KnightWhoSaysNi

For me, it's rather a complicated answer and it depends on how you define the word "God." I can't speak for everyone here, but I'm a 'weak' atheist, or in other words, I have a "lack of belief" in gods vs. a "denial of the existence" of gods. If you'd prefer to call that agnosticism, go right ahead. Everyone seems to have their own pet definition of what "atheism" is, and that's why I put "atheist/agnostic" in my profile.

Rather than go into a complicated answer, I'll present an analogy. This is paraphrasing and modifying a bit of stuff from Carl Sagan's Demon Haunted World.

Let's say your neighbour invites you over to his house and boldly claims that he has a dragon in his garage. You're amazed at his claim and you ask him to show you.

So he leads you to his garage, but there's nothing in there. You ask where it is, and he replies that it's invisible. You feel around with your hands, but only touch air. Your neighbour says that it's merely fluttering around the garage to avoid you, since it hates being touched by unbelievers.

You bring in some advanced equipment to make measurements. No form of heat is detected other than the surrounding objects. No problem, he says, he just has magical force fields around him. No sounds are detected and no air movement is detectable from him flying around. No problem, he just has a "spiritual" incorporeal body that allows him to pass through matter undetected. You conduct similar experiments with X-rays, radio, ultraviolet, microgravity, lasers, etc... to no avail.

You throw up your hands and say, "you know what, I don't believe there's a dragon here at all. Why should I believe you? Show me some proof!"

Your neighbour grins and replies, "No, it is up to you to prove my dragon's non-existence. To claim that my dragon does not exist is to say that you know absolutely 100% every possible means of determining its existence. To overcome your biases, you must have faith and believe my dragon exists first and then you'll see evidence of it."

[ August 02, 2002: Message edited by: Nightshade ]</p>

Dr S

To answer the question with a question--What god are you talking about? There are no gods around here to believe in or not.

There is only your story that there is a god. If the question is why don't we believe your story when you tell it the answer is you haven't presented any gods. Not only you but everyone else that tells the same story has no way of backing it up with any evidence.

It seems to me that if my dog pooped on your lawn I might not want to believe it. You, however would have little or no trouble proving your existential claim to me. Existential claims are easy to prove--you simply produce whatever it is you claim exists.
That is why your existential claim of a god is disregarded-you have no way to know if what you are claiming is the truth.
Strange that you would apply more discernment to a pile of "dog dirt" than you do to god.

[ August 02, 2002: Message edited by: Dr S ]</p>

joedad

Because gods are not real.

joe

Amen-Moses

Same reason I don't believe in Santa Claus.

Now why don't You believe in Santa Claus?

Amen-Moses

Queen of Swords

Define "God".

Autonemesis

The same thing that make me think there is no reason to believe in an invisible pink unicorn, or in an element lighter than Hydrogen, or in a alternate Earth orbiting on the other side of the Sun.

ishalon

God?

...

What God?

Mad Kally

I can't wait to be dazzled by your brilliant answer!

Jobar

SUTG, another problem most of us will say we have believing in God is that no one seems to be able to come up with a good definition that everybody can agree on. While most Christian denominations will say that God is the omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent creator of the universe, who stands above and outside of his creation, and is entirely 'other than' the universe- not all of those who call themselves Christian would agree, and of course the Jewish and Muslim definitions are even more different- no Trinity, for instance.

If you want to talk about God with us, you need to try to tell us what *you* believe God to be. (And then we'll tell you why you are wrong, I expect!)

joedad

A pathetic question deserves a pathetic answer imho.

If SUTG comes back and cares to argue how a god is any more real for an adult than a Santa is for a child, I'll listen and respond with more detail.

joe