atheists, why dont you believe in god?

Question

i'm just curious. what situation made you tell yourself that there couldnt possibly be a God? was it a build-up of disasters in your life (or in others')? was it the overview of the world and how much chaos it contains? or was it a science thing? if so, what exactly?

i promise i am not trying to challenge atheists or make anybody angry! i just really wanna know.

Johnny U - why do i believe?

ur right, i was raised christian, but thats not the only reason. i believe god is keeping me safe and sound. my prayers are always answered: its either yes, no, or not at this time - but no matter the answer, things work together to create a benefit for the whole. in fact i have many reasons to believe there is a god watching over me.....plus, the world is too perfect to be an accident. (i dont mean the ppl part) i mean its structure, its balances, its ability to recover.

anyway, no more yelling....plz

Answer 1

The utter lack of evidence.

My stance on the existence of god is exactly the same as my stance on the existence of polka-dotted chimpanzees dancing on my head, and for exactly the same reason.

Answer 2

Why do you believe in god? And in which god do you put your faith in?

I am an atheist because religion does not make sense. We know why the sun appears to rise and set. We know the earth is not flat. We know that morality is not the property of religion. We know that mental illness is not the cause of satan. And I am content that what we do not know, we will eventually find out. It is the actions of the intellectually bankrupt who posit god.

Atheists aren't angry at god. Do you disbelieve in Vishnu because you're angry at him? What situation made you believe in god? Was it a build up of disasters in your life? You know, a great many people have adopted christianity etc because they've hit rock-bottom.

I have had a reasonably comfortable and happy life. I grew up in a liberal christian home. Belief was not forced on me. My mother is a christian. My father is agnostic. I simply do not believe. In fact, I don't think that I ever really believed. It all seemed so obviously false. Same goes for Santa etc... I was a cynical, skeptical five year old!

Personally, I don't tell myself that 'there couldnt possibly be a god'. Rather, I just don't believe in one. There is a difference. Just as you do not beleive in Thor, I do not believe in Yahweh. The only difference is that I take things to their logical conclusion, whereas you stop at the god you most likely grew up with.

Also, of the two gods that I know enough about - Allah and Yahweh - I have to say that I find them to be contradictory and obviously man made. I mean you only have to read the first few verses of Genesis to realize that. God rested? What kind of omniscient, omnipotent, immortal deity rests? It just goes to show that not only were the people who wrote the bible ignorant and superstitious, they were incredbly unimaginative, too!


EDIT: “my prayers are always answered: its either yes, no, or not at this time”

You are aware that this is a con? You could very well pray to your keyboard and the results would be exactly the same. Basically, you’ve given credit to god when in reality these things would have/would not have occured anyway.

So, god gets credit for things that happen, things that don’t happen and things that may or may not eventually happen? That’s an answered prayer according to you? Lady, you are an odd one!

PS: I don't think anyone is yelling. Challenging your beliefs does not equate to yelling. You asked the question...

EDIT: “things work together to create a benefit for the whole”

No, that is you seeing patterns where there is only coincidence. People remember the hits and they forget the misses. This is how psychics steal money from people.

EDIT: “plus, the world is too perfect to be an accident. (i dont mean the ppl part) i mean its structure, its balances, its ability to recover”

Dear, you have it backwards. The earth is not adapted to us. We have adapted to it. Douglas Adams made a funny little joke about people who view things like you:

“This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in - an interesting hole I find myself in - fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!

Answer 3

I didn't believe for the first 16 years, then I had a very powerful dream in which God appeared and scooped me up in his hand. The next day the hymm we had to sing had the line 'In His hands He gently bears us, rescues us from all our foes'. This was near the nadir of my life, I was going though a great deal of problems at the time, as teenagers do, and I was having far more problems than the average teen, which I'm not going to discuss! I was never a Christian, but I was briefly a 'Deist' as a result of this experience, then an agnostic, believing that maybe a God did exist but we could not know him. I even considered 'Intelligent Design' at one point, as the driving force behind evolution.

However, I have since learned a great deal more about the world and its randomness, and the general lifelessness and lack of design in the universe in general, and the theories of the origins of life (which are based upon observations of life as it exists today), and also a fair bit about the mechanics of coincidence (re the dream and the hymm). So I am now quite certain that there is no God, and I sincerely hope I am not so weak that I'll do something like convert on my deathbed for insurance. I'm not proud that I once believed in God, but then neither am I ashamed. Nor will I mock anyone else for believing in God since I was once there myself.

Answer 4

Nothing, really. After I moved back to Singapore after 2 years in the US, I went to a church group every Sunday because my cousin invited me. Then after one year, I moved back to the US, and during the 2004-05 school year, I attended a youth Bible study group with a friend. He switched to a different school and so, I fell out again.

I kinda just find that evolution has more scientific basis than some of what religion has. Though I like looking at the spiritual aspect of some religions, I don't believe in God.

Answer 5

I used to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but decided (after reading the Bible,) that it didn't make a bit of sense. I have great reverence for the tradition of my ancestors, but am am not proud of the blood that was spilled, and reject the idea that I should have pride in that legacy, or belief in the account.

Answer 6

because of the fact i do no longer examine Harry Potter and then have faith in him, i do no longer examine Egyptian hyroglyphs and then have faith in them, i choose info, i'm no longer likely to blindly follow a 2000 twelve months previous e book written by using primitive screwhead who had no longer the rest to coach to, all of us know greater desirable now, and are you beneficial you will circulate to heaven, no, its the ******* stupid Pascal's wager bs that's unlike there's a 50:50 possibility between atheism and Christianity, what approximately Islam, buddism, pagan gods, Hinduism, Judaism, and the different 2000+ religions, hell the worship of a %. of gum could desire to get you to heaven for crying out loud, and that's purely as probably as with Jesus, and purely because of the fact greater people have faith in it would not make it authentic does it?

Answer 7

Common sense and the inability to use my imagination.

I simply see no reason to believe in god...(or bigfoot), they are both mythological figures that some people in this world still cling to. I don't.

Answer 8

I have always been an atheist. OK, that is not completely true. I am not an atheist. I am not a believer. I am not an agnostic. I am none of these because the answer to god's existence is unimportant.

People ask what would convince me that god truly exists. While I am not sure, I am certainly open to any tangible evidence. I do not know what evidence would convince me because I believe it is impossible to prove the existence of god. What evidence would convince you that god does not exist? See the conumdrum: it is difficult to answer their question! See falsifiability (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability ) for an explanation of theory and the rules of evidence.

Do not quote bible passages as evidence of god's existence. This is my standard of proof, not yours. However, if proof were proffered that convinced me god exists, I would change absolutely nothing in my life or my behavior. The existence or not of god does not matter. Like many humans I live a purposeful life and god does not add more purpose.

What if evidence were produced that convinced you god does not exist with certainty (evidence according to your standards of proof)? What would you change in your life?

- Would you stop evangelizing?
- Would you start sinning more?
- Would you stop helping those less fortunate than you?
- Would you feel that life is meaningless?

Let us examine one area Christians think about atheists. Christians seem to think non-believers hope that their good deeds will get them into heaven, should heaven really exist. The Torah (Old Testament) has a word for this: mitzvah (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitzvah ). Many atheists such as myself perform mitzvahs not for the sake of getting an admission ticket into heaven, but because performing good deeds and helping those in need is the right thing to do. In other words, these are selfless acts.

Christians sometimes proffer Pascal’s Wager (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_wager ) suggesting to non-believers that they should accept Jesus (John 3:16) as some sort of insurance policy against hell, just in case it turns out god really exists. The fallacy with this line of reasoning is that faith in god for some reward or to avoid punishment is not faith at all. It is a selfish act to receive something in return for a belief. The point of religious belief so that one becomes a better person, not to receive a reward or please a spiritual being.

Even the Torah addresses sacrifices or any other act in an effort to please god as displeasing god.

So why do you believe in god? If it is to enter heaven, that is very selfish. If god, heaven, and hell do not exist, would you still perform mitzvahs and follow the Golden Rule or would you say what is the point? Mitzvahs are not meant to please god.

Many Christians also claim that only those who believe can live a moral life and those who do not believe in god have no moral compass. That implies that one lives a moral life, not because it is the right thing to do, but because god expects us to be moral. Again, the fallacy with this reasoning is that mitzvahs and morals should be followed because god or a holy book dictates rules to us and not for personal philosophical or spiritual reasons.

In summary, I have no stake in god's existence. I do not see existence of heaven or hell as a reward and punishment system. If the whole purpose of the Golden Rule preached by Jesus was to treat others as I would like to be treated, I can follow his philosophy without believing in god. What type of god would want me to pledge my fealty to him or her simply for the sake of believing or proving my allegiance? I would expect god is beyond pride and the need for some following.

For all those thumbs down votes, I ask you to examine your personal motivation for believing in god.

Why is the concept that one can perform selfless mitzvahs and possess moral values without belief in god so difficult for many Christians to comprehend?

Answer 9

Why do you believe in anything without proof? Since god has no proof, why do you believe in it? Irrational is the belief in something without proof. What other irrational beliefs do you hold?

Answer 10

Proof Please...
Why does everyone dismiss, say Greek or Egyptian gods?