I don't think being open to it is always enough. There's something more, something intangible, that part I can't control.

Does that make sense?

Some people reach a point where they've eliminated all other choices, I think to get that point you have to make choices to get there. You might have a predisposition to believe or not believe, but to ground that into stone requires some decision-making.

We agree. :)

I tried to believe and couldn't. I decided to stop trying.

A belief in an all-powerful being that punishes you when you do bad, rewards you when you do good smacks of psychological insecurity and a deep-seated need for a parental figure. Edmund Freud was a founder of this theory, and I believe it.

There is the fact that I have never seen or heard or felt anything that could be classified as a religious experience. The discrepancies and missing information from the Bible first led me to believe that religion and God is a false premise. A belief in a power higher than yourself is built around fear and self-loathing. Flaggelation, confessing to sins, these are examples of this.

First of all, it would be impossible to have the amount of genetic variation (i.e. skin colour, shape of eyes and nose, shape and size of body, eye colour) of the human species if we all originated a few millennia ago, and we all are offspring from two, yes count them on one hand, two people. That notion is absurd, and a priest actually admitted that to be more of a meaning kind of thing rather than something to be taken literally.

Noah's Ark is another illogical parable in the Bible. Whats that, fit two of every species of animal in a boat, and enough food to feed them all for the amount of time you claim that the Earth was flooded? You have to be kidding me. Even if one base pair of each species (i.e. Cat, Dog) was to taken aboard, you still would need some kind of genetic variation (evolution) to compensate for the huge amount of different breeds of cat and dog that are present today.

[/rant]

I don't believe in the God that organized religion, especially christianity, espouses.

I do belive in an interconnectedness with all life. Almost an electrical thing since that's how our brains and body runs. And that interconnectedness is the closest thing to a God I can comprehend. Being sensitive to that provides direction on right and wrong, as well as living in the world with everything else in the world in a natural fashion.

Organized religion seems so self-serving and simplistic, always bending and changing to the will of whomever is running a church.

This pretty much sums up why I don't belive either. God is to me just as fictional as the easter bunny and santa.

To me religion is a mental prison in witch you take one answer to be the truth without concidering the others validity. You close your mind to one mindset and put up walls, roofs and fences made of fear, shame and guilt.

If there is one thing I've learned about this world it is that there is never a simple answer to anything. Religion gives you simple answers and therefore, based on my experiences, they cannot be true.

i find it interesting that most of the arguements pertaining to a God's NON-existance point toward Christianity...
since when does bellieving in God, or any God, Goddess or higher power mean that you believe in Christianity or The Bible?

i think it's possible to disbelieve the churches definition of "God" but still believe in a "higher power" if you will... or a spiritual energy, force, or whatever it feels like to you...
i think it's possible to hold beliefs in science, evolution... to collect knowlege... but also believe, or hope, that there is something more... something intangible... something magical... that exists among each and every living thing...

i am very much opposed to most organized religion... i am not a "bible thumper"... but i do feel spiritual...
i believe that possibilities are endless... i believe a person can do anything they set their mind and heart to... i believe in spirit... and magic... and blessings... if that means i believe in God, so be it...

I do feel very spiritual. Unfortunately, in the USA most relate that to christianity. If not, it is another religion trying to force their views on me. And the Christian religion tries to do that around the world.

I was raised a Christian, I was baptized.. .confirmed.. the whole deal. Then when I was a senior in high school I took a world religion class which changed my life. This class opened my eyes to the fact that gods and religions are human creations that humans use to explain things that they do not understand.

ChrisJericho, I bet your parents were pissed off at that class!

~springrain, considering that the vast majority of people in the US are Christian, it's not any more surprising that people respond to this question in that context than it would be if you told people to show up in formal attire and everyone showed up in a suit and tie...

Also, he didn't ask why we didn't believe in a god but, rather, why we didn't believe in God. That is a very specific question and a very specific god...




Edit: damn, I tried to get my change in on time but KWSN beat me. I modified my post to reflect that ~springrain didn't start the thread...

I'm an agnostic, and by the definition of agnostic i believe it explains itself entirely.

I'm an agnostic just because i find it to be rational.

I don't believe in God because, quite simply, I don't see any proof tha there is one, as people have said. I also agree that I don't need God to make myself a better person. I see God as a means of stability for religious people in society and nothing more, their crutch to hold them up when they need it, so to speak. Some people would rather live to please an entity they have never seen and that's their choice, but I won't be one to do this. But that's my opinion.

Until we meet again. . .

I was raised Catholic and was pretty devout into my 20s. But there were always things that seemed completely wrong to me (e.g., birth control being a sin) and I chose to ignore those things. When I thought about the nature of god, I decided that I couldn't fathom a god who needed to be "thanked and prasied" at every turn, and that those things were really more for people.

After a while, I got to the point where I decided that if someone proved there was, or was not, a god, I'd still live my life the same way because I thought it was the right way.

What that sort of view, I lived my life for some more years. As I went along, the existence of god just made less and less sense to me. Eventually I realized that I no longer believe in god.

So, for me, it was a long, slow progression.

(from Fibrosa's book)

This isn't quite true. There's plenty of evidence. There's no proof.

I don't understand the nuance of what you mean here. Evidence - proof.... doesn't one lead to the other? Or is this a technicality of the term "definition?" To me what you are trying to say is that there are plenty of opinions derived in part from some factual evidence that has been interpreted in many ways, never leading to proof.


Is that saying the same thing a different way?

I disagree with you here.
By far the most prominent objection to religious beliefs in this thread was the complete lack of evidence.
This applies across the board to all religions...
As it happens many people phrased their arguments in such a way that they were explictly directed at christianity, but the points apply to any religion, including undefined ultra-vague spirituality.

I see beauty in life I do not need god to provide that for me. Furthermore, I understand that people are imperfect and could never really understand an omnipotent being/force. Finally, many religions have beliefs that exclude other trains of thought. I don't think that any one group of people is superior in the facet of wisdom and so it does not make sence that one would be right and the others wrong. Therefor the only logical thing for me to believe is that they are all wrong...or at least equally right. I have no way of deciding on any meaningful level which is the better.

I suppose I should add that, although these are the things that woke me up to agnostism, the fact that proof of a higher being should really lye with the other camp is what keeps me there.

Sometimes it makes me feel sad though, that many people of religion will never understand how I feel about the world even if I explained it to them.

Pretty much the same as others.

Until there is proof, I can be labeled as a "non-believer".

Yeah, I never could wrap my head around the whole supreme being" thing. I undertand it, and I know people for whom that world view makes sense, but I just don't. I've been told that there is a god-shaped hole inside everyone that needs to be filled. Isn't that just saying that anyone who feels a lacking in their life will invent something to fill said hole? I'm not wonderfully thrilled with my life; I mean, I could be a movie star, (except for the whole not very handsome thing) but that's not an emptiness that needs to be filled. Most people that I know who have no spiritual side seem to posess a world view that what is-is what is. Aren't those who look for unseen answers from a deity little different from primitive tribesmen sacrificing sheep for rain?

My answer to GakFace's question: I do not believe because I do see neither the use nor the need for belief. I see no advantage in believing in unprovable things. And I don't see being religious making my life easier, or more beautiful.

I can't believe in any type of all-powerful/all-knowing God who'd willingly allow all the tragedy, suffering, and injustice going on in the world.

Looks like you kids are having fun . . .

My answer:

Because I just don't know, and everyone who tries to convince me that there is ends up being too radical for me to want to listen to, anyway.

I agree with you completely and whole heartedly.

I’ll tap into the „no proof” school of thought. Religion doesn’t cut it for me. I am living in a country where 95% of people claim to be catholic. I’m completely okay with them, just as along as they try not to interfere with the way I think, and it happens quiet often, sadly.

I dont subscribe to religion and the current interpretations of "god" because of the people who push it.I find very few things as revolting as a relatively naive individual(or organization) attempting to tell me I am wrong and going to some version of hell because they lack the intellect to think for themselves.

I do not believe in God for several reasons.

1. Why would God let us all suffer if he was all powerful and could just give us great live being happy together. (I am tired of the he is testing us story, if he existed why would he have to test us he gave us all of our motivations and drives, so what is he trying to prove?)

2. Common sense - if you really think about it it is a rediculous thing to believe in a all powerfull being that won't prove he exists but makes us cower and fear him!

3. The reason Gods existed in the first plase was to explain things humans couldn't. but now we understand comets, earthquakes, floods, lightning, and so on.......