Here’s a nice little post from somebody over at www.iidb.org. If you ever ask a Christian: “If God created everything, then who created God?”. They’ll usually say something like “God is timeless”, or “time never began, and God has always existed”. The post basically says this:
IF NO ONE CREATED GOD, AND HE’S ALWAYS EXISTED, THEN WHY CANT THE UNIVERSE BE THE SAME WAY
Saint Thomas’s argument is this:
1. Everything is caused by something other than itself
2. Therefore the universe was caused by something other than itself.
3. The string of causes cannot be infinitely long.
4. If the string of causes cannot be infinitely long, there must be a first cause.
5. Therefore, there must be a first cause, namely god.
The most telling criticism of this argument is that it is self-refuting. If everything has a cause other than itself, then god must have a cause other than himself. But if god has a cause other than himself, he cannot be the first cause. So if the first premise is true, the conclusion must be false.
To save the argument, the first premise could be amended to read:
1′. Everything except god has a cause other than itself.
But if we’re willing to admit the existence of uncaused things (such as God), why not just admit that the universe is uncaused as well and simply cut out the middleman?
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Here’s an inspirational story of somebody born into Christianity and who was brought up that way, but started questioning everything when he moved to LA and was exposed to all of its diversity. After 24 years of worship, he is now an Atheist, and he has learned a lot from his mistakes:
Some friends of mine have posted on this site and asked that I do the same. So, here is my story.
I
grew up in Kansas. Christianity and church were a big part of my life.
From the time I was very young I enjoyed church, Sunday school, singing
hymns, and reading my children’s Bible. When I went to college, I
immediately joined a Bible study group and had an instant group of
close friends. I felt that the people around me were good honest and
hard working people. Christians like me wanted nothing more than strong
marriages, well behaved children, good neighborhoods and good schools.
I never had any bad experiences or anything like that. Yes, there were
scandals from time to time, sexual and otherwise, which we good church
folk loved to gossip about but overall my experiences were good ones.
After
graduating I got a job in Los Angeles. I was a little nervous about
leaving a Christian paradise to move to a sinful city but the offer was
too good to refuse. The first thing I did after moving was seek out a
church. Once again I instantly had new friends in a strange new place.
In
LA, for the first time, I came in close contact with people of other
religions, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, even a Zoroastrian. These
people believed just as strongly in their respective religions as I
believed in mine. I realised we couldn’t all be right.
I also
came in contact with atheists, agnostics and the just plain
nonreligious. My next door neighbor to the left was a Wiccan. The
neighbors to the right were a gay couple raising an adopted child. One
was a stay at home parent. My boss was an agnostic. All of these people
were good people, just like the folks back home. They all wanted the
same things. Happy marriages, good kids, safe schools, and so on. They
were all kind and helpful to me. The Wiccan neighbor took me grocery
shopping every weekend, while I saved for a good car (you don’t want to
drive a crappy car on LA’s freeways). Every morning, the gay neighbor
drove me to a bus stop two miles away, so I wouldn’t have to change
buses, even though it was out of his way. My boss was always happy and
friendly. He treated all his subordinates with the utmost respect.
I
was forced to reevaluate my views on everything. Gays weren’t evil and
immoral. People didn’t reject God or religion, just so they could
behave immorally. They sincerely and honestly didn’t believe. People of
others faiths sincerely and honestly believed that their religion was
true.
I started to seriously question my faith. How could I
really know that Jesus was my savior. Where was the evidence to back up
this belief? The Bible? Where was the evidence that the Bible was true?
I realised that Jesus may have been a savior, or a madman, or a liar,
or a figure who was mythologized by grieving followers. I have no way
of knowing.
Faith is believing in something you can never know
to be true. You choose to believe it but you have no evidence to back
up that belief. The Muslim believes Muhammad was a prophet. Maybe he
was. Or maybe he was a madman or a liar. Maybe Ganesh or Ahura Mazda is
the real god. Maybe David Koresh was the real messiah. How can I know
what is true and what isn’t true without evidence?
I continued
to go to church for a couple of months after losing my faith. I enjoyed
the fellowship and the ritual. I had friends there. But I couldn’t help
looking around at all these people who claim to “know” the unknowable.
I stopped going to church. I decided that from now on any belief I held
had to be based on evidence of some kind.
When people ask me my
religion I tell them I have none because I only believe what I can
prove. Of course, I’ve heard a few stories from individuals who have
had powerful spiritual or supernatural experiences that convinced them
that God is real and their religion is true. The most recent story I
heard was from a Muslim revert. Of course, the Muslim’s supernatural
experience reveals the truth of Islam, the Christian’s the truth of
Christianity, the Hindu’s the truth of Hinduism and so on.
Religious
belief is not rational or logical. It is often more powerful than
reason or logic. You can point out contradictions in scripture,
historical inaccuracies, OT prophecies that turned out to be wrong,
violence and perversion in the Bible and so on. It doesn’t matter. The
desire to believe is stronger than the evidence against belief.
I
truly feel sorry for religious people. People tithe, practice celibacy,
wear burkhas, fast, and so on all out of belief in something they can
never know is true. Generally, they believe because that’s what their
parents taught them, and their parents taught them, and so on. You
can’t convince them that it is not rational to expend so much time,
energy and money on the unknowable.
I teach my children, 8 and
6, to be skeptical, to question everything. I teach them that a lot of
people make claims that are not true and they try to deceive the
gullible for their own gain. I tell them not to fall for deceptions and
to think for themselves. Even though my life was good as a person of
faith, it is better now that I am an openminded free thinker.
Sent in by Joshua, at exchristian.net
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