Atheists, why is it hard to see God?

Question

I know that God is real because He has revealed Himself to us in three ways: in creation, in His Word, and in His Son, Jesus Christ.

The most basic proof of God’s existence is simply what He has made. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that [unbelievers] are without excuse. The heavens declare the glory of God. And the firmament sheweth His handiwork.

If I found a wristwatch in the middle of a field, I would not assume that it just “appeared” out of nowhere or that it had always existed. Based on the watch’s design, I would assume it had a designer. But I see far greater design and precision in the world around us. Our measurement of time is not based on wristwatches, but on God’s handiwork, the regular rotation of the earth (and the radioactive properties of the cesium 133 atom). The universe displays great design, and this argues for a Great Designe

Designer***

Answer 1

It is hard to see because it is a figment of your imagination... Not to be rude, but it just isn't real...

Answer 2

I find it hard to see things that do not exist:

Creation is a myth in a book

The book could have been written by anyone and has been massively fiddled with over the centuries, translated, re-translated and so on. So what is left of the original. If indeed it was anything more than a little stone age tribe's attempt to explain the world.

Jesus existed and a great man but all that god stuff- I think not

"And the puddle thought - "mmm - this whole must have been made just for me - I fit so well.""

I just love to walk in the wonder and glory that has evolved about us and look at the wonderful things that fit because they evolved to be so.

Answer 3

Because it is hard to see what doesn't excist.
You base your whole religious life on one (very badly written and unconsistent) book and the very simple logic "if I don't know how it happened, it must have been god". We simply thing this is not enough. We do not belive one being is responcable, but a series of events. We do not think there is heaven or hell. When you die, you just die.

I won't ask you to stop belive what you believe.. So please don't try to force your believes upon us. If we respect each other rights of religion, or non-religion, we can get a long just fine.

You'll hardly hear or see an atheist trying to spread his or her believes around and making a great effort in trying to convert others to atheism. But if someone attacks our views and say something like "everybody believes in something" or "do you think a big fat cow just dumped the universe out of it's ***, of course there is god!", we will tell you what we think and how we came to the conclusion.

So, since you did - I will.
For me, it was a mix of three things.
Firstly, as I learned more and more about religion, I saw better and better how was mainly used to manipulate people, both in the past and the present. Wars have been started (don't thank christians are excepted from this rules, they have some nasty doings on their concseus) and whole nations have been forced to convert religions just to pay their dues to the church. Today, religion is very often used to allow people to deny responcability of their own actions, both small and big.

The second thing was that when so much evil and bad goes on in the world, it's obvious that if god ever excisted, he's dead. Probably killed by religion. All the hatred, violence evil dos, done in the name of god, (against minorities, fellow citiesens, spouses, etc.) further convinsed me that there was no god, just an excuse to live by certain rules and codes, bent to fit the purpose.

The third thing was the battle between the bible and sciense. Since science have proven so many things being different from how the bible say they are, it's obvious that the whole book is a lie. And if what you base your believe in is a lie, the believes must fall on their own.

BUT - that said, if I'd ever really believed there was a being that ruled the world, none of this would have led me to the conclusion it did. So you'll probably try to find explanations to prove me wrong, by quoting the bible and ask me how I thing this and that happened if there was no god.

To me, that's no different from a parent trying to convince their 4 year old that there really is a santa claus. "who do you think delivers all the presents on christmas eve?" "I've seen him myself" and so on.

So, don't bother trying to convert us - you'll have better luck with the four year olds. Respect our right to belive what we want, and we'll respect yours.

Step over that right of ours, and we'll step on yours.

Answer 4

Personally I was raised in Christian schools and a very religious family. I grew up and now am a pagan. Maybe you need to see the truth. Do you ever watch the science channel? It has been proven a long time ago that there is no way that the earth was created in 7 days. It took millions of years for the world to evolve as it is now. I believe there are gods who have control over aspects of the earth and heavens, but 1 god that is ridiculous.

Answer 5

You see something and call it evidence for your concept of God. I think you are not objectively thinking about this.

"His Word" is a book written by men. There is no objective evidence that it is anything more than the myths and legends those men and learned from their fathers. (I say men/fathers because the books were clearly written by a patriarchical culture).

You seem to think that our existence proves that your concept of God is true. That is a pure logical fallacy. Suppose I agree for the sake of argument that our existence proves that there must be a supernatural creator. Even so, this does nothing to prove that your concept of God is the supernatural creator. If there is a supernatural creator, it is not the God Jehovah, who is clearly a myth.

Finally, note that you ask why we can't "see" God. We don't even see evidence for God. But if there were a God, why is it so shy & withdrawn? If it wanted to make its presence known, it could do so very easily. But it hasn't done so, and the by far the most plausible explanation for this is because it doesn't exist.

Answer 6

1) In creation.

There is no proof that there was any intelligent design in the formation of the universe.

2) "His" word

There are many religion which have the "words of god" on paper. They cannot all be accurate, and there's no reason to believe any one has any more validity then any other.

3) Jesus Christ.

A figure whose existence has no support in any history outside of a single book. As such, his existence is no more proven than Huck Finn, Cujo or Winnie the Pooh.

In short, the answer to your question is: Because there is no credible evidence to believe he exists.

Answer 7

All of this is patent nonsense. There is nothing in all of creation which requires an exception to the natural laws by which the universe has run since the big bang. The bible is fiction, with hundreds of errors (as well as dozens of internal contradictions), so is proof (or even evidence) of nothing. As for "intelligent design:, that has been refuted over and over again, and even if true, would be useless because it can predict nothing. All of this, and much more, is discussed in:

Answer 8

Ah the watchmaker arguement. What you fail to see is that you don't believe in god, you believe in the BELIEF in god. People that want to believe want a parent to take care of us, to forgive us of our mistakes. Saying god created the universe explains totally nothing. And just because the world and universe seems of some great designer, let me ask you., who made the "watchmaker"? Most people say that the universe has to be created, and that something is god. So where does god come from? Where does that god come from? On and on, why can't the universe have always been around, it was never created. We place god in the picture with religion.

Answer 9

1) If such a being exists, its highly unlikely that it's the one that you believe in as if he wanted us to know he'd tell us and if he didn't then he wouldn't tell us for a few thousand years then just stop and expect us to believe a self-contradicting book.

2) If you understood a lot about the things you're talking about - the differences between manmade and naturally occuring things, the rotation of the Earth, the radionactive properties of Caesium 133, etc - then you'd know why the majority of those that do don't attribute a supernatural designer to them.

Answer 10

So you "see" god.....

I'll bet a few pennies on the chance that, since you avow that see a fable, you are also on first name terms with the tooth fairy, easter bunny, yeti, abominable snow man, a leprechaun, and the ghost of billy the kid.

Why not? You've certainly seen easter eggs in the basket on easter morn, a dollar under the pillow where a tooth once rested, photos of bigfoot tracks, the rainbow where the leprechaun left the pot of gold at the bottom of the arc, and on, and on..........

I hope you're not going to respond with an answer that goes something like, hmmmm, well I KNOW that adults leave easter eggs, dollars under the pillow, and ...................................

What else may adults have done in order to preserve or foster a child's belief in a fable?

I've never seen god.

Answer 11

Well... judging from this question, I am sure that ancient Greek philosopher, Moronicus, would have been gratified to know how faithfully his intellectual legacy has carried on, all these many centuries.

Does it strike anyone else as vaguely amusing, that people who believe that a cosmic Jewish zombie, who is his own father, can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced to eat from a magical tree by an infinitely sadistic being, disguised as a talking snake with legs... (etc.)... think that there is something wrong with those of us who CAN'T manage to delude ourselves into believing such droolingly stupid nonsense?

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion." ~ Robert M. Pirsig


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