In the same style as the holy trinity in the Christian faith I want to ask you all this question:

What are your 3 main points or issues that push you away from Christianity and/or any organized religion?

This could be anything really. The morality of Yahweh, evolution, that snobby kid down the street who always told you how much god loved him.

For me, the answers are simple: Hell, Heaven and Genesis.

Hell:
I cannot justify believing in a God that will punish a soul for eternity when he committed a finite number of sins. This is not justice. This is barbarism.

Heaven:
I cannot justify wanting to go to a place where all we do is give glory to god and watch the sinners burn. This is not my idea of an enjoyable afterlife (assuming one exists of course).

Genesis:
No, I have not read the entire Bible and I am sorry to say it. Maybe I don't have the will power. Maybe I don't have the time. Who knows? Ultimately, however, 5 paragraphs in and I am already disbelieving. After reading the entire book of Genesis I am left in amazement of a "just" god that sends a flood to kill every person save 8 (if my memory serves me correctly). Also, 2 of each species on one wooden boat? Good luck.

So that is me. How about you?

Proof. None.
Evidence. None.
Reality. Goes against a virgin birth and a zombie jebus.

Lack of evidence
Respect for personal liberty
Desire for equality

Easy.

Yeah I honestly don't know if there's really anything like a trinity for me. Just one thing. We have a model (or series of models more accurately) that does not require god in the general sense, and directly contradicts God in the specific sense.

Way to break the mold Rhythm.

1. Why should I believe the claims that god(s) exist?

2. I have never encountered a compelling or convincing answer to that question.

3. I do not believe that those claims are true.

(July 28, 2011 at 9:50 am)flaminlipsfreak Wrote: In the same style as the holy trinity in the Christian faith I want to ask you all this question:

What are your 3 main points or issues that push you away from Christianity and/or any organized religion?

This could be anything really. The morality of Yahweh, evolution, that snobby kid down the street who always told you how much god loved him.

For me, the answers are simple: Hell, Heaven and Genesis.

Hell:
I cannot justify believing in a God that will punish a soul for eternity when he committed a finite number of sins. This is not justice. This is barbarism.

Heaven:
I cannot justify wanting to go to a place where all we do is give glory to god and watch the sinners burn. This is not my idea of an enjoyable afterlife (assuming one exists of course).

Genesis:
No, I have not read the entire Bible and I am sorry to say it. Maybe I don't have the will power. Maybe I don't have the time. Who knows? Ultimately, however, 5 paragraphs in and I am already disbelieving. After reading the entire book of Genesis I am left in amazement of a "just" god that sends a flood to kill every person save 8 (if my memory serves me correctly). Also, 2 of each species on one wooden boat? Good luck.

So that is me. How about you?

1. The sheer number of things assumed to be possible just to make this concept fit; Material minds, Atemporal thoughts, "will" causing material objects, the information required to describe the entire universe (which at present is approximately 10^122 bits) existing prior to the universe so as to cause it with precise intentions, etc. It's completely idiotic for anyone to presume this simply existed at the first moment of time. As bullshit an explanation their own straw man of "something from nothing" is, it's still less bullshit than a procreating cosmic wizard.

2. The blatant unreliability of the 'sense of the divine' theists believe they have; Anything that is proposed to exist that leads to so many contradictory conclusions, like whether there is one god or many? does he have a son? does he throw thunderbolts? etc, all throughout time, different people coming to different conclusions, none independent of their culture, memory, imagination or prior beliefs... It's clearly bullshit at face value, but when you consider that it's also entirely unfalsifiable the way they convince of it , when you consider than there are a billion people who believe God has a son and another billion who don't and none of them seem to give a shit about the disparity in their senses you know they aren't going to bother paying attention to a the thousands of other contradictions of the "sensus divinitatus".

3. Specifically in regards to the Christian God; They claim that God has given us a moral compass, "written it on our hearts" as they like to preach, yet the truth about the human ability to make value judgements is bizarre to say the least; Firstly, there are two distinct systems in the brain that make value judgements, one jokingly called our "chimp brain" that has been present on the evolutionary path for quite some time, giving us our strict rules and absolutes in moral judgements and a sense of authority, and our more evolved brain that makes judgements in more of a utilitarian/consequentialist manner - Magnets placed on the brain can give us different moral judgements, the smell of bread can make us more morally permissive, we make harsher moral judgements if it has been along time since we last ate etc... What sort of fucking joke is this? A God who will torture us eternally for doing something he doesn't like has given us unreliable value judgements! He's given us a system where a shot of emotion can make us more morally primitive, where we can't even look past our current environment without brining the taint of circumstance into it...

Frodo, GodsChild and........Frodo.

1. The soul is an illusion, and without it Christianity falls apart.

2. For being omniscient, god is petty, jealous, and impulsive. He's supposed to be a deity, but he acts very human.

3. The human mind needs and seeks purpose, therefore any attempt to see god cannot be proven to be anything but a psychological illusion.

Personal experience
Learning
Wonder