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Why Not Believe? Reasons Why Atheists Don't Believe in Gods
by Austin Cline
Multiple Gods and Religious Traditions:
It is difficult to credit any one religion as being True or
any one god as being True when there have been so many
throughout human history. None appears to have any greater
claim to being more credible or reliable than any other. Why
Christianity and not Judaism? Why Islam and not Hinduism?
Why monotheism and not polytheism? Every position has had
its defenders, all as ardent as those in other traditions.
They can't all be right, but they can all be wrong.
Contradictory Characteristics in Gods:
Theists often claim that their gods are perfect beings; they
describe gods, however, in contradictory and incoherent
ways. Numerous characteristics are attributed to their gods,
some of which are impossible and some combinations of which
are impossible. As described, it's unlikely or impossible
for these gods to exist. This doesn't mean that no god could
possibly exist, just that the ones theists claim to believe
in don't.
Religion in Self-Contradictory:
No religion is perfectly consistent when it comes to
doctrines, ideas, and history. Every ideology, philosophy,
and cultural tradition has inconsistencies and
contradictions, so this shouldn't be surprising — but other
ideologies and traditions aren't alleged to be divinely
created or divinely sanctioned systems for following the
wishes of a god. The state of religion in the world today is
more consistent with the premise that they are man-made
Gods Are Too Similar to Believers:
A few cultures, like ancient Greece, have postulated gods
which appear to be as natural as human beings, but in
general gods are supernatural. This means that they are
fundamentally different from human beings or anything on
earth. Despite this, however, theists consistently describe
their gods in ways that make the supernatural appear almost
mundane. Gods share so many characteristics with humans that
it has been argued that gods were made in the image of man.
Gods Just Don't Matter:
Theism means believing in the existence of at least one god,
not that one necessarily cares much about any gods. In
practice, though, theists typically place a great deal of
importance on their god and insist that it and what it wants
are the most important things a person can be concerned
with. Depending upon the nature of a god, however, this
isn't necessarily true. It's not obvious that the existence
or desires of gods should matter to us.
Gods and Believers Behave Immorally:
In most religions, gods are supposed to be the source of all
morality. For most believers, their religion represents an
institution for promoting perfect morality. In reality,
though, religions are responsible for widespread immorality
and gods have characteristics or histories which make them
worse than the most vile human serial killer. No one would
tolerate such behavior on the part of a person, but when
with a god it all becomes laudable — even an example to
follow.
Evil in the World:
Closely associated with taking action that should be
considered immoral is the fact that there is so much evil in
the world today. If there are any gods, why don't they act
to eliminate it? The absence of substantive action against
evil would be consistent with the existence of evil or at
least indifferent gods, which is not impossible, but few
people believe in such gods. Most claim that their gods are
loving and powerful; the suffering on Earth, makes their
existence implausible.
Faith is Unreliable:
A common characteristic of both theism and religion is their
reliance on faith: belief in the existence of god and in the
truth of religious doctrines is neither founded upon nor
defended by logic, reason, evidence, or science. Instead,
people are supposed to have faith — a position they wouldn’t
consciously adopt with just about any other issue. Faith,
though, is an unreliable guide to reality or means for
acquiring knowledge.
Life is Material, not Supernatural:
Most religions say that life is much more than the flesh and
matter we see around us. In addition, there is supposed to
be some sort of spiritual or supernatural realm behind it
all and that our "true selves" is spiritual, not material.
All evidence, though, points to life being a purely natural
phenomenon. All evidence indicates that who we really our —
our selves — is material and dependent upon the workings of
the brain. If this is so, religious and theistic doctrines
are wrong.
There is No Good Reason to Bother Believing:
Perhaps the most important and common reason for not
believing in any gods and for not following any religions is
the absence of any good reason for doing so. All of the
above are decent reasons for not believing and are common
reasons for questioning — and eventually leaving — whatever
theistic and religious beliefs a person might have had in
the past.
Once a person gets beyond the bias in favor of belief,
though, they can realize something critical: the burden of
support lies with those claiming that belief is rational
and/or necessary. Believers fail to meet this burden,
however, and as a consequence fail to provide any really
good reasons to accept their claims. As a consequence, those
who don't already believe and/or who are not biased in favor
of belief aren't given a reason to start.
Given the fact that the burden of support lies first and
foremost with those making the positive the claim — the
theistic, religious believers — then non-believers don't
necessarily need reasons not to believe. They are helpful,
to be sure, but they aren't particularly necessary. Instead,
what is required are reasons to believe.
The question "Why don't you believe?" is a request for
justification from the nonbeliever; the response "I haven't
seen any good reason to bother believing" returns the need
for justification back to the believer where it belongs. Too
often, believers fail to realize that their position is the
one which needs defending and perhaps this can help them
begin to understand that.
Why Not Believe? Reasons Why Atheists Don't Believe in Gods
http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutatheism/p/whynotbelieve.htm
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