I am a Christian. I believe in God. I just wanted to start off by saying that. Also, I am wondering your, how should I put it..., testimony in becoming an atheist. What thing happened in your life to cause this. This isnt much of a debate, although it may become one, as it is something that I, a 15 year old Christian, is wondering about.
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It's not so much about having a reason as it is about being able to break free from the fear of questioning irrational and illogical things. Most religions are plagued with them and if you finally get the courage to see through the BS you are liberated. That is the truth behind the "reason" for being an atheist or an agnostic.
What is your reason for believing it is illogical and irrational?
I heard the claim of a god and found no credible reason to accept that claim. I still haven't, so I'm still an atheist. But if somehow there is some logical confirmation of a god, then I'd change my position on the claim. (That doesn't mean that'd I'd follow that god by the way)
I can give you a reason to accept the claim.
1.) Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
2.) The Universe began to exist.
3.) Therefore, the Universe must have a cause,
So what? Even if I accept that the Universe has a cause, that doesn't change my behavior one little bit. That is no reason to attend any church or mosque or synagogue or temple. There is no evidence that your supposed prime mover cares one whit about humanity or pays any attention whatsoever to our behavior or takes any control on current events. Accepting a creator is independent of accepting any prophesy. I don't much care about a god, but I reject any person who claims to have special insight into a god or gods. If you want to understand God better, ignore old stories written by ancient people. Instead, go outside and see what God has wrought. Instead of believing some old writing because someone told you to, learn science, which you can verify for yourself.
Am I correct in assuming that you are saying that cause is a god? The argument of first cause is as old as time. It contains a flaw that theists impale themselves on whenever they resort to it. If you say that a god has to be the first cause, then some bright fellow is going to ask you what caused the god? If you then say that the god is eternal (as theists do say) then you contradict assumption #1. If you say assumption #1 doesn't apply to the god then you are resorting to special pleading - an inherently invalid argument. Saying a god caused the universe doesn't solve the problem - it merely moves the issue back a notch because now you have to explain where the god came from. If you can do that you will be the first.
That's a tautology.
When I look back on my childhood I remember my mother taking me to churches, sitting through what seemed like an eternity of service as a kid, it was incredibly boring and did not know what was going on. My mother was more into the history and architecture of buildings other than religion.
I remember living next door to a local church, for a while I went every Sunday. Here is the craziest reason for that, not to pray to ''God'', not to have my sins forgiven or for Bible studies. As a kid I thought it was what normal people did, I just went, mostly by myself because it was right next door, because of normality ! I grew up in Amsterdam where the main faiths are Christian and Catholic, growing up watching BBC where you see allot of Christian based programs and so on. So I thought it's just what people did, I wasn't even aware the seriousness of religion.
I have always been agnostic if anything, and when I recall all the times I have been to church as a kid it did nothing for me. I didn't feel any connection, I didn't feel any [higher or divine] power. Out of respect I would lower my head and hum along with the songs of praise and prayers, certainly not out of devotion. My mother, or anyone else around me at the time, never pushed, preached or forced religion on to me, I guess you can say I wasn't pre-conditioned. When I had friends who were devoted to Christianity or Islam it was already to late for them to convince me. I grew up knowing right from wrong without any religious reinforcement of any kind. Where did I get my morals from ? I ran away from trouble (bullies, mostly) and dealt with good and bad my own way whilst still obeying the law.
Till this day, it is still that way, and when I discovered the book ''God Is Not Great'' by Christopher Hitchens it only reinforced my Atheism.
The claim that there is a god is ridiculous. There is no good reason to find it remotely believable, any more than if I were to claim I could fly but only when people aren't watching.
Interestingly, one of the backbones of the book of Mormon is a magic hat that only produces knowledge when people aren't looking.
So maybe you can fly. People have believed dumber things in the recent past.
You were trained to believe since before you could comprehend. It's ingrained into you. You hold onto your beliefs because you don't know any better. Beliefs are not a choice. You believe a proposition because you have reason to do so. Your reasons do not need to be good, just reinforced every Sunday by all the people around you.
Ask yourself," If something is true, why does it need to be reinforced all the time ?"
Do you need to be reminded all the time that fire will hurt you if you get too close ? Do you need reinforcement to know it's not right to steal ? Does someone need to reassure you that the sun will rise tomorrow ?
Why would anyone NEED a belief in God and/or a religion, if the truth is supposed to be so obvious ?
Try letting go of your faith , just for a little while, and see the world as it really is.
To most people, religion is like holding a wolf by the ears; They really don't want to be there, but they don't dare let go.
Let go.
Not all of us here lost our religion. Nothing happened to me to make me realize there was no god.
The first explanations to me about the world that I lived in were very factual (my parents don't dress anything up) and there was no time of disillusionment, only greater enlightenment as I learned to put all the facts in perspective (my mind gets blown easily I guess, I loved the fact that my mom can spout of the chemical answer to "Why is the sky blue?"). When I was told about religion, the whole thing seemed as ridiculous to me as any other fairy tale, only with a lot more hypocrisy and corruption and less unicorns. Who would honestly choose to believe something like that? <--- that's a legit question (psychologically, sociologically, and anthropologically), and pretty much the reason I'm here.
Those of us who were not brainwashed early pretty much fail to see what the fuss is all about with you guys and your gods.
There are no reasons that I *became* an atheist. Instead, I've never become a theist. The way you have worded your question seems to indicate you think all of us without god(s) started off with one or more and moved away from that. While that is the case for some, it is not for all.
So, you're wondering why we haven't any god(s)? Why are you wondering?
I always found it interesting, in Catholicism, that unchristened babies were sent to purgatory for being non believers. So apparently, even in these archaic religions, being a theist is simply not the default setting on humans.
Im not an athiest for any reason other than, wait for it... I dont believe in god.
The idea of an all knowing sugar plum fairy is even more utterly ridiculous than your question.
Because religion takes away logical thought and problem solving. Bad things happen? Devil. Good things happen? God. That and I don't believe in magic.
Well, I'd actually been going to catholic school for the majority of my life, and some time in my junior year of high school, I think about halfway through, they'd been making us read and do different things with the bible. And I knew about Atheism and had a few friends who were Atheists, and just thought long and hard about it and how Christianity felt and the things they wanted me to believe in. Atheism just coincided best with my feelings, and I was a happier man when I dropped Christianity. I still respect my peers and their religions, but it just never was for me.
Simply I don't believe in what any religion i know of calls a god or God or any deity for that matter. This is what makes me an atheist.
I don't know if or if not any Supreme being exist that created everything in the known universe. This makes me agnostic.
I feel religion in general is a tool which has been very useful and even today still performs some important functions but that we as a whole may be reaching a point in humanity where it is used more for less desirable uses and is thus holding us back rather than progressing human kind. This is why I choose to label myself as an agnostic atheist.
I became an atheist after being a "Christian" for a number of years. ( I put "Christian" in parenthesis because I still don't know what a Christian is.) In 2004 I quit church after attending many denominations trying to find the right Christianity.
I heard about Bart Ehrman and started reading his books. He had many of the same doubts I had but it was his book "God's Problem" about suffering and how a supposed good God could allow so much suffering of innocent people and does nothing to stop it.
I see Christians pray that God will get them a job, home, car etc. and God supposedly answers their prayers. Yet a little boy or girl who is being horribly treated by a parent or care givers prayers for intervention are ignored. The inconsistency of answered prayer made me believe there was no God who cared.
I became an atheist after being a "Christian" for a number of years. ( I put "Christian" in parenthesis because I still don't know what a Christian is.) In 2004 I quit church after attending many denominations trying to find the right Christianity.
I heard about Bart Ehrman and started reading his books. He had many of the same doubts I had but it was his book "God's Problem" about suffering and how a supposed good God could allow so much suffering of innocent people and does nothing to stop it.
I see Christians pray that God will get them a job, home, car etc. and God supposedly answers their prayers. Yet a little boy or girl who is being horribly treated by a parent or care givers prayers for intervention are ignored. The inconsistency of answered prayer made me believe there was no God who cared.
Because there is no reason to believe in god(s).
I was raised a christian. It hurt to find out what I was taught was untrue. It was a painful process to go through, to find out that what I had been taught by the adults I trusted was a lie. But that is what I ultimately had to come to terms with.
I was brought up in a Catholic household and must have been about five when I started to realise that the story I was being told didn't add up. Talking snakes, virgin births, burning bushes... That all sounded pretty stupid, even to a child, and every question I asked was treated as an affront. There were no answers, just an insistence that these weird and unlikely ideas should be treated as a given with no evidence or reason. As I grew older and read more history, it became clear that far from being a consistent set of beliefs or views, religions have constantly shifted and adapted. In Uganda, for example, good Christians stone or rape homosexuals because that is God's will, something that has always correlated too conveniently to the desires of men. The underpinning beliefs of the religion are entirely fungible. Reading the religious source material was also eye opening. The Bible is full of contradictions and extraordinary violence, not to mention statements that would today be prosecuted as hate crimes. It is a truly awful book. Jesus' insights are scantily presented and fairly uninteresting, particularly when compared to the works of the Greek philosophers who preceded him. The nature of the divine is also extremely fluid, indeed wantonly obscure. The Old Testament, for example, refers to more than 20 other gods and the god of Israel, Yahweh, constantly takes physical form to interact with the universe. Modern Christians take a more general view of the divine, God is an extra material being, and outside of the U.S. now accept that the bible is allegorical, while still claiming that it provides proof of God. In short, theists have not been able to get their story straight, their ever fluctuating claims are bizarre and completely unsupported by evidence, the beliefs they espouse tend to be self serving and socially harmful, their God is not particularly admirable, and their arguments made no sense to me as a child and have not impressed me more now that I have the tools to examine them properly. I am sorry, but your faith is a bit silly, there are no facts to support it, your beliefs are incoherent, and religions' attempt to impose those beliefs on society have caused endless misery. It's time for you to put your toys away, grow up and accept that we're not special or immortal and that that's great. We all have one life to live, so live it well.
I was a Christian since childhood up until about 4 years ago. I decided to start examining the Bible closer, and use critical thinking, instead of just 'faith.' Over time, as it was more of a long and winding journey for me, than an overnight 'ah ha' moment...I was drawn to atheism. First, to agnosticism, but truly, we are all agnostic to a point. No one has knowledge with certainty that a god exists or doesn't. Faith isn't about certainty of proof. That said, I am now really comfortable with atheism, and honestly, quite at peace. :)
I didn't lose God all at once, it was actually a continual process of losing him. The more I was questioning my beliefs (which were half-hearted atmost anyway) the more I let go of them. One day I simply thought "ok, I'm on my own now", and it felt kinda good. Since then I haven't had a need to "find" it again - it would be like looking for my lost straightjacket.
I love to learn about different religions and beliefs, though. Some are really peculiar and interesting (I love reading about the Celts, paganism, Wicca and other "natural" religions). I still think we have a lot to learn from ancient history, traditions and myths.
Once you find yourself not stuck to the "one and best" god, the "one and best" belief, and you start analyzing all the religious systems and finding similarities inbetween them, that's when the real fun begins.
I love the quote, where someone says he stoped believing in god the day he realized he's talking to himself.
Since your question has been received so well, I ask now what is your reason to believe in God? In particular, what makes you a Christian and think your Christian version of a god exist? Additionally, can you elaborate on what Christian and god mean to you?
Many people around your age begin to realize there are a lot of questions religion does not provide real answers to and it is seemingly set up to have sweeping stances that sort of gloss over or avoid directly answering if not flat out stopping you form asking them. Are you asking because you yourself are having doubts? I am just curious and not trying to start any fights with you or even come across rude at all. I ask because depending on your answer this comunity may be able to be helpful in a more meaningful way.
religion always exploit and creates imbalance to society, because it doesn't allow you to ask questions. you have to belief on the black box which is faith/dogmas. and since the beginning of time religion was always the source of wars among people. now humans have seen too much blood on the name of god, we can't afford too much killing of humanity. what i've learnt humans of modern age don't want to be driven by the bullshit concepts of religion, which can't even be proved.
With me; upbringing and education.
I have to start with my grandparents. Both sets of grandparents were .... let's say "burned" by their respective churches; too long to go into what happened, but it was Bad, and they left or were turfed out. As a result, both of my parents were raised without religion. I think that all of my grandparents still believed in god, but they didn't talk about it much.
Growing up, we kids had no religion what-so-ever, although there was always curiosity. Both parents were enthusiastic readers, so we had a huge library available, and included in there were books on many religions; the Bible and Koran sitting beside books on Norse mythology and Tolkien's "The Silmarillion". I read them all, and to me they all fell in the same category: mythology. It was a study on what human beings believed in the past, and what helped get us through times when we needed it. We were encouraged to read everything and make up our own minds. It wasn't until this past Christmas that I found out my father has always been atheist. I turned 51 this year. I suspected he was, but it never came up.
When you look at the vast body of mythological work created by humans throughout history, the Bible holds no more special meaning than any other collection. To me, realising that the Celtic mythologies were just as valid as the Hebrew myths, meant that neither was; they were all equally "false". I think I was about your age when decided that none of it was relevant to me, and went about the rest of my life without it. So far, so good.
It seems to me that the most common reason for not believing in Gods is that "there isn't enough/no evidence".
Mind you, the absence of evidence does not constitute the evidence of absence.
Certainly a lack of evidence is more suggestive of absence than of egistence.
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