My reason for being atheist...

[Locut0s]

Last edited Sun Sep 1, 2013, 02:31 AM - Edit history (1)

There's nothing new here just a rant

Well I suppose the biggest reason is that I was thankfully raised as an atheist, thanks mom and dad!

But aside from that my arguments have always come from the Humanist side of things, as well as philosophy and science. You see I've always found it funny that the arguments that religious people often use to bolster their faith are the very ones that I find affirming of atheism. I've never understood why the existence of untold suffering in the world should cause one to cling tighter to their deities. Too me this is just clear evidence in there being no deities, either that or your god is spiteful and malevolent, and randomly so too. What more proof do I need that there is no god than the fact that the religious man on my right who went to Africa to feed the children in the name of god, who never sinned a day in his life, who gave away all he had to those more needy, this man's children die before he does and he himself get's cancer and dies painfully. While the man on my left sins all his life, he's raped women, does drugs, drinks, gambles, is an all round ass hole, and he lives peacefully into his late 90s. What kind of god is yours that lets this happen? I'm sorry but I don't want to go to your heaven.

I'm also baffled by those who claim to see the beauty in viewing the world as god's grand design. To me the idea of a grand designer, is bland and boring, it sucks the life out of what is otherwise, in the absence of religion, an EXTREMELY beautiful world. The astounding complexity of life and the universe is, again, proof to me that there is NO god, not that there is one. The watchmaker argument is intellectually empty and frankly rather horrifying. So I came across something that baffles the mind in its complexity and I basically say to myself well that's it I'm too scared to explain how this came about I'm just going to wipe my hands of it by saying SOMEBODY DID IT! How is that at all intellectually satisfying? Isn't it FAR more compelling to actually look at said watch, to examine each and every little gear, to see how they mesh, how one turns the other and how it all fits together and operates? God is just a way of looking at the amazing beauty of the universe, in the absence of god, and saying oh that's too scary I'm just going to throw a rug over that and not think about it. The idea that someone just waved a magic wand and it all came into existence is so mind-numbingly intellectually stifling!

And as a short argument I've yet to come across a better one than, I simply believe in one less god than you do.

[LostOne4Ever]

1. I agree

I find alot of believers think all of us doubt because of science, but my issue is theodicy and the existence of evil. I see the horrors of this world, where women are raped and have their arms cut off or a husband pouring acid on the face of his wife and daughter because the wife dared to ask for a divorce and I just can't accept the idea that there is a god.

I think even an indifferent god would be forced to action. It is possible an indifferent god exists but I just can't see it. Maybe god is malevolent but if that were so, then why is there good in the world? Ultimately I think Epicurus had it right:


[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:1em; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius:0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"][center]"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?"[/center]

To me this is the single most damning statement against theism, and given all the attempts by Theists from across the generations to answer this....they realize it as well. They have either come up with absurd explanations such as free will that fall apart upon the smallest of inquiry (not to mention it means life is a game to god and that our suffering is nothing but entertainment to him) or they hand wave the issue away by saying god's plans or reasons are unknowable ignoring that the logic still holds.

How can anyone believe in a world where we all die painfully, pointlessly, and in vain? A world were children are massacred and pedophiles get exalted? Where people die without ever getting justice? It is beyond me to understand this.

[center] [/center]

I find the god of Christianity particularly appalling. How can people believe that crap? How can they believe in a god that kills innocents without hesitation and punishes us for the sins of our ancestors? Who not only sanctions but blesses genocide and bigotry?

Would an all loving god would create a place like hell? Why would a benevolent god send people who spent their entire life sacrificing for others to hell over a simple mistake? We already suffered in life and our reward for that is even worse and more severe suffering in the afterlife for all eternity over a simple mistake? A mistake that god went out of his way to ensure we would make?

I can not count the sleepless nights I had as I began to lose faith in Christianity. Scared to death I was going to burn in hellfire. Salvation by faith and hell, the ball and chain that keeps us shackled to that slave religion. Those doctrines and original sin are some of the most evil and barbaric dogmas ever invented. Psychological torture to keep the believers from even considering other possibilities.

If there was a benevolent god then believing that shit would be an insult to him/her/it/them. To say I feel Jaded would be an understatement.

[center] [/center]

The watchmaker analogy is pretty common, but it has one major flaw that every theist overlooks. Its circular logic. The watch is complex so it must have a designer who is even more complex. And that designer him or herself and their inherent complexity must have had a designer and so on and so on until you reach god. But at the moment you mention god the argument falls apart because he must also have a designer! Then they say he does not need a designer because he is eternal. BUT THAT IS CONTRADICTING THE ORIGINAL PREMISE THE COMPLEXITY NECESSITATES A DESIGNER! Also, if god can be eternal why can't the universe be eternal too? Why bring in unnecessary complexity?

And as you said calling upon a god makes the beauty of this world less impressive. Every single tree and flower had to struggle against adversity and extinction to get here. Many holding on by a mere thread. The fact that they made it to this day and evolved the they have only adds to the feat. Saying god created them only takes away from that. Its like when a doctor saves a patient and rather than thanking the physician they thank god! Or when someone donates to a charity.

My shortest argument against theism would be to simply to link someone this picture. It makes me tear up just thinking about it. Why? Why would someone do that and why wouldn't a god do something to stop it?

[center] [/center]

All I can think is that is because there is no god...or that he/she is dead.

[Warpy]

2. My reason is a lot less grandiose

I just realized when I was a kid that there was nothing at the other end of the prayer line.

Well that and the fact that my good Catholic education was a whole lot of hooey.

I was 10.

[BlueJazz]

3. I'm going straight to hell but my attitude is good.

[Ron Obvious]

4. Agreed

I think my biggest gripe with religion is that it simply doesn't have any meaningful answers to the big questions that hold up to even the slightest scrutiny.

I find it baffling that otherwise intelligent people accept assertions as satisfactory answers.

Typical conversation:

Believer: "I know what caused the Big Bang. It was God".
Me: "No you don't. That's a content-free assertion that explains exactly nothing."
Believer: "Oh very nice, Mister Clever Dick. What do you think caused it then, eh?"
Me "I don't know. We may never know."
Believer: "How can you be content not knowing?
Me: "I don't mind not knowing. It's what keeps me searching for the answer."
Believer: "I just can't understand people like you. Wouldn't you rather know you're going to be reunited with dead loved ones after death?"
Me: "Sure. Why do you believe that's going to happen? I see no reason to believe that."
Believer: "I just know. I pity you."
Me: "I just can't understand people like you."

That's why I no longer bother discussing religion with people. I haven't heard a new argument in decades.

[dimbear]

6. " I haven't heard a new argument in decades."

Theology is the only field I know of where there are arguments so well known that they have nicknames. Reminds me of the convicts who got so tired of the only jokes they knew that they numbered them and just called out the numbers.

Everybody knows the rest of that story.

[Ron Obvious]

7. Yeah...

It's the way he tells them.

[rarigney]

5. Well said!

Last edited Sat Aug 31, 2013, 04:01 PM - Edit history (1)

I believe in god... as a creation of man, not as a creator of man. Since there has been written or spoken history of this world and the people that populate it, there have been gods. I believe that humans have a basic desire, even need, for explanations of the world around us. Many times the things we have witnessed have been unexplainable, except through the creation of a supreme being that rules all and causes the particular phenomenon we question.

Early cultures undoubtedly did not understand solar and lunar eclipses, for example. At some point, some clever person figured out a way to exploit that lack of understanding by explaining that an angry god has eaten the sun. "We must sacrifice a virgin to the sun god, then he will return the sun to us." Imagine the power of that earliest prophet.

All cultures throughout history have relied on gods to help them explain the unexplainable. The Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Native Americans, Incas, Mayas, Oriental cultures, Norsemen, and Vikings, all had their own gods. The "modern" christian god is just one of countless gods humans have created. Now we are to believe that this christian god is the one, the only way to eternal life.

There are still many things that we do not understand, but we keep searching, knowing that we will never have all the answers, but refusing to accept, "the will of god" as even one of the answers.

[defacto7]

8. I just love you people!

Freedom from believing in a god is incredibly freeing. I've never been happier than those times when new revelations of scientific observation bring me closer to understanding the universe and the reality of life trumps the myths of the ages.

There are a lot of great comment to a very nice OP! Thanks everyone for the ride.

[Locut0s]

9. Thanks for the thanks guys! :P nt.