I felt it would be a good idea to simply spell out why I don’t believe in god. After thinking about it, it was too long to compress into one post, so this is going to end up in at least 2 parts.
Let me first point out some avenues for belief that I have found to be unsound.
A1) Evidence of god in the world – intelligent design, miracles, etc.
Evidence of god simply doesn’t hold up. Nothing that we can observe in the world necessitates the existence of an infinite, all-powerful being. For example, how would an infinite being manifest itself in a finite form? It would be monumentally difficult, if not impossible. If god decided to show up one day as a 300 foot tall guy with a beard, how could we possibly know that it was god, and not just a 300 foot tall guy with a beard? (Example courtesy of Simon.) In other words, nothing in the world necessitates the existance of a divine being.
A1.1) Personal experience
“God spoke to me!” just isn’t going to cut it.
A1.2) The Bible
Similarly, “The Bible says so!” isn’t going to cut it either, because nothing gives the Bible any authority. Except the Bible. And then we start getting dizzy.
A2) Word tricks
God is perfect. Perfect things exist. God exists!!!
Hmmm.
I’m thinking of a perfect $100 bill. This bill would be more perfect if it existed in my pocket. Let’s see… Nope, didn’t work. Damn. Moving on…
First, I’ll start with those premises that my unbelief rests on.
1. God (by definition) is infinite.
Defense of this premise: God is necessarily infinite. If we make god finite, he ceases to be god.
2. God is wholly other.
Defense of this premise: By this, I mean that God is not limited in any way by reality as we perceive it. Again, obviously so: trying to make god fit into our human experience of the world is incoherent. God exists, if you will, on a different plane of reality. The implication here is that god is unable to interact with us, because by doing so, he would limit himself in some way, and no longer be god.
At this point, from these premises and our failed avenues for proving god’s existence, we can conclude the following: we cannot know one way or another whether god exists.
Now, at best, this might still lead to faith. After all, the notion of faith is based on our lack of certainty about god. At worst, we seem to be left only with agnosticism.
Next time, however, I will conclude that the only reasonable conclusion is not theism or agnosticism, but atheism.
