[Serious] Why are you an Atheist?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I would say that all makes pretty good sense.  What were some of the behaviors that you witnessed in Christians, family  or otherwise that caused your skepticism towards belief in God?

The behaviors I witnessed, and continue to witness, in Christians, that strengthened my skepticism were bountiful. The hypocrisy and total lack of self-awareness. The inability to use logic and reason when it came to evaluating religious, divine or miraculous claims. The complete lunacy of saying things like "god helped me find my car keys," when we know damn well that people are starving all over the world, dying of terrible diseases, falling victim to natural disasters, etc. The statements about prayer about how "god works in mysterious ways." The admission, by many Christians, that there really is no evidence for god, and that they "just believe." The bizarre talks of people being "better off" after they die, because they're "in a better place," when no one really knows what happens after we die - and to be honest, we have no real reason to believe that consciousness continues after death.

You see, we treat the claim of god's supposed existence as if it's special - after all, there are worldwide traditions that have been around for thousands of years based on these claims. The problem with that is, it doesn't matter how many times you claim something to be true... if you never provide evidence for your claim, no one has any real reason to accept the claim as true. I mean, hell, look at Scientology. You can claim over and over that you've been contacted by Xenu and have "gone clear," but what the fuck does that actually mean if there's nothing to view in objective reality that will verify that claim?

So, to be honest, we're still at square one with the whole god thing. No matter how the religious try to act as if it is "self-evident" that god exists - it isn't. And since it isn't self-evident, we need real evidence. Hell, first we need to define what god actually is. So, until we can define what god is, specifically and explicitly, we cannot even begin to discuss what evidence we would need to verify the existence of such a thing. Clearly, the conversation about god hasn't even started. It's not even a real discussion, because there's nothing to discuss yet.

Robert Heinlein once make the observation that theology is a subject with no content.  You've expanded nicely on that.  Well done.

Boru