Regarding the rational reasons to believe in God, these have been addressed before again and again. They are quite hollow.
The complexity (and perfection) of our planet (and universe) points to a deliberate Designer
If you believe in evolution (that things are just getting better, with nothing behind it), that goes against rationality. As we know, things tend to break down over time - they fall apart. So why would you think that other things would just evolve.
One of the most humorous things to me about the argument from design is the fact that it is based on the idea that we can recognize design when we see it. Then they turn around and say "and everything is designed." Which means we have nothing to compare design to. But the most damning thing about it is its myopic perspective. It fails to address the question "Who designed the (much more complex) designer?"
Also this contains an obvious strawman. Evolution is not the belief that things are "just getting better, with nothing behind it."
The use of the word "perfection" to refer to our universe is a baseless descriptor. A perfect universe would not include thousands of children starving to death daily. A perfect universe would not require that animals viciously kill and eat other animals to survive. It would not include ALS. It would not include child abduction and brutality. And these are just a few things on a single planet in a vast universe. I agree that it is complex, but it's complex in the same way that the pattern created when a paintball hits a wall is complex.
The fact that you (and the imbecile from whom you garnered these pearls of apologetic nonsense) know nothing about Big Bang Cosmology or Evolutionary Theory doesn't negate the fact that a lot of brilliant minds do. Ignorance is not a substitute for facts.
The universe operates by uniform laws of nature. Why does it?
This is a "god of the gaps" argument. It's like a child asking "Why?" every time an answer is given until the grown-up either gets tired of the game or honestly doesn't know. But here's an observation: The difference between a living human being and a dead one is that the dead one operates by uniform laws of nature. The observance of uniform laws of nature is the very basis on which we determine that no outside force is acting on something. I find it hilarious that apologists argue from this that "Therefore god is doing all of this."
Quote-mining Feynman does nothing to bolster this claim. Even if we were baffled at the uniform laws of nature (and we aren't) you don't get to shoehorn your favorite myth into the gap in our knowledge. Wasn't that long ago that Thor was the only reasonable explanation for thunder, and the gods being angry was the only rational explanation for earthquakes and volcanos.
*Sigh* If apologists had
any desire to know about the early development of DNA and the mechanisms of evolutionary development all they'd have to do is just the teeniest bit of research on the subject. Instead they just want to stop their ears, close their eyes and yell "Blah blah blah, I can't hear you, DNA is too complex to have evolved it must have been designed!"
We know God exists because he pursues us. He is constantly initiating and seeking for us to come to him.
I was an atheist at one time. And like many atheists, the issue of people believing in God bothered me greatly. What is it about atheists that we would spend so much time, attention, and energy refuting something that we don't believe even exists?! What causes us to do that? When I was an atheist, I attributed my intentions as caring for those poor, delusional people...to help them realize their hope was completely ill-founded. To be honest, I also had another motive. As I challenged those who believed in God, I was deeply curious to see if they could convince me otherwise. Part of my quest was to become free from the question of God. If I could conclusively prove to believers that they were wrong, then the issue is off the table, and I would be free to go about my life.
God seeks to know us - Photo of sunset on an ocean shore to illustrate the warmth of God's love and desire for us to know him. I didn't realize that the reason the topic of God weighed so heavily on my mind, was because God was pressing the issue. I have come to find out that God wants to be known. He created us with the intention that we would know him. He has surrounded us with evidence of himself and he keeps the question of his existence squarely before us. It was as if I couldn't escape thinking about the possibility of God. In fact, the day I chose to acknowledge God's existence, my prayer began with, "Ok, you win..." It might be that the underlying reason atheists are bothered by people believing in God is because God is actively pursuing them.
Argument by appeal to a persuing god?
Again with the bullshit "testimony" stuff. "I was once an atheist ..."
The issue of people believing in some god (get your head out of your ass, there are thousands of them) doesn't bother me. You want to know why atheists spend time, attention and energy refuting something we don't believe even exists? It's because believers in these bronze-age ignorant myths band together into cohesive voting blocks and use their numbers to legislate oppression to those who don't believe.
No, it's not as bad now as it was 60 years ago when it was illegal to be a homosexual and punishment for it included chemical castration. And that wasn't as bad as a couple hundred years ago when witches were burned at the stake. And that wasn't as bad as 400 years ago when the Spanish Inquisitions tortured and brutally murdered thousands of infidels at the behest of the church.
It's not as bad now as it was then
precisely because atheists spend time, attention, and energy refuting something that they don't believe even exists.
But politically active religious fundamentalists continue to subvert the bounds of decency and respect for fellow human beings. They wage war on education systems, attempting to push their insidious mythology on all children and deny those same children the opportunity to learn how the world really works. They fight tooth and nail to deny same-sex couples the right to form a legally recognized marriage and enjoy the legal benefits thereof. Hell, I'm writing this on Sunday morning in a large, metropolitan city where any other day of the week I could run down to the convenience store and pick up a six pack to enjoy later. But I can't do it now because the fucking Christians don't like the idea of me being able to go buy a beer on their special day.
There is no god and any thoughts someone has that they are being pursued by this imaginary being is a sign of a mental disorder. I'd recommend getting help. It's the same thing I'd recommend if I heard about a woman who believed that God was telling her to kill all her children. Get help. Please.
Unlike any other revelation of God, Jesus Christ is the clearest, most specific picture of God revealing himself to us.
So what you're saying is that the Christian God (Yahweh) is better than the Muslim god Allah. I find it intriguing that the Muslims are equally certain that the Christians have it wrong. And leave us not forget that there are a significant number of pious Hindus who will gladly include both of your gods in their pantheon, but subservient to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, their three primary gods. And no, these aren't just other names for the trinity.
I find Yahweh/Jesus to be especially absurd. Yahweh creates these people and gives them free will specifically so they can and will do things he'd rather they didn't do. Then he gets pissy that they did those very things he didn't want them doing and requires that they kill perfectly innocent animals and burn their carcasses so he can get over it. But that doesn't appease him. Over time it gets so bad that he destroys millions of them along with nearly every animal on the planet in a giant flood, and starts all over. But the same thing happens so he gets all pissy again and starts throwing tantrums at the Egyptians until they let his chosen people go. Then he leads these chosen people on a goose chase for 40 years in the wilderness during which time at one point he sends a bunch of fiery serpents to bite and kill many of them. They finally make it to the promised land but now these same chosen people have to use bronze-age hand to hand combat and siege methods to brutalize the inhabitants of the cities they want to take.
Blood flows gratuitously as his people pillage and enslave denizens of the lands they conquer. The virgin daughters have to watch as their non-virgin mothers and brothers are slaughtered before them and then they are made into sex slaves. This tribal war god sure loooooooves blood.
There's lots more stupidity that could be pointed out but let's fast forward to Jesus, the man of the hour for this particular piece of apologetic nonsense. "The most specific picture of God revealing himself to us."
Jesus has two messages for us:
1 - Yahweh is so codependent that he can't get over the fact that people behave in ways he'd rather they didn't. Because of this he's going to sacrifice himself to himself in a brutal display of self-flagellation so that once and for all he can get over how people act.
2 - It doesn't matter how you act. The only thing that matters is whether you believe all this silly nonsense about a god-man who did all this. How you think is the only thing that matters. How you behave... well that can be forgiven as long as you
think right.
Well...
