To answer this question…
Do you ever doubt that there is no God?(For example sometimes, as a theist, I have momentary periods of doubt about God’s existance. Does that happen to with regard to His non-existance.)
Please answer yes or no before you add anything else.
Yes.
But only because the concept of God is positive, wonderfull and amazing, at least in comparison to the ordinary day to day running of nature (though i think nature is amazing too). It’s hard for us to be positive. In fact it’s a war; and to think that reality actually has a purpose, and that purpose is love, this is the most positive thing you could ever imagine! In this sense, I am tempted to doubt, because I am negative and i fear that it is not true; and because the concept of God is so amazing and uplifting, it can seem irrational to believe it.
But when I truly and honestly reflect on reality and try to understand what reality would have to be, if God didn’t exist, it is then that I find God to be the most reasonable explanation for my existence. The idea that reality exists in such logical way with it’s purposeful appearance and its principle interaction and change (* E.g., You need a brain to think, lungs to breath, eyes to see *.), for absolutely no reason what-so-ever except for some kind of “infinite regress” into the past, such a thing makes atheism hard for me to swallow in respect of logic.
The quality of our reality (
like "consciousness", and personal emotions, such as a “
guilty conscience” ), far outweighs a naturalistic conclusion. I would not expect an object or a complex cluster of atoms to desire anything (which is what we are if atheism is true); i would not expect the universe to become what it has, if the world is in fact with-out purpose and is devoid of objective meaning. It is reasonable to think that life has a
“purpose”, or that there is an “
inteligent-will” behind everything. Even with the problem of natural and personal evil, this world is exactly what I would expect on a “Christian” world view of things. The world as I see it, is not what I would expect from something that just popped into being, uncaused from **nothing **. Even if you could show that everything inside the universe could be explained by some kind of natural event, it still wouldn’t make any sense in terms of its existence. God makes the best sense of things.
The only reasons I would be an Atheist, is…
- If I was deceived (perhaps because I had not educated my self, and as a result of taking things for granted, was easily persuaded by a false premise).
Or
- I felt my life would be a little bit better off, or popular, if I didn’t believe.
Otherwise, I don’t really have a reasonable excuse to disbelieve or doubt (personally).
The idea that some kind of God exists, should not be a boundary for people. Religion, on the other hand, is a challenge, and is a challenge that requires people to pick up plenty of books and a lot of reflection. It might take some people all their lives before they end up in the right faith, but life is a journey; and as long as the participant is honest and willing, then I think that God will understand. He should know, more then anybody else, how difficult it is to see through deception and lies.
God bless and take care.
). But since I’m not, strictly speaking, atheist, it’s not so much ‘doubting the doubt’ as it is an odd combination of wishful thinking, a good imagination, and the occasional fear that maybe some of you theists are actually right about the whole deal.