(May 9, 2016 at 9:05 am)Emjay Wrote: What are your most convincing reasons for not believing in god? I don't mean convincing to other people (necessarily) but convincing to yourself... what reasons stop you going back (if you are an ex-theist) even if you wanted to?
I'm an ex-Christian so I have baggage and I admit that very occasionally I am tempted back but one of the reasons that prevents me is simply the fact of contradictions in the Bible: if there are contradictions it can't be infallible, and if it's not infallible but only 'inspired' then how can you trust any of it (or know what to trust)? Ultimately it is that reason that stops me in my tracks if I'm ever tempted to read the Bible again... I literally cannot get past the first few pages of Genesis without thinking 'this is silly' even if I actually want to go back to Christianity.
I'd love to hear what other core reasons people have for not believing... reasons that act like mental blocks to ever returning. Ashamedly I do have doubts from time to time and so am not 100% certain like Rob, but I'd like to be, and I think having a few more core reasons (rather than superficial/semantic reasons) would help
Top 3 resasons:
1) There are thousands of world religions. They can't all be right, but they can all be wrong. Most religious people are atheist with respect to all but one God. I just go one God further.
2) The holy books are rubbish. I've read much of the Bible and the Quran, and they are both hideously barbaric. They were written by people with a world view so narrow you couldn't find a person alive today who was as ignorant. The God of the Bible instructs slavery, genocide, child sacrifice, murder, and commits mass extermination and all manner of crimes. He is pure evil.
3) The net result of religion in the world is to the detriment of humanity. The Dark Ages, the Spanish Inquisition, the Witch Hunts, the Crusades, the suppression of women, the alliance between the Catholic Church and fascism and the Nazi party, creationists trying to teach pseudo-scientific bullshit to children, pedophile priests, the Vatican's stance on abortion and contraception, Islamic fundamentalism and the suppression of free speech and free expression with global jihad and terrorism - 9/11, 7/7, Charlie Hebdo. Need I go on?
As Christopher Hitchens said: "Religion poisons everything."
