While in college in late 1996, I seriously began to ponder the nature of god(s). I wondered if there were any arguments against religious positions. Most of my co-workers and peers emphatically reminded me that religious claims, claims of faith, are beyond critical analysis and testing. I began listening to their claims and discovered contradictons galore. I have fashioned what I thought at the time were original arguments against god and/or his attributes as well as the idea of the supernatural. I discovered many more scholarly individuals on the web with really good arguments as well and have included them here. Feel free to post your arguments and submit corrections.

~ PREPARE TO THINK ~

 

Proverbs 14:15 "The Simple Believeth Every Word... but the Prudent Man Looketh Well To His Going."

ARGUMENT FROM NON-BELIEF

1.) If the Christian God exists, he wants ALL humans to know he exists.

2.) If the Christian God exists, he knows what sufficient evidence he can provide for ALL to know that he exists.

3.) However, Not ALL people know that the Christian God exists.

4.) God then, thus far, hasn't provided sufficient evidence for ALL to know that he exists.

5.) God at least wants SOME humans to not know he exists or there may be no Christian God. (from 2,3 and 4)

(If God wants atheists to exist... why all the threats of Hell and damnation in Christian theology?)

OMNISCIENCE-HUMAN EXPERIENCE INCOMPATIBILITY ARGUMENT

1.) Fear is a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger. (The American Heritage® Dictionary: 2000)

2.) If God exists, God cannot feel agitated, anxious or feel endangered.

3.) If God cannot know fear, he is not all-knowing.

(Some would claim that it is against God's nature to be afraid. Exactly, then he cannot be omniscient. There are at least some things for which he is completely ignorant of. Stating that it's against his nature is a cop-out and a concession simultaneously.)

ON GOD'S JUSTICE AND MERCY

1.) If God is "all just" then he always dispenses justice with the exact amount of severity deserved by the crime.

2.) If God is "all merciful" then he always dispenses justice with less severity than is deserved by the crime.

3.) You cannot dispense justice with less severity and exact severity at the same time. - Dan Barker

ON GOD BEING ATEMPORAL

1.) God, an atemporal being, created the Universe.

2.) Creation is a temporal processes because X cannot cause Y to come into being unless X existed temporally prior to Y.

3.) If God existed prior to the creation of the Universe he is a temporal being.

4.) Since God is atemporal, God cannot be the creator the Universe.

(This is explained and discussed more HERE.)

ON GOD`S JEALOUSY

1.) "God is love." 1 John 4:8.

2.) "Love is not jealous." 1 Cor 13:4

3.) "I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God." Exodus 20:5.

4.) The Christian god cannot logically exist.

(Basically love is NOT jealous, yet god is jealous, then God can`t be love. But if god IS love he cannot be jealous. Be he is. Yahweh cannot possibly exist if he has both the attributes of love and jealousy.)

ON FREEWILL

1.) God has an unchangeable plan for everything past, present & future.

2.) Everything that occurs past, present and future will be part of God's unchanging plan.

3.) Thoughts and actions occur and are part of God's unchanging plan.

4.) Thoughts and actions cannot be anything other than what God has planned.

5.) Free-will doesn't exist.

ON FAITH

1.) A prerequisite to believe in a Faith is faith.

2.) Having faith is all that is required to accept a Faith (belief) as true.

3.) All Faiths are true.

(Of course all Faiths aren`t true, but this is the only logical conclusion that can be drawn from a person that states that, "Through faith one can know God.)

FREEWILL ARGUMENT FOR THE NONEXISTENCE OF GOD

1.) The Christian God is a personal being and is omniscient.

2.) Personal beings have free will.(according to most Christians)

3.) To have freewill, a personal being must be able to make a choice.

4.) A being who knows everything can have no "state of uncertainty". It knows its choices in advance.

5.) God has no potential to avoid its choices, and therefore has no free will.

6.) Since a being that lacks free will is not a personal being, a personal being who knows everything cannot exist.

7.) Therefore, the Christian God does not exist. - a syllogistic view of Dan Barker's F.A.N.G

ON PRAYER

1.) Humans can’t change God’s mind for he has a divine plan and is unchangeable.

2.) Prayer doesn’t change things.

(Prayer may make you feel better emotionally, but it doesn`t change God`s mind.)

ON LOVE & HELL

1.) God's love is superlative.

2.) God's love of man exceeds man's love of self.

3.) Man's love of self prohibits torture.

4.) Considering God's greater love for us, Hell (eternal torture) is illogical. - Hank & IG

ON GOD`S LIMITATIONS

1.) God knows infallibly what will occur in the Universe before it occurs.

2.) God can’t change the future because he knows everything absolutely.

3.) God has no Free-will.

(Who's driving?)

ON HELL

1.) God is all-knowing.

2.) Before I was born God knew I wouldn’t believe in him.

3.) I was born to go to Hell.

(Sure you may say I have a choice, but I think I`ve proven already that I really don`t. I`m simply fulfilling the will of God by being an atheist aren`t I? If I`m not, I shouldn`t exist: For God would have known that before I was created that I wouldn`t believe in him.)

THE MORAL-KNOWLEGDE ARGUMENT FOR ATHEISM

1.) If God exists, then he is a being who is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent.

2.) If God exists, it would be in God's interest and within his capacity for all human beings to know his ethics perfectly.

3.) All human beings do not know God's ethics perfectly, which is shown by their disagreeing about many moral values.

4.) Therefore: God does not exist. - Niclas Berggren

(If one disagrees with P2, why would God NOT realize this option? "We could imagine two scenarios. First, a God which shows favoritism in the sense that he reveals his ethics only to some, or in the sense that he reveals it to a higher extent to some than to others. But this would be inconsistent with our assumption of benevolence, since such favoritism would imply that God cares more about some than about others (where knowledge of God's ethics must be considered a good, from the point of view of a benevolent God). (And in the Christian case, it is explicitly stated in Acts 10:34: "Then Peter began to speak: 'I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism'." (NIV)) Second, we could imagine God spreading a limited knowledge of his ethics in equal proportions to all of humanity. But (i) what could possibly be the point in such a self-imposed limitation of spreading something which, from the point of view of the benevolent God, must be considered a good? and (ii) this can hardly be the case, since not all people agree normatively on any issue of ethics (and if my point (ii) is disputed, the burden of proof is on the person claiming that there is such agreement - and this has not been shown)." - Niclas Berggren

ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN

1.) God is omniscient (all knowing)

2.) God knew that before he created man that they would eat of the tree of knowledge.

3.) God placed the tree of knowledge in the Garden anyway.

4.) God wanted sin to enter the world.

(If God didn`t want sin to enter the world, why create Adam and Eve at all? He knew what would happen. Why place the forbidden trees in the Garden in the first place?)

ON THE BODY OF CHRIST

1.) God’s flesh was known as Jesus.

2.) Flesh cannot enter into Heaven.

3.) Jesus was Flesh.

4.) Jesus no longer exists.

(Many at this point will state that the spirit lives on so therefore Jesus lives. This really depends on what you believe about Jesus. Is Jesus the son of God or God in flesh? If Jesus is merely the son there is no problem. However, if Jesus “is” God himself, we do. You see, Jesus is called Jesus because of the attribute of Flesh. If Jesus = God (who is spirit) then the entity known as Jesus ceases to exist. The flesh/body of Jesus, no longer exists and the spirit of God is still the unchanging spirit of God. No Jesus at that point. The Flesh, called Jesus, is dead.)

EVIL IS GOOD?

1.) God is good all of the time.

2.) Everything that God creates is good. Amen?

3.) God created evil according to Isaiah 45:7. (look it up)

4.) Evil is good.

ARGUMENT FROM MORAL IGNORANCE

1.) If God exists, it is probably the case that all sentient beings whose behavior God considers morally significant have extremely good knowledge of correct moral judgments.

2.) If God exists, he considers humans' behavior morally significant.

3.) Humans are sentient beings.

4.) If God exists, it is probably the case that humans have extremely good knowledge of correct moral judgments.

5.) Humans do not have extremely good knowledge of correct moral judgments.

6.) Probably, God does not exist.- Cole Mitchell: Adapted from Niclas Berggren's "On the Nature of Morality".

ON UNIVERSAL THEISM

1.) All gods are the same god.

2.) The various gods practiced by differing faiths all have different or even contradictory views of what they want for mankind.

3.) All gods are not the same God.

ARGUMENT FROM MORAL PARITY

1.) If God exists, rational theists are probably noticeably morally superior to rational atheists, on average.

2.) Rational theists are not noticeably morally superior to rational atheists, on average.

3.) Probably, God does not exist. - Paul Draper

ON SPIRITS

1.) Spirits are not physical entities.

2.) Brains are physical entities.

3.) Past experiences are stored in our physical brains, we call that, Memory..

4.) Injury can damage portions of the physical brain that store memory and can alter or erase memories completely.

5.) If human spirits exist... after death, spirits can have no memory.

[Note: Some will say the spirit stores physical memories as well, but if true, the spirit would have to be physical at least to a degree. How could a non-physical spirit store, physical memories?]

ON GOD'S IMMUTABILITY - Unchangingness

1.) If God exists, then he is immutable.

2.) If God exists, then he is the creator of the universe.

3.) An immutable being cannot at one time have an intention and then at a later time not have that intention.

4.) For any being to create anything, prior to the creation he must have had the intention to create it, but at a later time, after the creation, no longer have the intention to create it.

5.) Thus, it is impossible for an immutable being to have created anything (from 3 and 4).

6.) Therefore, it is impossible for God to exist (from 1, 2, and 5) - Theodore M. Drange

ON SATAN FOOLING US - Evidence of Evolution

1.) God is omniscient (all knowing).

2.) God knew that before Creating Satan, that Satan would trick people with fossils and other evidence for evolution.

3.) God created Satan anyway.

4.) God wants, at least some, people to be tricked into believing in the evidences for evolution.

5.) It's logical to not believe in "divine creation".

(This is a response to those that seriously believe Satan created fossils and that all of the sciences that support evolution are twisted by Satan. In regards to Divine Creation I am responding to the story of Adam and Eve.)

 

Other Related Logical Arguments:

 

The Argument Against the Trinity From Multiple Minds.
1.) A Mind is associated with one being
2.) The Trinity is told to be one being consisting of Jesus, Yahweh and The Holy Spirit.
3.) At least, Jesus and God have their own minds.
4.) The Trinity cannot be one being.

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Also Visit The Questions About God Page