I'm an atheist. Ask me a question.

[The_Flying_Skeptic]

Why do you not believe in an afterlife.

Why do you not believe in 'god'?

Why do you not believe in the abrahamic god or the other 3000 gods invented by man?

Why do you not believe Jesus or Muhammed are either prophets or sons of god?

1) I don't believe in a god because I don't see any reason to. I'm with Bertrand Russel in saying that one should not believe in that for which there is no evidence. I'm not going to believe in a god out of fear of going to some hell, and I'm not going to believe in a god to fill in a gap of knowledge. I don't know why matter exists, but that doesn't mean I need to believe in a god. Most in the theist subcategories don't even know that most of the elements on the periodic table (elements of a greater amount of protons than hydrogen and helium) are the products of the fusion within stars, and that even stars are a product of gravity. Many theist subcategories would have one believe that all the stars, planets, moons, asteroids, and species on this planet were came into existence in a split second by the wish of their god rather over the course of millions of years by a mechanism than is consistent by physical laws.

2) As Sam Harris says "We are all atheists..." Christians don't believe in the same god as the Muslims, or the Jews and so on. I just don't believe in any of them. I don't believe in any god on the same basis as my answer to the first question: there is no reason. Gaps in knowledge are not reasons.

3) I'm not sure about the Muhammed's story. I should research into that some time. The story of Jesus is absurd: a deity is reborn into a man that grows up to let himself be tortured to death in order for him to finally say "I forgive you for your sins." I know the cop-out is that we can't know God's great mind because we are mere humans. May be Christopher Hitchens can clarify:

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Without religion, how do you keep yourself from going on a killing rampage?

The consequences. My sort of atheism makes me appreciate my short life a lot more than most theists need to (because of their belief in immortality), and I know that killing people has consequences that will not allow me to enjoy my short time. I'm sure most people have wanted to kill someone in their life, but usually the thought of how the consequences would affect their life kept them from doing so, even if those consequences were unearthly, such as going to hell.