Why do you think God isn't real?

Question

When did you decide he wasn't real and why? Just wondering..

Answer 1

There's no reason to think he is.

Believing makes no sense to me.

I ralized this when I was around 13 or so.

Answer 2

1) The many hundreds of religions that have existed. If we were all created from the same diety, we all would be worshipping the same diety but that isn't true.
2) Just an amateur interest in astronomy would change your worldly view. With countless galaxies and a mind-boggling number of stars each with their own solar systems and a chance of life, it really puts fitting a divine diety difficult. As far as we know God only gave his attention to creating life on Earth. So what about the other planets? If there is life on other planets then what does that say about God not telling us about his other creations?

Answer 3

There are thousands of gods you decided weren't 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 4

Several reasons, I'll try to keep them brief:

1) Lack of a game plan: Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of religions and denominations. Thousands of us buy a new bookshelf from Ikea and clear directions are inside in half a dozen languages that lead us to all assemble the same bookshelf, but the supposed creator of the universe can't manage the same trick with how to worship him?

2) Actions are not praise-worthy: If the Judeo-Christian-Islamic god of the OT exists, he's a maniacal madman, and not someone worthy of respect, much less worship. He slaughters the civilian population of Egypt to influence Pharoh's politics (today we call that terrorism), he doesn't stop human sacrifice (okay, he stops it in one case, but not others), he kills every creature on earth except a small handful, he creates Satan, and (tied to #1) he gives no clear evidence of what religion to follow, then tortures for eternity those who guess wrong - or given demographic realities of earth, tortures those whose parents guessed wrong.

3) Bad parent: He is held up as a father, yet his goal seems to be to be worshipped and praised. What kind of demented parent raises their kids to be less then themselves, but always praising every little thing they do? For an omnipotent being, he sure seems insecure and in need of praise. These kind of actions make me think that even if he did exist (see 1 & 2), he/she/it doesn't really seem worthy of praise. You might occasionally see "What Would Jesus Do?" mottos, but you'll never see "What Would God Do?" held up as model behaviour, because the answer is usually some sort of horrific brutality.

In short, I think God isn't real because he gives no sign of being real. There might possibly be some sort of god out there that doesn't care to interact with us in any way, but "God", as described in most religions clearly does not exist. If there is a God out there reading this, he/she/it is more than welcome to come by, explain how they want to be worshipped, and why they are so mysterious about it, and I'd be happy to follow them. Until such time, I'll just stick to the appearant reality that there is no such being.

Answer 5

When I was about 11 or 12 I realized that it was all nonsense. Of course, since then, I have been able to duplicate everything that believers attribute to God, Speaking in tongues for example, is a simple trick and has nothing to do with God.

Answer 6

I've never believed in God. My parents are Christian, but they decided to raise me with my own beliefs. Instead of pressing Christianity on me and telling me to believe in God, they let me ask my own questions. I asked about "him" and who "he" was, but I never really believed it. Then I started learning about planets, the solar system, and the Big Bang theory and it made a hell of a lot more sense than what my parents believed.

Before you think I haven't researched it, I've actually read the King James bible and even with that, don't have enough to convince me that God is real. I'm a much happier Atheist.

Answer 7

I do not believe in god for there is no proof that he is real. I have felt this way since 1986

Answer 8

Well, I decided that he wasn't real when I went through the bible and read some of his messages, none of them were very divine.

Even if he was real I wouldn't respect him at all because he/she/it sounds like an oppressive tyrant.

Just because he is our creator and gave us life doesn't mean he's morally just. If an "evil" scientist creates AI or life somehow would he be moral or divine?

Of course he would tell his creations that he was moral divine and send down "saints" to back up his claims.

Answer 9

Something about God just seems like a fairy tale. He seems like he was made up to questions that we now have the answer to. Although I respect everyone's religion.

Answer 10

Because I started thinking and realized everything in life that was contributed to god could be explained by natural occurrence. There was nothing, not one single thread of evidence that could even lead to the possiblility of a god.