4 of 117

Reasons not to believe in God

by Noel Mcgivern


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 is if you don't believe in God you won't get into heaven. Is this the attitude of a just God? Imagine you are on a jury and you have to decide if a man is innocent or guilty. The only problem is that while there are plenty of opinions on the man's guilt or innocence, there is not a single piece of evidence that stands up to objective examination. The jury is hung and your vote will decide whether the man goes free of suffers the most terrible fate. What is the just thing to do? Won't you have to say that you can't find a man guilty if there is no evidence? Isn't that how justice should work?


There is no objective evidence for God. Would a just God consign a man to hell when the man had honestly considered the question of God's existence and found no objective evidence for it? How is that just? That idea of justice does' not make sense, does it? What just God would leave no evidence?


Let's consider prayer. If God is all powerful he can answer prayers. Now you'll hear of athletes who say God helped them to win a race. Yet, every day the starving beg for help and none comes. Don't you think there is something wrong in that logic? Do you think the starving pray the wrong way or to the wrong God?


God is said to be a loving parent. Would a loving parent care how their starving child cried out for help? You know they wouldn't. So does the idea of prayer make sense? Does the idea that prayers being answered make sense? Or does it make more sense to say that the winning athlete won because they ran well and God played no part in it? Because, if God did intervene, you are going to have to ask why he cares more about a sports event than the starving millions, holocaust victims and abused children? That really doesn't make sense, does it?


The whole idea of God really doesn't make sense, does it? But believers may still think they have a trump card. Who created the world? Well let's consider this. The question assumes that a complex world must have been created. Think about that. You ever watched as the winter turns to spring and spring to summer? Millions of leafs appear, plants of all sorts shoot up.


Nature is not made, it occurs naturally. Why should it ever have been different? Why millions of years ago, or 6000 if you are a little muddled, should some being have been actively creating the natural world when it does not happen now? If no designer is needed to make the grass grow today, why was one ever needed? Can you come up with any coherent evidence for a designer?


Oh but someone must have made it all, believers cry. Did someone make the grass grow of the birds nest? The idea is nonsense. So the designer idea makes no sense. And let's not forget the illogicality of saying that the complex needs to be created, but a being with a mind of the enormous complexity to create the laws of physics didn't need to be created. Isn't that just changing the rules, to sustain a wholly illogical argument? Either the complex needs to be created or it does not. You can't have it both ways.


What of the nature of God? Consider this. Do you actually know of any form of intelligence which has no physical basis? Of course you don't. The baby is not born understanding the world. That develops as the child grows. Intelligence and consciousness always develop in a physical entity. God is said to be a conscious being without a physical form. But where is the evidence? Oh yes there are plenty of opinions, but evidence that actually stands up, have you got any? The truth is you don't, and the idea makes no sense. To create the idea of God, everything we actually know about consciousness needs to be reversed. But there are no valid grounds for reversing it.


So here we are. There is no evidence and the idea of a loving God makes any sense; the idea of a just God makes no sense; the idea of prayer makes no sense; the idea of the natural world being made makes no sense and let's be honest if you examine holy books they are so full of contradictions that they don't even begin to make sense either. So the whole idea of God makes no more sense.



Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

Helium, Inc.
200 Brickstone Square Andover, MA 01810 USA