Help me understand why you refuse to believe in God, or at least to worship Him. Where's the danger? Do you think God owes you something? Please help me understand.
2007-10-19 05:37:43 · 29 answers · asked by Edward Inkling 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I believed in god and was a christian for 15 years, and it made absolutely no difference to my thoughts, feelings and actions aside from making me dependant on something which was never apparent.
I don't refuse to believe - I have simply found that there is nothing to believe in.
Why should anyone refuse to believe in invisible pink unicorns? As with god, many people claim these exist and many claim they don't and there is just as much evidence (none). Believing in a god would require admitting that it is equally valid to believe in invisible pink unicorns. So I put it do you:
Since you believe in god, why do you not believe in invisible pink unicorns? If you haven't tried to believe in invisible pink unicorns for at least a decade I won't consider your answer valid.
Now, all this aside the reason for your inability to understand is obvious: You appear to be unable to look at things except through the 'eyes' of your religion. You need to 'pretend' that god isn't real in order to understand why atheists are as they are and think as they think.
2007-10-19 05:43:37 · answer #1 · answered by Dharma Nature 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Now, I'm an agnostic, not an atheist. (Which means, from Wikipedia: "the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims—particularly metaphysical claims regarding theology, afterlife or the existence of God, gods, deities, or even ultimate reality—is unknown or, depending on the form of agnosticism, inherently unknowable due to the nature of subjective experience."... and to make it "fair and balanced", from CONSERVApedia: "Agnosticism is the belief that God's existence or non existence is unknowable") But maybe I should answer anyway. The following is not my opinion, but a probable view of atheists.
If one, like an atheist, would refuse to believe in "God", who is, in factual logic (no offence to anyone), a higher being created from the beliefs thousands of generations (like any other ethnic culture), it is because they have found no proof of "Him". They call "Him" 'superficial' because of that. (So how can you worship someone that you can't find reasonable and logical proof of?)
If you're asking atheists "Where's the danger?" in worshipping "God", isn't this offending atheists just as much as an atheist would offend a Christian by telling him or her that "God" is nowhere to be seen? Or maybe you, as a Christian, do not believe in "God" that much that one might as well freely worship as if it was a game.
"Do you think God owes you something?"
Owes what? Please rephrase the question. But I'll try anyway. Let's say someone doesn't believe in compassion. Does compassion owe him or her something? Maybe that someone had received a lack of compassion. So, does the atheists not believe in "God" because they had received a lack of spiritual hope and comfort from "Him", if "He" does exist?
2007-10-19 12:54:28 · answer #2 · answered by PenaltyKillah 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is not that I refuse to believe in god. I do not. I have never seen any evidence that suggests a god exists. I have seen evidence that points to parts of the bible being wrong, such as areas that the geology shows no sign of there ever being a flood. I do not worship anything I do not believe in. I do not think that a deity owes me anything because I do not believe in any deity.
I think that you are kind of confused about atheists. They do not secretly believe in god but refuse to worship. They do not believe in a god at all. They see no reason to.
2007-10-19 12:46:23 · answer #3 · answered by A.Mercer 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's not a case of refusal. I don't think a non-existent being owes me anything.
O.K. I don't know how we all got here. I can't tell you why there is something instead of nothing. But I don't think it explains anything to say that God (as a complex uncaused cause) either created everything or somehow magically got the ball rolling on life. All we know so far about life on earth is that simple things evolve into more complex things. And to posit a being that created everything we study with science but that is also beyond science strikes me as the height of intellectual dishonesty and making things way too convenient for us.
2007-10-19 13:16:30 · answer #4 · answered by K 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
What "moves" me? The amazing, wonderful reality of this world which was actually constructed bit by bit, over billions of years, and zillions of interactions, with a simple, but non-intelligent organizing principle at work. That is amazing, and I feel honored to have enough intelligence, skepticism and willingness to study it to appreciate that.
It's not so much that i "refuse" to believe in god, but that I really don't need to! For me, the only danger is in being deluded by supernatural belief. And does god owe me anything? I think he owes me a drink!
2007-10-19 12:45:18 · answer #5 · answered by kwxilvr 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I don't know if I should answer, because I believe there is a God. He was at the start. But I don't believe in religions, which are men created. Somebody so powerful as God is, I don't believe He needs us to worship him. I don't think He es that insecure and needy. What moves me is that voice inside me, which tells me what is wright and what is wrong.
2007-10-19 12:52:06 · answer #6 · answered by elgil 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I refuse to believe in organized religion. I think a lot of issues with my faith in God are related to the churches being run by idiots. Everyone can sit and claim that their church is different but it isn't.
There's no danger in believing in God. Plenty of people do it and they turn out okay. But plenty of people don't believe in God, and they have more freedom in their lives. I don't like the restrictions placed upon me by faith.
God doesn't owe me anything. I don't owe him anything. I'd like to keep it that way.
2007-10-19 12:42:44 · answer #7 · answered by peroxidekween 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I refuse to believe in God because I refuse to support any sort of religion which condems non-believers to Hell and discrimates against anything that doesn't meet its requirements. I refuse to believe in God because I only see Christians interested in converting me to their way of thinking and not wanting to get to know me as an inidividual. I refuse to believe in God because I don't see how the Bible is relevant to my daily life. I can be a "good" person without having to cross reference everything to the Bible all the time.
How compassionate is this "God" really? I wonder sometimes.
2007-10-19 14:04:43 · answer #8 · answered by PRH1 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
See, you're falling into one of the biggest misconceptions about atheism: that atheists don't believe in the Christian god, or that we're refusing to worship him.
The truth is, we don't believe in ANY god...not just yours. Your god is on equal footing with any other god in the vast pantheon that has been worshipped since the dawn of civilization. Ask yourself why you refuse to believe in Ra, Quetzalcoatl, Zeus, or Thor, and you'll have your answer as to why I don't believe in your god.
Why would I think that your god owes me something? I don't believe he exists. Period. I'm certainly not going to worship him "just in case". Seriously...Christians preach that God "knows your heart"...so if I was worshipping or otherwise giving lip service to the Christian god even though I truly didn't believe, he'd see right through me anyway...so what's the point? It's pointless anyway -- I don't believe in your god, so I don't fear him, and have no need to pretend to worship him. I wasted enough years of my life trying to convince myself that I believed simply because I was afraid NOT to.
2007-10-19 12:51:14 · answer #9 · answered by War Games AM 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Its not "refusal". I'm NOT denying your god. There is no "he owes me". Your god does not exist. Period. The danger is that I'd give up rational thinking, knowledge, education, etc, to believe in your myth.
There is no god.
2007-10-19 12:44:46 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋