My road to atheism; Yours? Theist opinions?
- Thread starter Dinosaur
- Start date
If the particular concept of God as described by a major religion is wrong, then we can say that God - as conceived by that religion - doesn't exist. If none of the Gods described by the major religions exist, where does that leave us? Either God doesn't exist at all, or else God exists in some form not described by any of the major religions.
So, I agree with you that this kind of argument doesn't get us all the way to the conclusion that there is no God. What we can conclude is that, if God exists, he/she/it is not (entirely) as described by the major religions.
In addition, we might ask: if none of the religions correctly describe God, what other source of reliable knowledge about God can we turn to?
God as the creator/prime mover might exist, conceivably. But most people want more from their religion than that. They want a God who cares about people - usually one who cares enough to intervene in events to control or direct people's lives in particular ways.
You can have a God who creates the universe then sits back and does nothing after that if you like. That's consistent with what we know about the universe at present, although there doesn't seem to be any requirement for such a God to exist.
Most atheists leave the door open to the possibility that there is a God after all. It's just that, at present, there's no convincing objective evidence that points unequivocally towards the existence of God. Therefore, belief in even the inactive creator God seems logically unjustified.
Disagree
Most have been corrupted by their enviroment. Whether that be family, friends and the combination of both.
What do you mean environment ? Are we not talking about toing wrong and right ? which means to me our attitude man to man
What I'm saying is that ones' enviroment plays a large role on what ones' attitude is towards themselves and society.
Religions generally claim that we can communicate with "the gods". That claim is wrong because the gods often don't do what we want them to do. If they're going to do whatever they please anyway, what's the point of communicating with them?
That's only logical. If all the concepts offered about God are wrong, then it follows that God is an incorrect hypothesis.
From EoDEo Post # 84
The Abraham-Isaac story was merely a starting point. Note the following from my Post:
The Abraham-Isaac story was the starting point on my road to atheism. As indicated by that Post, it merely made me suspicious of Theist views & started me on the road to atheism.
If one lives in Western society and culture, the dominant religion that one is presented with is Christianity. However atypical and
abnormal a religion it truly is, Christianity is the "norm" for Westerners. The default. So when one confronts the ridiculousness of literalist Christianity and
rejects that religion in particular, its dominance is such that it is essentially rejecting religion as a whole. And because Western religion is so tied into Western ideas of deity, it is rather difficult to see the nuance and gradation.
Though that's not necessarily true for every atheist. I was simply raised without religion around me, so my "norm" was atheism. More to the point, when I began thinking for myself, I was still an atheist out of pure rationalism. There was and is no objective evidence for any deity. I came to Neopaganism for the ethics and occultism, and later came to be a theist after several personal experiences involving deities. And I still recognise that those are only my experiences, and are consequently subjective and personal. They cannot necessarily be extrapolated to everyone.