Athiests/Agnostics: Why do you not believe in God?
Do you base the decision not to believe on logic, philosophy, an ideological opposition to organized religion?
This is the basis of many atheists.
If you were born in Israel, you would most likely be a Jew, in ancient greek, a believer of Zeus/Apollo/etc, in ancient china, a buddhist, in arab nations, a muslim, a child, Santa Claus.
There are hundreds of religions dead or alive which all claim to be true. These claims are not based on any sort of visual or empirical evidence and thus a person is usually born into their religion. Without empirical evidence, each religion is equally likely to be true and the likelihood is equivalent to that of Harry Potter and Santa Claus which also exist without evidence.
In short, the invisible and the imaginary are very similar. That isn't to say a god doesn't exist. Atheists merely contend that a God most likely does not exist.
Agnostics don't "not believe in God," they just know that there is no 100% sure way of knowing whether or not a god exists. And those that usually claim to have "met God" or claim to know 100% that there is one go on to kill people en masse - Jim Jones, The Hail Bopp Comet Cult, etc.
The reason I and so many are agnostic is that we think critically and understand that we "cannot know" - hence agnostic is Greek for "to not know."
God and religion are simply collections of the stuff that is unknowable. For whatever reasons people develop relationships with this unknowable stuff. For some it provides answers or comfort or guidance.
What happens when we die? An unknowable question that bothers some people. For comfort, they turn to an unknowable collection of stories they call God that tells them not to worry heaven is waiting.
That's fine. That's their prerogative. Other people, however see no value in spending too much time on the unknowable (whether questions or the illusions of answers).
And of course over time many of the things that were once unknowable become known. Lighting doesn't come from Zeus, for instance. As what we know grows, what we don't know shrinks and God beliefs start to fall apart or simply morph/shift into new collections of the unknown.
People sometimes ask the question, if God showed up in front of you, would you then believe. Well, no, if he was there in front of me than he would no longer be unknowable and so wouldn't be God, he would just be some dude standing in front of me with cosmic powers.
With that being said I do not consider myself an atheist or an agnostic. No decision "not to believe" is necessary, nor does it require any sort of grand struggle of logic or philosophy. My spiritual existence is not defined or undefined by someone else's beliefs.
Lack of evidence. I think it's based on the scientific method. The proof believers give for God's existence boil down to anecdotes, subjective feelings, and appeals to the authority of holy texts which are, upon examination, logically inconsistent.
However, I think it might be good for morality for people believe in a higher power, and some people find belief comforting. Others find a home in religion or fellowship in a religious community. So I'm not one of those religion bashers. I just think there isn't enough there to verify the existence of God. I'm agnostic because I believe there isn't enough proof of a lack, either, due to the limitations of our human capacity to understand the universe. Ultimately, you choose to believe or not believe based on feelings. So I guess I feel more like there is not one.
But I agree with Bubblegum Senpai. The question is flawed because agnostics do not necessarily lack belief, we acknowledge that it may be a possibility, we just believe human reason is too flawed to come up with the answer for sure, one way or the other.
People who are not sheeps that don't follow the rest,and are able to think for themselves.
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The above question I see a lot being asked by materialists when the discussion turns to topics about the spiritual and supernatural. They off-handedly deny the existence of the spiritual and supernatural/transcendental world because they have "found no evidence of them" ...
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