Atheism vs. Theism

God. Allah. Yahweh... Three names of the God of the three largest monotheistic religions. Billions believe in them, millions have died (or killed) for them as well. Indeed, violence due to religious differences is commonplace in some parts of the world, such as certain African nations, and just about the entire middle east. Why is religion so integral a part of so many lives?

I don't claim to know the answer. I do refute, however, the supposed existence of a god. First I will analyze the issue from a lack-of-evidence point of view. The truth is, there are ZERO empirical facts indicative of God. A theist may postulate however that there are many things science cannot explain, therefore God must exist. Although I myself am a scientist, and I do indeed admit to certain shortcomings of scientific theories, these shortcomings do not necessitate the existence of God. In fact, the existence of God would cause even further gaps, since such a God would also require an explanation of origin to any truth-seeking fellow.

A theist, as mentioned before, might implore such a skeptical mind as mine to have faith. But, I ask, why? As a counterexample, if I were to hypothesize the existence of a large pink colored fellow named Wally, invisible to all but me, would the same call to faith be in order? Of course not! At least, not to any of sound mind. But each hypothesis shares the same amount of empirical, experimentally verifiable evidence: zero.

There are many other arguments against a god. These include inflationary big bang theory, evolutionary biology, and many logical inconsistencies of God based on the qualities typically given to him by followers. I shall not delve into the first two theories, mainly due to their extensive nature. I do however suggest reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins for a thorough explanation of each. As far as the logical proofs of God's nonexistence go, I shall save them for another time.

'Til next time...