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IS EVERYBODY 100% POSITIVE THERE IS NO GOD?
I wanted to put this question out there to see how strongly everyone feels on this subject. Being that most of us trust in scientific fact and reasoning, I was wondering if everyone is absolutely, undeniably, 100% sure that a god doesn't exist. I personally take into account that there is no proof of any cosmic creator so therefore I am about 99.9999% sure that there is no god. However we all agree that science is an ever evolving field and I don't think that there will ever be any proof to support the existence of a supreme being, but I can't be 100% sure until there is concrete proof against one. I would like to know what all of your thoughts on this.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Asa Watcher on -
Amy,
The short answer is: because it is an object of faith.
We can study, discuss, and even debate the existence and the nature of black holes, for example, because we have a vast body of scientific inquiry which we can reference for just such purposes.
A similar discussion about an object of faith, however, quickly deteriorates into simplistic nay-saying “yes there is”, “no there isn’t”.
When we encounter a theist with this discussion, what we are really discussing is the nature of the theist’s faith.
That’s why, when a theist asks me if I believe in God, my answer is always
“I do not share your faith in the existence of a supreme being”.
The conversation then becomes about the theist’s faith, not about something that Daniel above points out is essentially “impossible to prove”.
I don’t understand why we atheists are so eager to engage in our side of an argument about something that is “impossible to prove”.
Faith, however, is real and can be challenged.
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Permalink Reply by Dave Rogers on -
“I do not share your faith in the existence of a supreme being”.
Well put. It respectably makes the theist defend their belief without proof (faith) in the supernatural instead of you impossibly proving the negative.
I wish I lived in a part of the country someone might ever ask me if I believe in god. And then again, maybe not.
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Permalink Reply by Asa Watcher on
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Hey Dave Rogers
You got it, and put it extremely well when you wrote:
***”It respectably makes the theist defend their belief without proof (faith) in the supernatural instead of you impossibly proving the negative.”
We can avoid a lot of crap from the other side if they are no longer the proactive advocate, and, instead, the defender of a personal assumption.
“Unless you have the faith of a child, you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven”
(you know who)
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Permalink Reply by D R Hosie on -
Asa, this is as close to a logical proof as anything you'll find, for the denial of god(s) existence.
http://www.atheistnexus.org/profiles/blogs/an-ontological-argument-for
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Permalink Reply by Asa Watcher on
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D R
While I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your essay , it
does seem to me that you are responding to the mountain of baubles that, for 2000 years, theists have used to decorate the “tree of faith” in order to distract the non theist from the weakness of that upon which their theology is based, and that is simply “faith”.
Shake this root of the tree of religion and all the leaves dry, die, and fall, all the branches crack and plunge to the ground, taking their orna-mental attachments with them.
Allow their faith to remain intact, and you can argue until you are blue in the face about any object of faith.
Faith, of course, can always “hold up under the deductive logic of simple human reason” that you suggest we apply. That’s because faith is real.
And it is real only as long as the holder of faith is exempt from examining his/her faith, and is simply allowed to argue about the object of that faith.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Spicer on -
Mike, are you saying that your level of certainty approaches 100% asymptotically? I tend to think of it more as a calculus derivative, going to 100% as a limit, which is the same as saying 100%, according to Leibniz and Newton.
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Permalink Reply by Daniel on -
Yes, we should be tolerant of others and it is very possible some people are predisposed to be believers.
That is not to say this changes the nature of reality but even if you get into a debate on the topic and muster the best argument you can and provide them with all the information that would convince you, don't expect to necessarily win any hearts or minds.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Spicer on
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We don't like to change our belief systems. It is unsettling. Unfortunately, it's not really up to us. We resist or ignore disconfirming evidence and logic as long as we can, but eventually, our beliefs are changed by exposure to a more convincing story. There are a lot of former die-hard fundamentalist seminarians who became atheists because of their religious studies.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Edward Dolan on -
Well, this is how I see it:
The Abrahamic “God” has historical origins; he is only four or so millennia old (give or take a millennium!), having evolved from the boss gods of various pantheons: ancient Greek, Babylonian, Egyptian, and so on. Before the major civilisations had appeared, though, there was no God. A fertility goddess in places, with many names, ditto a fertility/war god living in the sky whose main job is to produce rain, and local spirits – malign or benevolent – inhabiting trees and so on... but no God.
There is an old saying: humanity cannot make from scratch so much as a bacterium – but makes deities by the hundred!
The Abrahamic “God” is a literary invention, existing only in stories and religious (read political) dogma originating in Asiatic desert regions and sharing the less-than-attractive cultural characteristics of those regions.
So, to the direct question: is there a God, my answer is a humble 100% No!
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Permalink Reply by marcia fry on -
I have some amount of doubt about everything except my love for my children. Also, I understand those who believe. I have come full circle in "is there a god or not" conumdrum. When I was a believer (for decades) nagging doubts were constantly with me. There was no one I could share the doubt with either. Now with the internet I don't have to be alone and secretive with my opinions anymore.
Good topic!
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Permalink Reply by Jezzy on -
Well. No. I'm not. I'm ohh... 92% sure. I'm agnostic in that I recognize how little I know, atheist in that I have made an affirmative stance.
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Permalink Reply by DoktorSick on -
People have been trying to prove the existence of gods for years now and no has come close to providing any. So I'm 100% sure there is no god. Just like I'm 100% sure there no unicorns and Leprechauns.
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