Atheists: How can you prove God does not exist

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm new to this forum, so I have one biting question, and I think this is a great platform to ask it. I'm not prejudiced against atheists or anything, however I never understood how someone can not believe in God when one fundamental truth exists: you cannot disprove the God of the bible's existence.

How can you prove God does not exist?

I don't need to.  You should either present your evidence for god(s), or abstain from preaching.

[Thumpalumpacus]

But what if you're wrong?

Also, why, at the end of the day, do most Christian arguments end up with this appeal to fear?  Is your god so ignoble he must threaten in order to win converts?  Is your god so weak he cannot punish in this life?  Is your god so [strike:1ha7zagz]good[/strike:1ha7zagz] evil that he will torture for eternity simply for the lack of obeisant worship?

Should I stuff my son in the oven when he mouths off?

Puh-leeze.  As trolls go, you're very 1997.

[The Magic Pudding]

But what if you're wrong?? There's a 50/50 chance that you're wrong and going to hell, so why not just to sure?

I question those odds.
What if god is testing you.
What if he really wants good people who can think for themselves.

Have you heard the claim that god needs malleable unquestioning souls to mend a fault in time/space.
These poor souls will suffer an eternity of ultimate pain and suffering.
It is said the free thinkers will be free to create their own paradise.

[Edward the Theist]

I'm new to this forum, so I have one biting question, and I think this is a great platform to ask it. I'm not prejudiced against atheists or anything, however I never understood how someone can not believe in God when one fundamental truth exists: you cannot disprove the God of the bible's existence.

How can you prove God does not exist?

You can't disprove anything unless it's a contradiction or unless that which is to be proved has no definition. My problem with what you ask is this: Who is the god of the Bible? He is different in different books. Jesus shows us an altogether different God than we find in the Old Testament. Sometimes God is like a Greek God, sometimes he's like an angel, sometimes he's like a Father, sometimes more like a pet owner (in the case of Adam and Eve) and sometimes he is a spirit. In the case of Jesus, sometimes he is like a man. Currently, he is a Trinity.

The disproof of the "God of the Bible." is that there never has been a stable definition. If God is real, God is defined. If God cannot be defined, then God is not a real thing.

I don't ask you to prove God's existence. I ask you merely to form a coherent definition of God.

[pc4lf]

You guys are overthinking it. Faith is simple. God is simple.

[i_am_i]

Don't underestimate belief. Belief can move mountains.

So show me the mountain that was moved by belief.

It's not a matter of proving that God does not exist. It's a matter of being a fully thinking human being. Belief is a very nice thing for children, but one has to grow up you know.

But you're right about faith being simple. Being a fully thinking human being requires a great deal more than simply being faithful to an invisible sky-god.

But hey, welcome to to the forum.

Edit: You mention hell. If you had never heard of hell, if hell was never spoken of in the Catholic or any other religion, would it make any difference to your firm belief in Jesus and God?

[philosoraptor]

But what if you're wrong?? There's a 50/50 chance that you're wrong and going to hell, so why not just to sure?

Perhaps this thread regarding Pascal's Wager would be of interest to you.  A few of us have been discussing why we don't think there is a point in believing just to believe.

[The Magic Pudding]

You guys are overthinking it. Faith is simple. God is simple.

So I suppose followers of this simple god must be simpletons.

[Thumpalumpacus]

You guys are overthinking it. Faith is simple. God is simple.

Hey, could you post a pic of your god?

I didn't think so.

[AtheistInEden]

You guys are overthinking it. Faith is simple. God is simple.

This just pisses me off. I encourage overthinking. Why blindly accept what you're told without question? Just...ugh. I think Magic Pudding's got it right with the simpleton thing.

[Tank]

I'm new to this forum, so I have one biting question, and I think this is a great platform to ask it. I'm not prejudiced against atheists or anything, however I never understood how someone can not believe in God when one fundamental truth exists: you cannot disprove the God of the bible's existence.

How can you prove God does not exist?

Welcome aboard. And you are quite right this is a great place to find out what atheists actually think. First things first, there are two basic flavours of atheist de-facto and strong. A de-facto atheist, like myself does not deny a God of some sort could exist, a strong atheist does deny that God exists. The burden of proof to disprove the existance of any deity would definitely fall on the shoulders of a strong atheist. Here is a screen shot from a thread on the now defunct Richard Dawkins forum, where I was for a time a moderator.



Now the original thread was instigated to show the demographic of the forum members and asked people to self classify on the Dawkins theistic scale. There was a huge and ongoing debate between de-facto and strong atheists as to which was the right view and why various people held it.  

So, of the 4,555 people who self identified as an atheist 3,289 (72.2%) were de-facto and 1,266 (27.8%) were strong, so you can actually only direct your question How can you prove God does not exist? at a minority of people who self identify as atheists, the majority of atheists do not deny the possibility of the existance of some sort of deity.

Now for the majority of atheists who do not deny the possibility of a God of some sort existing, such as I, the burden of proof of the existance of said deity rests fair and square on shoulders of people who assert that said deity does exist, like you.

It is your responsibility to prove to me that your version of a deity exists. However, until you do that I will maintain my world view that there is no effective evidence for the existance of the supernatural, or that part of the supernatural is sentient, or that sentient part of the supernatural is in any way concerned with the behaviour of an evolved ape on an obscure planet in the outer reaches of one of billions of galaxies and has only been concerned for 4,000 years of the last 13,750,000,000 years.

The ball is in your court now.

Regards
Chris

[Tank]

You guys are overthinking it. Faith is simple. God is simple.

Absolutely correct. God is the easy answer that requires no thought and faith requires no effort. Why do you think the concept of God has been invoked by most people who do not want to make an effort, or did not have the capability, to find out what is really going on?

God was the creation of human frailty and fear, in particular the fear of the perceived but not understood and the unconscious ramblings of the mind. At the dawn of human awareness came the moment of knowledge without understanding. Humans have evolved into cause and effect machines, we see cause we infer effect, we see effect and we infer cause. It's the way we evolved as the ability to second guess our prey and/or predictors is a huge evolutionary advantage. But with this ability came the cost of cognitive dissonance when a cause is seen or an effect is observed we are evolved to balance that equation. And every night unconsciousness came, not in a comfortable bed in a secure home, but surrounded by predators out in the open. And there were dreams and nightmares, the unexplained visions, an affect of what? What caused the visions seen at night that were good or bad, heaven or hell? So our ancestors had knowledge, they could see the Sun rise, they had effect but no cause, they did not understand why the Sun rose, a psychologically intolerable situation. They knew their dreams, visions of beauty and fear, an effect with no cause. So they balanced the equation with superstition and called it God. God is the filler in the cracks of our evolved mind.

From this post viewtopic.php?p=74274#p74274

[karadan]

But what if you're wrong?

What if you're wrong? Seriously entertain that notion and you'll realise how much of your life you've wasted/are wasting..

I'm quite happy to ask that of myself and i'm very comfortable with the outcome. I'll be judged to have been a decent and kind person in this life. If belief is definitely a requirement then whatever bullish homicidal maniac presides over us, doesn't deserve any praise from me.

[karadan]

But what if you're wrong?? There's a 50/50 chance that you're wrong and going to hell, so why not just to sure?

I question those odds.
What if god is testing you.
What if he really wants good people who can think for themselves.

Have you heard the claim that god needs malleable unquestioning souls to mend a fault in time/space.
These poor souls will suffer an eternity of ultimate pain and suffering.
It is said the free thinkers will be free to create their own paradise.

Oooh, i like that one!
 

[The Magic Pudding]

Oooh, i like that one!

Do you mean the proposal "god needs malleable unquestioning souls to mend a fault in time/space".
I'm open to any suggestions of pseudo scientific terminology to improve it.