Do I Believe in God?
by Why I do not believe in God and how life lead me to become an atheist.
Also, before I became an atheist I chose to believe that everything in the Bible was metaphorical. If only all of Christianity held that belief. I remember once I was at the church youth group meeting during church when I was younger and I was asked “Do you believe God exists?”, to which I replied “no, I believe that God is a metaphor for the good we should do in the world”, to which I received quite a few stares. I found over time that in Christianity people believed that God literally existed and many of the events in the Bible actually happened, which further alienated me from the church. I could find a moral lesson from every metaphorical story in the Bible, but at church I was different because I did not think that the events were real events. Over time I came to the conclusion that I did not need the Bible as a moral guide, whether it be metaphorical or not. I decided that the morals I should live my life by should come from inside me, if I need an external source to make me a good person then I’m really not a very good person at heart. I don’t need to have a book telling me what is right and wrong, I don’t need to fear burning in Hell to do good deeds. Having my morals come from myself instead of an external source has served me well, and I believe that I have better morals today than I did at any point when I was a Christian.
A question some raise is the point of life if there is no creator. If we were not created by something and/or there is nothing out there, what is our purpose in life? In my own life I have never really felt the need to have a purpose for my existence. However, this is a very real need for many people. A purpose can be given by anyone though. One does not need to be some divine and holy power to attribute purpose to something. Just as an atheist’s morals come from his or her self, an atheist’s purpose for existing can as well. One might find that he or she takes great pride and accomplishment in something like being a good musician or being a good father. The purpose can easily be self assigned. There was no reason that you were created, but there can be a reason for you to continue existing after your creation.
Another thing that lead me to become an atheist was seeing people do and say horrible things in the name of Christianity. When I was a Christian these people represented me, a fellow Christian, and they had numerous supporters also representing me and all other members of the Christian faith. I refused to be associated at all with people saying that “faggots shouldn’t be married” and that abortion is killing babies and the people that said Muslims were evil just because of their religious affiliation and such.
I am Dr. Locke Z2A, I am an atheist, and I am a better person than I ever was when I was a Christian.
Also, I have seen some interesting things about how religion was created if anyone wants to check them out:
The Entheogen Theory of Religion humans genetically coded to believe in a deity.
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Post CommentJames
On January 11, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I 100% agree with all imformation in this article. You have a nak for writing and you make very good points, I’m also athiest, and most of my reasons are the same.
wayn007
On January 31, 2008 at 11:12 am
I am a Christian. If I am wrong, and at the end of my life, if I am wrong, and I simply fade away into nothingness, I have lost nothing. If you are wrong however, you have lost a chance at eternal life in heaven. Think about it.
Debby
On February 3, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I too am a Christian, and I would much rather have the promise of eternity with the Father and Jesus — even if after death that turns out to be wrong — than the belief that there is nothing and then after death find out I was wrong and wound up on the wrong side of the abyss.
You have nothing to lose by giving Jesus a try and everything to gain. On the other hand, should you die today, you have everything to lose and nothing to gain because you chose not to listen to Jesus. He is the only way for you to stay out of hell.
Atheism is a lie from your enemy who wants to see you spend your eternity burning with no relief, ever. The concept of eternity is difficult to imagine, I know. But for someone who considers himself such an intelligent man, think of eternity like this.
Your brain has the capacity for creating an enormous potential, without end, as long as it is connected to an energy source. On earth that energy source is your blood supply. Suppose you could exchange that energy source for another? One that would never expire, never need to be rejuvenated? Would that interest you?
The source of that energy to your brain is held within you. It is called your spirit and it will only become available to you when you die. The problem for you is you don’t want to go to heaven. So, your brain will only last as long as your blood lasts here on earth — or so you think.
You see. You will still have a spirit and that spirit – that inner man – will be what burns for eternity in hell. Your brain that you so prize, will do one of two things for you. When you die, it will either help you to feel every single excruciating, painful, burning, sensation, or, your brain (or the essence of it) will spend eternity in heaven with Jesus, your Savior and God the Father, enjoying all the blessings of heaven and everything that goes with it … along with every other Saint who declared Jesus as Savior.
The intelligent person – who you so clearly claim to be – would not want to waste their brain. If you did, you’d be doing drugs now. So my question to you is, are you a drug addict? Is your brain fried already? Are you a junkie? Is there any reasonable intelligence left? What do you want to do with your brain? Do you want to save it or lose it? It’s up to you. The choice is yours. Jesus or hell.
Kassi
On February 19, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Prove to us that God not exist.
Every creation needs a creator. I have heard this example. Take a broken watch apart and put it in a shoe box. Shake the box for 10 billion years. After ten billion years of shaking it, will the watch return to be a fully functioning watch, and miraculously put itself together? Of course not, to believe that would be to insult your intelligence. Now aren’t we and the earth a little more complex then a simple watch?
You do not believe that something came from nothing, the only other option is to believe that nothing turned itself into everything. Which one takes more faith to believe??
S-ROC
On June 23, 2008 at 3:52 pm
All you have done here is mention all the things that other men do to make you dislike man’s definition of God/Jesus. I consider myself a highly intelligent person (who loves math, science, etc.) and find it overwhelmingly odd that people who claim science somehow disproves God’s existence never actually provide any scientific evidence to that end. I agree with the other comments here that mention the “watch example” of creation and about living life with expectations of eternity with Christ not costing me anything if I’m wrong. But, I challenge you the writer to make an “educated” opinion of God from HIM alone and HIS word not from other men’s shortcomings and bad experiences. If you truly were a “Christian” before now, you wouldn’t be able to change into an atheist because the Holy Spirit would indwell you and therefore could not change. While we commonly refer to Christianity as a religion, I wholeheartedly disagree. It is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ himself that only requires you to believe in HIM. Nothing else is required. Please know that although I pray for you and your salvation, I can by no means make you believe in Jesus. I will not force-feed you with “religious” jargon and promises of “fire & brimstone” – but please know that your works / good deeds on this earth will be for naught when Jesus says “…I never knew you.” HE leaves it open for you to seek HIM, but if you die today, you will rest in Hell for eternity apart from HIM. I couldn’t spend eternity knowing I just missed out on Heaven by being too self-righteous, proud, intelligent for my own good. May you decide to seek answers from HIM directly and succeed in finding those answers. Take care.
Matt
On August 4, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I am a Christian, but I must say that I am ashamed to hear my fellow Christians say that to follow Christ costs us nothing. It has cost me everything. I have surrendered all my dreams and goals to follow Christ.
Beyond this, I must say that this article is a well articulated waste of time. It is easy to look selectively at the Bible and pull out some small portions of the text and suggest that the entire purpose is a scare tactic to make people obey national laws. However, if you look more carefully at the text, and look at the entirety of the text, we see that there is much more going on than human manipulation. There are far too many stories that do not make sense within your framework (Think for example about Abraham sacrificing Isaac, about Jacob and Esau fighting over their inheritance, about Jacob wrestling with God) These stories make would make no sense if the writers goal was to create fear in a people group. Also, most commands of the earliest books of the Bible are written to the political and religious leaders. They are being commanded to be more righteous than the people that you suggest are being manipulated. Later, several entire prophetic books are aimed at the corrupt political leaders of the nation. This doesn’t sound like government manipulation to me.
Second, assuming that the Bible was originally a scare tactic is difficult because of the long expanse of time that elapsed between the writing of so many of the books. The events described in the Pentateuch took place over 500 years before the time of David, who lived over 1200 years before Christ. How could the 39 Old Testament books, written over a time table of 1000-2500 years be created with the singular purpose of keeping people obedient to the government?
Third, why would people continue to follow a powerless, imagination created god? If God did not truly exist, then people would stop defending him as soon as their life was on the line. Peter, Stephen, James, and John would not have continued to teach about Jesus when they were being crucified, stoned, and beaten unless they truly had seen Jesus live again after his death. No man would be willing to die for something that he knew was a hoax. Even today thousands of Christians are martyred for their faith. The only possible explanation for their courage is that they have experienced God.
That leads me to my final point. How do I know that God exists? I have experienced God for myself. I have knelt in prayer and heard Him answer. I have heard his word speak to me as no other book could ever do. I have felt him direct my life. As a cynic, this would be the time that you could again point out that scientists believe that there is a gene within people that makes them belief in God. I believe scientists are probably right about that, and it makes me rejoice. Why would I rejoice that my DNA is designed so that I will believe? Simply put, because that is a gene that evolutionary theory can never explain. If evolution is all about survival of the fittest and becoming more able to survive in a competitive world, then why in the world our bodies mutate a gene so that we would believe in a higher being? What evolutionary purpose would that fulfill? The only explanation of such a gene that is reasonable in my humble opinion is that God himself created us with a built in desire to know Him. God designed us to know that there is a God.
In conclusion, therefore, if you really come at this topic with an open mind, the only evidence that is truly overwhelming is that God does exist, and that he has created us to follow Him. I hope you find this little comment insightful and, perhaps, a little instructive as you search for the truth.
Phyllis Pipher
On October 1, 2008 at 12:03 am
I can not imagine any one who sees how our bodies work and not believe in God It’s as simple as that. I’m so glad Iam a Christian.
Brandon
On October 13, 2008 at 10:52 am
Good Post. There are a lot of things that make no sense to me personally but it doesn’t mean they are not true or can’t be true. I think if one approaches the concept of God according to the definitions of religion then of course it can be easy to disprove or prove depending on what is considered evidence. But saying it makes no sense doesn’t mean it is nonsense. There are many aspects of the big bang theory still not understood to laypeople or scientists alike, but it is not dismissed as nonsense. Obviously BB and God are in different categories but I am sure reasonable people can make a reasonable case for a belief in a God outside of religion, such as the case Paul Davies makes. I too have transitioned out of Christianity, but still think the idea of a God is plausible.
Sammy
On November 20, 2008 at 10:35 am
I believe in god this has made me become stronger as a belever and as a person you must read this it will help i promis.