Lately religion has been coming up alot in my life and i've begun to think about the actual reasons why I no longer believe in any sort of supreme being. I have once believed in the christian god, and I may believe in him again some day, but i'm currently a firm atheist.
First I will assume that a omnipotent god exists. There's an old saying: power corrupts. In fact, almost every religion portrays god as "Do this, and you will face god's wrath." "Pledge your allegiance, plead forgiveness, and you will be saved." It's strange to me that a powerful being would want and need such statements from its creations and even resort to threats to make its creations comply. It is a sign that all the power has gone to its head and that we, god's creations, are no better than slaves. God is on a massive power trip because it has created a universe where the creatures have flaws in them, and then god delights in "punishing" these creatures for falling prey to these flaws and not begging for forgiveness. But if God has created us and ''planned out are whole lives, down to every last thing we say' (which is what my bible teachers would always tell me) why would he need to treaten us to comply? Why would he make people not believe in him and verbally oppose him? Arguers say ''He is testing you''. Okay, but what fucking for? How can he test you if he already knows what your going to do?
Another thing I don't quite understand, why does God get to choice what is right and wrong? How can stoning a adultress not differ from getting drunk? Believing that someone other than you can tell what is right or wrong for you encourages conformity and lack of responsibility for your own actions. Consider the concept of "forgiveness for one's sins", wherein every wrong is wiped out and you start with a clean slate the moment you accept/believe in some arbitrary god. How can this encourage personal responsibility for one's actions? How can this encourage thinking for oneself, figuring out the hard way whether something is right or wrong, instead of just doing what is spoon-fed? There was a time when the concept of a god might have been good to keep humanity in line, but today, since most people follow a double standard, it's easier to discard responsibility by using god as an excuse.
How can a god let the cruelty in the world continue to occur? Since he apparently planned it all out from the beginning, some plan. Unless such a god got a perverse pleasure in watching his 'loved' creations suffer, in which case god would be cruel.
Many a time, when these types of objections are raised, believers in a god will say our minds are not capable of comprehending of an omnipotent or powerful god's actions; in other words, we're like ants trying to comprehend human actions. In this event, I'd argue that to a god, we're just like how ants are to a human. When ants come into our house, they could be praying to me all day, but the we still destroy them, which i guess is a explanation to why so many people are destoyed everyday for no reason at all.
Another reason I don't think much of religion and god is because some of the greatest atrocities in humanity's history have been committed in the name of religion and god. Religion has the same sort of problems I outline above: it encourages despotism, conformity, acts of barbaric cruelty, laziness, and lack of personal responsibility. Sure, religion and a belief in god serves some positive purpose at times (such as giving hope amidst utter despair), but overall I think the negative weighs in more than the positive. I believe each person has their own god and religion within themselves and it would behoove us all to find it through some serious introspection.
Some questions i've asked christians and have never gotten an answer to, why would a god create human life to just live and worship him. Isn't that a bit... uh.. stupid? Why even build the earth? Why not send the humans straight to heaven to worship and praise him constantly there without the annoyance of tempations? Jesus and God have said that 'you don't need to see to believe' or you don't need proof, then are they saying that we should believe in any old God? What if someone told me that my stove was a god, even if i don't have proof should i just go ahead and worship it? Why is personal intellegence never mentioned or praised in the bible? Does god not want his loved creations to excel in anything except worshiping him? Why are MOST christians the most intolerant and hateful people in the world? Why does he allow small children in Africa, who have never even heard of a god, be killed and tortured? Why does dinosaurs never mentioned in the bible? Also, if god made the earth the same time he made man, why is there scientific proof that the planet was here for billions and billions of years before any human, let alone living organism inhabited it? Once more question, how is god's creation (theplanet) breaking? Wouldn't he be all 'well shit, let me quick step in and fix my defective planet real quick'.
done for now.
On a life note, people have been acting fucking crazy lately. I literally think all the kids at my school are slowly going insane. Literally.
also much thanks to
Ram Samudrala for the ideas and a few quotes.
