minister turns atheist dot org

#1) I am an atheist because the god believer has
the burden of proof when trying to establish the
existence of a god and has not met that burden: The
burden of proof is on the god believer to prove that a god
exists. It is not up to the atheist to disprove what has never
been established in the first place. So often, I am told, "You
cannot prove that there is no god." This is backwards
reasoning. I am not obligated to disprove that a leprechaun
is standing beside you. You must first prove to me that one
is there. Otherwise, I am under no obligation to accept your
leprechaun hypothesis. The default position would be
"anti-leprechaunism," you could say. Is it possible that a
leprechaun is next to you? Sure, but I have no reason to
believe such a thing, and until I do, I will keep being an
"anti-leprechaunist"! The same applies to gods and
goddesses of all varieties. On all counts, the theist fails to
meet his burden of proof and therefore, atheism stands by
default.

#2) I am an atheist because all the world's religions
have failed to demonstrate that they are ways to a
god: They are all based on the ignorance of man trying to
explain the world in terms he can understand. Religions (or
the notions that later became religions) were built to enable
man to feel that he controlled his destiny and the natural
world around him, yet these religions exhibit no signs that a
supernatural being is behind them, not one. None of them
have been able to demonstrate supernatural origins at all.
None of them have been able to tell us what science has
told us about the origin of our universe. Why don't any of
them speak of the big bang as our origin? Basically, there is
nothing about any of them that compels the educated mind
of today to give them a second look. Every religion is just as
desperate and hopeless as the next. All of them are trying to
heighten man's place in a world of catastrophe and pain.
How sad!

#3) I am an atheist because all I know is the natural
world: All of my senses are for the natural world. My desires
and longings are fleshly in nature. No deity has manifested
himself in our purely physical world: One thing about these
gods and goddesses is their terrible timing and planning!
Their strange methodology and tendencies to keep hiding
when we need them the most is undeniable.

I am supposed to believe that a being invisible to the naked
eye is lurking above the heavens, is great enough to guide
my life, hear my every prayer, and direct my every step, but
for some strange reason, refuses to manifest himself directly
to his highest creation man? I have never talked to this
being even once. I must ask, why? I used to think this a
selfish line of questioning, but now I can find not one good
reason to keep guessing why a God who loves and wants so
much for us would refuse to acknowledge his physical
existence. Very simply, I am weary of anyone who claims
ownership of our bodies and even our very "souls," and yet I
am compelled to dispute his existence! Not only that, I see
no miracles, no resurrections, no signs in the heavens, no
accurate revelations to man. I observe absolutely nothing
that makes me to look "beyond the clouds" for a god.

The mystic and the psychic tell me there is a "third eye" I
can open by meditating and using the right drugs. They tell
me nonsense like the idea that I only use 10% of my brain
and that the other sections are roped off for "the spiritual
man to uncover." This is a spooky world for the mystic. He
accepts telekinesis, psychic surgery, UFO abductions, crop
circle phenomenon, Ouija boards, and pseudo-scientific
claims on every level. He believes in an immortal nature
within man, a human spirit that can leave and enter the body
with the right "enlightenment." Haunted houses and
unexplained phenomenon are exaggerated to be ghostly
encounters when these explanations grossly fail to pass the
tests of critical examination.

When all of the hoopla is cleared away, I am left with nature,
mundane and boring as it sometimes can be. If I am
confined to live in and abide by the rules of a natural world,
then I must try and explain my world on the very same
principles. Again, all I can see and verify is the natural, so it
makes no sense to draw crazy conclusions that there is a
"non-matter" entity out there that runs the show. The law of
rationality demands that I draw only those conclusions that
are warranted by the evidence: I see, hear, feel, touch, and
smell nature. I am obligated to find the simplest answer that
accounts for my observational data and sensory perceptions
of the world.

#4) I am an atheist because being so enables me to
make honest decisions about things in the world
around me: Not being committed to a doctrine enables me
to study the world and accept what I see as a valid
explanation of itself. The religious man, particularly the
fundamentalist, is enslaved to a doctrine, a belief system
that must be right at all costs. He must reason backwards,
finding evidences that back up his preconceived ideas. His
eternal soul rests on justifying what he already believes true.
Therefore, his objectivity is lost in the process.

For instance, the Christian must accept all bible
discrepancies and atrocities as just and right actions from a
just and right God. He must accept everything the book
reveals, lock, stock, and barrel. He cannot discriminate
based on reason what he will or will not accept. One of the
biggest benefits of science to man is that science is
self-correcting, unlike theology! When a scientist and his
work are found to be wrong, his next step is to correct it, or if
he can't, to throw it out. Science rectifies itself whereas
archaic theology will always remain the same.

#5) I am an atheist because faith is a flawed system
to live by: "But where does faith come in?," the Christian
asks. "No where at all," I reply. Faith is a flawed system to
live by. Think about it for a minute. Every religious American
every Sunday or Saturday goes to his/her church with the
same belief that god is encouraging their actions. The
Seventh Day Adventist feels that god has led him to accept
the ten commandments as still binding today. He disagrees
with his Baptist and Methodist neighbors he adores so
much. Meanwhile, the Baptist and Methodist neighbors go to
their own churches and sing another worn out verse to
"Amazing Grace." They listen to the charming preacher and
get their feel good pills for the week. They've been told that
their sins are forgiven. They are saved by faith alone. The
Church of Christ Scientist believes that god has forbidden
the use of medications. Their children can die for lack of
them, but by faith, they walk their spiritual walk onward
believing they are pleasing God. The Mormon arrives at his
worship hour waiting to be encouraged and strengthened for
taking such criticism from the rest of Christianity that he has
been receiving all week for following Joseph Smith, that
great prophet who founded their church. He is happy to sing
another verse of, "Give Me Back My Prophet," in his Mormon
hymn book.

What's wrong with this picture? The problem with this picture
is faith. This I-don't-know-but-I-believe-god-is-with-me idea is
the very cause of the division Christianity keeps producing.
Everyone in our scenario above is a victim of faith. He
believes God is with him but has no way of establishing the
truth of the matter. In a way, believers, especially the
evangelical type, are salesman: they (a) create a need for
their product in convincing people they have a problem. And
(b) they show why their product is the ideal cure, and that
(c) brand(s) X(other faiths and religions) are not as good as
theirs! There are conversions every which way, into and out
of every religion worldwide. What does god really want?
Which church is his church? Does he even desire Sunday
worship at all? You will never know for sure, but you can
"have faith," empty and not so reassuring as it is. This
system will never work for one who must have answers. Go
to your local library and educate yourself on matters of
science if you long for better assurance of facts. Those who
desire closure and security will never find it in Christianity. It
is not there to be had. No assurance cannot be called
"blessed assurance."

#6) I am an atheist because I got tired of playing
the guessing game: This was probably the hardest
aspect of Christianity to cope with. Christianity was a game,
a guessing game where you tried with all your heart to find
out what God wanted for you, but never could make sense
of anything that happened around you. I grew tired of trying
to guess just where and how God was involved in my life.

The same guessing game would sprout up every time a
tragedy sprung up on one of God's people. Brother Bob was
killed in a car wreck on the way to a gospel meeting. He was
going to preach the gospel of Christ that night, but was killed
thanks to a drunk driver. Surely God would have wanted this
brother alive? He was going to preach his word. Brother Bob
was walking in the light and following the Lord. What
happened? It was in god's power to prevent this tragedy.
That puts this tragedy on God. I thought God was supposed
to be there for us in times of need? Were there too many
preachers and this was God's way of firing brother Bob?
Was he going to preach soul-damning error and the Lord
was doing us all a favor by eliminating him? Did he have
some sordid sin in his life that God was tired of seeing and
decided that it was time for brother Bob to cash in his chips?
Was brother Bob's family being chastened by God by his
death to strengthen them, or how about me maybe?

When I would pray and ask God for something and got no
answer, the mind naturally begins to consider why. "Maybe
God did not grant my prayer request because it was not in
accordance with his will for me? Maybe God will answer it,
but will do in his own time. How long will that be and how do I
know when I receive such an answer? When the prayer is
answered, how do I know it would not have happened
anyway? What if God told me no? But wait, my request was
definitely in accordance with his will I know, so why do I see
no results? Maybe I am not praying long and hard enough.
Guess I'll just keep praying and waiting for something to
happen."

When it comes to the will of the gods, the questions and
possibilities are as endless as the grains of sand on planet
earth. Too many strange things happen not to question the
nature of these things. I must confess, if what some theists
say is true and God has a "secret plan that we humans will
just never understand," then I've got to hand it to him, he
has done the best job anyone could ever do! No one could
possibly make sense of all the tragedies, unexplained
deaths, religious confusion, natural phenomenon, and
heartache that he allows to go on every day of this life. I
never knew or could know if and what God ever did. I had to
live each day with the same confusion every body else faced
with no way to identify what was and was not God's will. I
decided I was finished guessing and ready to start knowing!
It all got old. I couldn't take it any longer.

#7) I am an atheist because I got tired of trying to
find connections where there were none: One big
tendency of the human mind is to see connections where
none exist. Let's look at the Christian apologist's approach
to finding evidences of bible inspiration.

The Christians have long maintained that certain events in
the Old Testament are foreshadowings of the New
Testament, particularly in the life of Christ. For example,
theists say that Joseph and Jesus are types of each other.
Joseph was rejected by his brothers, and after spending
time in a pit (a symbol of the grave), Joseph was exalted and
his brethren revered him. Jesus was rejected by his people
and after his crucifixion, was exalted, and his brothers (in
faith) revered him.

In the first judgment of the earth in the days of Noah, God
swore he would never again use water to vanquish evil.
Instead, just the opposite of water, fire is to be God's new
weapon of choice (2 Peter 3:10).

Any time a freethinker finds fault with Christ's decision to wait
over two thousand years to come back to earth, theologians
are excited to point out that the skeptics are "fulfilling the
prophecy of Peter" in 2 Peter 3:5, "In the last time mockers
shall come walking after their lusts and saying, 'where is the
promise of his coming'?"

In Exodus 32, the people of Israel sinned by worshipping the
golden calf. God is angry with the people for their sins and
purposes to destroy Israel. Moses acts as a mediator for the
people in persuading God to spare them. Theologians draw
attention to how Christ does the same for us before the
father (I Timothy 2:5). Not to mention, both were marked for
death at birth, and both had a radiant face, etc.

The above scriptural comparisons are examples of how the
Christian theist reasons. In light of these cited instances, it
seems to be happy hunting ground for the theist. He has so
many "foreshadowing evidences" of inspiration. Of course,
to reason this way is unfounded. There are no connections
between the events of the Old Testament characters and
the New Testament's Son of God that are genuine. Jesus
and Joseph have only as much in common as the myth
makers of the New Testament wanted Christ to be like. Even
if the Christ myth was based on a real individual, the cited
connections are far from remarkable. The same is obvious
of Moses and Christ. There can be no "prophetic
connections" because the New Testament was written after
the Old. All of the Jewish qualities seen in Jesus were so
created to appeal to the Jews and pagans, respectively.
Peter's "prophecy" of mockers is all but indicative of a
distinct saintly voice trying to slow down the inevitable
decline of faith in a mythical savior who stood his disciples
up and has never returned, or at best, proved to be a savior
who abandoned his cult because of inevitable human
mortality.

I can remember being so charmed with these and a hundred
more little "examples of inspirations" I thought I found. But as
I said, theists find connections where there are none.
Obscure passages come to life for them because of their
burning convictions that passages do, in fact, say what they
so badly want to believe about them. Without this
bridge-building, passage-connecting "faith," a study of the
bible is only a study of an ancient text reflecting the views of
the time in which it was written. Without blind and
overly-optimistic faith, the "good book" is nothing more than
an ancient capsule of obsolete theology from an age long
gone. It will fail every critical test and offer little to a new and
modern world.

#8) I am an atheist because man is an animal and
not a special creation or divinely destined creature:
Animals, regardless of intelligence, are animals, and animals
are beasts of nature, products of a savage world, hardly
worthy of the standards of a Heaven or Hell. Perhaps the
late Charles Lee Smith, President and founder of the
America Association for the Advancement of Atheism, said it
best in his debate with O.C. Oliphant, "The descendants of
apes need no savior." [The Oliphant-Smith Debate, p. 34.
1929] How true! Geology, biology, and just about every
other academic field will verify this fact.

A stout look at our physical make-up will reveal that we
humans eat, sleep, procreate, and defecate-- along with the
rest of the animals. We get goose bumps when we are cold
or scared to help our "fur" stand taller and thus, have a
better chance of survival. Our fingers have nails on their
ends, remnants of claws from a very long time ago. They are
made of keratin, the same substance which composes all
claws. To this day, members of our society suffer herniated
disks and foot and arch problems due to our lack of
adaptation to walking upright on land. This kill-or-be-killed
nature of the world shows a very cruel god, in fact, an
infinitely evil god, if one exists at all! What would we do to a
genius scientist who, if he had a choice in the matter, chose
to set up a system of life where higher life forms eat the
lower ones! We would find it unthinkably cruel, but we give
god a pass on it! As I said, Infinitely evil!

Man is an animal, despite his big brain, his relatively hairless
physique, his proudly upright posture, and his washed and
deodorized body! DNA used to conduct paternity tests and
tell us who the father and mother of a child is, will tell the
story of our evolutionary descent and kinship with every
other life form on earth. We share over 98% of our DNA with
our closest cousins, the chimpanzees. Other forms of life,
beginning with mammals, going on down through
amphibians, reptiles, and bacteria show successively less
genetic similarity to us. This conclusively proves our kinship
to the animal kingdom.

#9) I am an atheist because Christianity (and all
theism) manifests self-centered arrogance, the
height of unfounded pride, and pompousness
egotism: Often the atheist is accused of being the arrogant
one in a discussion of spiritual vs. materialistic matters, but
the Christian is the guilty one. I can imagine no more
arrogant of a philosophy than one which states that
intelligent man is the greatest and most prized creation in
the universe. Isn't this convenient? The mighty silverback
with his strength, or the bull elephant is not so loved, nor is
the industrious otter the #1 creation, though he works so
tirelessly to build a great home and dam that is truly a work
of wildlife art. In addition to being a great builder, the otter
manages not to kill his own kind as humans do. It is man who
is capable of so much more than every other creature, he is
the greatest. On top of our many accomplishments, we have
sky spirits that take special interest. Wow! Now our heads
get even bigger!

The arrogance of Christianity is seen in the purpose of God
for man. I must ask why the omnipotent creator of heaven
and earth needs lowly me to do anything? The child likes to
play in his backyard and pretend that the general has called
him on a secret and very important mission to accomplish.
The same type of childish motive is found in Christianity. I
am commissioned to bring a message to those around me
who do not have it, in order to establish their hearts as
dwelling places for God. Souls are at risk! The mission is
crucial! Why didn't the almighty bother to take the time and
implant his important knowledge in everyone's mind? Why
does the almighty need me to do anything he could do by
the slightest of thoughts? If there is humility in serving God
and trusting some unknown higher power to reveal the deep
mysteries of life, then where is the humility in believing in
only one God? Why not a god for the trees, the animals, the
different rocks, and the seas, and mountains? Are
polytheists more humble?

This God business is a big business and has gone through
a lot of changes through the last few millennia. The seafarer
of old watched the stars. The old world farmer trusted the
sun and the gods of vegetation. Today, the good
Bible-believing Christian trusts his three-in-one God to give
him purpose, hope, and a home beyond the clouds, which
brings us to the next little arrogant aspect of Christianity,
eternal life. Why I must live on after the grave is arguably
the most selfish thing of all. Once I arrive, what makes me so
important that I am indispensable? Why must I abide
forever? Isn't it interesting how we hear so little about the
great before and so much about the great beyond? The
arrogance of Christianity is definitely a comforting religious
notion for man, for it tells him how undeniably important he is
to the universe itself. He is at the center of it and it revolves
around him. Can't I live out my days here in dignity with
sobriety and honesty? The real humility of materialism says
"yes" while arrogant theism says "no." If it were up to
believers in fundamentalist Christianity, there wouldn't even
be a space program!

#10) I am an atheist because the natural sciences
bankrupt the bible, and theism in general: Astronomy,
usually held to be one of the most awe-inspiring proofs of
God, was one of my biggest hurts of faith. I did not see a
hand of god declaring his glory in the heavens. I see a
myriad of stars, some brighter and more glorious than our
own.

I see one planet teaming with life amidst gaseous, lethal
pockets of stardust and radiation, pure chaos in action! Our
solar system bears the scars of its cruel evolution. The
planet Mercury is so close to the sun that she scorches on
one side and freezes on the other. Venus, though originally
much like earth, has been consumed by heat hot enough to
melt lead! A runaway greenhouse effect got started making
the planet unlivable. Earth, Mars, and the two planets we've
just mentioned dwell closer to the sun because of their
heavy rocky weight, whereas the gas giants dwell further
away due to their light gases of which they are composed.
This suggests a natural explanation for our solar system and
not a divinely created one. Planets like Saturn and Uranus
have rings because of collisions of massive meteors ages
ago. Moons have craters for the same reason. Moons
themselves form by way of catastrophes. Our earth wobbles
on its axis causing storms and natural catastrophes, not to
mention ice ages. Were it not for a decent electromagnetic
field, we would cook in cosmic solar radiation. We are one
planet of nine planets, orbiting a star which is only one of
several hundred billion in just our galaxy. At least, 125 billion
other galaxies exist rendering earth as insignificant as a
speck of dust orbiting a quasar 8 billion light years away.
Astronomy testifies to man's departure as the supremely
important being in the universe! Earth is barely fit to our
survival and it won't be forever.

Whether its astronomy, biology, cosmology, or zoology, the
natural sciences forever remove god's role as ruler of the
universe.

#11) I am an atheist because God's living room has
been getting smaller and smaller each generation:
As we said, the sciences, with one voice, with one voice,
force God out of the picture. He must find a new home in the
world. Now God lives only in the gaps of our knowledge of
the world. Those gaps are closing quickly. We used to think
that the earth was flat. The bible even tells us so, "The
pillars of the earth tremble" (Job 9:6). Now we know better.
We used to think that earth was at the center of the universe
and unmoving. The bible even tells us so, "Who laid the
foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for
ever" (Psalm 104:5). Now we know better. We used to
believe that stars are just points of light in the sky. Indeed,
the bible tells us so.

The bible mentions two creations, the creation of the sun,
and the creation of the stars, "And God made two great
lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to
rule the night: he made the stars also" (Genesis 1:16).
Notice how God created the greater light (the sun) to rule
the day, and then as an afterthought, "made the stars also!"
This shows that the ancient writers of Genesis had no
understanding as to the nature of stars (if the bible were the
product of inspiration, it should!). Again, now we know better!
We used to believe that the earth was six thousand years
old. The bible implies every bit as much by adding up the
ages of the patriarchs and comparing the genealogies of
Jesus which go all the way back to creation (Matthew 1/Luke
3). Since Jesus said man was created, "from the beginning
of the creation" (Mark 10:6), this leaves no time for
additional eons to be inserted to account for the ancient
(billions of years old) earth that almost all scientists in the
world recognize to be the obvious truth.

These are a handful of thoughts, a short summation on why
I am an atheist. To me, it seems clear that the thinking
person is forced into this position. (JH)