Why don't you believe in God?
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Anonymous
I think the problem there is that all of the "arguments for the existence of God" have little appeal to the non-believer. That's because they're either inherently circular ("God must exist, because people *really* believe in him."), or just logically incoherent (e.g. Pascal's Wager). |
Anonymous
Actually free will is problematic for nonbelievers, too. All scientific inquiry leads to the conclusion that free will is an illusion. |
Anonymous
| I haven't read all the posts, so excuse me if I've touched on what other PPs have written. I'm an agnostic for sure, even though I was raised a Christian. I really WANT to believe. I think life would be easier if I had blind faith and something to cling to in hard times. I just have doubt, especially that any one religion can say that it is the right and true path. Most major religions have one "Yahweh" type figure and one major prophet. Believe me, I would like to say that Christ is my Savior, I really would. My mom has a strong faith and it's really helped her over the years. With all of that being said, I also don't like the way right wing conservatives have hijacked Christianity; that's distasteful to me. If I did come back to church, it would have to be a progressive, liberal congregation. |
Anonymous
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Have you seen the movie "Religulous" - Bill Mayher?
This will answer your question. There are other gods who existed before Jesus who have the exact same birthday, all had 12 disciples and all arose from the dead etc. They were recorded historically as existing before Jesus. They faded away (can't remember their names) and Jesus made it mainstream. This is also brought up in the movie Religulous. |
Anonymous
Really, you are going to get your religious information from a talk show host? |
Anonymous
PP, I am with you on this one! I was raised an atheist in an Eastern European country; our teachers were quoting Karl Marx who said "Religion is the opiate of the masses", and back then, I thought 'the opiate' meant a way to deceive the masses. Now I see that 'the opiate' might mean an anesthetic, a way to cope with harsh realities and unpredictability of life. To that effect, I did try to find God, I even got baptized at the good ole age of 30.. But deep down, I still doubt, and I still have an issue with 'organised religion'. Just like other PPs, I really WANT to believe, especially given the fact that I'm going through some very hard times.. But whenever my friends tell me to go to a confession, or a service, something inside of me rebells. Don't know if it answers your question, OP. I guess the reason I don't quite believe in God is that I was raised that way. Wish it were not the case. |
Anonymous
What sort of scientific evidence is there for a god? None. In fact, scientific evidence tends to disprove things that were formally attributed to gods. Of course, the purpose of science is not to prove or disprove god. It only deals with things that has tangible objective evidence. |
Anonymous
| I guess to me it just seems obvious that there is no God. A few minutes thought is all it takes. Look at all the religions with their very different takes on God/gods. Aztecs ripping the hearts out of babies to placate the rain god etc. They are primitive stories people come up with to explain the world. I see no reason why the Christian God, with his creating Jesus through a miraculous virgin birth etc. is in any way to be preferred to Zeus or Thor or whoever. Why should one set of stories be more true than another? Now, maybe one of them is right and the others wrong? Either way, all the "religious" people are rejecting a whole lot more religions than they are accepting! |
Anonymous
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OP again...I really appreciate the conversation.
I promised to share my thoughts about God. Let me begin by explaining why I did not believe in God. I thought God, if He did exist, was a sadist, a horrible tyrant, a narcissist. He wanted to be worshipped? He wanted us to obey? He made all these rules that would make me miserable? He set us up to fail? He could have done so many things better. He could have made us all automatically want to do whatever it was He arbitrarily wanted us to do, instead of letting everything get so f---ed up. If He could order the universe to spin in harmony, how hard would it have been to order our human natures to stay harmonious? I read Dostoyevsky and cried until I threw up during the scene of the little boy torn to pieces by wild dogs. I looked at my boyfriend and wanted to have sex with him. I saw myself as strong and smart and I knew I wanted to live my life in freedom. Freedom trumped some out of touch silent being who was trying to tell me what to do. Then I just ceased to think about God at all. He was never discussed in my classes in college, or by my friends at work, and God, faith, and religion became cultural allegiances, irrational but generally cute traditions that people donned in nostalgia, but it had no connection to my intellectual, emotional, or personal life. I wanted to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. I was kind, generous, loyal, and socially conscious. I was making the world a better place. God truly had no part in my life, and I was doing fabulously well. I was madly in love, a perfectionist, on my way to big things. |
Anonymous
Belief in a particular religion and belief in God are two separate issues. |
Anonymous
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For me, it's because I know too much about the history of religion to take any religion seriously. Humans learned in history that claiming a special relationship with god is an excellent way to control people. it's been a highly successful tactic that has harmed a lot of people (primarily women) along the way. just look at how the modern bible developed and you won't see the hand of god at work - you'll see the hand of manipulative men claiming to speak for god. it's sad.
leaving organized religion (i was raised catholic) is the first step toward not believing in god. i'm still on the fence about whether i'm an atheist or not, but it doesn't help me believe in god when i see religion to be such a horrible manipulation of people. |
Anonymous
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I am glad to see that there are a lot more non-believers than I expected. I just don't believe in a deity. I have not seen any proof that a God exist.
I cannot understand how a rational person can believe in the Bible. It's like a fairy tale for children, but with murder and incest. I also do not understand how people still practice Sharia Law under where a sexual slavery is condoned, a girl as young as 8 years old can be married off, to prove rape, a woman must have 4 male witnesses, a Muslim woman must cover every inch of her body which is considered a sexual organ..... ugh, I could go on and on about Islam. |
Anonymous
Maybe, maybe not. If you don't believe in any religion then your belief in God would tend to be pretty amorphous and meaningless. It is a slippery slope towards agnosticism and atheism. |
Anonymous
| church is too expensive, had to stop going. |
Anonymous
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I see religion as a social construct - something that has given society coherence and rules to follow. That's why all religions have certain things in common. Unfortunately they often include elements of sexism - keeping women in their place.
This was needed in the days when societies were not well connected, when it was a mystery how the world worked, when little was known of medicine or psychology, etc. I, for one, do not need the rules of a religion to operate my life with morals. In fact, I see so many cases of so-called religious people behaving with very poor morals and judgment. I feel at peace with my life, my moral dilemmas, life and death, etc. without religion, most likely because I was raised without it. I think the world would be a much better place without religions. |