An introduction to some of the objections that can be raised to monotheistic religions such as Christianity and Islam, and general theism. There are many indicators that god does not exist, and this page is a thematic introduction to some of the arguments that support atheism.
List all the pages on Free Will on this site by Vexen
The existence of a moral, all-knowing and all-powerful God is in contradiction to Free Will in many ways; both for God itself and any living beings.
List all the pages on the problem of evil
"If God is all-powerful and all-good, it would have created a universe with no suffering and no evil. But, evil and suffering exist. Therefore God does not exist, is not all-powerful or is not benevolent. Attempts to justify the existence of evil are called theodicies. There are no fully working theodicies, even popular ones such as the free will theodicy were rejected thousands of years ago for reasons that still stand today. It seems that if there is a god, it is not the all-good moral being that classical religions would have us believe""Introduction to the problem of evil" by Vexen 2000 Jan 22
Because evil exists, the existence of heaven negates the existence of god
"Is there a God? Is there a point to life before heaven? If God wants what is best for everyone it could immediately place everyone in heaven. If we want what is best for our children, we could kill them, and then God would send them to heaven because they were innocent. That we do not do this means that there is no God, no heaven, or that there is some purpose to life and evil. However, there is no such purpose. Babies who die (for example, in natural disasters) go to heaven, therefore there is no essential point of life, nor any essential reason that we have to endure suffering and go through the tests of life before we can go to heaven. This shows no moral God exists.""Killing babies" by Vexen 2003 Feb 08
Revealed religion is wrong: (click to read full essay)
If God is moral then everyone has a chance to enter heaven. This means people who never learn which religion is correct, or even accept the wrong religion, have a chance at entering heaven. Our moral actions must determine whether or not we enter heaven, not our knowledge or religion therefore revealed religion must be false. [View argument in full: Religion is pointless]
God is dangerous: (click to read full essay)
"Three reasons to reject God: 1. As God has historically served as a force for evil and it seems that any Demon could very easily trick us into thinking it is God we must reject all feelings and thoughts from God for fear of us being deluded. 2. The major monotheistic religions hold that idolatry is a serious sin so it is safer to accept no god rather than risk accepting the incorrect one. 3. The goal of reaching heaven is dubious as we know very little about what heaven is really like. In conclusion: Atheism is safer than theism and for everyone's safety it is urgent we all reject theism.
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If God is just, moral or understanding it will forgive us our cautiousness! If God is not just, moral or understanding then we hardly want to share heaven with it for all eternity. Either way: atheism is safest by far."Introduction and Conclusion of "God is dangerous" by Vexen Crabtree 2002 Jan 26
The worlds' religions could all be the creation of evil demons, all of them spreading lies, deceit, confusion and war. They make us worship them, as god(s), and make us submit to them en masse, clouding our minds. Unholy Trinity: What if religions are creations of demons?
"God doesn't need souls in order to control our consciousness, God can revive and restore our consciousness as it sees fit. The existence of immaterial souls is not required to explain any supernatural phenomenon or magical events associated with willpower or even life after death. There are insurmountable problems with the physics of how souls would interact with our bodies. Souls do not exist and have no reason to exist.""Souls" by Vexen Crabtree 2004 Oct
"I argue that God is a result of Human desire, Human needs and Human projection and that these explain even the personal experience of God more rationally than the conclusion that God really exists. Firstly, I highlight how we know some people have false experiences. Secondly, I list some particular characters traits and causes of God experiences. I conclude that it is not necessary for a God to exist in order to explain why people believe in one."Introduction to "Experience of God" by Vexen, 2002 Dec 04
"Magic can be explained through at least two separate methods both of which do not require either good or evil forces to exist. The Solipsistic explanation of supernatural magic and the Quantum physics explanation. Ghosts and communication with the dead can be explained in terms of electromagnetic patterns, Chaos theory and Quantum Physics (aside from the normal explanation of delusion)."
From "Spiritual Reality: Spiritualism without God" by Vexen 2002 Sep 16
List all the pages on morals & religion
There are no absolute morals, all things are experienced by Humans subjectively. The existence of morals does not imply the existence of God, and, if God has morals it wants us to follow we have no methods of knowing for sure what those morals are. God has more often been used to justify immoral actions, such as war, oppression, the dark ages, etc, that it has to support good morals. Good morals can all be derived through humanistic logic, reason and biological emotion, there is no space for a competition between "God" and morals.
"Of the fundamental statements that explain the existence of the Universe: Many of these are the same whether you apply them theistically to God, or as an atheist, to the Universe. Comparing these assumptions, I note that the atheist makes fewer assumptions about reality. This essay attempts to quell some arguments between atheists and theists who both claim they are making more "logical" assumptions when in fact many of their "different" assumptions are the same, with the exception of extra theistic assumptions such as the existence of a loving being, a conscious creator, an imminent god.""Faith:Assumptions that theists and atheists make" by Vexen, 2002 Aug 29
"Theists make many assumptions about the force that causes the Universe to exist. Whether this force or not is God is unprovable, hence we have theism being based on faith. In addition to the basic assumption that God exists, theists make many additional leaps of faith, such as God being all-powerful, emotional, benevolent, that God wants to be worshipped and omniscience along with other particulars of various monotheistic religions. This essay highlights those assumptions and reminds us that the existence of God does not mean that we can arbitrarily make these assumptions about God."
From "Assumptions that theists make" by Vexen Crabtree 2002 Sep 25
Mistranslations and contradictions
It is apparent that every translation of holy texts (this is truer for older religions such as Judaism and Christianity) than newer ones like Islam is different to other translations (otherwise there would only be one translation required per language per book), and there are many different versions of holy texts available. This means that there are multiple ways of interpreting the texts.
In most texts you can find one part which appears to contradict another part. In most cases, tradition will dictate which part is the 'most' correct or which part is a refinement on the other. Deciding which parts override which is another cause of confusion;
Change over time
As society changes over time, which it does, people's opinions and assumptions change. The fact that these change over time as they do means that it is likely to continue to change; that our current understanding is only temporary. The deities responsible for holy text would know that this would happen, therefore the truths that are written in to them must be designed to be interpreted in a dynamic way; but this means that there are no absolutes.
Holy Texts reflect the opinions and points of view of those who read it, it doesn't form those opinions. They are re-interpreted according to the current trends and socio-economic factors, and there has not been a trend the other way round. I.e., a text did not cause a moral revolution, but instead it has been gradually re-interpreted according to how the morals have changed if a change was ready to occur. It is now considered immoral that Women are seen as inferior to Man and the slavery was godly. The Bible can be used to prove it. Yet it used to be the other way round, and the Bible was used as proof then, too. The actual text does not change, yet people will exploit its assumed "moral absolutes" in order to try and prove the things they believe.
When a person imagines, perceives or has an apparent "experience" which comes from their God, then it must also pass through their mental systems before it is understood. Therefore it is easy to see that no two people can ever perceive the same God - for example, every Christian believes in a slightly different God depending on their own personal experiences and thought patterns, and psychological needs and wants. Nobody can perceive the absolute God without first having to think about it and therefore corrupt the image.
People who claim to know that the version of God they believe in is the right one are short-sighted and unintelligent - for they are claiming that their own nervous system is not capable of mistake - that their thought process is infallible. Claiming to have a brain that can observe absolute truth and not be corrupted by our fallible neurones is claiming to what only God can do: Observe the absolute reality.
Links:
www.Infidels.org library
A page on evolution, specifically aimed at monotheists
An in depth discussion of the first cause and how you cannot say consistently that it is God, and not a singularity of the Quantum order
The Creator could not have been benevolent
Stephen Hawking's Cosmology and atheism (Quentin Smith 1994)
On the nature of Morality (Niclas Berggren 1998), the moral-knowledge argument for atheism
Arguments in Favor of Atheism by Dr. Niclas Berggren
Is atheism logical? - in defence of atheism
Cosmological Arguments for atheism
The Argument to Design documents list on infidels.org, did a god design the universe?
Anti religious historian and writer
Beyond Jehovah's Witnesses
www.exmormon.org
Notes:
By Vexen Crabtree 1999 May 05