ATHEISTS: Why...?

Question

If God doesn't exist or never existed then why has religion ALWAYS been the predominent belief in human history? Nobody ever "started" the belief in God. It was always present.

Why does the fact that 5-10% of the world all of a sudden stopped believing in God sometime beginning in the mid-1980s make it ABSOLUTE that he doesn't exist after millenia of religious belief? Stop kidding yourselves, God exists.

Answer 1

Ah, you are right! Because many people believe something, it is true! Brilliant logic!

Britney Spears sold over 100,000,000 CD's. According to your logic that proves she is a great singer. I also disagree with that, btw.

Answer 2

1) You're so ignorant it's frightening.
2) Atheism did not begin in the 1980s.
3) There is no proof for any of your statements regarding religion always being the predominant belief in human history.
4) People start new beliefs in gods every time a new cult is born and evolves into a mainstream religion.
5) Regardless of what the 'majority' of people might believe in, their beliefs do not have to be the truth. Most people once believed the sun, moon and stars revolved around the earth. People also once believed that the Earth was flat.
Mass belief does not = truth.
6) Stop kidding yourself.

Answer 3

Religion has existed because it provides answers to questions, regardless of their validity.

"Nobody ever "started" the belief in God. It was always present. "

Prove it.

"Why does the fact that 5-10% of the world all of a sudden stopped believing in God sometime beginning in the mid-1980s make it ABSOLUTE that he doesn't exist after millenia of religious belief? Stop kidding yourselves, God exists."

Hahah. This is undoubtebly the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

I don't even need to argue against it, anyone with a brain can see you are a moron.

Answer 4

Facts exist independent of human opinion. So what people have believed throughout history is of no consequence. And in fact, if you look at some of the old relidious laws it is clear that God was used to explain the unexplainable. Before the discovery of bacteiria, comunicable diseases were though to be possession by the devil or punishment from God. Kosher laws provide rules of cleanliness that would have prevented certain types of illness in biblical times.

You see this even today when Christians will explain away every inconsistency in the story of the flood (for example) by attributing the otherwise unexplainable to God.

So God, as he is commonly accepted, is a human invention.

I actually do think that there is a god but not in the sense that you do. I think it is unknowable and even unworshippable. But if you open your eyes and see the world objectively and without the bias of your upbrining, it is clear that the Gods presented in religious texts are superstition and myth. There is no way for us to know if god exists and so, there is no way for us to know him.

Answer 5

Well, religion has been around as long as humans have. It "started" because people needed a way to explain their existence and give a higher purpose to their lives. Before they had any way of discovering where they came from, they had to have SOMETHING. So religion was started.

Now why is it still so predominant? Because it's a tradition, most people don't even think to question it because it's always been there. It's a comfort for a lot of people, believing that they have more after life, it gives people hope in hard times. But not everyone.

Answer 6

This is a classic example of argumentum ad antiquitatem, which is a logic fallacy stating that something is true because it's old. And yes, someone "started" belief in God. Evolution and creation both assert a first person, which means as long as there are believers, there was a first believer. Thus the one who "started" belief in God.

Answer 7

If just the existence of a religion proves the existence of God then I will choose to worship that which is the oldest since it must be the right one,undiluted by mankinds meddling. Therefore I guess I now have to worship Baal as that at least predates Christianity, therefore as older it must be closer to the true source than some cult created over a thousand years later surrounding some illigitamate child from nazareth. Of course now you should see how easy it is to come up with idiotic comments like yours if you use idiotic logic like yours.

AD

Answer 8

Thanks...I was getting bored with no more questions to atheists showing up...

Actually... If you take a look at tribal cultures and their stories they have...all those stories that tell tales to explain things in their surroundings... All people were tribal at one time, before we grew into wider civilizations. At that point it became cultures and those stories, or the concept of them, 'evolved' into what became religion.

It has not always existed, sorry. Maybe you are the one that needs to stop kidding yourself. Non belief is the default. That and ancient beliefs existed well before religion and the belief of your god.

Answer 9

So you want to believe in something your cavemen ancestors believed in too? to me that's just evidence that religion is a cultural thing. humans are more developed than animals, they need to explain what they don't understand, which is why each civilization had their own attempt at doing so, which lead to all the different religions world wide. Today more and more we see that science is able to explain these mysterious phenomena we normally attributed to some magical all powerful being. so yes, naturally people would see no logic in still holding on to these primitive ways of thinking.

Answer 10

There have always been Atheists. And people did not always believe in YOUR god, there were many, many others before him. So your point is that we ought to believe in the existence of Odin because he has been around for a long time?

Answer 11

i used to agree with your point- if god doesnt exist then why is religion so innate, but actually, one of my history teachers told me that it is believed religion began with early humans drawing pictures of game of cave walls and throwing spears at them for good luck (or something along those lines, if i remember correctly), starting ritualistic behaviors... things swelled from there...

im not really sure about the your question though; i tend to classify myself as agnostic because i cant make up my mind. there are things pointing to god and things (more of logic/skepticism) that point away. i dont really want to speak for the atheists out there though