JubalsCall

I'm reading a book about the existence of God and it said there a five major reason for not believing in God. Tell me if this is right or if there are more. Thanks.

Here they are:

1. The problem of Evil (compared to an all powerful and good God)

2. Science can explain everything about God.

3. The argument of epistemological and linguistics. The whole claim of "How can God be both merciful and just?"

4. Objections against all the arguments for existence of God. THe answers to theist arguments.

5. The evils of religion. All of the bad things that have come out of religion.

Tell me if there's any more. Thanks

I got this out of a book called Does God exist? With debates from different Atheist and Theists. Check it out. It's pretty good so far.

Thanks,
Tibbs

philechat

More here:

No evidence for God's existence, or at least no convincing evidence about it.

The contradictory claims made by believers of different religions.

The realization of purely cultural factors in many religious writings and practices.

The incompatibility of a given philosophical system with God's existence (e.g. Sartre's "existentialism")

The awareness of the psychological motifs behind beliefs.

Autonemesis

That's a good one. Care to try and deflect it yourself?

No, not quite. Science has succeeded in explaining many things formerly regarded as divine or supernatural, and without any reference to God or the supernatural.

Another good one. If the theists cannot adequately define their God without invoking contradiction - either internally, or with other theists - then the non-theist is justified in concluding that the theists haven't the faintest idea what they are talking about.

Well this is kind of a summary of the other points, isn't it?

Also a good one, but perhaps the weakest. Bad things come out of the US justice system, but we don't dismantle the courts because of it. We try to improve it as best we can. But there is no room for improving God. If He exists, then human history and His own Holy Books show He's an evil tyrant, and we'd just have to make do with Him, Evil as He is.

Philosoft

Only works for a particular God.

I don't understand. Science can't really explain anything about God. That's why the huge disconnect between science and religion.

Again, only for a particular God.

Because of the often arbitrary nature of the God concept, it will never be possible to answer all theist arguments.

This is an indictment of religion only. "God" and "religion" are not interchangeable terms.

Many more. A review of just this forum should enlighten you further.

Jamie_L

You're reasons seem to assume a defalut position of believing in God. But that's not the case. Existence of God is a positive claim. One need not have objections to the arguements for the existence of God. If the arguements for aren't convincing, then one defaults to non-belief without need for objections.

With that said, the big reason you are missing is: No evidence/Descriptions of God don't match reality.

That's my reason, in a nutshell.

Jamie

Stephanie

1.- Free will has created evil. We ourselves fall into sin. Goes doesn't make us.

2.- I've yet sound one of the scientists that had religion in their lives! :P

3.- God's GREAT!

4.- What about everything good that He has done?

5.- what about the good things?

___________________________________

Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas

JubalsCall,

Perhaps you should think about this more....

What 'problem of evil'?

You sure?
We don't even know why droplets of oil in water attract each other. Or how the weather behaves...or why Rome fell...or how bumble bees actually fly...or etc...

More to point...how could He not be?

I guess we all roll our own. One of the reasons why I questioned atheism was its poor response to theistic argument.

Know this: whatever endeavor man undertakes...eventually evil will happen. This is true in family, friends, business, pleasure, war and peace. Religion is not exempt.



Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas

Mageth

You sure?
We don't even know why droplets of oil in water attract each other.

Umm, that doesn't mean science might not understand the phenomenon in the future. (Interesting article, BTW).

Or how the weather behaves...

Actually, we do know quite a bit about how the weather behaves and the reasons behind it, and are learning more all the time. For instance, weather is generally recognized as a chaotic system. Chaos theory is a relatively new, and fascinating, area that's beginning to be used to explain a lot of natural phenomena.

or why Rome fell...

Not technically science, but there are several theories on why Rome fell. Such complex events are not easy to explain, and indeed may not be explainable, by a simple theory. And like the weather, chaos theory may have some application in this area.

or how bumble bees actually fly...or etc...

Umm...yes we do. You're a victim of the urban legend that physics precludes bumble bees from flying, or at best doesn't understand how they can fly.

Flight of the Bumble Bee

Silent Acorns

Just to continue where Mageth left off, we understand how weather behaves extremely well. The problem is that weather is difficult to predict because predicting what the weather will be 3 days from now is extremely sensitive to the currect state of the atmosphere. Far more sensitive in fact than our best measureing equipment.

In fact, it has been shown that even if we had billions of perfect sensors all placed at 1 meter (3 foot) intervals (north, south, east, west, up, and down), and a perfect computer model to analyze the data, we still couldn't predict the weather more than a month in advance due to the fact that we wouldn't know what is going on in between the sensors.

Marlowe

Considering an all powerful and good God is only postulated by Judeo-Christian/ Muslim religions, you're leaving out an awful lot of Gods here. All mythologies deal with and produce theories on why evil exists - including Judeo-Christian/ Muslim traditions. Take for instance the Garden of Eden story from Genesis in the Bible. This is a metaphorical tale explaining the existence of evil.

Science has over time in the West explained numerous mysteries that were once the province of the Judeo-Christian God, but science cannot explain a number of things that are religious in nature. Science depends upon what can be measured and reproducibly proven. There are many thigns that cannot be measured and reproducibly proven. I love my mother - but I can't prove that to you as it is a subjective experience. Science can postulate theories on why it is reasonable that I love my mother, but that is in no way predictive. Mom could do somethign tomorrow that makes me hate her. If science cannot even explain the relationship of two human beings, how can you claim it has explained everything about God?

You are producing arguments specific to the Western tradition of philosophy and its continued casting of rationality and religion as irreconcilable. Once you drop the Judeo-Christian history as the basis for discussion on God, these questions become irrelevant. In other words, your definition of God is entirely too small based on a single historical tradition.

Which again only work in terms of a personified deity of a specific historical tradition and defined by a single text of sacred writings. I haven't heard anyone produce an answer to theistic arguments that assume Brahman instead of Yahweh.

As someone else said - you are confusing the institution of religion with a definition of the Divine. All institutions produce evils because they are made and controlled by humans. They also produce good things - how many people have been fed by religious run charities. You don't get to hold up the bad of religious institutions and ignore the good of them in an argument.