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by
Armin Navabi
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September 8 - September 18, 2020
In reality, the only necessary argument against believing in God is simply that there is no evidence that any gods exist.
WhyThereIsNoGod.com
In effect, belief in God is not really an answer; it's simply a way of saying, “I don't know.”
EvolutionSimplyExplained.com
FromBasicLaws.com
Design exists purely in contrast to naturally- occurring phenomena.
Not knowing the answer to a question is not a valid excuse for making up a fairytale to explain it.
This is no different than saying, “This is true because I believe it,” which hardly counts as evidence.
Ultimately, they are books that were written by fallible humans, and though there may be some grains of historical truth within them, there is also ample hyperbole, speculation and mythology.
When the scripture can't even come to a consensus about a simple fact like the date of Jesus's crucifixion, it's difficult to accept the accounts as being historically accurate, much less divinely inspired.
Bear in mind, also, that the books of the Bible are largely anonymous. Names like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were added after the fact by editors and scribes. The actual identity of these authors is unknown (2).
Ehrman, Bart D. Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them). New York: HarperOne, 2009.
In order for something to qualify as a miracle, it must be more than statistically unlikely; it must be physically impossible without some sort of supernatural intervention.
This phenomenon of ascribing supernatural causes to mysterious events is a case of “argument from ignorance” (2).
“There is no explanation for this event, so God did it.”
Another problem with ascribing supernatural causes to mysterious events is that they are unfalsifiable, meaning that they can’t be disproved. Unfalsifiable claims hold no merit without evidence.
basic properties of probability laws shows that even extremely improbable events happen all the time
each one of us should expect one-in-a-million events to happen to us about once every month.
One poll conducted by Canadian psychologists even placed atheists as more untrustworthy than rapists in the United States and Canada, showing that atheists are among the least trusted people even in North America (1).
Leviticus 25:44-46
Exodus 21:20-21
In Islamic teaching, it’s made quite clear that anyone who turns away from the Islam should be put to death.
Curiously, many believers do not demand more context when mentioning verses describing love, charity or any other positive aspect of their scripture; verses are only viewed as being out of context when the content is unflattering for believers. This sort of cherry picking is a convenient viewpoint to hold but certainly not a defensible one.
morality truly stemmed from an all-powerful deity, it would not change over time.
Are things moral simply because God says so? Or does God give certain orders because they are inherently moral? This is the question at the core of Plato's Euthyphro dilemma, a problem that lies at the heart of religious debates about the divinity of moral authority (4).
(John 3:18-36, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 and Revelation 21:8),
An all-loving god would surely not damn his children to an eternity of torture simply for being born into a culture that believes in the wrong deity, follows the wrong holy book or attends the wrong type of church services.
Ultimately, moral standards, as we understand them, are social constructs. They are tied intimately to cultural circumstances and can change over time.
2) Ellens, J. Harold. The Destructive Power of Religion: Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003.
Ultimately, the idea that a large group of people believing in something automatically makes it true is a logical fallacy called argumentum ad populum (3). Widespread belief in something does not make it real, and things can exist in reality regardless of whether you believe in them. Simply stated, the truth is true even if no one believes it, and untrue claims are still untrue even if everyone believes them.
some people today continue to believe in geocentrism regardless of the ample evidence against it. A Google search on the topic turns up groups with names like “GalileoWasWrong.com” and “FixedEarth.com” that insist that centuries of scientific evidence are false. Of course, their beliefs have no effect on reality.
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.”
The religions that we have today are a small fraction of all religions that have existed throughout human history. The ones that we are left with have survived because they have more effectively adapted to attract and hold the allegiance of many people.
Researchers at Ohio State University have identified 16 separate psychological desires that motivate people to seek religion, such as honor, idealism, acceptance, interdependence and fear of death (6). It is likely that religious beliefs have been so widespread because they tap into the psychological desires of many people, not because there is any external proof of their veracity.
Logically Fallacious: The Ultimate Collection of over 300 Logical Fallacies.
“The Sixteen Strivings for God.”
Proving the efficacy of prayer is actually a fairly straightforward task. To establish a cause-and-effect relationship, you could create an experiment to isolate prayer as a variable and chart whether prayer had any positive effect on the outcome of a situation. As it turns out, scientists have done precisely this. A study of heart patients in 6 separate hospitals sought to determine whether prayers from strangers would have any effect on a person's recovery (1).
there was a significant difference between those who were aware of the fact that they were being prayed for and those who did not know. Those who knew ended up suffering more complications, possibly due to the additional stress it caused.
Anecdotal evidence is basically any claim that says, “This is true because it happened to me or someone I know.”
anecdotal evidence is of little use in science.
Confirmation bias occurs when you record and remember events that confirm with your views and ignore or rationalize the times it didn't (2).
Working from the assumption that God is good and hears all prayers, many believers of God offer a few possible explanations for why a prayer is not answered: • You prayed incorrectly. • You don't believe hard enough. • God doesn’t see fit to grant your wish. Some of these explanations shift the blame onto a person who may already be suffering.
The level of potential psychological damage this could inflict on a person is huge, and this kind of emotional torment cannot be justified in the name of an unsubstantiated claim.
In the United States alone, about 140 children with easily treatable conditions died between 1975 and 1995 after parents withheld medical attention, relying only on prayer and faith (4).
“Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in Cardiac Bypass Patients: A Multicenter Randomized Trial of Uncertainty and Certainty of Receiving Intercessory Prayer.”
The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making.
science cannot nor is it expected to disprove claims based on every subjective experience a person may have. The burden of proof is always on the person making a claim, not on the person that the claim is being made to.
A person's experiences are personal and ultimately unfalsifiable.
“Leaving body and life behind: Out-of-body and near-death experience.”
The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths.
