why are you an atheist?

Question

could do with more than a one liner. I'm looking for intelligent answers.
Thanks

interesting that some of you assumed that because i asked the question that I am religious or believe in a god.

Answer 1

Numerous details --

1. An awareness that the Bible, as it exists, was dictated by men, who while maybe devoted to God, could not have entirely avoided bias (it is psychologically impossible for a human to avoid bias, though we can try to minimize its influence).

2. Reading the books that didn't make it and studying the archeology of those books (For example, many archeologists place the Gospel of St. Thomas as the closest Gospel to the time of Jesus's life, close enough that it could have been written by a first-hand witness).

3. Realization that everything described as a miracle in the Bible in a miraculous or glorious way could be described with simpler, naturalistic principles.

4. Realization that if all things can be described naturalistically, there is no need for a deity, and thus, Occam's razor.

5. Realization that Jesus failed to meet the prophecies of the messiah.

moving on to the non-Christian reasoning...

6. Realization of the archeological studies regarding the origins and developments of religions proved they were subject to evolutionary effects as well, under the Meme theory posited by Richard Dawkins (which I consider valid because of research done as part of my Psychology degree course work).

7. Realization that very few religions, if any, contain self-correcting measures to deal with changing understanding of the world.

8. Realization of the illogic of a deity -- the deist version seems apathetic, and there are flaws in every known story of theistic versions.

10. Realization of the lack of evidence of a deity.



I could probably go on but the rest would be nit picking.

Answer 2

So far I havn't found a religion that has ever delivered what I was looking for. And during my search I have discovered some of the mainstream religions disagree with my fundamental values such as equality and people doing what they wish if it doesn't harm anyone. I could never belong to a religion I disagree with, and if it tells me that they are right and I am wrong for whatever reason, then clearly they are not for me. I won't sacrifice things in my life, especially ones that aren't wrong to start with.

But aside form this I don't feel a spiritual need for some higher power. No religion I have seen or experienced has ever fulfilled such a nee and i honestly believe now that I don't need it fulfilled. If I have belief it is myself and my ability to achieve the things that I want in this world. I am scientific by nature and while i don't discount the possibility of things we cannot explain yet, i firmly believe that they CAN be explained. This covers such things as psychic phenomena but spiritual entities that require us never to explain why they there i do not hold with. Adding up all these traits I find myself most sympathetic with atheists, although like an atheist I have individual qualities towards my lack of faith that may differ from others. On the most basic level it is because I do not believe in the Christian God described in the Bible, and the teachings within many of which I think breed inequality and violence.

Answer 3

With all the different religions in the world, if you follow one then you are still only a small percentage compared to all the other religions so the chance of a particular religion being completely correct is minimal and being a very indecisive person i would rather choose to believe in nothing than to believe in something and be wrong.

I used to go to church so i have had experience with religion but i feel that Atheism is right for me now. Especially since its easier to expalin existence. Most people tend to believe in a God to justify the origin of their existence as they can be created by God. However, if life is so complex that a superior being had to create us then where did God come from? Surely it makes more sense that the basic of life forms came from nothing and evolved to become more rather than God coming from nothing and creating everything else.

Although i doubt we will ever see enough scientific evidence to prove how the entire Universe works and all the religious scripts are so old and their origins are unknown that i don't think we should be led to believe that they are true. If the Bible was released today would we think it was anything other than fiction?

This is far too complicated to explain fully and it causes others so many problems to argue about religion that its easier just to sit back and say i'm not getting involved and be an atheist.

Answer 4

I am an atheist because I have no belief.
I simply cannot entertain the fact that a higher power not only created the universe but also still has hold over us.
There are many reasons I think this way.
One, the bible seems a fool hardy way to prove the existence of a god, I do a lot of research and the process involves looking at many data, linking with pbservations and generating a conclusion that is sprecfic to the subject area and is open to interpretation and rebuttle.

Also, The idea that a god/s would give us free will with the hidden proviso that we do as he says doesn't bode well with me. If i am to have free will I am free to exercise this will in any wya I wish.
Also, I don't wholly run with free will, we are based on our parents, how they are and how they parent us determines the choices we make in ater life.

Lastly, the idea that the universe with all its many properties was just created doesn't really work for me, a god/s idea that he would create manking for fun? that he would then punish them for not doing as he says?
And most biblical tales can be easily refuted with historical and imperical evidence

Answer 5

1. Christians don't believe in reincarnation - why therefore should there be starving disease-ridden people in the millions on this planet? Why should a kid be born in, say, Ethopia and instantly be condemned to a cr@p life with no hope of reincarnation? Why would God want to do that to people?

2. I find it very hard to accept, just through sheer probability, that there isn't other life out there. Surely if even one out of every 10k solar systems discovered had the right atmosphere, and if they were then the right distance from the sun etc etc, then there must be millions of planets identical to earth, and therefore millions of other types of life, not just us as the ones created in his image. This is never mentioned in The Bible etc.

3. Dinosaurs - we are meant to be created in God's image, and yet dinosaurs were around for MILLIONS of years before we were. I believe if it weren't for the asteroid etc, they would still be here and humans wouldn't have evolved.

4. God was something created by people who didn't understand things. As science explains more and more about the world and it's workings, religion looks more and more like an elaborate fairy tale.

5. People who believe in other religions - are they all wrong? Why should one be "better" than another or more believable? Perhaps one of them SHOULD come down from heaven or wherever and stop asking people to believe purely on a story told over 2000 years ago rather than asking them to simply keep the faith.

6. The Christian church has consistently altered the story. Da Vinci tortured etc because he was brave enough to say that the earth revolved around the Sun, not the other way around. The Rosetta Stone - they didn't want that translated, as it revealed the age of the earth to be older than the church had been teaching. They've consistently lied.

Answer 6

Because to believe in anything else is sheer nonsense. Religion and god was something invented as an explanation of the universe that our ancestors did not understand and could therefore not rationally explain. People believe in god because they have faith. God has never been documented to have appeared to anyone in the modern times, how come the only time that spirits appeared was thousands of years ago? People still believed in sea monsters back then! There is no way I'm going to believe in a book,whether it be the q'uran, bible or torah, written from a tale, told by the few, and interpreted from many different languages and accounts by a select few 'high priests'. Do you truly believe that someone can walk across water or come back to life after death and ascend into the sky(or wherever heaven is). It just doesn't make sense.

Answer 7

I waffle with the atheist/agnostic labels. I think all atheists are agnostics in the sense if their was credible evidence they would consider it. It would also be fair to say that one can't conclusively say that there isin't a giant teacup orbiting some star out in space when we can't show there isin't but on the other hand are we truly agnostic about it?

I don't believe because I don't find it credible and see no real evidence of a supreme being. I have read the Bible, The Case for the Creator (sorry, drivel, full of plausability clauses to allow those who want to believe for psychological reasons do so), along with serious biblical scholarship, and studied world religions. I don't trust humans who claim divine inspiration which the Bible authors do. We have many examples of humans who claim to be divinely inspired but were clearly crazy. I don't find Biblical prophecy convincing, scholarship on Book of Daniel shows references to cultural things that would not be possible if it were written in the time it is claiming to be, scholars conclude much was written after the events it claims to predict already took place. I don't like the judgementalness of many Christians, it seems to me it often does not bring out the best in people. The other day in response to a question "what would you do differently if there was no God?", some guy wrote, "I would feel free to kill atheists." =( Doesn't make a lot of sense to continue to hate atheists if we know there is no God but this is unfortunately a typical sort of reaction. I have a degree in biology and I definetly find evolution more credible than the creation story. I don't believe in talking snakes, donkeys, or people coming back from the dead after three days. The God of the OT is a beast, hard to reconcile with the NT version.

I could go on and on. Some of the random thoughts don't apply to all Christian sects. Some Christian sects believe in evolution and science. Some Christians see the talking animals and other more mythological passages as allegory not to be taken literally. This mainly applies to why I don't believe in the Christian God because I grew up in a Christian society. It is much easier to dismiss the implausible claims of religions that are foreign to you and not accepted by your friends and families already.

Answer 8

Why shouldn't anybody that is intelligent not be? There is clearly no evidence and there is no reason to believe in the bible any more than Zeus, Thor, Easter bunny, or flying goats! When you realize why you don't believe in 99% of gods, then you will know why I go one god further. Complete lack of evidence! People say to look around at the universe, where did it come from? It started with almost nothing and gradually evolved. It didn't magically appear by a magical god who ALSO magically appeared, without any explanation. If the universe needed to be created, then god certainly would be more complex than the universe, requiring a greater explanation for his existence. Read The God Delusion to understand why I don't believe in God.

Answer 9

Essentially it's a world-view, or mind-set, that requires some basis for the validity of assertions. If it's worth discussing as "real" or "not real," then we expect the subject to survive, or not, a specific type of scrutiny. (Or at least it should be amenable to that scrutiny.)

Atheists don't say "We don't believe in gods" just to get your goat. They are stating that they've never been offered any credible evidence backing the existence of such an entity. (Religious people implicitly accept this to be the case by resorting to the "need for faith.")

The agnostic who claims atheists are "arrogant" is not considering what the atheist is claiming. Any absurdity can be believed. There is no arrogance in demanding something more than the "believer's" desires as evidence for believing. And it isn't as if this a new issue wherein the believers just haven't had time to come up with something to back their claims. After thousands of years they have not produced a single iota of evidence. And even more damning, every single leading theologian contends no such corroboration is needed, or forthcoming. The last part of that statement is one atheists have come to accept.

Answer 10

Actually honestly the most intelligent answers to that are one liners. You can't prove the existance or non-existence of God, so people make their descisions based on life experience, intuition and upbringing.

If I was to ask you why you are not an atheist, your answer would in essence be no different than this. In the end, you'd have to say I have faith although you might point to some key experience in your life where mabye you felt God talked to you in some way. You could not objectively prove it was in fact God talking to you and in the end, you'd have to admit you made an act of faith.

Very related to that free will stuff.