by Noel Mcgivern

Created on: May 13, 2009   Last Updated: June 02, 2009

There is no connection between faith and truth. If you want to decide if something is true or false, you can either do it by a process of logical deduction, which examines the how logical the idea is and looks at the evidence or absence of evidence in the particular case, or you can rely on belief, without evidence.

Consider the situation of a seriously ill person. You have two choices. You can either give them treatments which have been objectively tested or give them what you believe helps. I think most of us would rely on the objective medical experience, rather than go with a belief which has no evidence to back it up. The first choice is rational; the second is irrational

The idea of God is firstly devoid of any evidence, and secondly deeply self contradictory.

Let's start by considering what is meant by the term "God". God is considered to be the creator of the universe, to be omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), just and loving. A closer examination of these attributes demonstrates how illogical and frankly nonsensical, the whole idea is.

God, as believed in by the Abrahamic traditions, is seen as the great designer. Think about that. He designed the universe knowing absolutely everything that was going to happen. Being all powerful he could design humans any way he wanted to. However, he knowingly gave humans enough free will to commit genocide and all other sorts of terrible atrocities but not enough to solve world hunger. How does that make sense?

Believers might argue that the problem is humans and not God. But if you say God was the designer, and here it does not make on which side of the creationist argument you stand, you have to agree he knowingly decided create a world in which humans would behave the way they do. He created the world knowing about the cry of every abused child and the terrible consequences of the abuse. An all powerful, loving God could have made humans more compassionate. Of course he could if he is all powerful. God is seen as a loving parent. Would a loving parent knowingly set up a situation where he knew his children would be abused?

Some believers argue there is virtue in suffering. Where is the virtue in the holocaust or an abused child? Where is it? It is argued that suffering teaches compassion? Does that make any more sense that a thug beating someone up so those close to them can learn nursing skills? Of course not. The idea is nonsense.

Let me turn to the idea of faith. The usual idea

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