My question to the atheist?

Question

Its obvious that you cannot disprove the existence of God. because that wouldnt really be rational.But is the reason why you disprove of there being a God because of the things that happening in the world? such as crime,murder,disease,famine,etc. Im trying to get into the mind of those that believe not in God. To further my knowledge

Understanding the logic here

wow, the animosity towards this question is unbelieable.lol

Answer 1

My first clue was discovering that the Bible wasn't fact but fiction. Everything we know about God is in that book. The next is by really reading the Bible and seeing this god as he truly is. For an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent creature, this god seems to hate the very people he supposedly created. The whole plan of creating people to populate the earth in a non-perfect form, and then to demand that they be as perfect as he is (and we only have God's word for his own perfection) seems pretty intolerant and hateful to me. And to make people suffer horrible diseases and plagues and calamities that he could well prevent shows another non-caring perverted side to his personality. If there is a God and he sees the suffering of the people he created and does nothing about it...he is a monster. If there is a God and he sees the suffering of the people he created and cannot do anything about it...he is impotent. Neither one of these gods deserve my worship. I do not believe in any supernatural beings simply because there is absolutely no proof that they exist. There are many fictional supernatural beings to choose from, why is an invisible god any different than say...fairies?

atheist

Answer 2

Well, I am not an athiest, I am more along the lines of an atheist-leaning agnostic. I'm not sure I understand the first line, as to why it would not be rational to disprove the existence of God. I am going to assume that you mean that the irrationality is from the fact that it is essentially impossible to prove non-existence of something like that, and not the assumption that it would be irrational because He exists.

For me it is a huge combination of things. Most of it stems from the way that I see the world works. I can accept the fact that God (if He exists) would allow crime, murder, and all the stuff you mentioned. But I cannot accept the fact that God has made believing in Him SO contrary to our experiences in life. God made us smart, but we are not allowed to use scientific evidence, because that tends to show more and more contradictions with religious beliefs. It seems to me that if God exists and wants us to believe in him, He certainly would make it obvious that He exists, which doesn't seem to me to be even remotely likely.

Also, there is the belief that you have to believe to understand the Bible. That seems very crazy to me, that the Bible cannot be understood by non-believers. That is the same as me going into court and saying I am right but you cannot understand that I am right. It makes the religious people seem like lunatics, at least to me.

And that gets me to the religious zealots. There are so many religions, all of which claim to be correct. The Jews say the Christians are wrong; the Muslims say others are wrong; and EVERYONE believes that their own beliefs are the correct ones (including the atheists!!!) It is very difficult for me to imagine that a certain religion is correct, and none of the others can be. I mean, the Greeks and Romans ALSO 'knew' that their religions are the right ones. I suspect that eventually, the current religions will go the way of those.

Sorry if the answer is too long. Just wanted to give you my thoughts on the issue!

Answer 3

Proof as in scientific proof, no - it's philosophical.

I always rather thought that Jews, various sects of Christianity, and Muslims really all worshipped the same deity, merely had different ideas on particulars. Along my own spiritual path I'd long given up the idea of the deity being personified - it simply didn't make sense. It was more a feeling, an essence, a light.

Then at one point I help someone with a Master's thesis on rhetoric studying NDE's from around the world. It was interesting, that such descriptions from people who were not brought up in Western Culture were completely different than the descriptions from people who were.... on the surface. The project was an exercise in rhetoric and in studying the words people used and finding meaning in their experiences, it seemed that most people experienced very, very similar things, only in the context of their dominant religion or culture.

I came to the conclusion that deities and all the other supernatural entities are not actually real, but are metaphors for something our human minds can't comprehend - an attempt to define the undefinable.

Later on when studying World Religions I was introduced to the concept of the Tao, and it made so much more sense to me than the idea of a deity. For one thing, the description of the Tao actually matches the way things work in real life, whereas many definitions of deitys simply didn't match at all my experience of life. You know, the kind of questions you get where "If god is this, then why/why not does this happen?" One would, after all, expect that if somethng were true, things would work out as if it did.

So it really fell in line with what I'd long thought.

To your second point, everyone is agnostic when you down to that level, since no one really knows what happens when we die. But because I have a positive belief in something else that does not involve deities, I am honestly truly an atheist, albeit a spiritual one.

Answer 4

There are many reasons why I do not believe in a god, mostly logical fallacies, but some include the situations you mention. It is a poor arguement however to use the inability to disprove something as a reason one should believe... that would make for a rather silly world wouldnt it? I mean, that would essentially support belief in each and every god ever thought up, as you can disprove none of them. Largely, I have difficulties with the idea of free will and omnipotence (which cannot exist in tandem regardless of the misunderstandings of people whom argue they can). But I am very happy your question toward atheists was respectful, we see so few of those anymore.

Answer 5

Actually, there is a very good case for the non-existence of the god(s) of the bible. The general line of proof starts with the fact that the bible is nothing but the claims of man. A god would not make belief in god dependent on the claims of man. If that were the case, there would be many different religions, all being supported by the claims of man, all claiming they have the truth. Oh wait, we have that now. Obviously, such an instrument of faith is too weak not to result in the creation of thousands of "religions" and would not have been sanctioned by a god as powerful as the bible describes.

Answer 6

It's not because of the bad things that happen in the world but rather the good things and how religions assign God's handiwork when things go their way. That's what caused me to question the existence of a god. When I see an athlete thank their lord and savior for winning the Superbowl, I question that belief system. Another god rewards terrorism and another says I can't eat meat on certain days. Many of these gods would condemn a man to hell regardless of his lot in life, if he did not adhere to particular rules and rituals.

It is the religions that forced me to question the existence of a god. I have nothing against a belief system, unless it's one that says 'This is the only path to salvation'. How silly.

Let's play "Guess Who I Am": I am a male, usually represented as an older, wiser gentleman. I see everything and I know all about your earthly moral performance. If you follow the rules, then you will be rewarded, but only if you do a good job. Otherwise, you face the threat of punishment for your deeds. Follow my way, and you have the opportunity to get all that you hope for.

Santa or God?

Flying Spaghetti Monster. I want to believe!

Answer 7

That "cannot be disproved 100%" bit does not prove a god real anymore than the Easter Bunny or an invisible Java the hut residing in my closet.

I do not disapprove of a god. I disapprove of religion attempting to steal money from wayward believers, move them away from education (especially in the sciences), and teach them to believe in an ideology without questioning.

Without the freedom to question, humans are little more than slaves to the guys in charge. You can see it today in most countries around the world with mandated political and religious ideology. America has the creationists and people who want our secular government to reflect "Christian" values. The Middle East has fundamentalists who want to kill other sects of Islam, prohibit free speech, and to keep women controlled by men. Virtually no religion can argue and come to any conclusion because all religions are based on faith alone- not evidence. There is equal probability that all are wrong, and no way to distinguish.

The god issue does not even come into play in my head. I'm not angry at a god, because I don't think one exists, or is responsible for human behavior. I am ashamed of the way that people are led to believe in the supernatural without evidence, yet some of those people force those beliefs on others using everyone's government.

Answer 8

You also can't disprove the existence of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or the dragon I keep in my garage.

Not being able to disprove the existence of something is not evidence that they exist.

However, the fact that crime, murder, disease, famine and disasters happen to believers in equal proportion to non-believers is pretty strong evidence that if a god does exist, it definitely isn't the omnipotent, loving being that Christians insist it is.

Answer 9

Am I "the atheist?"

Kidding; I'll answer your question.

There are many things we can't prove the nonexistence of, even despite there being no evidence for the existence of that thing. We can't disprove invisible fairies flying around, we can't disprove that there is a star with the exact diameter of 1,000,000,000 miles.

The problem of evil, which you alluded to, does contradict the existence of a personal god. Why would he allow such things to happen if he had the authority and control to prevent them? Doesn't make any sense.

Answer 10

I believe that there are spiritual powers goign on, but I don't believe in a specific "God" as in 1 person almightly. It has nothing to do with the bad things that happen in the world. The good always goes along with the bad. And how do you figure that you cannot disprove the existence of God? How can you dissprove that there is no God?