Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Why I Don't Believe In God!

Mr & Mrs Atheist, I am curious as to your reason(s) for why you do not believe there is a God?

17 comments:

Matthew said...

No evidence

PersonalFailure said...

I was raised Catholic. I had trouble with believing by the age of 6. There's just no proof. Remove the Bible, of which outside historical evidence is slim to none, and what do you have? The same uncorroborated evidence any religion has.

If you really are interested in what atheists think, there are any number of atheists blogs/sites you can visit for more information.

PersonalFailure said...

Oh, and like a lot of atheists, I'm Ms. Atheist.

ExPatMatt said...

because, if there was a God, He wouldn't let Himself be represented by dishonest men like you?

Seriously, one of the final nails in my disbelief coffin is that the 'True Believers' (such as yourself) seem incapable of hold an honest and intelligent discussion about anything relating to either religion or science. If you really had God on your side, y'all wouldn't need to lie and deceive so much.

Also, there is no evidence of any gods.

Anna Sethe said...

Are there no female atheists in your world or are you generally not interested in the opinion of women?

NayLahKnee said...

wow - so much harshness and negativity. A fool says in his heart there is no God. Not my words.........just saying.

PersonalFailure said...

Yes, you did say it.

Allow me to repeat myself: the Bible is no more significant to me than Harry Potter. So calling me a fool by quoting the Bible just makes you rude. And so much less likely to listen to anything else you have to say.

Good job.

Sam said...

no evidence
Matthew, is not the very fact that you are fighting against a God you don't believe exists evidence enough? You see, I don't believe in the tooth fairy, and therefore I would not waste an ounce of my energy, or hours of my time in blog after blog fighting against people who do! I have no desire, no urge, no compulsion to waste my time in such a meaningless pursuit! Why is it, do you think, that Atheists would spend tens of thousands of dollars to run advertising campaigns against a God they don’t believe exists? I would not part with a single cent to fight against the existence of Santa Claus! I would submit to you the reason that Atheists go to all this time, effort and expense is because they really hate the God of the bible! Hate Him enough to attempt to wipe out the memory of Him – not only in their minds, but the minds of everyone else! But they can’t see that their fighting against Him is evidence in itself!

Sam said...

PersonalFailure said...
I was raised Catholic. I had trouble with believing by the age of 6.
I would submit to you that this is probably because you never heard the true gospel being preached to you at Mass. How can you believe in something you have never heard the truth about? The Catholic church are leading millions up the garden path! Much of their dogma is non biblical! They preach traditions of men, not the Word of God. I would encourage you, please take a bible and read it, and see for yourself!

There's just no proof.
The bible testifies there were thousands of eyewitnesses to Christ’s life, and hundreds to his death and resurrection! We have no eyewitnesses to the big bang and abiogenesis – but that doesn’t stop you believing that!

Remove the Bible, of which outside historical evidence is slim to none, and what do you have? The same uncorroborated evidence any religion has.
Yes. The bible is the Word of God: the main revelation of God’s character, his nature, his redemptive work through Christ! But there are other historical evidences: Cornelius Tacitus- roman historian c.A.D. 55-120, Lucian of Samosata- greek satirist- later half of second century, Suetonius- Roman historian, Pliny the Younger- Governor of Bithynia is Asia Minor A.D.112, Thallus- one of first secular writers 52 A.D, Phlegon- another secular authority, Mara Bar-Serapion- syrian A.D. 70

If you really are interested in what atheists think, there are any number of atheists blogs/sites you can visit for more information.
If you could take the time to point me to a couple of good ones, I would appreciate that!

PersonalFailure said...

You really think I've never read a Bible? I own 17 different translations of the Bible, and I've read every one. In fact, I have large portions of the Bible memorized.

I've been proselytized to by every major denomination of Christianty, a couple of dozen minor denominations, and I collect those hateful Chick Tracts.

The problem is most certainly not that I have not heard of Jesus before.

PersonalFailure said...

Matthew, is not the very fact that you are fighting against a God you don't believe exists evidence enough? You see, I don't believe in the tooth fairy, and therefore I would not waste an ounce of my energy, or hours of my time in blog after blog fighting against people who do!

Is anyone trying to pass laws based on what the tooth fairy told them to do? Is anyone calling you immoral and dangerous because you don't believe in the tooth fairy? Has believe in the tooth fairy ever motivated genocide, crusades and witch trials?

Geds said...

I was raised in a Bible Church (read: Evangelical/Fundamentalist) and briefly attended a different Bible Church, a couple different Baptist churches, and a Presbyterian church. I worked with a youth group for four and a half years. I went on several missions trips. In college I spent a year as the Outreach Coordinator for my college's InterVarsity Chapter. Back in 2006 I was accepted in to the M.Div program at Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL. I never attended because between filling out the application and having to decide to actually show up for classes I realized that to continue on that path would be to continue to lie to myself.

For I am an atheist. And it shocks everyone who hears it, both those who I knew from back in the day and those who meet me now and learn what my life's path was just three short years ago. And believe me, I've heard all the sputtering accusations. I wasn't a "real Christian." I wasn't hanging out with "the right kind of Christians." I wasn't going to "the right kind of church." I'm "mad at god." I'm "rebelling." I "just want to go have fun."

The best part of it is that most of those lines come from people I used to go to church with. They come from people who used to call me "brother" and respect me as a "real man of god." But now to former friends I'm some sort of leperous freak.

It doesn't bother me, though. Because what I realized is that my Evangelical upbringing was filled with lies and fairy tales. God never intervened, people just prayed, then when things worked out they said, "Oh, hey, look at what god did." It was all about filling in the blanks after the fact. When I realized that it caused me to actually start asking the scary questions and not accept the pat answers any more ("Oh, you just need to read your Bible some more," or, "Well you just need a mentor," or, "God works in mysterious ways"). I suppose it helps that I'm a historian and a pretty good one, if I do say so myself.

I learned how the Bible was put together. I learned how it was edited and redacted over the years. I noticed all those places where the Bible made historical references that weren't backed up anywhere else (for the record, you claim external revelation from Tacitus, Pliny, Lucian and several others. Got any citations for that?) or were completely wrong. My favorite: the book of Daniel claims that Darius took over Babylon, then was replaced by Cyrus when it was Cyrus the Great who conquered Babylon and there was another king between him and Darius. My second favorite: the entire birth account of Jesus with the census and everything else is totally uncorroborated by the rest of the historical record. There simply was no census in any of the years which are given as Jesus's birth and there's no way the Romans would have set up a census that required people to travel back to the town of their birth. That would have been a huge mess. It was a story told later in an attempt to legitimize Jesus as a fulfillment of prophecy.

So, long story short, I stopped believing in the Christian story and the Christian god. I have no evidence that there's any sort of interventionist deity even after 25 years of constantly being encouraged to look for the signs. Therefore, I no longer believe in a god who cares about what happens on this little planet. As such, my default setting these days is atheism.

Eternal Critic said...

You need to check your references Sam. None of those accounts you refer to are contemporary to the supposed events of the life of Yeshua, and none of them corroborate any supernatural occurrence.

Matthew said...

Actually, I'm not "fighting against god" - if you want to believe, that's fine by me, and if I had the authority I would never ban religion, church gatherings, etc. What I fight against is people who deliberately or otherwise distort science and try claim that creationism is equally as valid a theory as evolution.

Obviously I don't hate god, as I don't believe in his existence. What I will say is that I find the god character in the bible a completely disagreeable character and it amazes me that people would want to worship him in the first place.

Sam said...

You really think I've never read a Bible? I own 17 different translations of the Bible, and I've read every one. In fact, I have large portions of the Bible memorized.

I've been proselytized to by every major denomination of Christianty, a couple of dozen minor denominations, and I collect those hateful Chick Tracts.

The problem is most certainly not that I have not heard of Jesus before.


PersonalFailure, you lack just one thing... repent and believe the gospel!

Sam said...

Is anyone trying to pass laws based on what the tooth fairy told them to do?
I'm not sure, are there any? I doubt there would be! The average person would not waste their time fighting for or against something they know is not real!

Is anyone calling you immoral and dangerous because you don't believe in the tooth fairy?
Not believing in the tooth fairy, Santa or God doesn't make you immoral and dangerous. You know that! What comes out of a persons own heart is what makes them immoral or dangerous! What's in your heart PersonalFailure?

Has believe in the tooth fairy ever motivated genocide, crusades and witch trials?
I'm sure there are plenty of people responsible for many great attrocities who have taught their kids that both the Tooth Fairy and Santa are real! Does that mean the Tooth Fairy or Santa are responsible? Of course not! The wicked person committing the wicked act is responsible!

PersonalFailure, if I was to go out tomorrow and start a horrifying killing spree in your name, would you be responsible for that? Would people conclude that you don't exist because of my actions? Nope!

You would have read 1 John 3:15 at least 17 times (once for each of the 17 translations of the Bible that you own), and have found that "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him." Adolph Hitler, though he claimed to be a follower of Christ, was no more a true follower of Christ than you are right now! Don't be fooled! There are a great many professing christians in this world who live more like their father the Devil than they do Jesus Christ - their supposed Saviour and Lord! Calling oneself a Christian doesn't make it so!

NayLahKnee said...

@Personal Failure

Your response is laced with so much malice...I dont argue the existance of Jesus. If you dont believe that is on you and my only focsu is to pray for those of the world that are just like you.

The rudeness you are "reading" is coming from your own mind....