Who does an atheist lean on in times of trouble?

[tjakey]

I am curious why any believer thinks god is a place to go in time of trouble. Isn't the god aware of the trouble in the first place? If an all powerful, all knowing being is looking out for me, why would I ever be in trouble? On the other hand, if a god is using trouble to provoke some kind of love or worship from me, is that really a being worthy of being loved or worshiped? What kind of god visits cancer on a family to get that family to "turn to him"? Isn't that much like a doctor shooting you in the leg in order to get you into his office? Is that really the guy you want to trust with fixing you up?

And if the trouble is a result of my own stupid choices, why should a god reach down to help me out while ignoring someone else who is in trouble not of their own doing? One comes down with lung cancer from years of smoking. A three year old comes down with a brain tumor. Why would any god who could cure the former allow the latter to happen at all?

Seeking help from a god is one of human kind's more delusional habits.

Well... what "IF" you look at God as your [master mechanic], and your body as a [car], and your spirit as your [brain]?

If you go to your mechanic (God) for regular visits you most likely won't have trouble with your car(body)! If you avoid visits because your(brain/spirit) doesn't think you really need them, at some point the car will breakdown.

At that point, with the advice of your mechanic you will either repair said auto or junk it! The car most times will always be able to be repaired. Unless it is totaled in some catastrophic event, or wears out completely. Which indeed [either] will happen one day!

You will then take all of your life experience and knowledge of: maintenance and repair, trial and error, listening, and not listening to advice, and get a new car.... or graduate to an entirely different mode of transportation!

You see, if you asked any Master Mechanic worth their salt about their [ideal] method of transportation for [themselves]... It would be one that never breaks down. One that never needs fuel, maintenance or repair. One that is without end, for all time! That is what a Master Mechanic wants for himself, and anyone He loves.

So a cancer ridden vehicle isn't the end... its the beginning of a spiritual journey (if we so choose). This existence an eye blind in all eternity! That's how a Christian looks at it.

I also personally believe in Karma.... and getting it "right"! We don't fully know what debt we owe to others in any fashion from the beginning, to the present. How many "cars" have we wrecked? Ours and OTHERS?! How many times have we done this before? When does everything end, and where? We can guess.

But...."All righteousness WILL be fulfilled"!

For me personally, not seeing a physical God, isn't a good enough reason [not to believe]. It is an EXCELLENT reason to FIND HIM!

Matt 7:7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.…"

Why is it that religious people always assume atheists have never looked for a god? Most of the atheists I know are ex-believers...we not only looked for a god, once upon a time we believed we had found one. Your last assumption is simply false. Indeed, anyone who is honestly looking, who hasn't already assumed there is a god to find or isn't secretly hoping that is the case, isn't going to find any of the human-centrist gods mankind has created - including the Jewish / Christian / Muslim one. This is one of the many, many, claims of the bible are just not true. You have two choices here, admit that your bible got this one wrong, or assume I am lying to you. Which one you pick will say a lot about the kind of person religion has made of you.

And why assume an atheist needs a "physical" god? Are you really so arrogant as to assume that we can't at least imagine a non-corporal reality? Most of what makes human kind human, exists in our thoughts, minds, and social relationships. None of those things are corporal, yet atheists are as involved in the human family as any religious person.

I am one of those master mechanics; recently retired from nearly 5 decades of aircraft maintenance. Your analogy is pretty bad. "God" is defined as the ultimate "master mechanic". Such a creature could easily build the perfect car that required no maintenance, ran forever, and used no gas.

Your claimed god has failed miserably in getting anything he supposedly created anywhere near "perfect". Suggesting that he uses imperfection to lure, coheres, force, or bargain people toward being "better", when he could have just made them that way in the first place, and populated a heavenly realm with them, is really kind of dumb. "A perfect god" who created the universe that we actually observe is the inescapable contradiction of all religion. It is the fundamental flaw that makes all such god claims untenable, and is the true discovery that will end the search of any who seek with an open mind.

On the other hand a self-contained, evolving universe – vast on a scale we barely grasp - yet one in which we are intimately entwined, fits perfectly with what we observe. Human kind is not a fallen species needing a god. We are an evolving, and very young, species that needs to grow up. Waiting for aid from a non-existent god, looking to mythologies long disproved as guides to what is real, makes it unlikely we will survive long enough to grow into anything lasting in the cosmos. Rather than WMDs, religion may well prove to be the one truly fatal invention that human kind couldn't survive.