14 Atheists Reveal Why They Don't Believe In A God

There are an enormous number of people who believe in an all-seeing and all-knowing God. Many of them believe it so much, they’re willing to kill other people over it. Many don’t believe it, but make money off of other people’s beliefs. And obviously a whole lot fo people do not believe, some quietly and some very vocally. The passionate atheist can at times be as annoying as the religious fanatic, but it’s still worth engaging with the perspectives of people who don’t believe in God if you’re on the fence.

Personally, I can see why people both believe, but I’d never seen so many of the basic reasons why not to until reading the answers to this r/AskReddit question posted by u/isolatedpsychopath, that says, “Atheists, why do you not believe in God/ a god?”

Some answers are logistical, some are moral.

Some come from people raised in a religion, some who never incorporated it into their lives.

None of the responses would necessarily change the mind of a religious person, but we do tend to hear about “faith” much more often in these debates.

Check out the reasons for lack of faith and then make up your own mind:

17. Show me the proof…

Because I have no reason to. Just like I don’t believe in elves, goblins, ghosts, demons, bigfoot, chupacabra, the loch ness monster, santa claus, the tooth fairy, wishing on shooting stars, or any other superstition/fairy tail nonsense.

I don’t make a habit of “believing” in anything. I am presented evidence of something and from then on accept its existence; I don’t do anything on faith alone.

16. It’s science…

In my opinion, God is just the name that we’ve collectively used to explain things that we cannot explain with science yet. There are some things that can never be explained with science (like why does time exist, how did the first atom exist etc.) that’s simpler to think about by assuming there’s an entity behind all the unexplainable things.

15. Is he even worthy of my worship?

Because God is a f**king tyrant, well the concept of God. He supposedly watches from the heavens as millions of people die from hunger, disease, murder, war, sexual abuse and so on. Religion makes you fear him so you don’t go to hell, where you burn for eternity if you don’t follow his commandments and obey the rules of his con stricting rule. People die tragically everyday, and people have the nerve to say God took them because he felt it was time. So I guess die a fucked up way because God wanted you to? Plus there’s no evidence and people have been waiting for his sons return for 2000 years and nothing. He watched the natives get slaughtered of the Americas because they needed to be converted, watched the Jews die in concentration camps and did nothing about it. He let racism and slavery exist which is super fucked up. I thought we were all suppose to be his children and exist in harmony. Why would a God who is supposedly so loving do that? He let’s the two major religions of the world, in Christianity and Islam fight a religious war that is pointless, which innocent people suffer from their evil doing. Is God just an evil being that we are supposed to fear and obey? It sure seems like it. Everyone who is religious is so bent on making it to heaven, and they forget to enjoy the short existence we have on this little rock, which circles our little star of a sea of billions that revolve around the center of our galaxy, which freefalls into the blackness and nothingness of space. We are insignificant compared to the universe, but yet, here we are pointing weapons at each other that could end our entire existence. Fuck we suck as humans.

14. Religious people aren’t helping.

My biggest annoyance is that religious people often equate atheism with hating religion. I don’t really care if people are religious and want to believe something. If someone finds that fulfilling, they can do whatever they want. I find some of the moral tenets in some religions inspiring and I also sometimes envy people who truly believe in an afterlife.

That said, I can’t stand people who hate simply because of differing views. It could be because of religion, race, nationality, sexual preference, etc. To me, religion is just another thing that can be used to divide us. To me, it seems to bring more hate and sorrow to the world than hope and inspiration. I have many friends and family who are religious and are not this way, so I know that the hate comes mostly from overzealous people and does not represent the majority, but still these religions do cause hate and discord.

If it was ever proven that there is a god or creator, I would be all on board with worshipping them or at least acknowledging their existence. Until then, religion isn’t really something I think about at all in my daily life until questions like these are asked. —Spiritchaser84

13. Occam’s Razor baby…

It’s really just Occam’s Razor for me. Like, the assumptions you’re required to make for Christianity or whatever religion to be true seem so much more over-the-top than everything just being a natural progression of evolution over billions of years.

Sometimes people will point to extremely complex systems (like humanity for one) and say how could something this complex have arisen naturally? It must have been designed with intelligent purpose. Those people I think just don’t understand math. Yes, the odds that humanity arose when and how it did were incredibly long, but that’s not the right question. With a virtually infinite universe, whatever small 1/1000…000 chance becomes likely to happen somewhere. Humanity didn’t have to rise like we did; we could have been some drastically different species on some other planet in some other galaxy, and arising that specific way would have been equally unlikely. But somewhere, an intelligent species was going to come about, and they would likely be asking the same questions about why they’re so special and have creation myths about being intelligently designed by their alien god or whatever. —empyreanmax

12. Wait a minute…

I was in 6th grade when I started asking questions in Sunday School. The teacher didn’t give me satisfactory answers, so I asked my parents. They were like “if you don’t believe in this, you don’t have to keep going.” They are still religious, but respect my decision to walk away and never pressured me to go. I go to church with my wife sometimes, but it’s mostly to make her happy. I used to be a militant atheist and criticize people who were religious, but then I just stopped caring. Religion plays a 0% role in my life, so I stopped caring about it all together and I’m much happier. But I don’t care if you’re religious. As long as you don’t harm anyone and pay your taxes (wait a minute…) —MediocreMario

11. On my deathbed, I will receive total consciousness…

I think a lot of people are comforted by the idea of heaven… I personally am terrified to the core of my being that there is a chance of an eternal consciousness of any kind, heaven or hell. I used to get panic attacks just thinking about it. I am comforted by the idea that my consciousness will end when I die. —canvassian

10. From whence comes evil?

The problem with Evil and Suffering. Or as the Greek philosopher Epicurus puts it: “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then from whence comes evil?” —irishamerican

9. A Christian and a Muslim walk into a bar…

I once asked a Christian and a Muslim (separately) if they were born a different religion, if they’d convert to theirs.

It caused a bit of emotional discomfort because when they said yes, I asked why they haven’t converted to other religions when those believers have good arguments for their beliefs too.

If they’re open to the idea of converting, it means they admit their religion isn’t ‘right’. If they are closed off to the idea of converting, it means they’d admit their religion is not right as well. Yes, it’s a mental trap but it helped me to realise that religions don’t really matter because someone who believes in Zeus has every right to claim his religion is valid too.

If you’re all special, none of you are special. —CentralAdmin

8. Pascal’s wager…

I wouldnt call myself an atheist, but I’m certainly not a theist. I dont know if there is a god or higher power of some sort but I also dont care.

I live my life in a bastardized version of Pascal’s wager.

If there is no god, fine I lived my life how I wanted.

If there is a god and some sort of judgement that is not based on me being a good person but instead on whether or not I believed in them, then they’re an asshole anyways. —Ponty3

7. Pick a god, any god…

2000+ religions

4000+ Gods

Which do you choose? Which one is right? Why is that one right but the others wrong? Why would i worship something that causes so much pain, suffering, harm etc? —Philosofried

6. Turning God’s logic back on him…

It’s God’s plan for me not to believe. —kcmike

5. Oof, poor Job.

The biggest eye opener for me was the book of Job. I was at a church camp when I was around 14 and our leader asked if any of us had actually read the bible. Most of us said no and he asked us to pick a book in the bible and read it while we were at camp. I chose Job. No real reason why I just did.

God tortured that man on a dare from the devil. He ruined his life and killed his family on a dare. That was reason enough for me to decide I didn’t want to have anything to do with this religion any more.

Then I started to see how “Christians” treated anyone different than them and I just knew it was all bullsh—t.

But listen to me. If you find peace in believing in God, and going to church, do it. Do whatever makes you happy as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. —bekahboo1989

4. F**k church forever.

It was also used as a tool of control on me for a long time, as well as other women. It enabled the men at church to be lazy and entitled while guilt tripping women for never being able to do enough. Women who had enough of the “serving” bullsh—t (planning everything, taking care of everything, all domestic chores whether or not they worked full time, free childcare, expected to stop everything at the whim of others) and left church were branded as nasty feminists and everybody prayed for them. F*ck church forever —neuro-pathy

3. Just living my truth.

At some point when I reached a certain age, I realized that I didn’t really believe in the whole thing, I just kinda went along with it because everyone else did. But it never really made sense to me as I developed more critical thinking skills. So I just… Stopped. —TrulyKnown

2. Tradition isn’t proof.

If you delete all mathematical equations discovered in the past 100 years, all of it will be re-discovered eventually, you can’t delete natural facts and order forever.

if you do the same with all religions, none of it will be ever seen again, ever. Religion and god are made up things passed down further by parents and society.

1+1 will always be 2 regardless if you live in the US or China. But Allah will be not the same god as Zeus regardless where you at. —cmudo

1. The maths = no good.

Just doesn’t add up.

God created the Heavens, the Universe and everything, then decided to focus all his efforts on one of the smallest grains of rock and having people struggle against good and bad, forever.

It’d be like owning all the landmass on Earth but deciding to devote your entire life to gardening/watering a small 5cm x 5cm square out in bumf*ck nowhere. —Funk5oulBrother

17 Atheists Reveal Why They Don’t Believe In A God