timschochet
Footballguy
This is a counterpoint to Otis' thread in which he challenges religious people to explain their faith. That thread has led to a great discussion, without much of some of the usual negativity that often occurs in religious threads. But I think it's only fair that if we should challenge religious people to justify their faith, we should also challenge non-religious people to justify their lack of faith: what makes you an atheist or agnostic?
For me, I became an atheist after reading about Jonas Salk. Salk's polio vaccine was only one of many medical achievements that have occurred since the development of modern science in the last 150 years or so, but it's one that stuck with me. The notion of a knowing God that could allow an insidious disease like polio to last for centuries, and do nothing about it even as millions of people prayed for Him to cure it, or to save them from the Plague (which we now know was cholera) or all of the other diseases which, in the Middle Ages, meant that life was such a crap shoot. The way millions of people still pray today for God to cure their cancer. A God that would allow that kind of suffering for centuries made no sense to me, unless I was to accept the notion of an amoral, uncaring, possibly evil God. Since I can't, I decided then and there to go with the no God option. Since that time, I've learned a lot of stuff that has strengthened my opinion on this (and that's all it is; I can't prove there is no god) but that was the turning point.
For me, I became an atheist after reading about Jonas Salk. Salk's polio vaccine was only one of many medical achievements that have occurred since the development of modern science in the last 150 years or so, but it's one that stuck with me. The notion of a knowing God that could allow an insidious disease like polio to last for centuries, and do nothing about it even as millions of people prayed for Him to cure it, or to save them from the Plague (which we now know was cholera) or all of the other diseases which, in the Middle Ages, meant that life was such a crap shoot. The way millions of people still pray today for God to cure their cancer. A God that would allow that kind of suffering for centuries made no sense to me, unless I was to accept the notion of an amoral, uncaring, possibly evil God. Since I can't, I decided then and there to go with the no God option. Since that time, I've learned a lot of stuff that has strengthened my opinion on this (and that's all it is; I can't prove there is no god) but that was the turning point.