Why do atheists not believe in God

Where does belief or non-belief stem from

The primary problem with belief in a religious system (for those outside the system) is the circular nature of the core arguement.

Statements such as 'God exists' from a believer lead a non-believer to immediately respond 'where is the proof?'

The next bit is the tricky part for many believers to comprehend. In most cases the 'proofs' they posit are not proofs at all in the philosophical sense of the word. They are assertions.

For example. "God Exists because the bible says so" is an assertion. Non-believers would want evidence that the bible is a trustworthy source. With so many inconsistencies and ambiguities it does not have much prima facie validity when looked at by someone not born into and raised by a society that already accepts the bible as the word of God. So, the second assertion "The bible is trustworthy because it is the word of God" takes us back to the first assertion. We have gone in a little self referential loop. Simply assuming a claim is true is not evidence for that claim.

Many religions

Another issue that many religious believers have is that they tend to try and legitimise their own faith through 'proofs' but cannot and do not want to apply those same tests to other faiths. An atheist may ask 'why should I believe your religion as opposed to his religion' and cannot get a straight answer beyond "because his is false and mine is true". When you hear that from both parties, it is not diificult for an atheist to dismiss both as false.

How do people become atheists in the first place.

For many atheists it is for the same reason that believers become believers. It is simply their cultural norm. For example in the UK around 70% of people do not espouse strong belief in any particular religious system. When your parents are atheists and all the adults around you are atheists, then it takes a particular determination and single mindedness to pick up the Koran and start to declare yourself a Moslem.

Note, I chose Islam as my example religion above. Most readers of this article will be Christians and they forget that although theirs is currently the world's most popular religion (if you include Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, Anglican, Quaker etc) it is still a minority (just about one third) of the planet's population that adhere to its precepts. Atheists don't just not believe in Christian God, they don't believe in any gods.

 

 

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