Christians? Reply to any or all of these points?
Why I think there is no god:
1) Supernatural explanations are ALWAYS replaced by natural explanations:
All of these things were once attributed to god(s) or spirits: floods, hurricanes, the existence and movement of the Sun, Moon and stars, the tides, earthquakes, disease and health, success or failure of crops, rain or drought, tidal waves, eclipses, why children look like their parents, the diversity of life. ALL of them have since been explained as our understanding of the natural world has improved.
Number of natural explanations replaced by supernatural explanations: zero.
2) Inconsistency of world religions:
If God is so important and ever-present in our lives, why can't anybody agree on anything about God? If God is not important or ever-present, why does God matter?
3) Arguments for God are always weak:
The arguments presented by religious people fall into the same categories: argument from authority (God exists because the Bible says so), argument from personal experience (I just KNOW God exists), and special pleading (God is above being questioned). None of these are based on logic or evidence.
4) God keeps shrinking:
In the Old Testament, God parted seas and made worlds. Now God seems to only give comfort to a few individuals, magically craft the occasional bacterial flagellum, and put his image on toast or tree bark.
5) Religion comes from parents:
Children may learn more about subjects than their parents, may have differing views about so many things (politics, social issues, etc.). But religion is almost always chosen, not by the individual, but by the individual's parents.
6) All components of the "soul" are affected by physical things:
Consciousness, identity, personality, character, emotions - these can all be affected by drugs, brain injuries, etc. So all appear to be based on physical mechanisms. No supernatural component is required. No supernatural soul means no afterlife.
7) Nothing supernatural has EVER withstood testing:
When someone claiming paranormal powers or a paranormal event agrees to have it tested, they ALWAYS fail and almost always claim the test was unfair. If gods are supernatural, and if no claim of supernatural has EVER survived testing, why should I believe in gods?
8) Most claims of an all-powerful god aren’t stable.
Reality can be tested. A reality-based idea can be proved true or false. But a divine being with no physical form whose actions are indistinguishable from random natural phenomena cannot be tested or falsified. Knowledge or worship of God provides no useful predictions. A small coastal town full of simple, religious villagers is just as likely to get wiped off the map by a tsunami as a big city full of atheists. And if the divine being's actions are indistinguishable from random nature, why bother to worship him/her/it/them?
9) Our understanding of God never improves:
2000 years ago we had a bunch of different religious factions, all bickering or warring over their different interpretations of their gods. That is exactly what we have today. Our understanding of God never improves because there's nothing to understand. But over the same time period, our understanding of the natural world has grown:
- from huddling around a wood fire to harnessing the power of the atom;
- from witch doctors to eradicating smallpox and polio;
- from astrology to the Hubble Telescope;
- from mud huts to skyscrapers;
- from camels to Airbus;
- etc...
10) Complete lack of evidence
If a powerful god wishes our worship, he/she/it need only part a sea, write in the sky or do SOMETHING sufficiently grand and inexplicable, and all religions would unite, all bickering would cease, and all atheists would pray. If a giant voice boomed across the Earth and said "You must protect the planet, must never have more than 2 children, must help a person in need every day, and must stop burning coal and oil within 5 years or I will smite you all", the entire planet would unite in common purpose.
As I expected...a few curses, a few beseechings for me to pray, and a few atheists adding their two cents. So far, only one person has addressed a specific point, and he/she used the Anthropic argument, which is just another straw man