Religion
In reply to the discussion: what is the most important aspect of the interaction between belivers and non believers [View all]passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)I am a simple person, who is a realist, and who demands some kind of evidence before I believe in anything. I have seen more evidence in my research of the history of religion (that religion is merely mythology and story telling passed along and changed as needed by each new society) than I have seen evidence that there is an all powerful GOD in the sky that is watching over us and created us.
I usually side with the one who has the most evidence. Since I have yet to see any evidence that God (as interpreted in the Bible) exists, I cannot believe in it.
I think it's like Santa Clause. There is more evidence today to "prove" to me that Santa Clause does not exist, than there is to prove he does. So I don't just "believe" he doesn't exist. I collect enough information (historical, scientific, culturally) to "know" without a doubt that he does not exist. That is not a "belief". It is a knowledge.
Until there is some kind of evidence that God does exist, my "knowledge" that he does not exist is based on my understanding of a compilationg of history, mythology and how religion has changed to suite society's purposes, from the beginning of time.
And the one book that really solidified my convictions was "The History of God" by Karen Armstrong.
So I side with you. I don't believe that my conviction that there is no God is a "belief"...it's simply a weighing of the available facts to support either side of the argument. One side has a lot of information backing it up. The other has none.