Religion

You only need to take a brief look at the "Reading" Category of this page to realise that I am not one of those atheists who is adamant that there is no god and who uses poor or not well-researched arguments, even if they favour my world-view. So, I was a bit sceptical when I stumbled upon this book. After all, it is called "The Non-Existence of God". But the author is not your garden-variety Facebook atheist, so I ignored my initial reactionary dismissal that this is one of those books which attempt to make grandiose or scandalous claims to boost sales. After reading some reviews online, I decided to buy the book and see it for myself.

So what exactly did I read in this book to take me from a position of scepticisms to recommending it as a part of my reading list? Let‘s find out together.

If you are like me and ask yourself the Big Questions fairly frequently, you probably asked yourself perhaps the biggest question of them all: Is there a God?

Not only that, but it is also possible you wandered around and changed your mind here and there. Perhaps once you were a theist, then you suddenly became an atheist, then started to call yourself an agnostic, all based on the best available data you had at the time.

Some philosophies are more interested in what science proved and what logic and reason can tell us than what is written in some holy book. While atheism is simply a position of not having a belief in any god, humanism is a set of ideas, principles and values that might naturally flow from a lack of belief and from empathy for other humans and other living beings.

Contrary to what many people believe, secularism is not the same as atheism. Atheists are among the most vocal proponents of secularism, both offline and online. That might be the source of confusion.

Time for part 2 of our Atheism Q&A. If you did not read Atheism Q&A Part One, starting there is suggested.

What does an atheist believe people ask? Well, I can only tell you what I believe, divided into categories, like questions and answers.

Continuing with the introductions to the arguments for the existence of God, we'll now look at one of the most common arguments for God – the basic idea that the possibility of eternal bliss of paradise as a reward for belief or the possibility of terrors that can result as a consequence of non-belief are good reasons to believe. In essence, the average person's version of the argument says that we should believe, just in case there is a God. It's just safer.