Quick Arguments Against Religion
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Do you think I'm going to hell? If yes, why? Why would God condemn me to eternal torture just for not believing him in the face of a huge lack of evidence? Why did he create me with my questioning, rational mind ...
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Quick Arguments Against Religion
ALWAYS point people who use the "open mindedness" argument here to this video
Mine goes like this (assuming I'm talking to a christian): Your religion teaches that if you do not accept Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior you will burn for eternity in hell. More or less. No matter if you are a good person, or are equally devout in another faith. The religion you have as an adult is hugely dependent on the time and place of your birth. If God chose to have you born today to a poor family in India, your chances of converting to christianity to be saved are near zero. If you were born in South America before the conquistador's came, you were not going to hear about Jesus. In essence, God chooses certain people to burn for eternity and they have no say in the matter.
Religion is like football. Everyone wants to believe their home team is special, but the fact is they only think so because they were born there.
there is no credible evidence for the existence of god. two things are generally proffered as evidence of god, scripture and the natural world (argument from perceived design).
1) scripture is mere hearsay, or as more accurately stated by thomas paine: "hearsay upon hearsay". hearsay is generally inadmissible in state and federal court because it is notoriously unreliable. if hearsay isn't reliable enough for use to adjudicate simple disputes, it certainly isn't reliable enough to prove absurd stories about a god upon which you think i should base my life.
2) the natural world provides no more evidence for the existence of your god than it does for the thousands of gods imagined throughout history, which is to say, none. our ignorance relating to precisely how this all came about doesn't justify your speculation that a wizard did it.
I like to play the morality card, e.g. what motivates you to be a good person? If the answer is religion, cue argument about people with different religions (or no religion) still being good people, thus morality does not come from religion. So, what's the point of religion then?
If they bring in heaven and hell, I counter by saying that if there is a god, I would hope that he would judge people on their actions (i.e. morality) rather than their superficial beliefs/practices.
Do you think I'm going to hell? If yes, why? Why would God condemn me to eternal torture just for not believing him in the face of a huge lack of evidence? Why did he create me with my questioning, rational mind if I was going to be punished for exercising it? If no, then there's no reason to bother believing in him anyway.
Do you believe in Zeus? Do you believe in FSM? How about unicorns or fairies? How about Xorplax, a god I just made up? Why not?... Well that's why I don't believe in your god, and why you shouldn't either.
I want to believe as many true things as possible and not believe as many things that aren't true as possible. The best way to do this I have come across is the scientific method. I require evidence to substantiate claims, and a preponderance of evidence to substantiate extraordinary claims.
Faith is a weakness. Faith is the excuse we give ourselves to believe something when there is no good reason to. Faith actively stands in the way of looking for evidence and seeking further knowledge. Instead of faith, let us use reasonable expectation based on observation, and use hope for the things we cannot control.
All religious beliefs are so far objectively unjustifiable. If you can justify yours, please do so. Personal experience is fine for you, but know that if that is your only basis for belief, you have no footing on which to convince others your religion is valid; it is entirely possible you have misinterpreted your experience, or that your senses were unwittingly impaired at the time.
These were found via Reddit. Please share your own here :]
Mine goes like this (assuming I'm talking to a christian): Your religion teaches that if you do not accept Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior you will burn for eternity in hell. More or less. No matter if you are a good person, or are equally devout in another faith. The religion you have as an adult is hugely dependent on the time and place of your birth. If God chose to have you born today to a poor family in India, your chances of converting to christianity to be saved are near zero. If you were born in South America before the conquistador's came, you were not going to hear about Jesus. In essence, God chooses certain people to burn for eternity and they have no say in the matter.
Religion is like football. Everyone wants to believe their home team is special, but the fact is they only think so because they were born there.
there is no credible evidence for the existence of god. two things are generally proffered as evidence of god, scripture and the natural world (argument from perceived design).
1) scripture is mere hearsay, or as more accurately stated by thomas paine: "hearsay upon hearsay". hearsay is generally inadmissible in state and federal court because it is notoriously unreliable. if hearsay isn't reliable enough for use to adjudicate simple disputes, it certainly isn't reliable enough to prove absurd stories about a god upon which you think i should base my life.
2) the natural world provides no more evidence for the existence of your god than it does for the thousands of gods imagined throughout history, which is to say, none. our ignorance relating to precisely how this all came about doesn't justify your speculation that a wizard did it.
I like to play the morality card, e.g. what motivates you to be a good person? If the answer is religion, cue argument about people with different religions (or no religion) still being good people, thus morality does not come from religion. So, what's the point of religion then?
If they bring in heaven and hell, I counter by saying that if there is a god, I would hope that he would judge people on their actions (i.e. morality) rather than their superficial beliefs/practices.
Do you think I'm going to hell? If yes, why? Why would God condemn me to eternal torture just for not believing him in the face of a huge lack of evidence? Why did he create me with my questioning, rational mind if I was going to be punished for exercising it? If no, then there's no reason to bother believing in him anyway.
Do you believe in Zeus? Do you believe in FSM? How about unicorns or fairies? How about Xorplax, a god I just made up? Why not?... Well that's why I don't believe in your god, and why you shouldn't either.
I want to believe as many true things as possible and not believe as many things that aren't true as possible. The best way to do this I have come across is the scientific method. I require evidence to substantiate claims, and a preponderance of evidence to substantiate extraordinary claims.
Faith is a weakness. Faith is the excuse we give ourselves to believe something when there is no good reason to. Faith actively stands in the way of looking for evidence and seeking further knowledge. Instead of faith, let us use reasonable expectation based on observation, and use hope for the things we cannot control.
All religious beliefs are so far objectively unjustifiable. If you can justify yours, please do so. Personal experience is fine for you, but know that if that is your only basis for belief, you have no footing on which to convince others your religion is valid; it is entirely possible you have misinterpreted your experience, or that your senses were unwittingly impaired at the time.
These were found via Reddit. Please share your own here :]
Discussion Forum
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Comment Wall
Comment
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Comment by Michel Poisson on August 16, 2010 at 3:25pm -
Thanks to Bill McDonald here's an interesting argument agaisnt a god/creator/designer:
"The simple equation zn+1 = zn2 + c creates the infinitely complex and beautiful Mandelbrot Set. We can marvel at it's complexity without any need to postulate a designer. There can be an underlying order to reality that just is. 2 + 2 = 4 and needs no god to be so."
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Comment by Michel Poisson on August 10, 2010 at 9:49pm
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-Why do you need faith?
-Because there's nothing there.
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Comment by Wayne Wilson on August 10, 2010 at 9:04pm -
Religion depends on ignorance to survive. Especially in this day and age, with all the advances of science and medicine and the knowldge that has been aquired by scholars and researchers of the past few centuries has shown the conscious person much regarding the nature of the universe and reality, history, humanity and nature.
All of this knowledge must be put aside to mainain the faith that the major religions demand. This is the epitome of ignorance; purposely ignoring what is known to be true in order to hold on to false beliefs that give one a weak and unstable sense of security. Is it any wonder that the world is in such turmoil?
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Comment by Illuminati on May 14, 2010 at 12:59pm - We all know how bad religion can be. Scientology should take top rank in it now. Here is an interview with a lady who was a member for 27 years and is now finally telling the truth about it and has even written a book. http://www.popeater.com/2010/05/13/amy-scobee-scientology-book-tom-cruise/?icid=main|aim|dl2|link1|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popeater.com%2F2010%2F05%2F13%2Famy-scobee-scientology-book-tom-cruise%2F. Just copy and paste it to the web bar on top. She has also written a book about the horrors of scientology.
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Comment by Happy Tikiman on March 1, 2010 at 1:23pm -
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Comment by M on January 24, 2010 at 10:09pm - I have started a new group called Atheist Philosophers. If you are interested we could always use more members.
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Comment by Jacqueline Sarah Homan on December 14, 2009 at 11:53am - Simply put, Creationism is mental aroma therapy. It's "feel good" stuff, and it's an excuse to claim a "divine right" to some sort of privilege or undeserved authority. There is no "explanation" involved: just a permanent vacation while high on mental aroma therapy on the road of denial all the way to bullshitland.
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Comment by Happy Tikiman on November 4, 2009 at 7:03pm
- God is unbelievable!
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Comment by Morgan Matthew on October 18, 2009 at 10:46pm -
Scientific theories are always changing. You cannot trust what scientists say, since it may be different tomorrow.
Science investigates difficult questions about unknown fields, and scientists are human, so it is inevitable that scientific findings will not be perfect. However, science works by investigating more and more, which means results get checked and rechecked with further findings. The reason some findings change is because they get corrected. This process of correction helps make science one of the most successful areas of human endeavor. The people who cannot be trusted are those who are always right. Via
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Comment by Morgan Matthew on October 11, 2009 at 11:39pm
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Ockham's Razor says the simplest explanation should be preferred. That explanation is creation.
Creationism is not an explanation. An explanation tells why something is one way instead of an alternative way. But creationism does not rule out any alternatives, since a creator God could have done anything. Because of this, creationism adds nothing to any argument. Thus, creationism is an unnecessary entity and, by Ockham's Razor, should be eliminated. Via
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This actually is a rather good site. I post rss threads from it. They do an excellent job of making "fundies" look completely ridiculous
They make exquisite cigarillos with it in Cuba.
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