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Why don't you believe in God/s?
- Thread starter janesix
- Start date
Mainly because the people who claim to know about God consistently demonstrate a lack of knowledge and understanding.
Oftentimes they don't even understand concepts like "evidence" .
I believe in god. It's religion that I don't find at all credible.
Tom
I don't think I ever really believed. I was raised in a religious household, but in spite of repeated, sincere attempts, I never got an 'answer' from prayer. This was probably the basic reason I started to reject what the older people taught me.
Later, I found that all of the main arguments *for* the existence of God were flawed and there are much better explanations for most of the questions I was interested in (provided by scientific exploration). I also learned some of the history of the main religious traditions and that didn't inspire confidence that those promoting faith actually knew anything more than any other person.
Finally, I started looking closer into what it means to exist and what it *could* mean to even say a supernatural exists. Currently, I find the concept of a supernatural to be self-contradictory.
So, from an initial position of doubt brought about by lack of evidence, the confidence that, not only is there not convincing evidence, but it is very unlikely there *could* be convincing evidence.
The *only* out I have seen so far is to identify the universe as God (a version of pantheism), but I find that to be more of a dodge than a serious position.
Later, I found that all of the main arguments *for* the existence of God were flawed and there are much better explanations for most of the questions I was interested in (provided by scientific exploration). I also learned some of the history of the main religious traditions and that didn't inspire confidence that those promoting faith actually knew anything more than any other person.
Finally, I started looking closer into what it means to exist and what it *could* mean to even say a supernatural exists. Currently, I find the concept of a supernatural to be self-contradictory.
So, from an initial position of doubt brought about by lack of evidence, the confidence that, not only is there not convincing evidence, but it is very unlikely there *could* be convincing evidence.
The *only* out I have seen so far is to identify the universe as God (a version of pantheism), but I find that to be more of a dodge than a serious position.
OMGThanks for sharing.
Tom
Epic Beard Man
Bearded Philosopher
Sometimes I believe the worse people to propagate the belief in God are the ones at the pulpit. I think that is why I like Islamic philosophy so much more specifically, Aristotelian philosophy as produced by Ibn Rushd (or known as Averroes). Unfortunately in southern Spain a lot of his works were burned as they were considered heretical.
Mind reading seems to be one of the superpowers religionists get from Holy Spirit.
Tom
I think it's because I didn't have to,not an option for all.
Rational Agnostic
Well-Known Member
As far as the gods of typical religions go, well, since they perform miracles, which share the same definition of magic, they are violating the laws of physics and thus are physically impossible (similar to Jack in the Beanstalk, Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc). But I don't rule out the possibility of deities that don't break the laws of physics. Deistic and pantheistic conceptions of god are interesting to me.
I guess I just lack the inclination to think of deities as literal entities that actually exist.
Back in childhood I assumed the Bible to be a book of fables. It shocked me out of my mind to eventually realize that many people assume otherwise.
Cobol
Code Jockey
My top 5 reasons
1. No evidence and illogical
2. I've been good, and life has been good without the concept
3. Humans are insignificant in the vast sea of the universe
4. Life itself would be more disturbing if god existed. Preponderance of suffering etc.
5. Life is material, Not supernatural
1. No evidence and illogical
2. I've been good, and life has been good without the concept
3. Humans are insignificant in the vast sea of the universe
4. Life itself would be more disturbing if god existed. Preponderance of suffering etc.
5. Life is material, Not supernatural
I just had to do big font shock red for no particular reason than the sharp eyed comment about you not being an atheist!!!
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
It got to a point one day that nothing was really going on. Sure people were talking about God singing about God, acting as if God was there, but when you take all that out of the equation.
You notice that there is really nothing going on in respect to that.
I remember very clearly when I noticed this.
It was the first day of 2nd grade. My teacher, Sister Loratine, put a big glass jar on her desk. She announced to the class that she expected it to be filled with our money before the end of the school year. So the church could feed poor kids in Africa.
My family was nothing like poor. But my parents didn't entrust 7 yo with much cash. I wasn't even allowed to cross the street. I figured that since Jesus was God's son, He probably had a way bigger allowance than I did. So I asked Sister Loratine, "How much is Jesus putting in there?".
I didn't get a very good answer. But I had discovered The Problem of Evil. And after that, I started looking a lot more closely at all the answers that religionists gave me about God and morality and such. I quickly realized that they didn't have answers to much of anything, except how to get along with other religionists.
I felt no need for that. I became an atheist.
Sort of.
Tom
Samantha Rinne
Resident Genderfluid Writer/Artist
I wonder if that's so. Because it sounds like you're bored from stuff not happening. But let's consider something.
You're not on the street, are you?
You have enough to eat?
You want something you can probably just buy it, not have a Shadow Governor tell you that the People are suffering?
Sometimes it's what's NOT happening that is a miracle. That you can be thankful for.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
If you are talking about diet(ies), I never had a motivation to look. Even if I did, since I dont believe something outside us comes from nothing, Id need to find criteria and tools to which I can detect dieties.
Samantha Rinne
Resident Genderfluid Writer/Artist
Dieties? Are you overweight?
Deities.
If you cannot spell the word right, it leads us to question whether you really understand its meaning.
Don't really see a need for a God.
I understand some may need a God for emotional support. I'm not judging, if it's their need who am I to tell them otherwise.
Myself, and I imagine many other folks can get through life emotionally healthy without a God.
Talking about somebody's autocorrect instead of their post doesn't give you any credibility whatsoever.
In case you care about that.
Tom