The best degree class you can get from an English/Welsh university.
There is a genetic component of religiosity, 40-50% genetic.
Personally I think I may be genetically prone. And I think that is partly why I was so drawn to singularitarianism, it can be religion for agnostics. You have a rapture, a utopia, eternal life, a divine plan, etc. However I doubt I’ll be alive to see it. I’m sure human problem solving will leap far beyond current abilities, but not on the timelines given.
As far as compelling arguments for god, I don’t see any. I believe in other things, but an all powerful, all knowing god is not something I see evidence for. Also consider how long evolution takes. 3 billion years to go from single celled life to multicellular life. If things were designed or intelligently bred, then they would go much much much faster. Unless the plan for god was to just create ‘life’ and see what happens. But that is deism.
Disagree. If people go around telling the world about this all-powerful all-knowing being that created the world, no less, but yet is invisible, but it must be true because this old book says so, why should I spend even a second of my time taking any of that seriously?
yes, and it’s not a massive brag as lots of people get them but …I did work hard at it and I’m quietly proud of it so if I can’t sneak it in somewhere then what’s the point? 
To be honest, I’d wouldn’t dream of telling anyone that I know. My wife knows but other than me and the university, no one else does.
And when you consider how strong those feelings are and how much we’d like to know that something else was keeping us safe then it is no surprise that we create supernatural beings.
I’m an atheist and an antitheist (of the Hitchens kind), and a good one too, I think.
But I’m troubled by a couple things.
As I understand cosmology today, the universe is infinite in size, and therefore anything that is possible is happening in an infinite number of places (albeit very far away typically). In fact, any combination of quantum states of primary particles populating the extent of the locally observable universe must exist in an infinite number of places, though at fantastic distance. (Look up some of the work of Max Tegmark if you’re interested in this.)
This means that there must be an infinite number of places where the stars in the sky spell out the Lord’s prayer, or the story of Esmeralda and Keith if you prefer. If I lived in any of those places I’d be pretty damn impressed. Just knowing that those places exist still leaves me, well, bemused.
There’s another problem. If life exists here it must be possible and so there must be an infinite number of civilizations. In fact there are even an infinite number with a SDMB on which somebody is about to post this exact reply. The technology existing in countless places would utterly blow our minds - and I accept Clarke’s statement that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. There has to be infinite technology out there so magical in my understanding as to be able to convince me there’s a god, also.
I mean, I’m blowing all this off as being the trivial result of the rarest of pathological coincidences or the most advanced things we just can’t grasp. But clearly I think there are infinite perspectives in the universe that would reasonably believe in religion, which statement is a bit weird and hard to fit into my devout atheism.
It is not yet clear that the universe is infinite.
It’s big. I mean, really big. You might think that it’s a long way down the street to the chemists, but that’s just peanuts to space… - Douglas Adams
I won’t highjack any further, but this doesn’t necessarily follow. The most trivial counter-example is a universe that’s infinite…and also empty. It might be that the local diversity of energy, matter, and information pertains everywhere, but it also might not. The universe might have a self-resembling fractal structure that allows for infinite extent without infinite realization of possibilities.
Even if there are infinite parallel universes and dimensions, and in some of them a god exists, that doesn’t mean a god exists in this observable universe.
It’s sort of like how the cartoon character says, “Mama…” when the boulder is about to hit him. Now, Mama can’t save him, but it’s still a relatively natural and instinctive thing to think in a moment if very dire stress. After all, Mama did save me from any number of bad things, so she’s a reasonable “Go To” entity in time of crisis.
A big universal super-Mama who can stop boulders would be comforting to have on your side! Alas…there isn’t any convincing evidence for her existence.
Wait. why? That assumes that the evidence for Christianity is just as good as the evidence for Hinduism or the Norse gods, and that’s not necessarily the case. It’s perfectly plausible for one set of religious claims to be more plausible, or better attested, or to have stronger evidential weight, than another.
They aren’t arguments, but they were the beliefs that were the hardest for me to let go of once I realized I was a non-believer: 1) The notion that everything happens for a reason, and 2) the notion that bad people will always get judged and properly punished.
I think the argument is bigger than whether the bible and the biblical god myth is true; and you will find lots of arguments around other than “this bronze age book says so.”
Respectfully disagree- using the word “if” indicates, atleast to me, that there has yet to be one - and to date, they have all been variations of the same unprovable nature.
“Open Minded” about the possibility of “beings we have yet to observe” is not the same as “believing they exist”.
You show me actual, observable, evidence for this “god” thing - and we’ll discuss what it means - but it would be nice if someone - anyone - would come back with something actually new.
So - so far, there have been no compelling theistic arguments for the existence of god(s) - therefore…
If there was, we wouldn’t be atheists.
no reason for the capitalization other than a slipped pinky.
I found these realizations freeing. I seem to be the only person who did. 
Very interesting link. I’ve theorized that religion is genetic for a long time, but whenever I mention it to anyone, they tend to give me weird looks and act defensive. I think people want to have more control over their minds than they actually have. Given that I was raised completely atheist and I’ve teetered on the edge of faith a couple times, I’ve always figured if I was raised strictly Roman Catholic I’d be a nun by now.
I took a big hit of acid one time, and I saw … nothing. Which is good because, as they say, nothing is greater than god.
On my next trip, I contrived a premise, which sounded reasonable at the time. And elegant, in a painful sort of way. It manages to merge the soul idea, after a fashion, with atheism.
It begin with the universe, and the smallest planck-sized-tic (“plic”) in it. And that plic contains within it the whole of the universe, the same universe which contains that smallest thing, in endless regression. So each plic has this essence, this quality, driven by its inherent paradoxy, of wanting to expand. Naturally, the plics have a tendency to congregate, to combine their essence in an effort to reach the inside, which is outside. Thus, all of reality and all of order is measured by its combination of plics. Each stone, each weed, each creature, each star, all bodies of combined essence, all waiting for the opportunity to expand. Therefore, this “soul” thing is just our own measure of the essence, and when we die, our essence moves on, outward, reaching for the inside. (One might surmise that illness is not a weakness in this context, but the opposite: one’s essence has exceeded the balance of its manifestation, ready to burst outward, and rescuing a person or animal from their fate might be the opposite of doing them a favor.)
It was really good acid.
On one hand, I agree that it is freeing to not have to worry about a final reckoning for long forgotten crimes and misdeeds.
But on the other, religion is also freeing. Why be angry at slavery, Hitler, cancer, or the old lady who cut you off on the highway when God created obstacles such as these so that his children’s faith will become strengthened? Why despair at the hopeless of life when God’s got a plan for you? Why be afraid of danger when God will rescue you from harm? Religion frees you from having to feel too much.
The thing that helped me break away from this security blanket was realizing that is a lot more liberating being able to feel however you want to feel, without having to worry about God finding you unworthy or ungrateful for it.
I believe I understand what you are saying, and I don’t disagree with the individual points.
So let me say this: I am a skeptic first, and my atheism is only a result of that skepticism. I would still be a skeptic even in the extremely unlikely event that some compelling argument or actual proof of a deity (or something like a deity) were forthcoming, but my atheism would depend on my ability to refute that argument or “proof.”
I think we’re in agreement -