I think personally with Christianity and Islam this idea that EVERYONE needs God and to obey what he said (don’t lie, don’t rely on your wisdom, respect authority, etc.)People are individuals who think and act differently. To think that there is one size fits all approach for everyone is quite ridiculous. And the worst part is anyone who doesn’t choose God goes to hell to be tortured for eternity.
I don’t see how any rational adult can take that seriously. Its blackmail. If I don’t beat my kids Christianity says that i am spoiling them. Kids are individuals too. Not all are the same. Some will be spoiled, some will learn a lesson.
The three biggest religions in the world, Christianity, Judaism and Islam all worship the same God. A supposedly peace loving God who clearly and repeatedly directs his believers to live in peace with their neighbours, treat them as brothers, have tolerance for others in your heart, judge not, etc, etc.
I think the lack of evidence is probably the big thing, but if I’m going to play along, I’d say it’s this. The idea that God would create this massive universe 14 billion years ago, watch as galaxies formed, collided, died, eventually waited for one tiny planet around one tiny star in one galaxy to evolve life; waited for another couple of billion years for humans to evolve, and then waited another couple hundred thousand years for civilizations to form; only to focus on one tiny group of humans in one tiny region, give them some vague moral guidance that just so happened to align with the moral code that we would expect to find in this one tiny group of civilization at this one, awfully specific point in time, and then essentially disappear… and then you compare that completely preposterous scenario with the idea that humans made up their own gods to reflect their own view of the world, and it’s hard for me to see how I could ever believe in that nonsense again.
My reason for not worshiping is because I don’t care what the gods want me to do. It’s my life. Apparently, you gave me the freedom to choose what to do with it, so that’s your cross to bear, not mine.
My reason for not believing is due to the sheer variety of belief between the various religions, compared to the certainty the followers have that theirs is right. If there was something there, we would expect some consistency in belief, indicating that the people really have no idea what is real. That they’re then able to confidently say that they feel the rightness of it, in complete contradiction of thousands of other religions, tells me that religion has more to do with human failings than otherworldly reality.
“All right," said Susan. “I’m not stupid. You’re saying humans need… fantasies to make life bearable.”
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
“Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—”
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
“So we can believe the big ones?”
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
“They’re not the same at all!”
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME…SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
“Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point—”
MY POINT EXACTLY.”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
Had the same general thought many years before reading this. There is no justice or mercy in the Universe. It is inherently unfair. Justice, Mercy and Fairness are Human concepts.
Preaching that God is a Loving God and will make life pleasant for you if you believe in him is not only contrary to the Universe at large, it is in fact contrary to the actual teachings of Christianity and many other religions. In fact, if you actually read it, the bible pretty much says that life sucks.
No god exists.
Case 2 is basically equivalent to case 3 as far as we’re concerned, and so can be discarded.
In case 1 you’d think a god would talk to us in the same way no matter where we live, and provide evidence of its existence. In case 3 we as a myth making people will make up gods according to our experience and knowledge, so that each tribe has a different god, and there will be no evidence. Since the world looks a lot more like case 3 than case 1, no gods exist.
Forget the niceness thing. No reason an existing god wouldn’t be an asshole and smite us without thinking. That’s the god exists and he’s evil argument, and we don’t need to go there.
Because its people, flesh and blood people, who are so invested in trying to make me do what They want me to do. Its their power-trip which I get nothing out of. Why should I indulge them when the upside is only for them?
At the time it first occurred to me there was no God, I was about 12 and probably couldn’t have articulated any logical arguments for my non-belief. I just saw one day that the world didn’t operate according to the flowery rhetoric of the minister or my teachers or any other references to God that I’d hear. The world didn’t stop and I wasn’t struck dead on the spot. Nothing bad happened to me, which I came to see as confirmation of a sort. If it didn’t matter that I didn’t believe, there was apparently no point in having a God.
Way back in third grade, a bunch of believers beat the shit out of me for asking questions. (They were really dumb questions, but the other third graders didn’t have the answers. C.S. Lewis could have answered easily.)
That convinced me that religion was flawed.
“Hi, we believe in love and peace. Uppercut. We believe in mercy. Right cross. We believe in forgiveness. Gut punch.”
Or, as a Christian friend of mine once said, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll turn the other cheek, and then I’m going to deck that son of a bitch.”
Religious people have made it impossible for me to believe in their religions.
No evidence, none. The universe appears to work without any supernatural intervention. Gods would be an unnecessary complication, they explain nothing. (but of course, when we were emerging hominids they could be, and had to be, invoked to explain everything)
Nothing “prevents” me from believing. I just don’t. I don’t have control over that sort of thing. I guess if religion was believable, I’d believe in it.
You know, you could be my best friend in the world, and if you told me you could name all the Presidents and all the State’s capitols in under a minute, I’ll take your word for it.
If, however, you told me you could sink a basket ball from half court, blind folded, while riding a unicycle… well, buddy, I love ya’, but I’m gonna have to see that before I can believe it. And I don’t care how many people will back you up on that claim.
