate Christ and did all the "hallmark" things he did?

Have you pondered why it is that an "good" god would EVER say it's OK to rape women, kill babies, and murder entire groups of people?

Answer 8

I reject the idea of a personal God like the God of Christianity on the basis of the lack of any evidence supporting it. I don't reject the possibility of some higher power existing in the universe but limited evidence means it's not something that I speculate on.

Answer 9

I was once raised Lutheran myself and I gave up religion partly because of abuse on the part of my family(which is quite the long story that I shall spare you and others here from hearing), and partly because I surprisingly read the Bible. That should have only reaffirmed my faith, despite the abuse I endured(verbal, mind you, I was never physically or sexually harmed, it was all mental and emotional), but it didn't.

I'm a logical thinker and I picked up the Bible to read it cover to cover to see if there was a good reason for me to believe it, to believe that what my family was saying and doing was all right, that they were right about me and that I needed to conform to what they were telling me to do. I didn't find it.

Instead, I only found more questions, more proof that they were the ones who were wrong, that I wasn't "crazy" or in need of "help" like I was being told. Eventually, I came to the realization that there wasn't any reason to believe at all. And I shall tell them to you, at least a few, because there are far more than I can recall at this late hour and far more than I have reasonable space for here.

I would like for you to try and prove to me that they're not valid. Seriously. My answers are scientific in basis and sound. I have done my research. I may not be an expert, but I do know what I'm talking about. This is probably the fifth question like this I have answered, if not sixth or seventh. It doesn't matter as my answer is always the same.

Adam and Eve. Scientifically impossible. The book is debunked from the opening chapters.

For a species to be sustained, there needs to be a certain number of males and females. Two is not a big enough number, not by a long shot. And even if Eve could manage to have enough children to make that number, we have a second problem to consider. Inbreeding. Adam and Eve weren't related, though their sons obviously were.

If Adam and Eve were the only people on the planet and Cain and Abel were their only sons, well, that in of itself is a problem as there would be no females aside from their mother to mate with. That aside, if Eve had many children, there would still be no others on the planet but those of their family line. They would have to breed with each other to create more offspring.

Though inbreeding may have been accepted then, there are still genetic problems. No, not the extra arms and missing legs sort of deformities. But there are problems with a weakened immune system for one example. Because antibodies are passed from mother to offspring, if there is only one mother, then she and all her offspring will only be protected by the antibodies she carries. They would not gain new ones, merely recycle the old ones.

Viruses and other diseases mutate(read: evolve). If the offspring of the original mother have antibodies for only one strain, further strains would be quite deadly.

Then, if we manage to beat the numbers and the inbreeding troubles, there comes a third hurdle to cross. In any given species, there are more females born then males. This is because females carry the young. Males need only impregnate or fertilize. They get the easy part. Because one male can breed with TONS of females, you only need one male for several dozen females. But you need lots of females to carry as many young as possible so that more can be born and survive, thus increasing the chances for the species itself to survive.

That's one. This line of logic also debunks Noah's Ark. While Noah and his family had it better with numbers, they still faced the problem of inbreeding and the number of women outnumbering men. The poor animals aboard had it worse as there were only one male, one female, of any pair. They had the same poor numbers as Adam and Eve.

Then there's Jonah. Typically swallowed by a whale(sometimes a great fish, depending on the version). Save sperm whales, whales generally have a throat only about a foot in diameter. That's barely enough to swallow a canteloupe, let alone a person.

But, say the fish managed to swallow Jonah. He wouldn't have survived. If he didn't suffocate, he would have been digested in what's essentially hydrochloric acid. Painful way to go.

So at least three Bible stories are clearly false(and no, I will not accept any responses to that stating that God somehow interfered to allow these things to happen. That is faith, not science.), then the Bible is NOT infallible and inerrant. And if the Bible's flawed and errant, then it is false and therefore, God cannot exist.

And this arguement's excluding the multiple versions of the Bible and why even Christians in their various denominations fail to agree on which version is "right". I could go into a very lengthy response and discussion on translation, time, and how those in power come into play as to why there are so many versions of the Bible and so many denominations.

Lutheranism for one, started with Martin Luther's 96 theses and the Magna Carta. Certainly not a form of Christianity started back in Christ's day. Countless other religions have started as a result of splits from other religions and so forth on down through history. How can we be sure of just which denomination is the "mother" religion? If someone could tell me that with 100% certainty, I'd love to see it.

And on a final note, in case you or any other believer takes issue with the hard-to-swallow pill of inbreeding, let me put it this way...

If inbreeding was accepted in ancient times, but is obviously very wrong now, tell me how that can be? It can't be the Bible. You may claim that the Bible is the guiding force to that decision, but I can assure you that isn't so. There are tribes in the Amazon who have never heard of Christ that deem inbreeding wrong. They also have no modern medicine, so they have no knowledge of the genetic reasons behind it.

If they have neither God nor science, then what possessed them to come to that conclusion? It had to be natural. Thusly...no God.

Answer 10

Im atheist because
of some reasons (i know im getting thumbs down)

but..

1. Being religious is too time-consuming
2. Being religious is too money-consuming
3. Theres no proof of God(s)
4. its fun to piss people off. (jk)
5. I dont really wanna believe in religions that are like "blind faith"
where you believe in something because of fear/and what society says so