Valid Reasons for Atheism?

[goodlife]

.
Whether they have observed the hypocrisy of religion or not, many atheists simply cannot reconcile belief in God with the suffering in the world. some one said: “It was easier for me to think of a world without a creator than of a creator loaded with all the contradictions of the world.”

Do the world’s injustices—including those instigated by hypocritical religionists—prove that there is no God? Consider: If a knife is used to threaten, injure, or even murder an innocent person, does this prove that the knife had no designer? Does it not rather show that the object was put to a wrong use? Likewise, much of human grief gives evidence that humans are misusing their God-given abilities as well as the earth itself.

Some, however, feel that it is illogical to believe in God, since we cannot see him. But what about air, sound waves, and odors? We cannot see any of these things, yet we know they exist. Our lungs, ears, and noses tell us so. Surely, we believe in what cannot be seen if we have evidence.

[Philtaz]

Valid reasons for atheism?

Your post, for one.

[DTCwordfan]

I'll add you to the band of three over here.

http://www.theanswerb.../Question1074325.html

[bigbadmarty]

Tell that to the Loch Ness monster .... and the Yeti .. not fogetting the leprachauns . Is English your first language ? Sorry if thats intrusive but I'm having trouble decoding your prose !

[starone]

My son once said as an excuse for his fear of flying "If God had meant us to fly he would have given us wings" My answer was "He has - on an aeroplane and the knowledge to get the aeroplane into the air." I was being facetious as I am an out and out atheist but I couldn't resist it.

[Zeuhl]

We know air is there because we can experience its friction as we move through it.

We know see sound waves when we measure the differing vibrations and correlate them with corresponding sounds.

We can see odours because when we get the bad smell of dishonesty and delusion in our nostrils it often correlates with looking at one of these transparently self-serving posts.

[vulcan]

It.s the last word in your statement that creates Atheists, goodlife.

[LazyGun]

@Goodlife - This sort of summarizes the massive logic fail of many of the religionistas that come on here...
Do you seriously think that this that you have typed is a good analogy or a powerful argument?

Some, however, feel that it is illogical to believe in God, since we cannot see him. But what about air, sound waves, and odors? We cannot see any of these things, yet we know they exist. Our lungs, ears, and noses tell us so. Surely, we believe in what cannot be seen if we have evidence. "

In that inanity you post above, you claim that "some believe that it is illogical to believe in god, since we cannot see him" No it isn't - It is because a god as you describe them,as you believe in them, violates pretty much every fundamental law of physics, chemistry and biology.!

And to equate our inability to see air, sound waves, or odours as some equivalence to proving gods existence rather conveniently ignores the fact that we can measure all of the above, we can most definitely sense them, either through a sense other than vision, or using a sensor that we manufacture!I mean, come on - did you just copy this analogy from a childrens primer?

This is possibly one of the worst analogies I have ever had the misfortune to read. D-, and someone pencil a big G on the dunces cap and pass it to goodlife to wear..............

[joko]

when a person commits a crime...people dont generally ask god why he let it happen...they blame the person

it is the things that are not man made that people take issue with...tsunamis, earcthquakes, floods, lighting strikes, most accidents etc...things that if you believe in god you also have to accept that he let/made them happen...for no good reason whatsoever...

thats what people get angry about...not some lowlife with a knife

[Hopkirk]

Why am I an atheist?

I don't need a reason.

[birdie1971]

Goodlife (or whatever it is you're calling yourself today) -

To echo LazyGuns's post, do you seriously think that because we cannot see air, sound, or odours that we take the existence of such things on 'faith'? (I notice that you used the American spelling of odours – copy and paste job perhaps?)

We know air (oxygen) exists because we have constructed machines that can tell us its concentrations – these machines save countless lives every year – I know, I've used several. We know that sound exists as we have constructed machines that monitor the vibrations in the aforementioned air. We can even detect sounds that are inaudible to the human ear! How cool is that? We know that odours exists as we have constructed machines that can detect them too.

All of these things are tangible – we can either feel them (or the lack of them) or observe the effects of them (or the lack of them).

As an analogy, it's poor to say the least.

[mibn2cweus]

What more or better reason to be an atheist than this one verse from the scriptures that implores us as a matter of principle to reject the rest? -
1 Thessalonians 5:21 - http://www.biblegatew...ns+5%3A21&version=KJV

[naomi24]

As others have said, your analogy is just plain silly. Since atheism is not a 'club' or a religion, and therefore carries no established creed, I can't speak for others, but personally my evidence that the God of Abraham is not the so-called Almighty comes principally from the Old Testament. Jehovah, Elohim, Allah, or whatever you want to call him, wasn't omnipresent, he wasn't omniscient, he wasn't omnipotent, and neither was he loving and compassionate. All of this we are encouraged to believe, but upon studying the texts without hindrance of pre-conceived ideas, or of wishful thinking, it quickly becomes apparent that this God was a narcissistic evil psychopath who ruled through intimidation and fear - and, by proxy, still does.

To quote Randolph Churchill who had never read the bible, but accepted a challenge from Evelyn Waugh to do so:

"Isn't God a sh!t'.

He got it in one!

Moving on, the Gospels are a mixture of earlier writings and legends, altered and re-written countless times to include 'evidence' of prophecies supposedly fulfilled - all to suit the dubious purposes of the early church. Since the Koran is another poor concoction of legend and writings from earlier civilisations, as a source of serious research, I discount it entirely.

Although I think there is probably some historical truth in both the Old and New Testaments, it is quite ridiculous to attribute the unknown to the unknown, which, along with outrageously manipulating the stark facts plainly evident in both books, is precisely what religion does.

I very much doubt that a creator exists, but if there is such a thing, you've got the wrong bloke because it is not the God of Abraham. Religion is the greatest lie ever told.

[sallybb]

Your right goodlife our noses, lungs and ears, let us sense our surroundings. I'm trying very hard right this minute to sense god. I can't see him. can't feel him, can't touch him, can't smell him, have tried talking to him and guess what he is not replying so I can't hear him.

He is not there.

[Elderman]

Yes,“Hear, now, this, O unwise people that is without heart: They have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but they cannot hear. (Jeremiah 5:21)

[sandyRoe]

Milton told us that the first sin was pride. When Lucifer said; 'I will not serve.', he couldn't have know how much trouble was to be visited on the world.
The most valid reason for atheism now is that same sin, pride.

[flip_flop]

Valid reason for atheism?

Because the very notion of there being a higher entity is so absurd - so stupidly absurd - that anybody with even half a brain will know God is a construct: a conceit if you will.

Frankly, I worry about the sanity (and intelligence) of anybody who does believe in a god.

[sandyRoe]

Naomi, you'll remember that Randolph had an operation to remove a suspected tumor.
On hearing it wasn't actually malignant, Waugh said: Typical, they've taken the only benign thing in his entire body.
I wouldn't hold him up as any sort of biblical scholar.

[Elderman]

Most of earth’s population profess belief in God. If so, you may consider the question (“Do you really believe that God exists?”) as directed to others. Perhaps you call to mind Psalm 14:1: “The senseless one has said in his heart: ‘There is no God, and apply it to atheists and agnostics. But could this verse include more than such persons?

[jomifl]

If you can't see something, hear something, smell something or detect it in in any way, then effectively it doesn't exist,.... just like god.

[goodlife]

As free moral agents, we too have a choice. No one—including God—forces us to do good or to do bad. However, some may rightly ask, ‘If our hearts are inclined toward badness, how can we practice what is good?’ Well, a dentist carefully inspects the teeth in order to detect erosion or decay before it progresses too far. Similarly, we need to probe our figurative heart in search of weaknesses and moral decay. Why? Because “out of the heart come wicked reasonings, murders, adulteries, fornications, thieveries, false testimonies, blasphemies,” said Jesus.—Matthew 15:18-20.