REASONS TO BELIEVE… OR NOT?

People give different reasons why they believe in a god. Some are:

1. I hear god’s voice – he speaks to me.

2. My holy book tells me god exists.

3. My parents told me god exists and I believe them.

4. Lots of people believe in a god so he must exist.

5. I have faith that god exists.

6. There are too many things we can’t explain without a god.

These are not the only reasons people believe in a god, but atheists do not think that any of the arguments put forward for the existence of a god provide persuasive enough evidence to believe.

‘The Bible is a human product. Religion is a human construct.’

FRANCESCA STAVRAKOPOULOU, biblical scholar ‘After a lot of reading, and research, I realized, I didn’t have any secret channel picking up secret messages from god or anyone else. That voice in my head was my own.

GREYDON SQUARE, rapper ‘How many times have I told you not to believe everything you hear? Seek truth for yourself.’

ISABELLE ALLENDE, author. ‘Where there is evidence, no one speaks of ‘faith’. We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence.’

BERTRAND RUSSELL, philosopher

HOW MIGHT AN ATHEIST RESPOND TO EACH OF THESE REASONS TO BELIEVE?

• 1. The ‘religious experience’ of ‘hearing god’s voice’ could be what many other people describe as their conscience. There is no evidence that this voice comes from anywhere outside of us. We should look for a natural explanation.
• 2. Holy books are written by human beings. Their stories can often support us to think about human nature, but there is no reason to believe everything in them is true (many of their claims have turned out to be false). And why should we trust one holy book over the others?
• 3. We can learn lots from other people, but other people can also sometimes be mistaken. People don’t always tell the truth (sometimes for what they think are good reasons). We need to think for ourselves.
• 4. The fact that lots of people believe something doesn’t necessarily make it true. Many people in the past thought that the Sun moved across the sky, but we now know they were wrong. Instead it is the Earth that is rotating. Also, lots of people believe in different gods. They can’t all be right. And many people don’t believe in a god at all.
• 5. Faith is not a reliable enough reason to believe. Believing or wanting something to be true does not make it true. We should always look for evidence.
• 6. The fact that we can’t answer all our questions does not mean that we won’t be able to answer them in the future. There were many things we did not used to be able to explain but we now can, thanks to science. There may be questions science will never answer, but that is not a reason to turn to religious explanations.