There is no such thing as God

Now, during the Christmas season, I get a funny feeling that I am living in the wrong era. I feel like I am back in ancient Greece and Rome over 2000 years ago when people held celebrations in honor of various Gods. Some of them believed in the God Mithras and celebrated his birth on December 25. In Rome, during December, they celebrated the life of Saturn in their Saturnalia. They believed in their gods and were devout in their celebrations. They had songs and hymns sung in veneration of their gods. They brought trees into their homes and decorated them just as we do today. Yet today we universally assume that such gods did not exist. Why do we seem to believe that our choice of god exists and theirs didn't?

Richard A. Schweder, in an op-ed column for the New York Times, “Atheists Agonsties,” suggested that the world of the twentieth century was no better than the old world. “The big causes of all the death and destruction had rather little to do with religion.” He says: “A shared conception of the soul, the sacred and transcendental values may be a prerequisite for any viable society.” In other words, we are better off in a world with religion.

There are two problems with his argument. First, religion is the cause of almost every conflict in the world today. Thousands of people are killed every year because Moslems hate Jews, Sunnis hate Shiites, Moslems hate Hindus, Buddhists hate Moslems, Protestants hate Catholics, and so on. Religion is also the cause of most of the intolerance in the world. Gay people in today’s America are being assailed and insulted by shared religious values that our society could do without.

Second, and more important, religion is the worship of God, and there is no such thing as God. God is a figment of the human imagination. Should people go on believing in God even if he does not exist? He is no more real than the thousands of local gods, witches, and ancestor spirits worshipped by primitive tribes in remote areas of the Earth. He is no more real than the Loch Ness Monster, the Yeti, Arabian djinn, Greek satyrs, Hindu bluts, and other assorted demons. He is no more real than Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

On September 11, 2001 an event occurred that should choke the faith of every civilized person. The President, the Mayor of New York, the Fire and Police departments, and the American people responded gallantly. But one aspect of that response puzzles me. People turned to God! The churches were packed. The President declared a national day of prayer. Memorial services were conducted by religious leaders in cathedrals and stadiums. Everybody prayed. Why?

If God is real, and if God can be prayed to, and if God answers prayers and acts on our lives, why did he let this happen? Does God favor the Muslim fanatics? Does God reward Muslims who carry out jihad against the infidels by sending them to Paradise? Or is God just a myth we create to give us some comfort in times of stress.

The fact is that there is absolutely no evidence for the existence of God. We can prove the existence of everything else on earth, but we cannot prove that there is a God. Unlike scientific theories, which are subject to verification, we cannot go into a laboratory or an astronomical observatory and conduct an experiment to prove that there is a God. He is conveniently invisible and unavailable.

Many people say you cannot prove the existence of God because there is something higher than mere human knowledge; call it grace, or inspiration, or being "born again." I believe we have to use our rational mind to know anything, and without common sense the rational mind is, well, irrational. It does not make sense to say we "know" that there is a God, but deny that the very faculty of knowing, the rational mind, is what you are using to “know” God.

The fact that we never see God and that God does not seem to answer anybody’s prayers should be taken as strong evidence for his nonexistence. But people want to believe in God so badly that they are willing to do so even when such belief is absurd.

Consider the various ways people worship God. There are many different religions and many different ideas about God. For some reason, most of these religions assume that they are the correct way to God. Which one is right? Are all of them right? Why should we assume that any of them are right? If there were a God, would he reveal himself only to the ancient Israelites, or to Mohammed, or to the Twelve Apostles? What about the beliefs of billions of Hindus, Janes, Buddhists, and Shintos? Have they been wandering blindly while only Christians, Jews, or Moslems have known the truth?

Most faiths presume that God is good and loving. The evidence would seem to the contrary. Is life on earth perfectly happy? No, the majority of people live in poverty, disease, war, famine, and misery. If a god was responsible for this he would have to be some detached, ruthless, amoral demon.

There is no rational, logical, or scientific reason to believe in God. Belief in God can be relegated to the realm of wishful thinking. When humans believe in God they violate every aspect of human consciousness. It is hard for people raised with religion and brainwashed by parents, relatives, and teachers, to critically examine these irrational beliefs. Humans created the concept of God to fill some deep needs.

Biologists and anthropologists believe that there are evolutionary reasons for the development of religion. Religion certainly assists humans in their fear of death. It promises a life after death. This is apparently a life in which we get together with the people we loved during our life on earth. In other words, we remember our life on earth and the people we shared it with. Death is not the absolute end of our existence. Rather, we go to live in happiness with God. It is certainly an inviting idea. The fact that we die to eternal oblivion is quite unappealing. Nevertheless, it is obviously true.We were in a state of nonexistence before we were born, and after death we return to such a state. Any other scenario is silly wishful thinking.

It is dubious indeed to argue that a shared conception of the soul, the sacred, and transcendental values may be a prerequisite for any viable society. The world would be a better place without religion. Atheists are more peaceable, tolerant, and intelligent than those who embrace religion. But more important, in a world where God does not exist, it is a violation of everything that makes us human to go on believing in fairy tales that should have been abandoned long ago.