That in which I don’t believe cannot provide the basis for a belief system. If I believe in anything, it’s that which can withstand scrutiny and skepticism. The claim that gods exist and further, that any particular god exists, are extraordinary claims requiring extraordinary evidence. None has been provided.
Faith requires me to look at reality, which makes sense viewed through my everyday perceptions, in a way that doesn’t make sense on so many levels. I choose to no longer accept the unsubstantiated presumption that gods exist.
If I say “god does not exist”, I’m not speaking in the same absolutist frame of mind common among those who presuppose a condition to be real based on nothing more than emotions and tradition. The possibility that gods exist, based on all that’s known about gods, and further that any particular god exists to the exclusion of all the others is so infinitesimally small it’s not worth admitting a possibility exists. The odds of my hitting the lottery are far better than the odds that the Christian god exists as portrayed by its followers. The chance that I’m a child of god is on a par with the chance that I’m a child of extraterrestrials.
I’ll never know so much I could ever rule out anything absolutely. Religious belief presumes the absolute existence of its deities. To allow that they might not exist is the first step to breaking free of the shackles of presumptive belief.
I’m willing to admit that there is, however small, a possibility that a god just like yours exists just as you personally perceive your god to be. I also admit the possibility that reality is a natural process unfolding within us and around us totally unmindful of our presence is far greater and able to withstand critical examination. Theists, true believers, cannot in good faith accept even the slightest possibility that their beliefs may be mis-perceptions of reality.
Who is free to consider all possibilities? Who can more accurately call themselves free thinkers?
Isn’t the non-existence of gods as much a presumption as the belief they exist? Sure, but it’s a presupposition that invites disproof. It’s a flexible presumption. The presumption that gods exist (not can exist but do exist in one form or another) is inflexible and discourages and ignores disproof.
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008, 10:31 pm | 
Free Thought, Theology | 
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