Why are some people so adamant that God does exist?

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joshrp

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Hi,

Why are some people, like Richard Dawkins and others, so adamant that God does not exist? Well, actually even Dawkins said that he doesn’t know, but some people just seem to be on a mission to destroy faith in God.

As far as I can tell, I have never seen a convincing proof that the universe was not creating by a personal Creator God who is distinct from the universe. All any denier of God’s existance can seem to do is to demolish poor arguments for God and shallow ideas of what God is, but they cannot seem to give any good proof that there is no personal Creator of the universe. So why are some of these people so emotionally attached to this faith that they can’t prove?

A lot of people appeal to personal experience in their reasoning as to why they believe in God or believe certain things about God, and this is valuable, but really the experience of the senses cannot convince us in God’s existence or give us certain knowledge as to what or who He is.

What faith I think essentially consists of is that you or I essentially believe that SOMEONE knows the truth and that they are telling the truth. The question is who do we think knows the truth and is telling us the truth? We don’t necessarily have to understand what this person or God or being is telling us, but we just accept that they know the truth and are trying to tell us the truth and to help us understand what is real. The idea of God is in one way that of a Someone who knows all things and wants to reveal them to us. Why does this God know all things? Because He created all things. If we have faith in someone who does not know all things, how can we totally trust that one, because there comes a point where that one will let us down? We can trust that that someone may have faith in someone else who does know all things, and the only possible being who can know absolutely all things is the One who preceded all things in existence and created all things, if there is a Creator of all things.

I think faith is a question of who do you trust more than anyone else. Many people trust themselves more than they trust anyone else. There is no higher authority on truth than themselves, according to their faith. And this is what such a person believes. There is no one who can say to them what is true and be right in all instances.

Well, I am not sure where I am going with this. Maybe others can help me out here?

Joshua
 
joshrp said:
Hi,

Why are some people, like Richard Dawkins and others, so adamant that God does not exist? Well, actually even Dawkins said that he doesn’t know, but some people just seem to be on a mission to destroy faith in God.
Click to expand...
it’s a good question
people who don’t believe in Santa, or the tooth fairy, or ET don’t seem to feel feel the need to go on a public rampage and attack those who do, so I have no guess to make, unless in their own polemic they give their reasons for making it a public crusade.
 
Because we are convinced a Godless universe is irrational, amoral, purposeless and valueless and cannot account for rationality, morality, purpose and value.
 
Your mistake in the title is confusing people about your question. ^^^
 
Dawkins is bad news and so is humanism.

Dawkins planned to arrest the Pope when he was visiting England last year.

I know people who are adamant that God does not exist and at the same time are adamant that aliens do exist.
 
Why are some people, like Richard Dawkins and others, so adamant that God does not exist? Well, actually even Dawkins said that he doesn’t know, but some people just seem to be on a mission to destroy faith in God.
Click to expand...
Because Dawkins is a materialist and he reduces all reality to matter and what can be known about this matter via the scientic method. He tries to use this same methodology in an attempt to “test” for God’s existence. In reality, Dawkin’s “test” for God’s existence is just a rehash of Satan’s attempt to tempt God.

Materialists also undertake the effort to discredit God’s existence in the attempt to rationalize away the guilt that accompanies their sinful behaviors, especially the sins of the flesh and the sin of abortion - you see, if there is no God then there is no sin, according to the materialists.

There is plenty of evidence for God’s existence. But God does not force this evidence on us. It may seem that the atheists currently have the upper hand in this modern debate that has been raging since the enlightenment but in the end God will bring victory out of defeat. Satan may think he has the upper hand, but God directs all history towards our salvation.
 
Those who walk in the dark don’t know, or don’t want to know, that they are walking in the dark. It is only when one is exposed to the Divine Light of God that one’s sinfulness (darkness) is exposed. Might be very scary to have that light around.
 
Because if God doesn’t exist, they can basically do whatever they want and not be held accountable. It’s also the “in” thing is to be an atheist, and alot of people are atheists just because they want to feel “in”.

A famous and very smart man said (paraphrasing) A frantic belief of any kind is rooted in doubt, not faith. He’s right on both accounts. Rabid atheists and rabid believers who simply cannot understand or fathom the other dissenting side are really not that sure of their own side.
 
I know a few atheists, and I know that many of them are not the militant kind you see so frequently on the Internet. A good chunk of atheists I’ve seen simply don’t see any justifiable reason to believe in God and leave it at that, only mentioning their atheism when it is relevant to the conversation or when pressed.

People are not atheists solely due to a deep-seated hatred of God or the desire to fit in, although they may be factors. From what I’ve seen on the Internet, some of the more common causes of atheism are thus:
  1. Traumatic/unpleasant childhood due to religious institution(s)
  2. Suffering (Hardship, Tragedy, etc.)
  3. Atheistic upbringing
  4. Disagreement with religious moral codes
  5. Misinformation about religion (Literal interpretations, out-of-context readings, etc.)
  6. Atheistic bias in education and media
  7. Perceived ignorance and/or bigotry in religion
  8. Apathy
These are by far not the only reasons why people become atheists. Everyone’s situation is unique, but they’re recurring themes that I see often.

As for my own opinion, I think a lot of atheism comes from the lack of proper knowledge about God and how He works. Serious misunderstandings about Scripture and its interpretations cause a lot of problems as well. But the number one thing that I see among militant atheists is (in my view) the worst of the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride.

Pride is what fuels militant atheists like Dawkins, Hitchens, and especially the massive legion of Internet atheists. I have seen people type out some truly disgusting and hate-filled diatribes against not only Christianity, but its believers, on the belief that they are intellectually superior and are above what they view to be mere fairy tales. I’ve witnessed staggering displays of arrogance in forum and blog posts attacking Christians and their faith. Worst of all, a lot of these attacks are usually poorly researched with distorted truths, foul language, and insults. These kind of people don’t seem to be interested in any sort of civil discourse, but rather to insult and attempt to destroy the faith of their target. I know very well that this does not represent atheists as a whole, but the fact that people like this exist is troubling.

That being said, I will not deny that there are Christians - even Catholics - that attack atheists for their own beliefs in ways I’ve described above. There are definitely mean, spiteful, prideful, and arrogant Christians around on the Internet who insult those who disagree. Their existence too is very concerning to me.
 
To answer the OP’s question, the reason some atheists are so adamant about their unbelief is that they believe that believing in religions is, on balance, bad for people and damaging to our society.
 
joshrp said:
but some people just seem to be on a mission to destroy faith in God.
Click to expand...
I think that starts to become more of a question of one’s experiences and environment. Also it isn’t uncommon for some one to invoke a religion when trying to support a point (I once had some one try to use religion to convince me to switch cable providers). If those people are doing hateful, destructive, or disagreeable things under the flag of a religion then the two become associated to that person.

There have been people that have done destructive things under under the name of Islam, so there are people that see Islam as destructive. There have been people that have done destructive things under the name of Christianity, so there are people that see Christianity as destructive. There have been people that have done destructive things under the name of capitalism…and so on.
joshrp said:
So why are some of these people so emotionally attached to this faith that they can’t prove?
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Once again I think this comes from personal experience and what the person confronts the most.
joshrp said:
A lot of people appeal to personal experience in their reasoning as to why they believe in God or believe certain things about God, and this is valuable, but really the experience of the senses cannot convince us in God’s existence or give us certain knowledge as to what or who He is.
Click to expand...
If they are sharing their personal experience that gives a starting point for understanding their motivations, feelings, and where they are coming from and getting the answer to your questio. Understanding this doesn’t have to translate into adopting those same feelings.
joshrp said:
There is no one who can say to them what is true and be right in all instances.
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Well I don’t think that any person knows what is true under all circumstances. They/we only have an idea of what is (provisionally) true under a limited range of circumstances.
 
ivory said:
People are not atheists solely due to a deep-seated hatred of God or the desire to fit in,
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Interjecting my own understanding of semantics here, If some one hated a god then that would also imply the person believes that the concept of the god that he or she hates is descriptive of an entity that exists. In other words the person would be a (miso)theist, not an atheist.
ivory said:
These kind of people don’t seem to be interested in any sort of civil discourse, but rather to insult and attempt to destroy the faith of their target.
Click to expand...
I wonder if they act the same way in “real life” as they do on the Internet.
 
joshrp said:
Hi,

Why are some people, like Richard Dawkins and others, so adamant that God does not exist? Well, actually even Dawkins said that he doesn’t know, but some people just seem to be on a mission to destroy faith in God.

As far as I can tell, I have never seen a convincing proof that the universe was not creating by a personal Creator God who is distinct from the universe. All any denier of God’s existance can seem to do is to demolish poor arguments for God and shallow ideas of what God is, but they cannot seem to give any good proof that there is no personal Creator of the universe. So why are some of these people so emotionally attached to this faith that they can’t prove?

A lot of people appeal to personal experience in their reasoning as to why they believe in God or believe certain things about God, and this is valuable, but really the experience of the senses cannot convince us in God’s existence or give us certain knowledge as to what or who He is.

What faith I think essentially consists of is that you or I essentially believe that SOMEONE knows the truth and that they are telling the truth. The question is who do we think knows the truth and is telling us the truth? We don’t necessarily have to understand what this person or God or being is telling us, but we just accept that they know the truth and are trying to tell us the truth and to help us understand what is real. The idea of God is in one way that of a Someone who knows all things and wants to reveal them to us. Why does this God know all things? Because He created all things. If we have faith in someone who does not know all things, how can we totally trust that one, because there comes a point where that one will let us down? We can trust that that someone may have faith in someone else who does know all things, and the only possible being who can know absolutely all things is the One who preceded all things in existence and created all things, if there is a Creator of all things.

I think faith is a question of who do you trust more than anyone else. Many people trust themselves more than they trust anyone else. There is no higher authority on truth than themselves, according to their faith. And this is what such a person believes. There is no one who can say to them what is true and be right in all instances.

Well, I am not sure where I am going with this. Maybe others can help me out here?

Joshua
Click to expand...
Disbelief in God arises because the God-concept adopted by various religions is completely illogical, and inconsistent with the most fundamental levels of physics.

Intelligently designed God-concepts have been proposed, and are always rejected by religious dogmatists.
 
greylorn said:
Disbelief in God arises because the God-concept adopted by various religions is completely illogical, and inconsistent with the most fundamental levels of physics.

Intelligently designed God-concepts have been proposed, and are always rejected by religious dogmatists.
Click to expand...
Define illogical and by who’s definition?
 
I think a lot of folks are atheists simply because (i) they see no good reason to be theist and (ii) they see good reason to be atheist. 😛
 
Lol! Obscurity doesn’t allow progress, fyi.

Also, most of us aren’t fundamentalists 😉
 
greylorn said:
Disbelief in God arises because the God-concept adopted by various religions is completely illogical, and inconsistent with the most fundamental levels of physics.

Intelligently designed God-concepts have been proposed, and are always rejected by religious dogmatists.
Click to expand...
One of the most useful elaborations of who and what God is, I have found to be demonstrated in the works of Nicholas of Cusa (e.g. De Docta Ignorantia) and Francis J. Sheed (e.g. Theology and Sanity) which I recommend if you would like to know some of the best pedagogical instructions on God which take into account what science tells us about the nature of God through how He organizes the universe. Pope Benedict XVI has quoted Nicholas of Cusa many times in his works.
 
joshrp said:
One of the most useful elaborations of who and what God is, I have found to be demonstrated in the works of Nicholas of Cusa (e.g. De Docta Ignorantia) and Francis J. Sheed (e.g. Theology and Sanity) which I recommend if you would like to know some of the best pedagogical instructions on God which take into account what science tells us about the nature of God through how He organizes the universe. Pope Benedict XVI has quoted Nicholas of Cusa many times in his works.
Click to expand...
I’m trying to think of instances where Pope Benedict has referenced Nicholas of Cusa. There is a book he wrote while a Cardinal called “Many Religions-- One Covenent” which he concludes by referring to Cusa’s ecumenical intereligious dialogue called “De Pace Fidei” or “On the Peace of Faiths” which I highly recommend everyone here read. It is available on the internet for free at Jasper Hopkins website if you just search for it on Google or any search engine.
 
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