Athiests, I don't understand?

Question

I'm not downing anyone for what they believe in but I don't understand how is it you wake up every morning and look at all things that are beautiful and not believe someone created it. Everything has a creator right.

If humans and monkeys evolved from another species where did that species come from. And if the earth came to from a particle of dust in space where did that piece of dust come from. It couldn't have just popped up out of nowhere, something had to create it. Please help me understand what you guys think

Answer 1

I don't claim to have all of the answers and I am okay with that. I don't think that just because us humans don't know everything that we should say "Oh, God must have done it then". I just except that I don't have all of the answers and continue to seek out those answers.

Answer 2

Many people above me have already answered your questions, so I will skip those. But you should make a special note of the flaw in your logic.

1) Everything needs a creator.
2) The universe needs a creator.
3) That creator is God.

The conclusion contradicts the premise. (Who is God's creator? Nothing? Then not EVERYTHING needs a creator)

and... let me beat you to the punchline, because I know you're going to check Christian websites... the current version of that argument is:

1) Everything that begins must have a cause.
2) The universe began.
3) Therefore, the universe has an eternally-existing cause.

The problems you will find in this logic are the following:
First, the person advocating this line of thought must demonstrate, not assume, that the universe "began" in the traditional sense. I say in the traditional sense because things that we assume are constant and unchanging, like the speed of time passing, get really weird in high-end physics and quantum mechanics -- which is what was going on when the Big Bang happened. "What existed before the Big Bang?" may not even be a valid question, like "What color is the shape of that house?"

Second, even if we grant the argument, there is no reason whatsoever to assume that the first uncaused cause is supernatural or alive in any sense.

Third, the premise comes from observations WITHIN the universe, and may not apply to the universe as a whole. When you shift your context, you have to be careful which assumptions you bring along with you. It may be as meaningless to talk about the "cause" of the universe as it is to talk about the "weight" of a hole. (It doesn't have a weight)

Finally, the premise is argumentation by definition, which is just patently silly. It's like saying "Everything has a cause except god, therefore god exists."... but I could just as easily say "Everything has a cause except an invisible pink unicorn, therefore invisible pink unicorns exist." You can't argue by defining terms in your favor.

Cheers.

Answer 3

In nature and in the universe NOTHING is created and nothing is ever destroyed. Science shows that matter changes in millions of ways, it transforms itself, but it does not become nothing. Nothing is an anti-concept because it means the absence of something. But what doesn't exists has no meaning, it's not there. What exists is all there is. It is the beauty of the ocean, the mountains, the power of a volcanic eruption, the hidden creatures too small to be seen by the naked eye, but so powerful that can kill you, and the billions of life forms that have existed and that exist, life forms as simple as one cell and as complex as a thinking human. Evolution is the only rational explanation that shows how from simple to complex, life forms developed innumerable methods and possibilities of adaptation, each perfectly genetically selected to live in its proper environment. Did you know that 99% of all the living things that have existed are all extinct? Did you know that what we have today is just about 1% of what has lived in the last billion years? No Creator of theu niverse is needed for this to happen and to explain the wanders of nature. Matter and energy in the universe, which have always existed, can do this all by themselves. Isn't that marvelous? Isn't that worth studying and understanding. Science does that. Religion needs no studying, no inquiry to give you ready-made answers pulled from pure imagination. If a creator existed, where was it (he, she?), outside of nature, outside of the universe, in nothingness? Why was it there? Who created it? You see, religion can't answer these questions. It just creates more problems that it can solve. But some people, like children, prefer fables to science. Fortunately, not everyone is like that, or we would have never come out of the caves!

Answer 4

I agree and disagree. I look around at nature and I see beauty everywhere, but I also see things that can be naturally explained. I don't need to use God to explain them. Remember, the ancient Greeks were so amazed by lightning that they thought it just had to be Zeus up above controlling it. They couldn't possibly imagine that something as powerful and awesome as lightning could possibly have an ordinary, natural (not supernatural) explanation. Of course we know today that lightning -- although still amazing -- has a totally natural explanation. I think the same thing when I look around at the world. I see oceans, trees, mountains; I see majesty and beauty, but nothing that couldn't have formed naturally. Actually, the fact that oceans and trees and mountains formed without the help of God makes them even MORE amazing to me.

It's a totally fair point to say that something must have kickstarted the universe. "What started the Big Bang?" is a totally logical question. But it seems to me like the most logical answer is "no one knows" -- because, really, no one knows. What are the chances that one religion on one planet out of trillions and trillions and trillions of planets has it right? That doesn't seem very likely to me.

Answer 5

A complete answer to this would be far too long to fit here; I'll just give a brief outline. It is not correct to say that everything has a creator; it is correct to say that everything is the result of a creative process, and we use science to learn what the creative process is. The rules by which the universe has run since the big bang are completely adequate to explain all earthly phenomena, and it is unnecessary (as well as provably useless) to bring a deity into the mix to try to explain things. See Dawkins for a good description of evolutionary history; I have been able to prove that the theory of evolution is correct. For discussion of the big bang and the earth's creation, see any textbook on astrophysics. For discussion of the earth's geological history, see textbooks on that subject.

Answer 6

Santa parrot, i truly adore you. well then asker, i also don't understand how is it you wake up every morning and see God's creation but not wonder who created God. he couldn't have popped up out of nowhere, something had to create Him. If you claim that He was there all along, why can't I say the same for the universe? why can't I say that the universe occured because it did? Like santa parrot said, if we just believe that God created us, instead of never stop looking, we'll never arrive at the universe's great answer.

Answer 7

It's kinda like a toaster. No.
Lawn mulch. No.
When you flush the toilet and the dirty water goes away and the clean water comes in, God cleaned the water just for you! No that's not right either.

Y'ever wake up look out the window and see some wino peeing on your petunias? Is God Responsible for that?

I'll start explaining where all your questions didn't come from when you explain to me how a loving God can create the Ice Capades!

Answer 8

There did God come from, a sub-class of monkey/God like creature that can't be found. If God has always been there then so could the univerise had been, the big bang only shows that how the univerise is formed by todays standards. Now with the univerise always being constant the big bang would make sense, because you need material for an explosion, wherefore before the big bang there was something else, but as it got destoried in the big bang we will never know.

Answer 9

You're right that it couldn't have popped out of nowhere, but why did it have to be created?

Do you believe that your god had to be created?

If not, then how do you think your god got there, since we've already established that "something cannot come from nothing."

You're probably going to say that your god has always existed. However that same logic can be applied to the universe.

In other words, the most logical idea is that the matter which comprises the universe has always existed. Your god is rendered unncessary in the face of logic.

Answer 10

yes i agree entirely with rhsaunders that you should read any of richard dawkins' books if you want a good explanation. i think that the propliopithecidae of the oligocene era were the last family before apes and monkeys split. and the propliopithecidae came from earlier euprimates.

why would something necessarily have had to create it? you need to look beyond an anthropocentric perspective. maybe take a few classes in astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, and anthropology. good luck with that.

Answer 11

If everything needs a creator, then wouldn't god apply to that rule as well.

I wake up and look around at all the beauty and am thankful for being able to percieve nature as beautiful. After all, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Everything is beautiful if you can see it in the right light.