I don’t think I believe in “God” anymore

[anonymous1120]

I feel really low today, my trigger was reading an online story about how Madeline’s body might be found in a few days as police think it’s 30 mins from hotel in a well. I’m sorry I stopped reading so details might not be fully accurate. My eldest daughter has just turned 4 and it’s really upset me thinking what Maddie might have gone through in her last moments.

I know some people will respond negatively to me and hence the name change. I’m really struggling to think how can God really exist and let awful and evil things happen all the time. My faith has really been tested over the years and I do not believe in God anymore.

I think that some people have an unrealistic view of God and what God does or doesn't do. I think there is often misplaced anger towards God due to this.
I dont think it's healthy to think that God shouldn't let bad things happen or should stop people doing bad things.
Bad things do happen, they need to happen. It's also unhealthy to think or expect otherwise it doesn't do anyone any favours, there will always be bad people, that's not God's fault that's people's fault.

If you believe in God, then God created life, life then takes hold and well, lives for good and for bad. If you don't believe in God then the same still applies.

It's too easy just to easy to blame God, it's also much more complex than that.

If a lovely family have three kids, two grow up to be well rounded adults, the other turns out evil, is that God's fault, the parents, societies or the evil persons fault for not striving to be a better person and seeking help and support?

Same goes with illness, there are many biological factors that can determine uour likelihood of getting ill, very complex, but it's so easy just to blame God.

I personally don't mind if people believe or not but I do mind bit if they misdirect their anger and blame God etc instead of dealing with their understable anger and frustration in a more practical way, which may actually help them cope rather than blame.

Evil happens because there is God and Satan it's that simple
you choose

Bad things do happen, they need to happen

Why do babies need to die from malaria? Why does that need to happen if some omnipotent benevolent being is watching over us all?

Some form of test of faith?

@silverstrawberry

Evil happens because there is God and Satan it's that simple you choose

Well my choice is that neither exist. Because it makes no sense, along with people's arguments for it.

Atheism/agnosticism - some atheists say that they "know" deities don't exist. But others, like me, follow the dictionary definition and say that atheism means not believing deities exist. I love the idea of being agnostic, but as I do not believe deities exist, then it seems more precise to say that I am atheist. Given enough proof, I'd believe a deity existed, and stop being atheist. Agnostics think that we cannot know whether deities exist or not, right? Does that mean that if a deity appeared in front of you, you would still say that isn't proof, as you could be hallucinating?

I think that some people have an unrealistic view of God and what God does or doesn't do. I think there is often misplaced anger towards God due to this.

You can't be angry with god if you don't believe in him. So my anger isn't with god because I do not believe in him.

My anger is with things like religious people telling me that god was with me when I was raped.

If he was real, he allowed evil to happen and the perpetrator's free will to cause me so much trauma.

I've overcome what happened to me not with god in my life, but in spite of not having a religious belief. Through hard work, loving people in my life and having treatment. Religious people have said to me well god has helped you get through it?!

Religious don't get to absolve their god of his part in me being raped and then claim his part in me recovering. Surely it's clear that doesn't make sense?

As I said my mum is religious and I adore her - it brings her comfort and she is non judgemental and struggles
with things like what happened to me.

She would never have the nerve to tell a rape victim god was with them when it was happening and experienced the trauma too.

There is zero evidence of an abduction from that apartment, the only people pushing this angle from the beginning was the parents. There is however evidence of a death in said apartment.

This man is just being used as a patsy, that is all.

Madhairday I'm glad you agree on that excuse, but it's sadly quite a common one for sermons and such.

I'm afraid "he sent jesus" excuse won't do either. The child still suffered and the only reason Jesus is required is that god said he is. To make up for our original sin (typically for being the descendent of a couple that ate an apple without permission)

Most Christians will say that an innocent child will go straight to heaven anyway. That had to be the policy or bereaved parents would stop putting money in the collection plate.

But if there's a way to go straight to heaven without taking the other steps then god could have done that for everyone.

Either a murdered child gets the same deal as an adult who followed Jesus or they don't. if there is any downside to going straight to heaven than the child is being deprived of something they could have had. if going straight to heaven is just as good as going there after repenting then why wait?

There's no way to make it work and the desperate attempts harm people already suffering.

I think that some people have an unrealistic view of God and what God does or doesn't do. I think there is often misplaced anger towards God due to this.
Among Christians, you mean? Why are they so angry?

Thus the fact that we can recognise good and evil means that we are created for good. The fact that most people lean towards good deeds rather than bad points to a leaning towards how we know things should be Yes this is what I believe.

Religious don't get to absolve their god of his part in me being raped and then claim his part in me recovering. Surely it's clear that doesn't make sense?

👏👏👏👏 This.

I've had similar comments. The death of my baby must have been 'God's plan'. Erm no. You can fuck right off with that, thank you.

sorry but if 'god' s real hes one sicko all the horrible things going off in this world.

I'm so sorry you've gone through that @BloodyCat

[quote silverstrawberry]@bloodycat
You have made a point here

'It's not because of free will that there are people starving to death or unable to access clean water in the 21st century'
But
What if you consider we are made in Gods image? we are meant to change these unfortunate times in the world? God uses humans to do his work?if we all skip along to being evil and cold hearted atheists surely no one will help those in need ?
[/quote]
I'm sorry, why am I evil and cold hearted because I don't believe in your specific god?

LastTrainEast God did not " witness a terrible act , and bring Popcorn along" watching this terrible crime! Unless you feel God could be one step ahead of a persons thoughts/actions all the time something bad is happening! He is crying too at the though of one of his children committing a dreadful crime .Not dissimilar to the families of Criminals who are innocent ,but have to suffer the fallout from their childrens acts!

What everyone wants in a God or not is different.
What people are searching for is different.
What everyone finds or doesn't find or even wants to find is different.
The depth and range of an answer is different. An answer to one person throws up more questions to another.us
Religion is responsible for lots of death, evil, pain, conflict but that is distortion of the message and man using it for their own control, benefit.
It soothes and comforts some and irritates others.
If it helps your life fine, if it is not part of your life fine. But we all need to keep an eye on the vulnerable to ensure they are not prey to people who profess one thing and do another.
Ever religion, group, organisation, occupation has people who will take advantage for their own personal gain. Man is capable of great kindness and good deeds but equally they can sink to depravity, mass murder and torture. To do a good deed or a bad one is the choice of man not God.

if we all skip along to being evil and cold hearted atheists surely no one will help those in need ?

Wow, I missed this @silverstrawberry.

You think all the charity workers in the world are religious then?

I'm kind and loving, I go out of my way to help people. Because I want to not because I'm scared of a god or want to go to heaven.

My motivation is compassion and empathy, nothing else.

Not very christian calling people different to you evil and cold hearted is it? Love thy neighbour? Or call them names and berate them?

When you go to hospital or are in a care home do you think the people who take care of you are all religious?

What a ridiculously flippant judgement of atheists. You've shown yourself up there as having a nasty attitude.

Everyone in this thread who is religious seems to have a completely different definition of god, which just shows that in these days when we don’t need god for explanations people are just making one up for themselves for comfort. Which is fine by me, whatever gets you through. The world is a shithouse and people are dicks.

@backseatcookers Ironically I've just today arranged to drop off several bags of nappies to my local church (got a monthly Amazon order for my son and then he decides to have a growth spurt).

I'm sure it's evil somehow, after all I am an atheist.

In all seriousness, altruism and being there for fellow humans is incredibly important to me as an atheist. After all, with no god/s, we have to look out for each other.

I don't believe and never have. Even as a child I used to question why adults were singing songs and trying to convince be about the existence of something that was palpably ridiculous, and easily argued away using the logic and deductive common sense available to a primary school child.

There's absolutely nothing about the universe that requires the existence of deities. The perverse mangling of logic, the deliberate denial of blatant contradictions, the invention of concepts like heaven, hell, good, evil, all brought about for no other purpose than to create a narrative in which deities can exist, it just serves to emphasise what a completely ridiculous proposition the entire thing is.

Russell's teapot analogy is a perfect summation of my view.

I've always felt that the christian version of god in particular is extremely bizarre. Possibly because it's the one education attempted to foist upon me so it's the one I'm most familiar with, but I suppose it's likely down to the fact that it's also the most commonly adhered to version in my society. The idea that 'god' made humans in his/her image is laughably conceited, self-indulgent, and pompous. Why not any one of the millions of other species that inhabit the planet? Do we resemble god now, or did he create us in his own image back when our ancestors were swamp-dwelling proto-sludge?

The fact is, humanity is just a rabble of pointless talking monkeys who attained a degree of sentience through happy accident. There's no requirement at all for a god to explain it all. Other animals display a degree of intelligence, yet they don't observe bizarre rituals or dedicate icons to their imagined creator, they just get on with doing what it is they do and their universe doesn't grind to a halt for the lack of an omnipotent deity.

I’m sorry you are feeling this way. Life does throw all sorts of turmoil upon us. The Madeleine case is devastating. As is illness, losing people we love & abuse to name just a few.
Personally, through my life, I take great comfort that God is with me through this. I don’t blame God when things are not good, I lean on him for help, peace & comfort. I hope you can again too.

my kindness and morals is nothing to do with a religion!

@dottiedodah

LastTrainEast God did not " witness a terrible act , and bring Popcorn along" watching this terrible crime! Unless you feel God could be one step ahead of a persons thoughts/actions all the time something bad is happening! He is crying too at the though of one of his children committing a dreadful crime .Not dissimilar to the families of Criminals who are innocent ,but have to suffer the fallout from their childrens acts!

Where do I begin? You've not heard that god is all knowing and all seeing? That the whole proof of the bible rests on so called prophecies made because he supposedly knew every tiny detail of the future? (him and Nostradamus)

You then compare him to the families of criminals who had no knowledge of the future and no magic powers and who didn't design their relative in the first place?

If you want god to be real he has to be responsible.

the judgement day makes no sense to me. I do things because I want to and I take great value in human empathy. I don't want to be judged by some narcissistic and I don't believe in that idea at all anyway, but if I did then I wouldn't really be caring what a Christian God thought about me tbh.

@mumoblue
I'm not saying evil =atheist
I don't know you