Christians? Reply to any or all of these points?

Question

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.

kickindevilbutt · Accepted Answer

1. Who set the natural laws in motion? The way the moon causes the tides, the sun warms the earth, etc.? Or did they just all of a sudden decide to do those things on their own?

2. That doesnt prove there is no God. I dont see how that would. 

3. Not always.  Sometimes but not always

4. We dont know how many people right now around the world are seeing miracles and experiencing them. Ok maybe you in your corner havent seen some miracle that is obvious like the Red Sea, but that doesnt mean something isnt happening to another. And why does it have to be a Red Sea experience? Oh and God isnt putting His face on toast. 

5. Not true. It is a common myth that ALL Christians came from an indoctrinating Bible thumpin church goin holy rollin family. There are Christians who were raised that way yes but Christians were raised in all kinds of homes. For me I wasnt raised in the BIble thumpin type of house and my parents didnt choose my beliefs for me. 

6. Our souls are mortal they arent supernatural. 

7. So unless God and things supernatural can be tested by scientific means, you will reject such? That's limiting. But hey there some people that even if God Himself came to earth would still not believe...er wait a minute He did come to earth and the people still rejected Him. 

8. So cause you cannot understand God's ways and how He works since you can only see the tree of the whole forest and only see this time not all of time (past, present, and future), therefore there is no God? 

9. I dont get how that is supposed to prove there is no God. In fact I dont get how any of these prove there is no God. 

10. Let's be honest...even if God did all that, there still be people who would not worship Him...They find something else entirely to give credit. And sides God doesnt have to stoop down to our commands. He is God. We are not. Sides God did come to earth once and walked among us, and still people rejected Him. There would still be unbelievers even if all that happened. 

And God isnt out to smite us all, if He was, how come Atheists who blaspheme Him and mock Him and insult Him are still around? 

And far as no evidence....in order to say there is no evidence, one would have to know everything. Unless you can tell me the exact number of grains of sand on this planet...I'd guess to say you don't know everything...and well...I dont either.

www.godandscience.org
www.carm.org
www.answersingenesis.org
www.rationalchristianity.org
www.evolutionisstupid.com

Anonymous · Answer

"If they say 'Just God. I only believe in the one God,' I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869"... this is a bit of humor and certainly not something worth talking about in a religious discussion. It's pretty language and it seems to have quite an effect on you. I really want to know why this is, and every time I ask the same thing, I always get the cop-out reply, "The Bible tells us he's the one true God," or something to that effect. I want to know, barring reference to the Bible (because you can't use the term in the definition with everything else, why should religion be any different?), why your god is more legitimate than the thousands of other gods that existed before and have existed since. There is a point to be made here but it's certainly lost in all the ... once again, pretty language. The point is simply do you believe in God and if so then why. Once you do then you need to say what God are you going to believe in. What one gives you the answers to your questions. That is where I will argue with you the merits of the God of the Bible against all other gods. It certainly can be a very detailed thing. It should be a serious undertaking and not some simple answer to a flippant question from a sarcastic comedian. This is life and death here. Get serious.

Hillbilly OJ · Answer

Have you ever wondered who created science?  Do you think that men did it?

You mention the sun, moon, stars. I am curious, Who set the earth at such a distance from the sun so that is would by just right for human life?  Or who set it on its axis so that we could have the seasons so that no one hemisphere would not completely burn off or freeze so solidly it would make the earth wobble?  Who do you think set the core of the earth in motion so the earth would continue its rotation? Who do you think set up centrifugal force so that the earth would resist the gravity of the sun yet kept at a speed which keeps the earth from flying out past Pluto?  Do you honestly ponder these things and then say "it all happened by chance"?

If you do, are you telling me that no one built your house, or that the pyramids of Egypt just suddenly appeared?  For the things mentioned above to not only occur but to continue occurring they had to be planned, built and maintained.

As for number 4, God had to show himself back then because the Bible was not written. Now we have the written word by eyewitnesses to help us understand God and who he is.

Anonymous · Answer

Answering 3,7, 9 and 10.  Our universe is complex, organized and has many harmoniously operating systems.  It is clearly not a glob that one would expect to result from merely time plus chance. Everyone [even you] believes in something/someone eternal or they believe all came from nothing caused by nothing [which is patently absurd].  That which one calls eternal is effectively their god.
The God of the Bible is the logical and sufficient cause of our universe because He is essentially one ['uni'] yet eternally existing in three persons ['verse' for variety]. One can still learn this at the university.
That is a strong argument.
There is more evidence for the death and resurrection [supernatural] of Jesus Christ than for any other personal event in ancient history.
Atheism is absurd.  The atheist, being finite, makes claim that the infinite does not exist.  The atheist must absolutely deny the absolute.  As an atheist you have much more faith in a much smaller creator [nothing perhaps?] than I do in a logically sufficient Creator. 
In Isaiah 55 God states through His prophet, "“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."
If my argument is a straw man...have at it...tear it apart.... or...well yes, you are just bloviating.

G C · Answer

Universal laws shows a Supreme Being.  Period.

Anonymous · Answer

I think it would have been better if you asked individual questions about each individual point instead of all at once because that is a lot to respond to so you probably won't get many answers because of that.

GODWITHUS · Answer

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

Isiah 55:8
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.

Romans 1: vs 18 - 23
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.  21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Romans 1: 28-32
28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Tyler · Answer

You've got a lot of praying to God to do.

Anonymous · Answer

If #1 is too ridiculous to be true, I won't read the others.

Not all supernatural phenomena have been explained, much less by natural means.  And not all natural explanations are worth your time.

motivational_raven · Answer

So you go with the logical fallacy that 'if you cant expalin it' it must not be true.

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Christians? Reply to any or all of these points?

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