Well, it's cool to get some different responses, especially since I had no idea what was going to be said. I hope you guys won't mind if I add some comments of my own.
For me, it's a bit of both.
I also don't see the logic behind a god. The world is too chaotic and diverse to be maintained or associated with an almighty or perfect being. I also find the contradictions between teachings and what happened in the real world to be incredibly ironic
While the world is certainly very chaotic (even though a large percentage of the chaos is caused by people themselves), I would say that the world is also very intelligently designed (ex- the earth's delicate life-supporting planetary conditions, the functionality of the human body). I find it much easier to believe that someone purposed for these things to be this way, rather than just randomly occurring (which, in terms of probability, is incredibly slim). I would also venture to say that the "contradictions" you mentioned are not actually so, and can be explained.
For me, it's a bit of both.
god wants us to love everyone, but also declares people sinners. We are all gods children, yet he 'created' things that harm and kill us.
Could it be that God does want us to love everyone, but calls people sinners because they fail to do so? And could it also be that the things that harm people could be a result of (excuse the religious reference) sin in the world?
Hi there, I'd like to join & take part in some off the discussions. Strictly speaking I'm an agnostic atheist because I accept that I can never know for certain if a deity could exist or not; however because I lead my life with the assumption that a deity does not exist I am in effect just an atheist.
This makes a lot of sense to me. I've always wondered why people would claim that there is no God when they could really never know it to be true, but your explanation, which leans more toward agnosticism, is logical.
I wouldn't say impossible, but with my understanding of how things work I just find it highly unlikely. To the general idea of a higher power or influence I wouldn't even necessarily say illogical, as it is something we couldn't possibly prove at this point in time.
Again, I agree with you on this point. There is no way to prove the existence of a God, or at least (like you said, at this point). That's not to say that you couldn't experience and/or have faith in a God, it just means that there's no way to factually prove it. That's why it's called faith.
What I do personally find to be illogical is the notion of any specific deity cited by any particular religion. With so many conflicting religions and denominations I can't believe that any single one could be true, and I especially can't believe that any of them could care about us.
I'm an atheist because to me it seems more likely that there aren't any deities/gods than that any do exist.
I don't think that the idea of a specific deity being real or true is illogical. Different people interpret things differently, so that explains why there can be so many denominations within a religion. Assuming the possibility that one of these
could be true, you could also make a case for one of them caring for people, based on their teachings.
It's incredibly hard for me to believe in a god. He says everything but tells nothing. Personally, I've never had even so much as an verbal argument with somebody over religion.
Not quite sure what you mean......? If you don't believe in a God then how does he "say everything?" :)
By the way, just wanted to put it out there that I'm not looking to argue with you guys, just wanted to share my opinion on some of the things that were said. I'm actually enjoying learning about atheism :)