Why don't you believe in God?

[maenad nuri]

I rejected Christianity on theological levels, and none of the other Abrahamic religions really convinced me that this "God" possessed all of what people claimed He does.

And then I found different gods.

[Arturos Knightblade]

Since I've become an atheist, I've become very religious. Even started up my own ministry.

[puella in somnio]

A mix of everything really.

I was Christian for a pretty large portion of my life (though I'm not that old). Never felt anything during prayer or worship. Never "felt God's presence" like others claimed to. Never got answers to my prayers. Never felt like I really actually believed. Worried a hell of a lot about going to hell. Finally realized I didn't believe and could not force myself to do so, no matter how hard I tried.

And then it hit me that I had only bought into Christianity because I was born into it and taught it was right. From an outsider's perspective, it was no more viable than any of the other god-related options.

I did "experiment" to some extent, I suppose-- through prayer. Which did not work, like, at all. It wasn't intended as a test, but when I bring this up with Christians as a reason I don't believe, they accuse me of "testing God" and tell me that's why my prayers didn't get answered. There's an excuse for everything, but no real proof or evidence.

So the fact is, I can't believe. I've got nothing to go on.

[catspook]

I don't believe in god(s) because I have have not seen sufficient evidence for him/her/it/them, and the more I learn about the world and the the universe, the less sense it makes to me that the universe was created by anything that resembles a human or would care about humans.

And I did "experiment" when I was younger, with not only the Abrahamic but also Hellenistic gods - the result was the same in both cases (i.e. no response in either case).

[Neophenx de Chrysalya]

General Obvious III

Sir Alfred Muffin

Let me start off by saying that I'm a practicing, non-denominational Christian.

My questions to y'all: why do you not believe in God? (This is obviously directed to those who don't.)

Is it because of science, apparent biblical contradictions, philosophical arguments ... What?

And have any of you actually experimented this idea of God? If so, what were the results?

Yes to all of those questions. I am an Athiest because of the scientific evidence against God and the incomprehensible paradoxes that would need to be ignored in order for me to be faithful, and the oppressive customs that have developed in most major religions. Everyone has the right to believe what they want to believe, but the Westboro Baptist sort of put me off the whole idea of religion.

I tell ya, those Westboros made us all look bad. Just because something is called a sin in the Bible doesn't mean that people can go around, representing themselves as Christians and bash everybody. Jesus preached love towards all people, not just those that agreed with a certain viewpoint. I tell you the truth, plenty of Christians hate the actions of those Westboro nutjobs.

[GunsmithKitten]

1: Personal revelations about the afterlife.

2: The Biblical model has way too many holes in it for me.

[GunsmithKitten]

Sir Alfred Muffin

I mean have you ever sat down, and attempted to speak to God? To pray to Him? To test His reality, based on personal experience, and not a text or logic?

For likely as long as you've been alive, if not longer.

[Kerubiel]

I wouldn't outright deny the possibility of the existence of a god, or some kind of conscious creator entity that deists sometimes propose. However, I do not acknowledge the Abramahic God this way. YHVH as a whole seems like a very archaic idea based on the beliefs of a primitive man, and makes out an omnipotent being to be very humanlike and emotionally unstable in nature. If there were some kind of God, I don't think it would be as immature and angry as YHVH is depicted, for omnipotence would leave no room for negative emotions like anger and sadness.

[I Refute Berkeley Thus]

I have philosophical qualms with transcendentalist, absolutist, deistic, ultimate, pan(e)theistic, etc. deities, either because I simply can't conceive of what they're supposed to mean (and therefore any attempt at "believing in them" is ruled out), or because they ultimately reduce to observations I would not consider divine, or because they ultimate reduce to Rumi-style emotional fluff that does not appeal to me. Given my views on knowledge, I also find omnipotence and omniscience incoherent, or at least so poorly understood/conveyed that I don't know how to talk about them - that's not to say they're impossible, but I don't know how to go about believing them until I can understand why they're not incoherent. Saying I believe them wouldn't really mean anything, in that case - and I have found nobody willing and able to explain it to me (the resident absolutist Lucky being a sort of Hegel to my James, I suppose).

As for anthropomorphic deities, I just don't see a reason to believe. I try to be practical about what I deal with - I don't have time for fairies and ghosts and spirits and deities, unless they're actually there.

[I Refute Berkeley Thus]

maenad nuri

I rejected Christianity on theological levels, and none of the other Abrahamic religions really convinced me that this "God" possessed all of what people claimed He does.

And then I found different gods.

Tell them to talk to me! God that would be so ******** cool, shooting the s**t with Hephaestus.

[Illumina Vierge]

First of all, I hold God blameless for anything people do, the boooks they write about him/her/it, whatever, etc. I don't believe because I don't have a reason to believe. And suggesting I should believe in an imaginary friend for the sake of my imaginary soul for the sake of an imaginary afterlife... is not the least bit convincing. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

[Spooky Wasabi Princess]

Sir Alfred Muffin

Let me start off by saying that I'm a practicing, non-denominational Christian.

My questions to y'all: why do you not believe in God? (This is obviously directed to those who don't.)

Is it because of science, apparent biblical contradictions, philosophical arguments ... What?

And have any of you actually experimented this idea of God? If so, what were the results?

When I was little I liked the idea of god and I tried to believe in it, but whenever I prayed I felt like I was just talking to myself. It felt stupid, like playing with a doll but really believing it was alive and talking. It confused me that people said they 'talked to god' because I knew they were just talking to themselves.

I don't think any religion will ever have the answers. After all, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

[Dieu des hommes]

A lack of reason to believe in one is probably the primary contributing factor.

[Panda-Harlequin]

My reason for not believing in the concept of Gods is because the idea of Gods lacks empirical or testable evidence to support it, and I have very serious issues with believing based solely on faith. There are, furthermore, too many religions with vastly different Gods and practices for you to tell me that your God is the correct one. I also find the logical paradoxes involving a supposedly Supreme Being to be a little too mind boggling for me, and quite frankly I have issues with the idea of a Supreme Being to begin with, So, all in all, my reason is simple. I have not seen enough credible evidence for the idea of Gods. As such, I do not believe in such a Being.

[TANRailgun]

Sir Alfred Muffin

Let me start off by saying that I'm a practicing, non-denominational Christian.

My questions to y'all: why do you not believe in God? (This is obviously directed to those who don't.)

Is it because of science, apparent biblical contradictions, philosophical arguments ... What?

And have any of you actually experimented this idea of God? If so, what were the results?

I've answered this question too many times, so if you don't mind I'm just going to repost my response to an earlier thread:

TANRailgun

Personally, I'm one of those seemingly rare atheists who has never believed. It wasn't that I was raised in a non-religious household, I was raised in a Lutheran family, and even went to a Lutheran school for a couple years, I simply never believed in a god. If I remember correctly it started back before I even knew what to believe (when I was about 4 or 5), I was really into dinosaurs and I remember asking my grandma (she was super religious, but in that kind, motherly way...not the batshit crazy way) why they didn't mention dinosaurs in the bible...after all I know for a fact that dinosaurs existed, I could go and see their fossils, I couldn't go to a museum and see God. When I explained this too her, she gave me the typical "You just gotta have faith" answer, but that never sat right with me, it wasn't till a little later, when I asked her about all those ancient gods and she said that those weren't real, but the god of the bible was, that my non-belief was solidified.

This was never a big deal for me, it was just a logical conclusion, and I assumed for the longest time that the majority of people had reached the same conclusion (religion doesn't come up a lot when you're a kid). It actually wasn't until high school that I realized that, not only was I a minority, but an very unpopular minority. I decided it wasn't something I wanted to hide, and since then I've kinda made a point to let people know I'm an atheist whenever religion comes up (it's not like I go yelling it from the rooftops though). It's kinda meant to be a big "******** you" to those who believe I deserve to suffer for all eternity because I don't believe what they do.