Found! Evidence against God - the God notion de-constructed.
The controversies surrounding the issue of God's existence (the God debates) are of broad interest since they impact a significant portion of society. That is why on Mynews24 the God debates get a lot of attention to the chagrin of the casual wishy-washy news reader whose attention span is shorter then Tickey the Clown. They do not enter into debate with atheists because the existence of God is assumed. Proof is irrelevant as assumption is all they need to convince themselves of the existence of God.
They are not really “truth seekers”. They are fantasy dwellers. They pay little credence to the fact that the resolution of the question of the existence of God is primary in religious debate, since, without his existence, other issues surrounding religious arguments, such as the truth of evolution, the truth of some religious doctrine, the moral standing of atheists, and so on, are incidental. So kudos to atheists and God fearing believers that make these debates possible.
Most people who attend church regularly, read and study their Bibles intensely don't know much about the history of the world, other religions, myths or the pagan customs and ideas that were incorporated into Christianity. To them, Christianity is a direct line from God with all original thoughts. In fact they don’t even know that the Bible "teaches" absolutely nothing. It is the denomination or church they belong to that infers doctrines from cherry picked passages of scripture and proceeds to teach from those inferences. If the Bible clearly "taught" anything there wouldn't be so many competing versions or factions of Christianity (33 000 and counting). The Bible asserts, it does not teach. It is the church that takes its pet assertions found in the Bible and teaches them as fact.
Their critical analysing skills of the canonised Bible leaves a lot to be desired; how, why, who, where, when and what was the original source. They think that the original Greek or Hebrew is the original source, but of course that is not true, for where did they get it from. This naivety is easy to understand for obviously believers would rather prefer to concentrate on building up their faith then in breaking it down and so through wilful ignorance they continue to reinforce the falsehood that is the shaky foundation for their faith. And as any good builder will tell you, if the foundation is weak, the building will fall down like a pack of cards. If you think you have the “true faith” it should be able to withstand critical scrutiny. Confirmation bias runs amuck in the minds of most believers. They judge the merits of any argument based on whether they agree with the conclusion. Even apologists who defend Christianity start with their conclusions and then construct arguments to support them and therefore it is irrational to embrace and support Christian faith.
In order to be able to establish the existence of any given entity; you have to be able to define that entity somehow. If the definition is logically incoherent, as most definitions of God seem to be, it's not any more difficult to disprove God than it is a square circle. If some God, worthy of being called a God, exists then it has the capacity to communicate directly with each of us rather than going through intermediaries who reach different conclusions and apply different standards for which is the correct version of what God said in the Bible.
All though Christians consider the God of Judeo-Christian tradition and the creator to be one and the same entity, it is obvious that there is a difference between; some nebulous impersonal abstract supernatural being out there, some where beyond space and time, and the Christian God. There could be no evidence for or against the existence of an abstract God because he only exists; as a concept, an idea, a primitive and naïve explanation of the unknown. Some try to prove God exists by engaging in desperate attempts to disprove biological and galactic evolution. They are fighting a losing battle as these have been proved by the available evidence beyond scientific doubt, by thousands working in many fields of science for over hundreds of years.
Many mystical entities have been or are thought to exist by primitive and superstitious people all over the world. Spirit beings like fairies, unicorns, tockalotches, goblins etc and gods from other religions like; Ra, Zeus, Krishna, Odin, Xenu, etc. All of these either have or have had believers just as ardent as any Christian, yet there is exactly as much evidence for the existence of any of them, as there is for the Christian God. That is, to say, no evidence at all. Yet obviously every committed Christian on the planet would vehemently deny the existence of these other Gods and adamantly profess before all that their God really exists. They are atheists to all other gods.
The question then is what evidence is there for the existence of God. For God in general, cosmological, ontological, and tautological (rhetoric) arguments all fail. (1) For the personal, prayer answering God of Judeo-Christian tradition, there the cited evidence is the Bible, which however, is not evidence, but a collection of claims that are either anecdotal personal revelations or post-hoc reasoning based on cultural bias and circular logic.
Is Bible God also just a concept; existing only as an idea, a revelation residing in the imaginations of pious believers, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as they ponder ancient texts regarded as sacred? Are words in a book enough to cause one to believe in a supernatural being? Surely a mental construct of God does not infer his existence and/or inner witness of the “heart” consent is no substitute for physical proof. Perhaps the real reason no one has seen God is because he is a spirit as Jesus said to his disciples that “God is a spirit and must be worshipped as such.” (2)
What is a spirit, what does it weigh and what is it made of? A spirit being could be defined as a non-physical entity or a super natural being. We know today that a spirit/supernatural/non-physical being cannot exist in a natural world. If he could he would not be a spirit. Now would he? Think about this. If a spirit being were to exist it would consist of nothing. It would have no matter, just empty space. So how can something which is nothing interact in a natural world? Is God a force just like gravity, wind and radio waves are? No, a spirit being has no force in the natural world; your TV remote has more power. We have no way to experience non-physical things as our experience is with a physical world which we interact with by using our five senses. What does non –physical even mean and how can it have effect in the physical world? How can any one make a distinction?
So the power God or any other imagined spiritual being has over you is in your imagination (mind). What you believe has power over you and you become enslaved to it. If anyone today claimed he had spoken directly to God and was given instructions to do X, would anyone take him serious. (Actually some probably would, but that makes the point doesn't it.) Why then would we accept the idea that anyone from Adam to Zechariah in the Bible did either, while at the same time rejecting the claim of Muhammad or figures of any other culture.
As an ancient sacred text the Bible tells us that long ago in a land far away, magical and mystical things happened. There is a word for this genre of literature (Fantasy). In the first place, what is the evidence against the existence of fairies or unicorns? If by looking and not seeing any isn’t considered evidence against their existence, then I don’t know what is required. Someone cannot provide evidence against the existence of a non-entity, since if it doesn't exist then it cannot leave any traces of its non-existence for us to examine. Think about this.
Can God really be found in the pages of the Bible? Jesus told the Pharisees and scribes that they search the scriptures and have not found him (Jesus) there. (3) If they could not find Jesus, who was the Son of God in human flesh, how can we do any better today? They all ready believed in God but could not find his Son who was standing in front of them! Neither could the Jews and Romans that crucified Jesus. It seems to be difficult to find God even when you are looking directly at him or humbly searching for him on bended knees. So where is he? His silence is deafening and his inertness in the presence of suffering, horror and evil is unbelievable. It is as if he is incapable of knowledge, thought or action just like a rock or a vegetable or as if he does not really exist. He is less capable of influencing the world than a single electron.
To be contd.
(1) Cosmological Argument: The argument from first causes, prime mover, the beginning of the universe, Kalam, etc.
Ontological Argument: An a priori argument based on the "perfection" of God. Typically
1. God is the most perfect ('the greatest') being conceivable.
2. It is more perfect ('greater') to exist than not to exist.
3. Therefore, God must exist.
(2) John 4:24
(3) John 5:39