100% Undeniable Proof!?

Question

Sorry for the misleading title, but I am trying to get as many Atheists as possible to reply to this question. And now that I have your attention….

In order to say “I do not believe in God,” you must first have some concept of who or what God is. Where did you learn about this concept, what specific features of the concept did you find so difficult to accept, and how old were you when you rejected it? What were you taught about God that you could not accept? In otherwords, I'm looking for a description of the God-concept which you came to reject. Please be as detailed as possible in your description.

Answer 1

I believe in what I see. I don't see God, nor any evidence of his existence. Japanese, Chinese and Eskimos don't either. That doesn't mean he's not there, just that empirical evidence has worked fine for me so far.

Answer 2

I reject not just one god, but all gods. Therein, indeed, lies the basis of my rejection; they can't ALL be the one true god, so none of them are.
By considering the many and varied deities to be mythology rather than theology, I can assuage my curiosity into all such things without raising disagreeable notions of their existence or otherwise.
My family is non-religious; I was left to my own devices regarding the study of spirituality. As such, I found Zeus upon equal footing with Jehovah and Batman.

I study these deities not from a single source, but whatever I come across. I must admit that in recent years, my main source has been the ubiquitous wikipedia. There is an excellent series in my local library that covers the creation myths and heroic epics of a great many different peoples.

I rather liked the Egyptian tales. For all the vast time between us and them, their stories have all the same emotion, and many of the same plot elements as one might find in a modern ripping yarn.

My knowledge of the Abrahmic God comes from the aforementioned books, and conversations with a Catholic priest who has been something of a surrogate grandfather to me (He is companion to my grandmother; my grandfather died before I was born)

Despite all this, and the strong skepticism I've developed over the course of a physics degree, I there is one question to which I cannot exclude God from the set of possible answers:
"Why is there something rather than nothing?"

Answer 3

I don't know if this is an answer you are looking for: I do not believe in a "super-person" type of image of God, however I do believe in a kind of underlying spirit in the world which is more real than the reality with which we deal consciously on a day-to-day basis. I think I came to this some time in my late teens, after a bit of thinking, reading, discussing, etc, no formal program of study.

I guess I reject the notion of God as a powerful "being" because I don't think it makes sense that he would be "like" us. For instance if he knows all why would he have eyes, if he lives forever why would he have intestines for digesting food, where would he go to the bathroom, etc.? Those kinds of questions.

Answer 4

"In order to say “I do not believe in God,” you must first have some concept of who or what God is."

False premise. No "knowledge" of god is required to disbelieve, just a basic understanding of absence of evidence. If I told you that there was a teapot orbiting the sun somewhere between the Earth and Mars would you believe it? Would you need to know what type of teapot, or what color it was, or if it came with a cozy, in order to dismiss its existence?

I was in my early twenties when I broke my shackles.

There was very little in the bible that made sense when one holds it up to scrutiny, but one thing that stands out is the paradox that god loves you, but will send you to Hell for all eternity for the most trifling trespasses. I guess that's the concept of god I'd be willing to reject even if there was evidence of his existence presented.

Answer 5

As a child of christian parents, it is the Abrahamic representation of god which I was taught as a child. My rejection of an omnipotent, benevolent god was based upon my own version of the problem of evil. Of course, I didn't call it that at the time, since I was only 12 or 13 - it was something vaguely undefinable but wrong.

Is God willing to banish evil from the world, but not able? Then He is not omnipotent.
Is God able to banish evil from the world, but not willing? Then He is malevolent.
Is God both willing and able to banish evil from the world? Then why does evil exist?
Is God neither willing nor able to banish evil from the world? Then why call him God?

The only answer I ever got from a believer was "We can never know God's plan." Ant that answer just isn't good enough.

Answer 6

i reject the concept of god that involves bearded old men watching us with an accusing eye from up in the clouds

it wasnt until a while after i rejected this concept that i learned there are other concepts of what god could be

im quite open to many of these concepts

Answer 7

Unique among all books ever written, the Bible accurately foretells specific events--in detail--many years, sometimes centuries, before they occur. Approximately 2500 prophecies appear in the pages of the Bible, about 2000 of which already have been fulfilled to the letter--no errors. (The remaining 500 or so reach into the future and may be seen unfolding as days go by.) Since the probability for any one of these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance averages less than one in ten (figured very conservatively) and since the prophecies are for the most part independent of one another, the odds for all these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance without error is less than one in 10^2000 (that is 1 with 2000 zeros written after it)! The Bible is truth and what is says about God is true. Please do your research before you decide by your own opinion not to believe in God.

Answer 8

This concept is integrated into all of modern western civilization. Even most Eastern cultures have a concept of a divine being.

These things all have some similarities -- interest in human existence, supernatural capabilities, willingness to interfere in the natural order to the benefit (or occasional detriment) of humans.

It is that which I reject - any concept of a deity which would even notice humanity.

Answer 9

Most agnostics or athiests don't want to believe in a God because that would make you be moral and that's just boring because the only God you have is yourself. You don't like the You can't do this, or that. God and religion is a faith based thought system, you can't prove God exists but then again you make something out of nothing.

Answer 10

I went to Catholic school and so received as much religious indoctrination as any other Catholic.

I simply never saw any evidence at all to indicate that God actually existed, other than a book of dubious reliability and the word of some people in funny clothes.

Answer 11

God as creator?
Don't know, don't care, but don't try to convince me it is a fact.

God as rewarder/punisher?
God as life giver?
God as law giver?
God as director?
God as egotist requiring worship?
I reject these concepts. I understand how they might be necessary for a primitive, geocentric (no, make that egocentric) mind, but I don't need a deity to explain thunder, earthquakes and the sun rising.