I'm an atheist all the way.
I was baptized catholic and went to catholic high school and elementary. Either than that my family wasn't particularly devout.My mom was a christmas and easter christian, and we'd all have to go church when my granny came to visit.
My dad was pretty unreligious, having been subjected to a hardline catholic education and later joining a cult in his youth.
When I was a kid I took god as seriously as I would santa claus and the easter bunny as we didn't really go to church.
There are several reasons I don't believe. To me the idea of god seems all too human. In pretty much every religion he's a vengeful,spiteful prick just like a human being. I think of it as a fabrication for grown men and women who are no longer under the authority of their parents. Just like you can keep your sibling in line by saying "I'm telling mom or dad", grown adults can keep other adults in line by saying what they're doing is blasphemous, or "it's against gods will".
There's also the inconsistency in what people attribute to god. Winning a grammy award is god's blessing. A hurricane is god's punishment and the subsequent humanitarian aid is god's work.(would you be grateful if I burned down your house, then held a fundraiser for your family?-you'd probably call me insane.).
God is just a trump card that people use in wildly random scenarios: god's punishment, god's work, god's mercy, etc.
I realize someone might try pull the watch argument on me. The real question is: who created god in that particular circumstance? Is there no mark of intelligent design on a being that can create a complex system of living things.
I also acknowledge god can be used as a rallying tool for good causes(the civil rights movement for one). Just as many times though the construction of God has been used to justify evil.(the crusades, genocide of native americans,gulf war II, corporal punishment, and one of the huge roadblocks to peace between the palestinians and the israeli's)
I know Cardboard Adolescent has argued that religion and god is a tool to bond communities together and make people more giving. On the other hand think of how many times religion and god has been used to inflate certain ego's and line certain people's pockets, and caused more murder and destruction than it's prevented.
That's why I think God is baloney.
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