Why do I have to disprove God?

[Dragon_Of_Heavon]

Dear Spartacus I disagree only with the idea that we have to target children, that is one of the main tiffs I have with religion is that they do attack children. Frankly the idea of attacking a child that is below the age of reason sickens me. It makes us no better than them. I think any one who has watched an entire episode of Veggie tales can agree with me that it is just plain sick. As to your point about indoctrination on the other hand i totally agree.

[Ihateyoumike]

The way I figure it, there's only one person that I've ever had to disprove god to, and that's myself.  The reason for this? I was born to a strong catholic family. I was taught in those early years that if I DIDN'T believe in the god of "my church" that I would go to hell and suffer for ETERNITY. I was told by my mother, the first time I openly questioned "my faith", that I HAD to believe because she believed, and since she believed she was going to heaven, she couldn't stand the thought of not having one of her children there.
Think about the crushing guilt of that one. Denounce your god and lose your loved ones FOREVER. That was almost enough for me to "believe". In fact, it took a long time for me to get past that.
Religious indoctrination is child-abuse, in my opinion, for that fact alone. And it is my belief that the fear and guilt is what make so many people "believe" even if they're smart enough to question. They push the questions aside because eternity is an extremely long time to burn in hell IF they question and are wrong.
I know we've all heard this one, "What if you're wrong?"
It took me a long time to get past that question. But, I digress...

Back to the original question about disproving god. I don't need to disprove god to anyone else for the same reason I don't want anyone else trying to prove god to me. Nothing that bothers me more than someone trying to force their beliefs on me, so I try to show that same respect to others, whether I think I can persuade them or not.

On the other hand, if I have a couple of mormons or jahova's witnesses or anyone else come to my door and try to persuade me, I'll tell them I'll listen to them as long as they're willing to afford me equal time to listen to my point of view. Oddly enough, I've never had a taker. Hmmmm....

I understand when someone says they worry for my "immortal soul". That's fine. I understand if they want to "pray for me". Cool. But I don't want them preaching to me. I feel the sort of the same way about them, I feel sorry for them for living their life to die and go to their heaven, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go out of my way to "convert" them to my belief, because all it will do is aggravate me when they don't.

Let them believe in their god. Just don't force it on me.