Non believers WHY do you think that God/Jesus are not real?

Question

YES Iam a Christian and I want to know. No Im not being judgemental I just want to hear your thoughts. In case your wondering no I do not think non believers are bad people or anything or that Iam better than you because Im not. What would it take for you all to see that God/Jesus are indeed very real?

Answer 1

In order to answer that, you've got to define God for me first. I can assume it's the Christian God but even within Christianity there are many different sects which have their own spin on God.

The main argument for me is that belief in God is generally a feelings-based belief, and feelings aren't always (or even usually) right. Just because you feel lucky doesn't make your chances at the roulette table any better. A lot of people like to think so though. This is because of two reasons.

Reason #1: Remember the hits, forget the misses:
There's a inherent bias in humans to remember when things work out like we thought, but forget when they don't. You can Google the term to see more about it. It explains why people believe in those guys who "communicate with the dead" (cold reading), in astrology, and in their lucky socks even though a rigorous scientific analysis would show they are wrong far more often than they are right. The belief in prayer (and thus God) is the same thing.

Reason #2: Desire to be like God.
People want to believe their thoughts have some power outside of their head, and religion taps this desire. You can see it in all the religious propoganda, whether it's praying ("Just have faith the size of a mustard seed and you can move mountains") or the explicit promises of complete happiness ("All your dreams can come true if you just believe enough." and "You can even conquer death if you just believe enough.")

The fact of the matter is that your thoughts do nothing outside your head. And although they can affect how YOU act, and your ACTIONS can affect your life or others' lives, the thoughts themselves have never been shown to directly affect anything. Ever.

I don't find these reasons compelling enough to believe in a God that defies logic. He can exist without being made of any substance (even invisible air has molecules)? He is alive without having any of the properties of other living things we know of (metabolic processes and such)? He is all-powerful and all-loving, yet there is evil in the world (in defiance of this combination)? He wrote a book, but it is filled with profanity (Ezek 23:20), internal contradictions, and ridiculous laws (Numbers 5:11-31)? He's all-knowing and he chooses which soul to put into a baby, but he's somehow NOT ultimately responsible for that soul going to hell for eternity (even though he knows in advance whether that person will choose him or not?) And on....and on.... and on...


God is a square-circle, and I know those don't exist either.

Answer 2

I just don't have a reason to believe that they are real. There's not really much more to it than that. Think of it like this...what do you think when you hear the ancient Greek stories about their gods? (Zues, Athena, Aphrodite, Etc.) You know they are myths, but do you realize that the ancient Greeks believed in these gods with every bit as much faith and fervor that today's Christians believe in their God and Jesus? And they believed in these gods for THOUSANDS of years. It wasn't a passing fancy. And they had no more evidence that their gods were true or false than today's Christians have that THEIR God is true or false. We don't think there's a difference between the beliefs of the ancient Greeks, and the beliefs of today's believers. If we see some compelling evidence to the contrary, then we will be more than happy to believe.

Answer 3

The problem is that most believers openly condemn those of us who are not. Many times, just as believers do, we simply get put in a position to defend our own beliefs. It seems that what you are saying is that it's more acceptable for Christians to slam Atheists and such than it is the other way around. Hypocrisy is something I do not condone on either side. While I do very much agree, there should be respect for each other's beliefs, there is just too much animosity between the two views to make it the accepted norm. I have tried various times to make this same statement, but it always ends up with both sides doing the same thing. Defending their own. It would be nice to see less arguing and more acceptance that we are who we are, and believe what we believe. We don't always have to fight over it. Hate breeds hate. I agree with you, that I don't have to agree with your ways, but I can still respect you as a fellow human being.

Answer 4

It is not a matter of "Not believing" it is a matter of "prove it to me". Much like my niece believes in Santa Claus. There is no proof of his existance, but she believes. Believing in god is far more important, but no less significant in proof. There is none. I believe in Jesus, but scholars for decades have said that gospels in the bible were written 30 to 120 after Jesus died. The rest was written over the next 200 years and then they voted on what should be part of the bible. What did they throw out? No one asks that. Begin by straightening out the bible - remove the fantasy from fact and go from there.

Answer 5

You think thousands of gods are not real - the only one you think is real is the one your parents told you was real.

Coincidence?


Nobody can prove any gods, much less a specific god, exist; many people will tell you their god exists but no others, but will never be able to prove it, even if they think so. Some will threaten you with eternal pain or promise eternal joy to get you to believe in their god; these are all stories, created for people who were scared long before we understood the universe. Now we have no more reason for these superstitions.

How terrible the bible in particular is:
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/
http://www.evilbible.com/

What's the origin of the Jesus stories?
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5.htm
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen048.html
http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/jesus.html

How silly and horrible religion in general is:
http://godisimaginary.com/
http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/

The alternative:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/
http://www.infidels.org/
http://www.positiveatheism.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_humanism

Answer 6

Because the bible is WAY too full of contradictions. Because a vast majority of the bible was recently proven to be falsified and made up (read Misquoting Jesus book). Because, other than opinions and claims, there is not one single shred of evidence that a god or supreme being exists.

Answer 7

I think Jesus was a very real person, just nothing more than that.

Answer 8

Some actual real evidence that does not consist of anecdotal evidence or personal experiences might be just ONE WAY I might beleive.

How about you? Whats it take to get you to realize this is a myth?

Answer 9

I do believe Jesus was real...a real man not a God.

Answer 10

The more I studied the bible, the more questions I had. The questions went unanswered so I searched for the truth. What I found is that it's all a lie. There is no god.