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ATHEISM

Webster’s defines an atheist as “one who believes that there is no deity”. I have read various definitions of the word by people who don’t want to be pinned down as saying that there is no God. They will say that it means they don’t believe that the God described in the Bible exists. Some try to play semantics with it and say that it does not mean that they believe that God does not exist, only that they do not believe that God does exist. That way they are claiming a lack of belief in someone else’s idea and not making an affirmative statement about what they believe.

Let me be clear on this point: I believe that God does not exist. I believe that no god exists. I believe that no god could have existed before all matter existed. The key word is belief. Some theists like to say that there really is no such thing as an atheist because they could not possibly check every possible place or realm of existence in the universe to conclude that God does not exist. Without being able to do that there is always room for the possibility that God exists and you just haven’t found him. But the definition is one who believes there is no God, not one who can prove that there is no God. It could just as easily be said that a theist is a person who believes that a deity exists, not a person who can prove it.

The difference lies in why we believe what we believe. If you are a theist, you believe in God because someone else has told you that God exists. All babies are born with no beliefs and are taught to believe in things. That’s why babies born in the Middle East are likely to grow up Muslim, babies born in Mexico are likely to be Catholic, and babies born in Utah are likely to be Mormon. They are handed their beliefs by the people around them. It’s not that the evidence for Islam is more compelling in Iraq than it is in Utah, it’s just that if you are raised in Iraq you are likely to only be exposed to information about Islam. If you are raised in Salt Lake City you are likely to be inundated with primarily Mormon messages and culture. Additionally, you are not likely to question something that everyone around you believes. Could all of the people you respect and love be wrong? Well, all of the differing religions can’t be right, so a good chunk of the world’s population has it wrong. But not you, right?

I believe what I believe because I have been honest with myself about the problems in the Bible. I have exposed myself to all of the arguments and evidence I could find and I drew an honest conclusion. I did not choose to be an atheist. I am an atheist because by definition I do not believe God exists. I couldn’t make a decision to start believing in God any more than you could make a decision to start believing in Santa Claus. We don’t get to choose what we believe, only what evidence we look at and what we do with our beliefs.

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