Why don't you believe in God?

[Anonymous]

See #2 below...

faith? ?[feyth] –noun

1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability.

2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.

3. belief in god or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Belief is God is by faith, not argument.

Why do I need an argument for not believing if I do not have faith?

Sorry, belief in God is by faith . . . .

[Anonymous]

By the way, people who are happy are people with direction and meaning in their lives. Some people get that from religion but you can get it from other sources. To think that divorce and depression are the result of a lack of religion is a big leap.

[Anonymous]

PPs who say there is no evidence God exists, and that they believe in science rather than God:

What if science IS the evidence God exists? What kind of evidence would you prefer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here...thank you for your thoughtful responses...please keep them coming...I just wanted to clarify something important:

I did not mean that atheism=unhappy lives. Rather, I meant that many weighty topics are hashed out here on a daily basis, but almost wholly lacking from these discussions is faith. People seem to face the hardest issues of human life on their own, without any sense of a Truth larger than themselves. So I wondered why. Was that a deliberate, thoughtful decision? Or something that just never seemed important? And if it was a conscious decision, what motivated that choice?

I hope this makes sense. And I will gladly answer the opposite question, just not this moment. I really just want to hear from y'all for now.

I think that you are posing an interesting question but one that may be more relevant to someone who has now, or has had in the past, at least some degree of faith. As someone who doesn't believe in God and never has, it doesn't enter into the equation. I guess I fall under the category "never seemed important" but even that is assigning too much thought to it. It would be difficult for someone who has strong faith, as you describe it, to understand the total absence of it - just as it's difficult for me to really understand the presence of it.

But, everyone reaches their beliefs differently. Some people who don't believe in God may have come to that via a deliberate, thoughtful decision.

So, I guess you may be looking for people who aren't "born atheists," if I may coin a term. Other posters have commented on their religious upbringing, usually in the negative, as to why they have the belief system they currently have. I have had no such upbringing and no real negative connotations with the religious community, outside of what is normally found in any community of people (i.e., all groups of people have their bad apples and their slightly off ones).

My DH is one example. He was brought up in a religious household and has plenty of negative things to say about the whole business. I know deep down, though, he still is impacted by it and he can't completely shake the beliefs taught to him as a child. I've been non-religious my whole life and I'm far more tolerant than he is.

In sum, there are many different types of atheists or nonbelievers, or what have you. Accordingly, you'll get a lot of different answers. But, that doesn't make the question not worth asking!

[Anonymous]

I believe in science.

I agree that to believe, you must have faith. I don't have faith. For one, I don't need to pin hopes and dreams on faith, as if I pray hard enough this will happen and that won't, according to God's will. All kinds of bad things happen to people despite their having devout faith. The answer for why those tragedies happen, from those with faith is, you just haven't waited long enough to see God's plan, but you will.

Second, scripture seems to be a big part of most conventional religions, and adds to the foundation of faith. People look there for answers to reinforce their faith. In most cases (except the Book of Mormon maybe?), these things were written very long ago by, shall we say, uneducated people. Before people understood science. I see religion as method of controlling society and as a way for the unenlightened to explain the unexplainable, back in times when doing that perhaps made more sense. To me the Bible is a funny book of nonsense stories (an Arc? animals two by two? woman made from man's rib?), full of phrases that are ripe for exploitation when taken literally, and full of prejudices.

I also have a big problem with the seeming inconsistencies, such as if you are a non-believer, you will burn in hell for all eternity, no matter what kind of righteous life on earth you have led. That is directly inconsistent with the concept people push of a loving, forgiving God. I think there are strange, miraculous things that exist, like life itself, that transcend the notion of God, and I am more open to the idea of a "force for good." But definitely no religion, and no dude in heaven with a master plan.

I have wrestled with it, and I do not have a tight argument. But when the only argument on the other side is the equivalent of "because I said so" I think that is weak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PPs who say there is no evidence God exists, and that they believe in science rather than God:

What if science IS the evidence God exists? What kind of evidence would you prefer?

Wow, I guess you really believe in "intelligent design." If science is the evidence that a god exists, there is no way to explain the diversity of religions and different gods that humans believe in.

Second, if science is the evidence that a god exists, why does science directly contravene what many religious doctrines say? Prohibitions of certain kinds of food. Concerns about homosexuality. Creation of the earth in 7 days. The idea the earth is 5,000 years old.

I will just end with a little quote from Zora Neale Hurston: "Gods always behave like the people who make them."

[Anonymous]

I'll preface this by saying that I do believe in God. Sort of.

I was brought up in a catholic family. My grandparents on both sides were very devout and they felt it was important that I got a religious education - which I did, up to a point. My parents are not practicing, so it wasn't important to them one way or another, they let the grandparents take the lead on this issue (and I spent a lot of time with my grandparents as a child). Once a teenager, I started asking the hard questions, like why is there suffering in the world if God is benevolent and omnipotent. The answer I came up with was that if God existed, it could be one or the other, but not both. So I guess I imagined a God more like the Greek gods: well meaning (most of the time), but far from perfect. I could live with that for a while.

Now I tend to think about God more as a life force, or a spark. Maybe the sum total of all souls everywhere. I still believe that something bigger than us exists out there (and this seems to be the conclusion I have to draw from science as well). I don't believe that God created us, but he might have sparked the creation of our universe and then stood back and watched - like a science experiment of sorts. I also think that Jesus was God's son only in the way we are all God's children - we all have something in us that makes us what we are - fallible and imperfect and all. So in a way I do believe in God, but it's my own personal idea of God, not the one most people tend to think about when they say the are believers. I am however a big non-believer in organized religion and I find proselytizing very condescending and insulting.

[Anonymous]

Re: a God gene: I have seen lifelong devout believers all of a sudden stop believing after a stroke. I have seen individuals lose their faith when they started certain psychoactive drugs-- and not in a "oh no, I'm so lost" way, just in a "what was THAT all about?" way.

To me, this says that religious faith is a question of brain chemistry. Some have it, some don't. And that brings us back to science. Science is increasingly proving that the things we used to ascribe to god actually have other, physical, provable causes.

Faith is a default position, it's the lack of a better idea.

[Anonymous]

I see the modern faithful as people who are scared, and want to have hope that this isn't all there is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PPs who say there is no evidence God exists, and that they believe in science rather than God:

What if science IS the evidence God exists? What kind of evidence would you prefer?

"What if?" is a hypothesis, not proof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been reading DCUM for a while now, and I feel steeped in broken marriages, angry/depressed/overwhelmed parents, misbehaving children, and general snarkiness. Almost never do I see a reference to a deep and profound faith, or even a thought about a Creator. I do see plenty of snide comments about faith being only for the stupid, the weak, the unthinking, but I can't recall a single specific reason as to why belief in a Creator is so obviously dumb.

So now is your chance: if you do not believe in God, why not? Have you wrestled with this question and constructed a tight argument, or do you just not particularly care?

I do. I believe in Poseidon. Don't you? If not, why not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re: a God gene: I have seen lifelong devout believers all of a sudden stop believing after a stroke. I have seen individuals lose their faith when they started certain psychoactive drugs-- and not in a "oh no, I'm so lost" way, just in a "what was THAT all about?" way.

To me, this says that religious faith is a question of brain chemistry. Some have it, some don't. And that brings us back to science. Science is increasingly proving that the things we used to ascribe to god actually have other, physical, provable causes.

Faith is a default position, it's the lack of a better idea.

I don't see how that makes sense. Brain damage can cause just about any cognitive or behavioral change. Losing religion is one of a thousand possible effects. Losing your ability to speak due to a stroke does not mean that speech is a matter of a certain brain chemistry. It means that brain damage causes a loss of the ability. Brain damage can cause you to not recognize your DH. It doesn't mean that love is a matter of a love gene.

[Anonymous]

I don't believe in him because he doesn't exist, just like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus (although those guys are a lot more fun!).

I understand why people are religious and theists, it's just not an element in my life. I am happy and I have a happy marriage as well. I doubt all (or even most) of the angry, stressed out people on the forums are atheists.

[Anonymous]

OP, I would be curious to hear what you think of the responses. Not your response to them, in religious terms, but what you now think of why some people do not believe.