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5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Rapidlove(m): 3:56am On Jan 05, 2020
There are 5 reasons not to believe in God
Though some people are blind to the facts and refuse to accept it
1. No evidence
Most things which we accept, we accept on the basis of proof. That proof is not always rock solid (some of it is based on spurious media claims, for example) but there is a standard to which we hold most of our beliefs. Things that don’t meet that standard – the Tooth Fairy, let’s say – we discard as not impossible, but extremely unlikely.

God, however, many people accept with no proof at all. Belief in God is a product of upbringing, societal and cultural convention, a desire for comfort and intellectual laziness.

There is no evidence that God exists. You may have had some kind of personal experience – what we “anecdotal evidence” that has convinced you personally that he’s out there. But most people would concede that that kind of evidence is not evidence at all. It can’t be repeated under test conditions and there are other possible explanations for what may have happened.

Fact: no-one has ever presented one iota of persuasive evidence that there is a God.

2.It’s illogical
In the absence of evidence, some people try to argue that there “must be” a God because nothing else makes sense.

This “not making sense” ranges from the naïve (“I just feel that there must be a bigger purpose to life”) to the sophisticated arguments presented by theologians, philosophers and apologists.

I cannot present and knock down every instance of these arguments here. However, I can say this: the idea that one can reason God into existence is a failed project. The best anyone has been able to do is to show that God could be an explanation for how the universe got here – and could be the “best available explanation”. I wouldn’t accept either of these, but even I did, they do not constitute a conclusive, logical position.

If you are comfortable with a “maybe”, then you are welcome to it. But the existence of God has not been logically proven by anyone, ever.

3.The preponderance of suffering
In a recent interview, the British comedian Stephen Fry delivered a vicious, scathing attack on the Judeo-Christian God when asked what he would say if it turned out, after he died, that God did in fact exist. He called this God a “maniac”, pointing to the large amount of unnecessary suffering in the world which he, by definition, created and allows.

The existence of suffering is an impossible problem for believers in an all-good, caring God to solve. Even if they use the wiggle room to argue that without some suffering there can be no charity; or that people who do wrong are punished, they cannot account for the suffering of innocent children and animals, or worse, the devout believers in their faith.

What kind of God, we may ask – and Fry does, more colourfully – has created a world in which children die in floods, starve to death, perish in agony from TB and malaria? What kind of God allows people who worship and adore him to be murdered, raped, tortured and come to countless other hideous ends?

This does not preclude the existence of any God, of course. God might be, as Fry has it, a maniac. He may be a vicious, sadistic God. Or, like the Greeks and Romans before us, he may be a pantheon of narcissistic Gods who have no interest in looking out for us.

But a God who was benevolent and loving, as we are told the Christian God is, would never create the world we live in. Believing in him requires either shuttering yourself off from the carnage all around you; or crafting frankly ridiculous excuses (God works in mysterious ways?).

4. We don’t need him
This isn’t exactly an argument against the truth of God, but it is a reason to stop worrying about him. We don’t require God – he is an unnecessary addition to the universe, and it can get along perfectly well without him.

The most common two arguments for why we “need” God is as a personal saviour or caretaker, and that without him (and religion) we would not know what is morally right and wrong.

Let me start with the last first.

Human morality is not brought into existence by God or the Bible. We do not require a commandment to tell us that killing is wrong, and we do not need the threat of eternal damnation to make us do what is right.

To prove this I need only point out that most Western states operate on the basis of a constitution and the rule of law and have nothing to do with religion or the Bible. Killing someone has legal consequences, and most normal people with a conscience regard it as wrong without the need for a cosmic force to tell them.

Oh, but I hear you say, surely these laws and rights have a Biblical origin?

Do you really believe that? Do you think that pre-religious societies had no taboos in regard to the preservation of life, property and other things we hold dear? That a principle like “do unto others” would not naturally emerge from any group of sentient beings living in the same place?

This is quite apart from the fact that many of the laws in the Bible are just wicked. We have not, thankfully and for the most part, transferred most of Leviticus and Deuteronomy into modern law. Those Islamic states who have, and which enforce Sharia law, are widely regarded as zones of horror by most sensible people.

Then: do we need God as a personal saviour? Well, some people might. The idea of God might provide comfort and an explanation for the mysteries of the universe. However, it is misleading to say he is “needed”. Many people survive and thrive perfectly well without a God concept or religion – myself being one example. We do not rampage or lose our way or become outcasts. And so, whilst certain individuals may derive comfort from a belief in God – as is their right – this is neither a necessary or a sufficient condition for living a good life.

5.Life’s better without him
Religion is about control and limitation. Rules, laws and rituals that restrict and govern behaviour. In some cases – say the genital mutilation of infants in barbaric rites of passage practised by religions such as Judiasm – they actually persuade nice people to do awful things.

Which is to say nothing of the countless other horrors committed in the name of God and religion. Suicide bombings, torture, genocide, forced marriages, unwanted babies, war – the list is endless.

A life without religion and without God thus offers freedom from all of these miseries. It offers a person the opportunity to do what they like, in line with their own moral code, within the parameters of the society in which they live. Each decision to be taken is evaluated on its own merits, weighing up the pros and cons, and is not forced down a path by a pre-existing code of conduct dating from a time of ignorance and superstition.

Life is better without God and religion encouraging you to make poor choices, and validating them when you do.

The journey into escaping the God idea, and rejecting religion, can be a long one. For those deeply invested in these notions they may begin by being unable to imagine a meaningful life without them. However, it starts with a seed of doubt. With the sense that a fairy story is at work here – not the solid rock of reality.

Perhaps these five arguments will plant that small seed for some reading this piece

2 Likes 1 Share

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by MJBOLT: 4:05am On Jan 05, 2020
it's a pity this beautiful write up wont make FP.

1 Like

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by chiommy123(f): 5:02am On Jan 05, 2020
Have you even taken time to look at yourself. What logic can craeat you? You have eyes to see. Nose, mouth, etc. Most times I look at the drawings of the digestive system and the ear and I wonder at how mighty and super God is. You can believe whatever you want but just know one thing that God must be worshipped whether you like it or yes!

2 Likes

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by garyaustin(m): 5:31am On Jan 05, 2020
Rapidlove:
There are 5 reasons not to believe in God
Though some people are blind to the facts and refuse to accept it
1. No evidence
Most things which we accept, we accept on the basis of proof. That proof is not always rock solid (some of it is based on spurious media claims, for example) but there is a standard to which we hold most of our beliefs. Things that don’t meet that standard – the Tooth Fairy, let’s say – we discard as not impossible, but extremely unlikely.

God, however, many people accept with no proof at all. Belief in God is a product of upbringing, societal and cultural convention, a desire for comfort and intellectual laziness.

There is no evidence that God exists. You may have had some kind of personal experience – what we “anecdotal evidence” that has convinced you personally that he’s out there. But most people would concede that that kind of evidence is not evidence at all. It can’t be repeated under test conditions and there are other possible explanations for what may have happened.

Fact: no-one has ever presented one iota of persuasive evidence that there is a God.

2.It’s illogical
In the absence of evidence, some people try to argue that there “must be” a God because nothing else makes sense.

This “not making sense” ranges from the naïve (“I just feel that there must be a bigger purpose to life”) to the sophisticated arguments presented by theologians, philosophers and apologists.

I cannot present and knock down every instance of these arguments here. However, I can say this: the idea that one can reason God into existence is a failed project. The best anyone has been able to do is to show that God could be an explanation for how the universe got here – and could be the “best available explanation”. I wouldn’t accept either of these, but even I did, they do not constitute a conclusive, logical position.

If you are comfortable with a “maybe”, then you are welcome to it. But the existence of God has not been logically proven by anyone, ever.

3.The preponderance of suffering
In a recent interview, the British comedian Stephen Fry delivered a vicious, scathing attack on the Judeo-Christian God when asked what he would say if it turned out, after he died, that God did in fact exist. He called this God a “maniac”, pointing to the large amount of unnecessary suffering in the world which he, by definition, created and allows.

The existence of suffering is an impossible problem for believers in an all-good, caring God to solve. Even if they use the wiggle room to argue that without some suffering there can be no charity; or that people who do wrong are punished, they cannot account for the suffering of innocent children and animals, or worse, the devout believers in their faith.

What kind of God, we may ask – and Fry does, more colourfully – has created a world in which children die in floods, starve to death, perish in agony from TB and malaria? What kind of God allows people who worship and adore him to be murdered, raped, tortured and come to countless other hideous ends?

This does not preclude the existence of any God, of course. God might be, as Fry has it, a maniac. He may be a vicious, sadistic God. Or, like the Greeks and Romans before us, he may be a pantheon of narcissistic Gods who have no interest in looking out for us.

But a God who was benevolent and loving, as we are told the Christian God is, would never create the world we live in. Believing in him requires either shuttering yourself off from the carnage all around you; or crafting frankly ridiculous excuses (God works in mysterious ways?).

4. We don’t need him
This isn’t exactly an argument against the truth of God, but it is a reason to stop worrying about him. We don’t require God – he is an unnecessary addition to the universe, and it can get along perfectly well without him.

The most common two arguments for why we “need” God is as a personal saviour or caretaker, and that without him (and religion) we would not know what is morally right and wrong.

Let me start with the last first.

Human morality is not brought into existence by God or the Bible. We do not require a commandment to tell us that killing is wrong, and we do not need the threat of eternal damnation to make us do what is right.

To prove this I need only point out that most Western states operate on the basis of a constitution and the rule of law and have nothing to do with religion or the Bible. Killing someone has legal consequences, and most normal people with a conscience regard it as wrong without the need for a cosmic force to tell them.

Oh, but I hear you say, surely these laws and rights have a Biblical origin?

Do you really believe that? Do you think that pre-religious societies had no taboos in regard to the preservation of life, property and other things we hold dear? That a principle like “do unto others” would not naturally emerge from any group of sentient beings living in the same place?

This is quite apart from the fact that many of the laws in the Bible are just wicked. We have not, thankfully and for the most part, transferred most of Leviticus and Deuteronomy into modern law. Those Islamic states who have, and which enforce Sharia law, are widely regarded as zones of horror by most sensible people.

Then: do we need God as a personal saviour? Well, some people might. The idea of God might provide comfort and an explanation for the mysteries of the universe. However, it is misleading to say he is “needed”. Many people survive and thrive perfectly well without a God concept or religion – myself being one example. We do not rampage or lose our way or become outcasts. And so, whilst certain individuals may derive comfort from a belief in God – as is their right – this is neither a necessary or a sufficient condition for living a good life.

5.Life’s better without him
Religion is about control and limitation. Rules, laws and rituals that restrict and govern behaviour. In some cases – say the genital mutilation of infants in barbaric rites of passage practised by religions such as Judiasm – they actually persuade nice people to do awful things.

Which is to say nothing of the countless other horrors committed in the name of God and religion. Suicide bombings, torture, genocide, forced marriages, unwanted babies, war – the list is endless.

A life without religion and without God thus offers freedom from all of these miseries. It offers a person the opportunity to do what they like, in line with their own moral code, within the parameters of the society in which they live. Each decision to be taken is evaluated on its own merits, weighing up the pros and cons, and is not forced down a path by a pre-existing code of conduct dating from a time of ignorance and superstition.

Life is better without God and religion encouraging you to make poor choices, and validating them when you do.

The journey into escaping the God idea, and rejecting religion, can be a long one. For those deeply invested in these notions they may begin by being unable to imagine a meaningful life without them. However, it starts with a seed of doubt. With the sense that a fairy story is at work here – not the solid rock of reality.

Perhaps these five arguments will plant that small seed for some reading this piece
The fool says in his heart that there's no God. Psalm 14:1

1 Like

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by NigPatriot(m): 5:34am On Jan 05, 2020
cheesy

Believing in God takes nothing away from you. If at the end of the day, you find out there was no God, fine, at least you lived well.
But what if at the end there is a God, and the lake of fire is a reality, my brother by then there will be no chance to Japa oh.. make I play safe now I still have time
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by sotall(m): 5:55am On Jan 05, 2020
NigPatriot:
cheesy

Believing in God takes nothing away from you. If at the end of the day, you find out there was no God, fine, at least you lived well.
But what if at the end there is a God, and the lake of fire is a reality, my brother by then there will be no chance to Japa oh.. make I play safe now I still have time
You better restrict this lake of fire threat to yourself and your household.

Threatening people with hell fire because they don't believe in God is sickening.

2 Likes

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by NigPatriot(m): 6:01am On Jan 05, 2020
sotall:

You better restrict this lake of fire threat to yourself and your household.

Threatening people with hell fire because they don't believe in God is sickening.

Bro, I'm not the one that wrote the bible, the lake of fire is there for everyone to see... You don't have to believe in it for it to be true. You're a freaking mortal and your time on earth will surely end someday.
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by drips8(m): 6:25am On Jan 05, 2020
NigPatriot:
cheesy

Believing in God takes nothing away from you. If at the end of the day, you find out there was no God, fine, at least you lived well.
But what if at the end there is a God, and the lake of fire is a reality, my brother by then there will be no chance to Japa oh.. make I play safe now I still have time

I used to think like that before, but look it at it like this, if you died a Christian and found out that the Muslims were actually right, you would also be in the same boat as the atheists and people of other faiths.

Same thing applies all over again with different examples.

There are over 5000 religions with various denominations, it is simply absurd to claim yours is the right one despite little or no knowledge on the others.
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Nobody: 7:03am On Jan 05, 2020
Rapidlove:
There are 5 reasons not to believe in God
Though some people are blind to the facts and refuse to accept it
1. No evidence
Most things which we accept, we accept on the basis of proof. That proof is not always rock solid (some of it is based on spurious media claims, for example) but there is a standard to which we hold most of our beliefs. Things that don’t meet that standard – the Tooth Fairy, let’s say – we discard as not impossible, but extremely unlikely.

God, however, many people accept with no proof at all. Belief in God is a product of upbringing, societal and cultural convention, a desire for comfort and intellectual laziness.

There is no evidence that God exists. You may have had some kind of personal experience – what we “anecdotal evidence” that has convinced you personally that he’s out there. But most people would concede that that kind of evidence is not evidence at all. It can’t be repeated under test conditions and there are other possible explanations for what may have happened.

Fact: no-one has ever presented one iota of persuasive evidence that there is a God.

2.It’s illogical
In the absence of evidence, some people try to argue that there “must be” a God because nothing else makes sense.

This “not making sense” ranges from the naïve (“I just feel that there must be a bigger purpose to life”) to the sophisticated arguments presented by theologians, philosophers and apologists.

I cannot present and knock down every instance of these arguments here. However, I can say this: the idea that one can reason God into existence is a failed project. The best anyone has been able to do is to show that God could be an explanation for how the universe got here – and could be the “best available explanation”. I wouldn’t accept either of these, but even I did, they do not constitute a conclusive, logical position.

If you are comfortable with a “maybe”, then you are welcome to it. But the existence of God has not been logically proven by anyone, ever.

3.The preponderance of suffering
In a recent interview, the British comedian Stephen Fry delivered a vicious, scathing attack on the Judeo-Christian God when asked what he would say if it turned out, after he died, that God did in fact exist. He called this God a “maniac”, pointing to the large amount of unnecessary suffering in the world which he, by definition, created and allows.

The existence of suffering is an impossible problem for believers in an all-good, caring God to solve. Even if they use the wiggle room to argue that without some suffering there can be no charity; or that people who do wrong are punished, they cannot account for the suffering of innocent children and animals, or worse, the devout believers in their faith.

What kind of God, we may ask – and Fry does, more colourfully – has created a world in which children die in floods, starve to death, perish in agony from TB and malaria? What kind of God allows people who worship and adore him to be murdered, raped, tortured and come to countless other hideous ends?

This does not preclude the existence of any God, of course. God might be, as Fry has it, a maniac. He may be a vicious, sadistic God. Or, like the Greeks and Romans before us, he may be a pantheon of narcissistic Gods who have no interest in looking out for us.

But a God who was benevolent and loving, as we are told the Christian God is, would never create the world we live in. Believing in him requires either shuttering yourself off from the carnage all around you; or crafting frankly ridiculous excuses (God works in mysterious ways?).

4. We don’t need him
This isn’t exactly an argument against the truth of God, but it is a reason to stop worrying about him. We don’t require God – he is an unnecessary addition to the universe, and it can get along perfectly well without him.

The most common two arguments for why we “need” God is as a personal saviour or caretaker, and that without him (and religion) we would not know what is morally right and wrong.

Let me start with the last first.

Human morality is not brought into existence by God or the Bible. We do not require a commandment to tell us that killing is wrong, and we do not need the threat of eternal damnation to make us do what is right.

To prove this I need only point out that most Western states operate on the basis of a constitution and the rule of law and have nothing to do with religion or the Bible. Killing someone has legal consequences, and most normal people with a conscience regard it as wrong without the need for a cosmic force to tell them.

Oh, but I hear you say, surely these laws and rights have a Biblical origin?

Do you really believe that? Do you think that pre-religious societies had no taboos in regard to the preservation of life, property and other things we hold dear? That a principle like “do unto others” would not naturally emerge from any group of sentient beings living in the same place?

This is quite apart from the fact that many of the laws in the Bible are just wicked. We have not, thankfully and for the most part, transferred most of Leviticus and Deuteronomy into modern law. Those Islamic states who have, and which enforce Sharia law, are widely regarded as zones of horror by most sensible people.

Then: do we need God as a personal saviour? Well, some people might. The idea of God might provide comfort and an explanation for the mysteries of the universe. However, it is misleading to say he is “needed”. Many people survive and thrive perfectly well without a God concept or religion – myself being one example. We do not rampage or lose our way or become outcasts. And so, whilst certain individuals may derive comfort from a belief in God – as is their right – this is neither a necessary or a sufficient condition for living a good life.

5.Life’s better without him
Religion is about control and limitation. Rules, laws and rituals that restrict and govern behaviour. In some cases – say the genital mutilation of infants in barbaric rites of passage practised by religions such as Judiasm – they actually persuade nice people to do awful things.

Which is to say nothing of the countless other horrors committed in the name of God and religion. Suicide bombings, torture, genocide, forced marriages, unwanted babies, war – the list is endless.

A life without religion and without God thus offers freedom from all of these miseries. It offers a person the opportunity to do what they like, in line with their own moral code, within the parameters of the society in which they live. Each decision to be taken is evaluated on its own merits, weighing up the pros and cons, and is not forced down a path by a pre-existing code of conduct dating from a time of ignorance and superstition.

Life is better without God and religion encouraging you to make poor choices, and validating them when you do.

The journey into escaping the God idea, and rejecting religion, can be a long one. For those deeply invested in these notions they may begin by being unable to imagine a meaningful life without them. However, it starts with a seed of doubt. With the sense that a fairy story is at work here – not the solid rock of reality.

Perhaps these five arguments will plant that small seed for some reading this piece
Where you born into a christian or muslim family?
When did you become an atheist?
Since you became an atheist have you screamed the name Jesus or Allah subconsciously in shock , when a strange thing happens or when you forgot something ?
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by helinues: 7:05am On Jan 05, 2020
undecided

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Nobody: 7:14am On Jan 05, 2020
helinues:
undecided
So what are you doing here ?
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by helinues: 7:16am On Jan 05, 2020
Love4God:

So what are you doing here.

Minding my business of course.. You are not in any positions to tell whom to believe or not

1 Like

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Nobody: 7:19am On Jan 05, 2020
helinues:


Minding my business of course.. You are not in any positions to tell whom to believe or not
Atheist spotted.Ride on.
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by helinues: 7:22am On Jan 05, 2020
Love4God:

Atheist spotted.Ride on.

And is that a crime should I be one?
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Nobody: 7:26am On Jan 05, 2020
helinues:


And is that a crime should I be one?
Go back to minding your business.You have been spotted.

1 Like

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by helinues: 7:28am On Jan 05, 2020
Love4God:

Go back to minding your business.

You should have done that by ignoring my comments initially.. But as usual, you guys are intolerant

1 Like

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Nobody: 7:32am On Jan 05, 2020
helinues:


You should have done that by ignoring my comments initially.. But as usual, you guys are intolerant
Are you really a fucking Atheist ?
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by helinues: 7:36am On Jan 05, 2020
Love4God:

Are you really a fucking Atheist ?

Traits , Patterns

1 Like

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by CAPSLOCKED: 7:39am On Jan 05, 2020
IF IT WAS REAL, WE WON'T BELIEVE. WE WOULD KNOW.

5 Likes 3 Shares

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Nobody: 7:44am On Jan 05, 2020
helinues:


Traits , Patterns
Fucking
adjective (not comparable)
(vulgar) An intensifier, often applying more to the whole utterance than to the specific word it grammatically modifies.
e.g No fucking way.
(vulgar) Offensive, annoying or worthless.
e.g Get your fucking car out of the way.
synonyms
frigging
fecking
freaking
what did you think fucking meant as used in my comment to you and the screenshot you posted ?
Child of the world spotted.You have spoilt to the core.
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by helinues: 7:49am On Jan 05, 2020
Love4God:

Fucking
adjective (not comparable)
(vulgar) An intensifier, often applying more to the whole utterance than to the specific word it grammatically modifies.
e.g No fucking way.
(vulgar) Offensive, annoying or worthless.
e.g Get your fucking car out of the way.
synonyms
frigging
fecking
freaking

You see, hadn't been you have minded your business, you wouldn't need all this epistles to defend your self which still dont change the facts that you are intolerant.

What was stupid doing on that screenshot or should we also be expecting another dictionary meanings of stupid?

1 Like

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by englishmart(m): 7:50am On Jan 05, 2020
A nice piece, I must say, but the last two hold no water. Because you don't need someone doesn't mean the person doesn't exist. Also because you're better off without someone doesn't also make the person inexistent. You should have come up with some clearer reasons.

1 Like

Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Nobody: 7:57am On Jan 05, 2020
helinues:


You see, hadn't been you have minded your business, you wouldn't need all this epistles to defend your self which still dont change the facts that you are intolerant.

What was stupid doing on that screenshot or should we also be expecting another dictionary meanings of stupid?
Child of the world,is your problem fucking ignorance or stupidity ?
Fucking
adverb
(vulgar) Really, very; having intensive force, often applying to the whole sentence or clause.
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Uyi168: 8:37am On Jan 05, 2020
garyaustin:

The fool says in his heart that there's no God. Psalm 14:1
..
A wise man says it louuud...
undecided
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Rapidlove(m): 8:49am On Jan 05, 2020
Love4God:

Where you born into a christian or muslim family?
When did you become an atheist?
Since you became an atheist have you screamed the name Jesus or Allah subconsciously in shock , when a strange thing happens or when you forgot something ?



That doesn't mean that I believe in God
If I exclaim what the Bleep
Does that mean I believe
That Bleep is a God?����
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Nobody: 3:36pm On Jan 05, 2020
Rapidlove:




That doesn't mean that I believe in God
If I exclaim what the Bleep
Does that mean I believe
That Bleep is a God?����

You are On your own.
Whatever you believe is left for you to stick with it or change it.
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Julivas(m): 3:45pm On Jan 05, 2020
Rapidlove:
There are 5 reasons not to believe in God
Though some people are blind to the facts and refuse to accept it
1. No evidence
Most things which we accept, we accept on the basis of proof. That proof is not always rock solid (some of it is based on spurious media claims, for example) but there is a standard to which we hold most of our beliefs. Things that don’t meet that standard – the Tooth Fairy, let’s say – we discard as not impossible, but extremely unlikely.

God, however, many people accept with no proof at all. Belief in God is a product of upbringing, societal and cultural convention, a desire for comfort and intellectual laziness.

There is no evidence that God exists. You may have had some kind of personal experience – what we “anecdotal evidence” that has convinced you personally that he’s out there. But most people would concede that that kind of evidence is not evidence at all. It can’t be repeated under test conditions and there are other possible explanations for what may have happened.

Fact: no-one has ever presented one iota of persuasive evidence that there is a God.

2.It’s illogical
In the absence of evidence, some people try to argue that there “must be” a God because nothing else makes sense.

This “not making sense” ranges from the naïve (“I just feel that there must be a bigger purpose to life”) to the sophisticated arguments presented by theologians, philosophers and apologists.

I cannot present and knock down every instance of these arguments here. However, I can say this: the idea that one can reason God into existence is a failed project. The best anyone has been able to do is to show that God could be an explanation for how the universe got here – and could be the “best available explanation”. I wouldn’t accept either of these, but even I did, they do not constitute a conclusive, logical position.

If you are comfortable with a “maybe”, then you are welcome to it. But the existence of God has not been logically proven by anyone, ever.

3.The preponderance of suffering
In a recent interview, the British comedian Stephen Fry delivered a vicious, scathing attack on the Judeo-Christian God when asked what he would say if it turned out, after he died, that God did in fact exist. He called this God a “maniac”, pointing to the large amount of unnecessary suffering in the world which he, by definition, created and allows.

The existence of suffering is an impossible problem for believers in an all-good, caring God to solve. Even if they use the wiggle room to argue that without some suffering there can be no charity; or that people who do wrong are punished, they cannot account for the suffering of innocent children and animals, or worse, the devout believers in their faith.

What kind of God, we may ask – and Fry does, more colourfully – has created a world in which children die in floods, starve to death, perish in agony from TB and malaria? What kind of God allows people who worship and adore him to be murdered, raped, tortured and come to countless other hideous ends?

This does not preclude the existence of any God, of course. God might be, as Fry has it, a maniac. He may be a vicious, sadistic God. Or, like the Greeks and Romans before us, he may be a pantheon of narcissistic Gods who have no interest in looking out for us.

But a God who was benevolent and loving, as we are told the Christian God is, would never create the world we live in. Believing in him requires either shuttering yourself off from the carnage all around you; or crafting frankly ridiculous excuses (God works in mysterious ways?).

4. We don’t need him
This isn’t exactly an argument against the truth of God, but it is a reason to stop worrying about him. We don’t require God – he is an unnecessary addition to the universe, and it can get along perfectly well without him.

The most common two arguments for why we “need” God is as a personal saviour or caretaker, and that without him (and religion) we would not know what is morally right and wrong.

Let me start with the last first.

Human morality is not brought into existence by God or the Bible. We do not require a commandment to tell us that killing is wrong, and we do not need the threat of eternal damnation to make us do what is right.

To prove this I need only point out that most Western states operate on the basis of a constitution and the rule of law and have nothing to do with religion or the Bible. Killing someone has legal consequences, and most normal people with a conscience regard it as wrong without the need for a cosmic force to tell them.

Oh, but I hear you say, surely these laws and rights have a Biblical origin?

Do you really believe that? Do you think that pre-religious societies had no taboos in regard to the preservation of life, property and other things we hold dear? That a principle like “do unto others” would not naturally emerge from any group of sentient beings living in the same place?

This is quite apart from the fact that many of the laws in the Bible are just wicked. We have not, thankfully and for the most part, transferred most of Leviticus and Deuteronomy into modern law. Those Islamic states who have, and which enforce Sharia law, are widely regarded as zones of horror by most sensible people.

Then: do we need God as a personal saviour? Well, some people might. The idea of God might provide comfort and an explanation for the mysteries of the universe. However, it is misleading to say he is “needed”. Many people survive and thrive perfectly well without a God concept or religion – myself being one example. We do not rampage or lose our way or become outcasts. And so, whilst certain individuals may derive comfort from a belief in God – as is their right – this is neither a necessary or a sufficient condition for living a good life.

5.Life’s better without him
Religion is about control and limitation. Rules, laws and rituals that restrict and govern behaviour. In some cases – say the genital mutilation of infants in barbaric rites of passage practised by religions such as Judiasm – they actually persuade nice people to do awful things.

Which is to say nothing of the countless other horrors committed in the name of God and religion. Suicide bombings, torture, genocide, forced marriages, unwanted babies, war – the list is endless.

A life without religion and without God thus offers freedom from all of these miseries. It offers a person the opportunity to do what they like, in line with their own moral code, within the parameters of the society in which they live. Each decision to be taken is evaluated on its own merits, weighing up the pros and cons, and is not forced down a path by a pre-existing code of conduct dating from a time of ignorance and superstition.

Life is better without God and religion encouraging you to make poor choices, and validating them when you do.

The journey into escaping the God idea, and rejecting religion, can be a long one. For those deeply invested in these notions they may begin by being unable to imagine a meaningful life without them. However, it starts with a seed of doubt. With the sense that a fairy story is at work here – not the solid rock of reality.

Perhaps these five arguments will plant that small seed for some reading this piece

That you can sit, think and write this is enough for you to believe in God
Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Daejoyoung: 4:49pm On Jan 05, 2020
This is quite funny, more like little robots in a computer program claiming there is no evidence for the existence of a programmer.

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Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Daejoyoung: 4:52pm On Jan 05, 2020
That you exist and you have consciousness and even hands equipped to write this, is a miracle and is evidence of something greater than you out there that made this possible.

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Re: 5 Reasons Not To Believe In God by Troynewyork(f): 5:26am On Jan 06, 2020
Sadly,there are no unbelievers in he'll.nor on the judgement day,will there be no unbelievers!!!

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