Why Don't I Believe In God?
Why don't I believe in God? Simply put, I am incapable of believing something until I have evidence for it. This is the way my mind works. This of course would lead a religious person to believe I was made this way. Assuming for a moment God is real, wouldn't that lead to the conclusion that I was made to not believe? It would follow then, that God made me to go to hell. I ask you then, even if that God was real, is he worthy of worship?
There are millions of children dying everyday. Millions of adults die everyday as well. Millions of people suffer with mental and physical illnesses around the world. There are killers and rapist. There are liers and cheaters. There are people that take every advantage they are able. There are wars, suicide bombings, and mass shootings, distrust and hate. All of these notable things happen every day. Yet we see people thanking God for found car keys. We see plans crash with hundreds of people dead, yet people thank God for a single person saved. What about all the people that died? Are people supposed to thank God for all the people that died. Even if God was real, would he be worthy of worship allowing all of these horrible things to happen?
Every argument I've read or watched for the existence of God has a rebuttal argument for it. This debate has been going on since the beginning of religion, and continues today. On the religious side, there is no new evidence, and no new arguments, just many new forms of the same old ones. All of which have been invalidated in one or more ways. The opposite is true for the opposition. New evidence is found everyday that has not and cannot be refuted.
Everyday science and scientists discover new things about the world we live in and the universe in general. We have discovered planets around other stars. We have found giant black holes in the middle of galaxies. We have seen into atoms and the particles that make up the universe. We have seen the radiation left over from the big bang. We have seen further into the universe than ever before, and thus back in time to mere millennia after the big bang. We have scoured the universe making maps along the way. Nowhere have we found evidence for anything we could possibly call supernatural, spirits, or God.
Medical science has probed every part of the human body in ways that had never had been dreamed of years ago. We are closer than ever before to understanding how the mind works. We are beginning to understand DNA, and the foundations of life itself. There is still tons of things to explore and much more to learn. However, through everything we have learned, we still have not seen any evidence of a soul.
Everyday science and scientists discover new things about the world we live in and the universe in general. We have discovered planets around other stars. We have found giant black holes in the middle of galaxies. We have seen into atoms and the particles that make up the universe. We have seen the radiation left over from the big bang. We have seen further into the universe than ever before, and thus back in time to mere millennia after the big bang. We have scoured the universe making maps along the way. Nowhere have we found evidence for anything we could possibly call supernatural, spirits, or God.
Medical science has probed every part of the human body in ways that had never had been dreamed of years ago. We are closer than ever before to understanding how the mind works. We are beginning to understand DNA, and the foundations of life itself. There is still tons of things to explore and much more to learn. However, through everything we have learned, we still have not seen any evidence of a soul.
With all of this lack of evidence, a reasonable mind can only come to one conclusion. There is no reason to believe God exist. This statement doesn't mean a god cannot exist, nor does it mean that a god does not exist. There is simply no reason the think that a god is out there. The only evidence to show a god exist is what people have said. I find this analogous to when I was young and a friend would say he had a girlfriend in another town. I didn't know her, nor would I have ever have met her. I of course didn't believe him. However, that did not mean he didn't have a girlfriend in another town. While I'm not the first person to make this point, in fact it's been made so often I have no clue who to credit, I think it's a very valid point. In our everyday lives we do not believe things without evidence, so why would we make an exception for religion?
I have been told by religious people that if I read the Bible I will understand why they believe. My quick response to that is if they read the Bible they will see why I don't believe. That may seem a bit like of a snarky response, but it is true. You can read some of the things I have said on this topic before here. The basics of this is simple, there is a lot of horrible things in the Bible. Anyone that read it as a book and not "The word of God" would see it as a fascinating piece of literature. With no connection with reality whatsoever.
There is one question that has come up while talking with religious people that in the moment I found a bit difficult to come up with a valid response. However, after a bit of thinking and self reflection I think I have found a good answer. The question was, "How can you not believe your kids are a blessing?" At the time I was asked this question, I don't think I had that good of an answer. It's simply something I have never questioned before. My response was something along the lines, "My kids are special to me, because they are a continuation of myself." That is not that bad of an answer and points in the direction a better answer would go. After more reflection I have a come to a more indepth response.
Google gives the definition in this context of blessing as "God's favor". I don't dispute that definition. However, that is not how I see my children. Billions of years of evolution has lead to a driving instinct to procreate in every species. Humans have evolved into a social construct in which we care for our children much longer than most species. One of the ways evolution has ensured this, is to make us have strong emotional attachment to our children and others. In the many years that we are responsible for our children's needs, we teach them how to live in our social constructs. We teach them a good deal of what we have learned throughout our lives, and of those that have lived before us. We invest so much of ourselves in our children. In a way they are our continuation. So much of the essence of what makes us who we are we pass on to our children. There is no doubt that every child is similar to their parents in many ways. This is due to how we raise them. Thus giving us somewhat of a form of immortality. Our genes will go on. Our DNA will persist. Thus, our children are a continuation of ourselves.
What this really all boils down to, is religious people have made every logical fallacy there is to accept an unbelievably small fraction of possibility as fact. Ignoring all evidence against and manufacturing remarkably frail circumstantial and failed arguments for believing a book as reality. This has been done before in recent history.
H. G. Wells wrote a book called "The War of the Worlds" and in 1968 it was brought to life in a radio broadcast. The public took this broadcast as real news. The repercussions of this event lasted until the early 80's. While I was not around for the original broadcast of this book, my mother was. She told me how scared she and her family was at the time. They really thought aliens were attacking. I was dumbfounded until I later heard a rebroadcast of this wonderful story. I could see then how if you missed a couple of minutes of the beginning you could mistake the whole thing as a real news broadcast. Since it happened in 1968, who is to say a similar thing didn't happen a few thousand years ago?
I'm just some random guy named Rug. There is no reason to believe what I say. I encourage you to research your beliefs. Question everything to know to be true. Find evidence to support what you believe, or dissolution yourself of these falsities. Not only will you have a firmer grasp of what is real and what is not, you will be able to convince others with your evidence. You don't have to take my word for it. Try it out yourselves. All I have said, is what I think and what I hold to be true.
I have been told by religious people that if I read the Bible I will understand why they believe. My quick response to that is if they read the Bible they will see why I don't believe. That may seem a bit like of a snarky response, but it is true. You can read some of the things I have said on this topic before here. The basics of this is simple, there is a lot of horrible things in the Bible. Anyone that read it as a book and not "The word of God" would see it as a fascinating piece of literature. With no connection with reality whatsoever.
There is one question that has come up while talking with religious people that in the moment I found a bit difficult to come up with a valid response. However, after a bit of thinking and self reflection I think I have found a good answer. The question was, "How can you not believe your kids are a blessing?" At the time I was asked this question, I don't think I had that good of an answer. It's simply something I have never questioned before. My response was something along the lines, "My kids are special to me, because they are a continuation of myself." That is not that bad of an answer and points in the direction a better answer would go. After more reflection I have a come to a more indepth response.
Google gives the definition in this context of blessing as "God's favor". I don't dispute that definition. However, that is not how I see my children. Billions of years of evolution has lead to a driving instinct to procreate in every species. Humans have evolved into a social construct in which we care for our children much longer than most species. One of the ways evolution has ensured this, is to make us have strong emotional attachment to our children and others. In the many years that we are responsible for our children's needs, we teach them how to live in our social constructs. We teach them a good deal of what we have learned throughout our lives, and of those that have lived before us. We invest so much of ourselves in our children. In a way they are our continuation. So much of the essence of what makes us who we are we pass on to our children. There is no doubt that every child is similar to their parents in many ways. This is due to how we raise them. Thus giving us somewhat of a form of immortality. Our genes will go on. Our DNA will persist. Thus, our children are a continuation of ourselves.
What this really all boils down to, is religious people have made every logical fallacy there is to accept an unbelievably small fraction of possibility as fact. Ignoring all evidence against and manufacturing remarkably frail circumstantial and failed arguments for believing a book as reality. This has been done before in recent history.
H. G. Wells wrote a book called "The War of the Worlds" and in 1968 it was brought to life in a radio broadcast. The public took this broadcast as real news. The repercussions of this event lasted until the early 80's. While I was not around for the original broadcast of this book, my mother was. She told me how scared she and her family was at the time. They really thought aliens were attacking. I was dumbfounded until I later heard a rebroadcast of this wonderful story. I could see then how if you missed a couple of minutes of the beginning you could mistake the whole thing as a real news broadcast. Since it happened in 1968, who is to say a similar thing didn't happen a few thousand years ago?
I'm just some random guy named Rug. There is no reason to believe what I say. I encourage you to research your beliefs. Question everything to know to be true. Find evidence to support what you believe, or dissolution yourself of these falsities. Not only will you have a firmer grasp of what is real and what is not, you will be able to convince others with your evidence. You don't have to take my word for it. Try it out yourselves. All I have said, is what I think and what I hold to be true.
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