Is there any evidence that suggests that God doesn't exist?

Question

I am an Atheist. I am curious to know just how many other people who claim to be atheists actually have considered any evidence.

Please, only give sensible scientifically factual answers and, if possible, state your references.

I would like to clarify, I am not asking for proof, I am asking for evidence.

It is a real pity that the only rational answers given here are from non-atheists. I sat pity because I really wanted to hear if there were any rational atheists on Yahoo Answers. Saying 'I don't believe in God because there is no evidence, I also don't believe in Santa Claus' is a contradictory statement, because there is also no evidence on the contrary!

The best evidence I have seen is in String Theory. Many of the truths we see were, until recently, totally unexplained in science. String theory brings with it explanations for those phenomena (like the big bang). However, it also brings with it the evidence that the universe not only exists beyond our perception but interacts beyond our perception. From this result, the existance of God is still a possibility.

Please, continue answering or edit your answers if you have any thoughts!

Answer 1

http://www.godisimaginary.com

They cover plenty of good reasons why the god of Abraham does not exist.


Edit - if you think this answer is not rational, then you must have a different definition of rational than I do. The same goes for many of the others here.

Answer 2

We are in the universe, and cannot peer outside it.

Because the opening of the initial singularity - the initiation of the Big Bang - is shrouded in complex mathematical reworking that require those modelling it to resort to a device called "imaginary time." we only peer through a glass darkly, so to speak, at the essential moments where you might expect to find the hand of God (or not find it, if you are approaching from the other angle.)

If God is to be defined as a being that is somehow on the outside of the creation; and if the creative event has taken place outside of the constraints of time (within which we live), then any evidence we're going to have either way is very slim. As C.S. Lewis points out, if an architect builds a house, you cannot expect to find that the architect is part of the house; he will not be the staircase, for instance.

We cannot contemplate the entirety of the question: what does it mean to exist? Existence may have unimaginable meanings we cannot grasp. All we can know is what it is to exist here and now... and it is only in the here and now that we can look through that proverbial glass darkly.

As to the arguments about Einstein: he was more of a pantheist, actually, which can't be satisfying to anyone trying to claim him as their own. But his views on this matter are irrelevant, and appeal to them constitutes the logical fallacy known as appeal to authority.

String theory is one of many quantum mechanical theories that suggest that the nature of the universe is highly unusual, and in many ways is quite illusory - particles that act like waves, waves that act like particles, and matter and energy that cannot be precisely characterized until Schrodinger's cat kicks the proverbial bucket. Roger Penrose's twistors are a similar stab at the theory of everything, reconciling gravity and quantum mechanics.

The quantum mechanical universe is certainly a more challenging universe for the atheist than the Newtonian universe. Here at this subatomic level, present day observations of photons by people changes events in the distant past halfway across the milky way. Particles - or are they waves - fully come into existence only when they are observed.

Again, I'm not sure it is proof of God. But it does show that the universe is much more replete with mystery than we believed in atheism's 19th century heyday, and we do not yet know enough to close the door on the theological possibilities that are everywhere to be seen (or not seen!)

Answer 3

We have the Consciousness argument, Evolution, Dinosaurs, Equality of the universe, The Powers Almighty Paradox and the bible paradoxes.

I'm not going to write hundreds of theory's to defeat one.

And correction Einstein was an atheist look it up silly.(I believe Einstein used god as metaphorical lol.) Here's another Quote

"Thus I came...to a deep religiosity, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of 12. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached a conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true....Suspicion against every kind of authority grew out of this experience...an attitude which has never left me." -Albert Einstein (It's full context in the link below.)
Religion brings about good morals but, also bad ideals. Einstein was just admiring the clockwork effects of religion.

What the hell does the atom have to do with god?

God doesn't control evolution it actually defines itself based on the circumstance and limitations of our world. Does he control me? I don't think so. Does he control DNA or my cat? No? So how does he control evolution? Adapting to survival is a necessity not a controlling force.

Did someone set boundaries for us to live by No?

We live on boundaries that if weren't there, there wouldn't be life. Without order there is chaos and nothing created that order than necessity to survive.

Last I looked the bible didn't say man just morphed/evolved from chimpanzees?

Dinosaurs were here first even though earth was supposedly created to cater to man. I guess the dinosaurs were just here to eat us yeah that's it. Maybe they just were here to taste our faith.

Do we need to argue about other realms/dimensions to prove this one is self governing? Would you need to go to another Continent to know the people rule themselves? True the earth is one far different from god governed.

First off why would we need a god? We control ourselves just fine. In fact we had government before the one god thing even came up. We survive and thrive just fine. If everything is supposedly a spin off of a spin off of a god than what kind of god is it? We might as well be gods since we can procreate.

If there are other realms that exist in this one we can use our rationality to defeat it's purpose. If you transcend to another realm that is different from ours than there is no point all our information is catered to life and life here because that is how it was defined.

If you think the string theory is the best and you admit it leaves an open interpretation there is a god than maybe you are the so called atheist if not give us your reasoning?

Answer 4

At least there are very strong points against the existence of god. Concepts like omniscience or omnipotence are contradictory in themselves. And if a god existed, obviously the earth would not have thousands of religions but only one.
These are strong arguments in my opinion, but in the end, the non-existence of anything cannot be proven, and it makes no sense to ask for evidence against something as long as there is no evidence FOR it.

Answer 5

someone who revealed such question is truly stupid or only having relaxing. there is not any such element as archaeological evidence of gods' existence. Gods (convinced, plural) have under no circumstances been in a actual international the position we stay. So, do not even wish to locate any evidence of gods even as digging for some thing you are able to contact. fairly go searching and make your human being concepts.

Answer 6

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you really have to have proof, just look at everything around you.
I am not talking about the things that you can see with the naked eye. I am talking about the things you have to have a (Very) powerfull microscope to see.
To say that "It is only by chance that everything is the way it is", is.....well....dumb.
Take for an example the atom, in and of itself it is not that spectacular but, if you consider all the rest of the picture, it's grander than anything you can imagine. An Atom is only one small part of the equation. There are smaller particles surrounding the atom, and each one has a particular place and job to do.
This one is a proton with a spin of 1/2, and that one is a gluon with a neutron circling it that has to go just such a way as to make it work.
If you take all the elements into consideration, and that they all work together to make up everything we are and see, then WOW.
There is no way that it is all by chance.

Answer 7

It all comes down to semantics.
The Believer: I am following the will of GOD for my life.
The Atheist: He is going with the flow.
The Believer: I am whole and joyful, life is worth living now.
The Atheist : Poor chap has ditched reality for some delusional fantasy euphoria..
The Believer: Only one apostle died of natural causes. The rest we all murdered and/or tortured. This is historically traceable. All that any of them had to do was to say that Jesus did not rise from the dead and was not the Messiah and they would of been set free and even been a celebrity. So they must of known or seen something. I think they saw Jesus risen.
The Atheist: It's all fabricated lies.

But wisdom is justified by all her children no?

Answer 8

EDIT:

we have scientific evidence that the world formed from star dust circling around the sun.

we have scientific evidence that humans come to being over millions of years of evolution.

we have proved that there is nothing in space but dead planets and star dust clouds.

if there is a God he is either on a different plain of existence, or he is so far away from the earth that no one can see him (also explaining how he could never influence our lives, on either explanation)

Answer 9

I am an agnostic atheist, which means that while I cannot know with 100% certainty that God does not exist, I do not believe that he does.

Appeal to a Lack of Evidence (Argumentum Ad Ignorantium, literally "Argument from Ignorance"): Appealing to a lack of information to prove a point, or arguing that, since the opposition cannot disprove a claim, the opposite stance must be true. An example of such an argument is the assertion that ghosts must exist because no one has been able to prove that they do not exist. Logicians know this is a logical fallacy because no competing argument has yet revealed itself.

Answer 10

It is difficult to imagine anything that could prove god doesn't exist. It would also be difficult to imagine anything that would prove god does exist.

Therefore the proper scientific approach to this question is to say "we don't know". For that reason i believe rational people should be agnostic not atheist. I think atheism is just as unscientific as any other religion.

Answer 11

Does love exist?

Yes love exists because we can experience it in us, on us, about us, to us, and in many ways but there is no proof that love exists...we have only seen evidence of it through what we have experienced.

Try God...call out to him...wait for Him...give Him the chance that you would give love, hate, jelousy, or a thrill...

Try Him out and He will give you all the evidence you need...