For Atheists: just curious but as an agnostic I wonder what facts or reason do you use to make the jump to?

Question

say that there is no god with absolute certainty. I personally reject all formal religions but find it hard to logically say that there is no way there could be a god without proof one way or the other?

Answer 1

For me the concept of god died with the religions. Without that basis, I have no real reason personally to believe there is a god. Could there be a creator? Possibly. Do I care? No. Do I think there is one? No. I don't say there isn't one with absolute certainty, I just don't believe there is.

Answer 2

What sort of "god" are you talking about..?

It seems you have already confidantly assumed there aren't multiple "gods"..

Do you mean a god that has human interests at heart..?
Or some form of omnipotence manifesting itself as some form of causality that created the universe, and is not "concious" of humanity, nor any other life form in the known universe/universes..?
Or something in between..?

What of potential multiverses, would each have it's own god, or must it be an omnipotence of a far greater magnitude than can ever be understood..?

So you see, there are problems with the position of "maybe" just as much as there are problems with asserting a monotheistic humanistic deity as true..

Considering so many aspects of the natural world have been explained and described by mainstream science within a natural framework, there there is no logical reason, besides impatience, to fill gaps in understanding with a humanistic invented god or gods, proof or no proof..

Does that answer your question..?

My perspective is that, considering that all the heavier elements were formed on the cores of generations of stars, and that all life is related, indeed all matter is related, and that we are an intimate part of the universe, it could be said that the universe has evolved to a point where it can consider it's own existance..

Isn't that amazing enough without invoking deities, potential or otherwise, to fill the gaps in ones own understanding and knowledge..?

Answer 3

Then you are an agnostic. One who is sitting on the fence and considering Pascal's wager?
Time to make your mind up. Let's try.
Consider this:
Ever since mankind evolved into a thinking being, he has been scared of everything, being eaten by predators, the sun failing to appear next morning, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, rival tribes stealing his women and food, rival tribes killing him in so doing, no rain, too much rain, thunderstorms .... we could keep going but you get the idea.
So, he needed a protector or father figure or even something as simple insurance against whatever disaster you care to name.
So, he invented a god, worshipped it, sacrificed virgins to it ... you know the story.
Later, the old gods were superceded by new ones, seen as more powerful. History repeats and we arrive at the time of Ancient Greece - the old Greek guys had a whole pile of gods and goddesses. Zeus was the 'big cheese' in charge of everything and there was a god or godess to be worshipped because they were in charge of ... the sea, sleep, biscuits, etc. The Romans liked this idea and 'borrowed' them all, changing the names, so Aphrodite became Venus.
Then, along came christianity and it took over but the thing to bear in mind is that all these gods bear certain similarities. First, they are all inventions of mankind. Second, they are all invisible other than through man-made statues or paintings. Third they are all totally silent and never say a word that man actually hears. Some coincidence? Not really. Fourth, no god ever actually interferes through direct action with mankind, even though the religious-freaks attribute all manner of stuff to 'it'. Delusion.
I was 12 years old when all this became clear. It took me a further three years to be able to tell myself that I was an atheist and another three years before I could tell anyone else. Such is the depth of fear instilled by the lies of religion.
Dispose of that fear. See the facts. See the total lack of evidence for the existence of the paranormal or supernatural, all of which is generated by ancient man to create fear and to gain control. WE are NOT ancient man. We KNOW what a lightning strike is. We are aware of the causes of earthquakes and we understand totally that prayer is useless beyond the placebo effect to the individual talking to his invisible friend in the sky.
How difficult can it be to step over that line and to be able to stand proud as a user of applied intelligence and proudly state ' I AM AN ATHIEST'.
Consider this. The current god, despite all the praying by the faithful, has never and will never restore a missing limb to an amputee. The believers can ask as many times as they like - ain't gonna happen. Yet, the bible states clearly that, if you have suffcient faith, ask and it shall be given to you. This is clearly stated many times in the bible.
God is imaginary. End of story, save that, by association, there is no heaven, no hell, no satan, no angels, no soul ... and the Pope is a fool unto himself.
Transcribe that last statement to apply to every jesus-freak out there (add in muslims and stir well) and you begin to get the picture.

Ipso facto, My case rests. Your witness.

Answer 4

It's not that difficult to discredit out of hand the concept of 'god' - simply based on the fact that it was invented, and perpetuated by humans.

Belief in 'God' also tends to include a modicum of belief in other nonsensical superstition and mythology (with exceptions for people who believe in the :possibilty: of the existence of a 'creator' or higher intelligence, but reject religions).

In order to really argue the existence of 'God' you would have to be able to define exactly what 'God' is. Since any argument for Gods existence is based on false premises then there is effectively no other logical choice but to reject the claims of those who choose to ignore reality and embrace 'faith' instead.

We are still left with questions - but I would rather keep looking for answers than to accept ones that are obviously wrong.

Answer 5

Atheists reject formal religion and their gods. There is no proof, apart from anecdotal "proof" of the existence of the gods worshipped today. Personally, it is not about disproving the existence but being sceptical about the ideas that religion puts forth.

Answer 6

Assuming for a moment that all lines of belief which have absolutely NO backing evidence whatsoever have a relatively equal chance of actually being valid..... you have to take into consideration that there are a theoretically infinite number of them........ and therefore that the odds of any one being correct are effectively infinitely small.... and thus not worth considering.

While that means that likewise there are vast numbers of possibilities which imply some sort of deity..... it doesn't take a degree in quantum physics to realise that the number of possibilities which have no need of a deity at all are considerably more..... enough that even the probability of a deity by random chance alone is unfeasibly small.

It might not be impossible, but the possibility is negligable.

Answer 7

It's not that we know with absolute certainty that there is no god. It's just that we don't assume that such a thing exists or might exist when we've never seen anything that suggests it. I presume you think of unicorns in the same way. You just assume they don't exist as long as you don't see one. To us the whole god concept is a fantasy and we just don't think it has anything to do with reality.

Answer 8

It is to do with the burden of proof and the fact that the theists have consistently failed to meet it despite thousands of years of trying.

The burden of proof for an existence claim must always lie on those who claim something exists, for example if I claim that there is a five metre tall dragon in the glove box of my car it is up to me to prove it, those who doubt that I have a five metre tall dragon in the glove box of my car don't have to prove anything.

You probably won't find many people saying that we can't know one way or another whether there is a five metre tall dragon in the glove box of my car and that we should therefore not jump to any conclusions.

In short: atheism is intellectual honesty while the agnostic position is pandering to religion.

Answer 9

I won't say absolute certainty. But there is absolutely no evidence that there is one in spite of humans looking for evidence for thousands of years. That makes it nothing more than a wild guess. The odds of a guess being true are astronomically low. I would not be any more surprised if someone found evidence of faeries than I would be if there was a god.

See the problem with what you are doing is that you can't dismiss ANYTHING using your logic.

Answer 10

We're all agnostic at the core - believers and non-believers alike. None of us actually know because there's no evidence one way or the other that can't be explained away. So it comes down to faith. I consider myself an atheist (well, technically, a humanist), but if I'm being honest, I have to admit that I'm really agnostic but I have no faith that a god or gods exist.