Atheists, tell me, a Roman Catholic: why should I become an atheist?

[Cyberman]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't "reject the idea of God". I personally identify with the standard atheist position, which is to withhold belief in a god claim until it is shown to be justified.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Atheists, why do you reject the idea of God, and why should I? I know that your answers will include "there's no evidence" and all that, but please try to explain.

Quite simply, because everything I see, everything I experience, everything I feel, every phenomenon there is has a better explanation than 'God'.

Boru

[houseofcantor]

Pros: You can sleep in on Sundays.
Cons: Social ostracism. 

As is indicated, we're generally not an evangelical group. Heck, we're generally not a group. 

[Excited Penguin]

I think the better question is, why do you believe in God? 

I can offer you plenty of reasons why you shouldn't. Will you listen to me? 

First of all. Your God, Yahweh, is a product of the Bible. A book. A very old book that contradicts itself over and over. Millions of books have been written since and before, a very large part of them far superior to the Bible on any topic it touched, not least of all Morality. The point is, though, it is a book at the end of the day. All you have is a simple book. It may be very popular, but so are and have been others, not least of all the Koran, so that is proof of nothing right there. It makes claims about reality that are at serious odds with science. Science which gave us triple life spans in a couple of centuries. Removed countless illnesses. Gave us speed, comfort, entertainment. Gave us the ability to host 7 billion people on this planet. Science which gave us practically everything we concern ourselves with today. Everything of relevance that surrounds us. That alone should give you pause. 

What is the Bible good for? What is it but a piece of literature that by mere accident of history became a most successful exemplary of the most potent propagandistic device known to man, religion? What relevance does it hold, except the one you give it yourself? 

Stop believing in it just because your fellow citizens do. Start looking at it critically. The whole God idea and everything related to it is ridiculous on its face. It is insane. It belongs in the asylum, in the history books, or in fiction. 

Good luck, my friend. May Jesus be with you.

[Neo-Scholastic]

To the OP...if you want to strengthen your faith I suggest going back to the Church Fathers, Aquinas in particular. It is because of Aquinas that I have been drawn to join the Church.

[Tonus]

Atheists, why do you reject the idea of God, and why should I? I know that your answers will include "there's no evidence" and all that, but please try to explain.

I am not sure what you mean by "reject the idea of God." I am not convinced that God exists because aside from the lack of evidence is the lack of an actual God showing up and the lack of consensus among the billions of people who claim with certainty that one (or more) exists. I don't think that there has been a religion yet founded that made sense once you got past the surface glitter.

However, I cannot answer the question of why you should reject the idea of God. If you find that your faith is faltering, investigate that. Why does your faith seem to be weaker? What do you think would make it stronger? Weaker? What do your fellow believers think the problem might be, and does their reasoning make sense? Or does it just make the issue more confusing?

Don't just ask the atheists here why you should become one. Ask the theists why you shouldn't. See if their explanations help you find whatever it is you're looking for.

[johan]

Atheists, why do you reject the idea of God, and why should I?

This is two separate questions so I'll take them one at a time. 

First bit. I'm an atheist because after examining everything in evidence having to do with the question of theology, it is only the choice left that I can comfortably make. Like you said, there's the whole complete lack of evidence for the existence of a god thing. But that's just the beginning. Then you have to look how many different and contrary theologies exist and how many of those contain some form of this is the only true religion and our god is the only true god and if you worship any other god you'll burn in hell yada yada yada.


For me, when that question is considered, it becomes very easy to accept that at least some of those theologies/gods are false. Which leads to the question of how exactly did such a huge and otherwise successful religion come to exist if its completely false. And the answer is either someone somewhere way back when was the king of all grifters or someone somewhere way back when meant well and was, for lack of a better way to put it, just plain wrong.

And once you come accept that as a logical possibility, the question becomes ok how can one figure out how to tell the difference between all those false religions and a one true religion should it actually exist. And if you're me, the answer to that question is that one cannot tell the difference. Which for me means its very likely there is no difference. Which for me means there is no true religion and they are all much more likely than not to be false. Therefore for me, being atheist is the only choice left that allows me to sleep at night without feeling like I'm fooling myself.

But that's me. Which brings us to your second question. Should you be atheist? Absolutely not. No one who has to ask someone the question 'should I be atheist?' should ever be atheist. The only people who should identify as atheist (or any other theology) are those who come to that decision on their own and could not be swayed from it by anyone.

[Excited Penguin]

It's not a theology, bro

[Astreja]

I'm a pragmatist, Balaco. I don't feel that your religion is actually good for anything in particular. Because I don't believe in your god or in heaven or hell or eternal life, Catholicism doesn't offer any tangible benefit that I can't get some other way.

[TheRealJoeFish]

Delicious taste of baby meat.