Do I believe in God?
I'd like to say a few things before I make my argument. The first thing that I'd like to point out here is that the current debate surrounding religion and belief in God is often extremely oversimplified and mistakenly misconstrued. Secondly, I want to assert that belief in God and the moral standing of a person are completely unrelated. Too often, those who do not believe in God are viewed as immoral and untrustworthy. Finally, I would like to give some context into my own life. I was raised without discernible bias towards or against religion and the concept of God, and my parents have repeatedly stated that they are OK with whatever path I choose. I will try to make the most objective argument I could possibly make.
There is no empirical evidence for the existence of God, and I find that there are not any convincing arguments either. The main text cited as evidence of God's existence, the Bible, is quite untrustworthy and does not deserve our attention any more than a different 2,000-year-old book with stories about deities. I struggle to understand why people so easily accept it as truth, and adhere to its teachings as if it was the ultimate authority, especially when it is factually incorrect and contradictory. Hence my lack of grasping why someone would take what is said in the Bible (that God exists) as truth.
My viewpoint is that the burden of proof lies with the believers. If you're going to believe in something, you had better give me a reason to believe in it. For example, if someone told me that they had the highest Flappy Bird score in the world without actually telling me what their score was or showing me proof that they had achieved the score, I would not believe them. Similarly, if a book like the Bible tells me that there is this omnipotent being who created the universe and watches over everyone in the world without actually providing evidence for this extraordinary claim, I don't believe it.
When I talk to people about this, occasionally I encounter someone who claims to have had a personal experience that has (fairly unwaveringly) convinced them of the existence of God. Usually, the situations are perfectly explainable with conventional reasoning. To me, it's incredibly annoying when someone is crediting God for a positive event or stroke of luck in life (such as someone recovering from cancer or leaving their hometown a day before a devastating tornado hit) when the aforementioned event can be understood without any belief in such a deity. Thus, I conclude that personal experiences are a poor, non-convincing reason to believe in God.
Additionally, sometimes I have heard people say that they believe in God either because they are afraid of going to hell or are eager to go to heaven. I say that there is no reason to worry about either; just like with God, there's no reason to believe that heaven and hell exist. The notions of heaven and hell but really of afterlives in general stem from a general fear of death and denial of human mortality, and I completely sympathize with anyone who is afraid of dying. However, it is illogical to assume that there is an afterlife just because of this fear, or because it is stated in the Bible.
I would like to apologize if this post has offended anyone. My intent was not to put down or insult believers in God, but rather to strongly, objectively, and accurately convey why I do not believe in God.
This is a good Reddit post that addresses some concepts I discussed in my post while also touching on others that I did not mention.
So, in conclusion, I do not believe in God.
