Eran Talks

Is the evidence for or against God?

Everything we think we know about God has come from people. All religious books were written by people. All reports of encounters with God were reported by people. We have: no scrolls or text of any sort that was written by God, no video or tape recordings of God, and no other communication by God that does not travel first via a human being in order to get the message to the rest of us. Where is any firsthand evidence for the existence of God?

There is no direct evidence. Is there circumstantial evidence of God? You may think there is and you would perhaps propose miracles as indirect evidence. Or you may wonder how trees and animals and everything else could be created without a God. Mostly you feel there must be a God because your parents told you God existed when you were a child and you certainly don’t want to believe your parents lied to you.

It’s not a lie if your parents really didn’t know they were wrong. Things can be created just because it’s natural for them to be there. Unnatural things don’t last long; that is part of evolution. And miracles are simply things we can’t explain with science today.

God is supposed to be omniscient; all knowing, omnipotent; all-powerful, and perfect. Do we know these things because we’ve seen God’s resume? Of course we haven’t. We have been taught these things by people; people who presume to know what God wants.

Imagine an indescribable super-being that is so powerful it can create an entire universe out of nothing. It is the most powerful thing in the universe. This super-being knows everything going on in the universe, can create plants, animals, and human beings. He/She/It can create Angels and banish bad Angels to Hell.

God can decide a plan for humanity throughout eternity. God can create light and dark, the oceans and the world. God can destroy people, cities, or the entire world if He wants. He can make us happy or sad. God decides who will die and when. God decides who will live even when things look hopeless to humans. God can impregnate women through the air without their permission. God defines sin. God can take away our sin at will, but chooses not to do so on certain occasions.

All of this God does and much, much more. And we can’t even begin to imagine how God accomplishes any of it. However, religious people always claim to know what God wants of us. They claim to know which writings by humans were inspired by God. They claim to know how much sex God wants us to have and under what circumstances. They claim to know how God wants us to worship, when, where, and with whom. They seem to know so much about what this super-being wants of us and yet no one can tell you what God looks like. Why can’t we see God? The easy answer is God won’t let us look at him. Solves that issue, doesn’t it?

They claim to know that God’s purpose in having Abraham attempt to kill Abraham’s son, was to test Abraham’s faith in God. However, since God is omniscient (all knowing), shouldn’t God have already known Abraham’s conscience and loyalty? The test was unnecessary if God is really omniscient.

If God is omnipotent (all powerful), why would we be put on earth to learn? God could snap His fingers, if he has fingers, and make us know whatever He wishes us to know and all the time people spend learning about God would be unnecessary. We could just know it if He wished it so.

Why would God make a rule whereby people must believe in Him in order to have everlasting life and then refuse to interact with mankind on any level that would leave no doubt that God exists? The idea that we must have faith in God in order to go to heaven, without direct and undeniable proof from God of his existence and wishes, sounds like God is playing some kind of child’s game. Is God a child?

Did God create the great flood to correct a mistake? Mistakes from God are not possible because God is perfect. If God was punishing people for not following his law, is that not an indicator that God’s teaching methods are flawed? But, they can’t be flawed, because He is perfect.

Can the all-powerful God create a being more powerful than Himself? If He can, then He is no longer “all-powerful.” If He can’t, he was never “all-powerful.” The idea of an omnipotent God does not make sense. It’s an oxymoron.

There are so many contradictions within religion that the questions can go on forever. The spurious answers to those questions will lead to new questions. The only sensible answer I can see follows the principal of Occum’s Razor; the simplest answer is usually the right answer. The only answer to the question of God’s existence that also answers all the questions that conflict each other is that God does not exist.

Eran<—6ea39f7e02ff7ae30a63d4faf8805d4d—>

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 6th, 2005 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.