I am an atheist because the gods presented to me in my youth are:
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All loving – while providing the perfect vehicle of hatred and bigotry for their followers.
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Omniscient – except when the intervention of a God is desperately needed.
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Benevolent – while children suffer and die, while women are humiliated and tortured and slain in barbarous fashions simply because they are women.
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Conflicted – “Heal the sick, clothe the naked, feed the hungry” but also “kill them all – men, women, children, animals and trees.”
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Afflicted by Munchausen by proxy syndrome – “I’ll kill my son so you will love me more.”
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Misogynistic
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Used by the international criminal Pope Benedict XVI to assist in the cover up of an international conspiracy to sexually abuse children.
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Unworthy of my praise, my devotion, and my worship.
And other reasons too numerous to mention.
Fester60613
United States
Amen.
Huh huh huh.
Unfortunately, the reasons you present are not reasons to not believe, they are reasons that “god”, if existent, is evil. There’s a step you left out: that the disparity between what you were told about the nature of “god” and what “god” is (if existant) raised questions as to the veracity of what you were told–and those questions led you to question the very fundamental concept of theism: the existence of the Big Bad Wrathful Redoubtable Gawd in the first place…and that consequent questioning exposed the whole thing to be a made up crock.
Seeing that Gawd is evil and not good after all doesn’t indicate atheism per se; one can still believe–as “God-fearing” folk of all stripes do–in the Malevolent Sky-Monster. But, it can open the eyes, and lead to seeing how false the whole thing is.
The Sky-Monsterists hate questioning; they know where it leads. To stop others from doing it, they employ coercion, threats, fallacies, lies, misdirection, insults, punishment, repression, violence, torture, and murder. And all the while, they imagine the Sky-Monster Gawd smiling down on them, and winking cheerily, and telling them what good girls and boys are they, specially and particularly. O frabjous Dei!
I hadn’t thought of the rather twisted idea that the crucifixion of the Christ really would be the sickest form of Munchausen by proxy syndrome ever. Damn good thing for the bloke that he never really existed in the first place because that would really suck.
Chris, to be fair to Fester, he’s claiming that he doesn’t believe in a god because the nature of the gods presented to him made it impossible to believe the nonsense.
We can’t prove that there are no gods. In the case of a specific putative god, we can point out the inconsistencies in the beliefs of its devotees, along with the lack of supporting evidence.
Dick the Damned in # 4 (and Fester60613):
I hope I was not being unfair to Fester60613, and certainly didn’t mean to be. I thought Fester60613’s was a valuable post. I did not mean to criticize Fester60613; I apologize if I came across that way.
I agree with you. I thought that perhaps a person who is not a regular reader here who happened on this thread might see a gap between observation and conclusion. And there is no mention in Fester60613’s post of lack of evidence.
I would like to add that I, too, appreciated the point of Munchausen by proxy. Neat thinking, there.
For me it’s this one: Benevolent – while children suffer and die, while women are humiliated and tortured and slain in barbarous fashions simply because they are women.
If god really existed why does he/she/it not intervene? I’m supposed to just accept that people and the earth have to live this way because someone ate a fucking apple 6,000 years ago? In that case, fuck you god.
That last bullet point was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me:
Even if I was wrong and god really did exist, the fact that such a god would go to such great lengths to hide from the people he had created multiplied by the fact that he had created me to question that which I have no reason to believe means that this god really is quite a bastard.
And I don’t want to spend eternity sucking up to a being like that.
Bottom line: I am better than the Xian god. I have higher standards than he does, apparently.
Crow in #7:
Your bottom line is not trivial at all. It is absurd for a super-being to demand grovelling or else. Any mere human who demanded that of his or her children would be execrated; and for an “all-powerful” being to be so pathologically self-centered would be appalling. Basically, pulling wings of captive flies and demanding praise or else. Ooof. Its extortional at best.
But it is clearly wish-projection on the part of some pretty miserable humans. “Sky-Monster demands obedience; and, by the way, I’m his proxy–respect my authoritay! Big Dude Sky Monster talks to me and only me.”
[singing:] My God is bigger than your God,
My God is bigger than yours!
My God is bigger, ’cause …
etc.
Its absurd and miserable all the way down.
I would say those reasons laid out are sufficient to prevent Fester60613 from believing in a higher power. I can easily see how someone would look at each of his points and decide not to believe (I don’t think you can look at his reasons and use them as proof of god, but we’re talking about belief, not proof). He wasn’t speaking of knowledge, just the personal reasons he has for not believing. I’m sure many other atheists share some of those same reasons.
Tony
I had no idea some gods eat Ken-L-Ration, Chris Booth. Thanks for the heads-up.
Strong & succinct argument. Thanks for sharing!
Also, thanks Chris Booth: if ever I could be convinced of a theistic model (I can’t), I’d have to go with Sky-Monsterist, which is a way more entertaining name than either dystheist or misotheist.
I find that Fester’s criticism is rather harsh. After all God was made in our image and he just does the best he can with his limited intellect and emotional stability.
I thought gods consumed ambrosia and Purina® God Chow™.
Spot on, Fester. Nice one.
OT but when I see the name Fester, I think of when I moved to the town Festus, MO. Someone got our forwarding address as Festered MO. Actually I think that would have been a better name for the town.