Overstepping: Not Believing In God

Making sense of the world and why things happen are completely different for someone who does not belief in God.

I was standing there crying and praising God, saying, “Yes” to everything He told me. After I had sat down, I began to wonder where I would go, and before the thought could leave my mind the Lord said,

Jack Blattner AP English 1/15/15 Mr. Martin Certainty and Doubt William Lyon Phelps said, “If you develop the absolute sense of certainty that powerful beliefs provide, then you can get yourself to accomplish virtually anything, including those things that other people are certain are impossible,” while Bertrand Russell said, “I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn’t wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.” These two perspectives could not be more opposite and give true insight into the belief systems of each of the authors. Many people, particularly people with a strong faith in God and a belief that a higher authority is involved in their everyday lives, strongly feel that their faith and beliefs will allow them to achieve all of their hopes and desires. Even in the face of tragedy and inexplicable cruelty and hardship faced by millions of people in the world, the faithful believe that God’s will will ultimately prevail, and that belief is often unshakable.

McCloskey claims that it’s better to find comfort in knowing there is no God than the idea of finding comfort in a God that stands by watching the evil one is facing. However, some of the arguments in William Craig’s article, “The absurdity of life without God”, challenge this view that McCloskey has. William Craig offers a few examples of why we should take comfort knowing that there is a God. First, life is meaningless without God and Immortality. What is the point of our existence if our end result is definitively death? McCloskey argues that because God stands by as someone is stricken with disease or death then it is better to take comfort in something else since God allows this to happen. Instead, Craig offers the argument that our existence has a purpose with God and that with Him we do have immortality and this disease and death is only temporary as God provides immortality with Him. Second, is the value with God and the moral obligations we have to live our lives according to God? In this Craig shows that without the moral obligation we have no reasons to live our lives to the values that God provides. Instead, one can live a life full of wickedness or live a life full of goodness and there would be no consequence and it wouldn’t matter how morally one were to

I think that it is an over-generalization to say that the biggest mass murderers of history were atheists. (BTW, saying mass-murderers, savages, or the like implies that those people were defeated; however, people who killed millions of people and were winners of conflict often implies that they were heroes and victorious, etc. Point of reference, the genocide of Native Americans during the 1800s in the U.S., the killing of 40% of Ireland’s chiefly Catholic population by Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan conquest of Ireland in the 1600s, etc.) To say that atheists have a proclivity for destroying others would infer that atheists would have a unifying belief; by definition, this is not atheism.

Faith is the sum and substance of life. Without faith, humans cannot achieve anything. If one was to observe all the greatest idea’s carried out in this world, one would find faith was the sole purpose. Look at Pi from Life of Pi, he was first enlightened by Hinduism; however, he discovers many more religions as he gets older. He becomes enlightened by Christianity and Islam. Pi’s religious curiosity creates anxiety in his family. It was tough for them to grasp why he practiced various religions. However, this did not stop Pi from staying faithful. This faith is put to test when he spends over 200 days stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena and a tiger named Richard

Without God, there are no morals or any reason to act any way other than selfishly as Ayn Rand states. The solutions from atheist are along the lines

The individual must be aware that there needs to be truth and ethical value associated to their belief. Indeed, man is the only living being that “has spiritual concerns- cognitive, aesthetic, social, and political.” (1) Therefore, faith is an act that reflects total personality, it happens in the center of personal life and all the elements mentioned are included. Therefore, a person is free in the sense that their faith comes from within. Their faith is developed through the freedom they possess to carry out centered acts of personality. It is evident, then, that “freedom and faith are identical.” (6) Hence, having faith does not come from external forces, they come from within. Faith essentially means being ultimately concerned, therefore, even an individual who does not believe he has faith, actually does.

The question, "Can one be moral and not believe in God?" is rather dubious and divisive. Both the facets of this question have pretty strong ideas that support the consideration behind them extensively. As far as my belief and judgment is concerned, I am a strong believer of the notion that "One is better with God beside". Nevertheless, this personal belief of mine does not promote that human beings not believing in the authenticity and existence of a supreme deity are living a neglectful and self-indulgent life. However, I am still convinced with the idea that people who believe in the genuineness and subsistence of a God are more moral as they hold an unyielding assurance that there is a divine being to which they are answerable.

We are all tired, the music becomes more of a lullaby, floating and curling around our surroundings, peace is almost tangible and sleep is edging the words of our prayer deep in our soul...”You alone O Lord, are holy. Except for Jesus, praying, the words of his prayer climbing upward, like the song of the first bird of summer. Then, suddenly, on the mountain, for just a moment, the music stopped and we are able see beneath Jesus' ordinary humanity and find shining there the very presence, the very holiness, and the very glory of God. It is revelation. It is mystery, which can be neither explained nor discredited. It becomes a song so complete that it can only be sung by

One of the most common criticisms of atheism is that life can have no meaning without God-belief. I’ve always found this argument puzzling, because even if true, it does absolutely nothing to prove the existence of God. What the believer is saying is that God-belief gives him or her the feeling that life has meaning. Well, that’s great, but your feelings don’t prove anything.

In today’s modern western society, it has become increasingly popular to not identify with any religion, namely Christianity. The outlook that people have today on the existence of God and the role that He plays in our world has changed drastically since the Enlightenment Period. Many look solely to the concept of reason, or the phenomenon that allows human beings to use their senses to draw conclusions about the world around them, to try and understand the environment that they live in. However, there are some that look to faith, or the concept of believing in a higher power as the reason for our existence. Being that this is a fundamental issue for humanity, there have been many attempts to explain what role each concept plays. It is my

Faith based on belief in the supernatural has been prevalent for the duration of mankind’s recorded history. Every culture around the world, past and present, has developed or adopted a dominant belief system. These belief systems could include the ancient traditions like Greek polytheism, Mayan ritual worship, or Hinduism as well as modern religions such as Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. By preaching goodwill and the golden rule religion has played a significant role in promoting ethics in society. Religion stimulates inner strength, confidence, and fosters a sense of purpose for many people. It is also hard to imagine a world without the incredible religious art and music. The teachings and culture can help lift up people to live a better, more fulfilling and more selfless life. Billions of people, around the world, practice a religion with the hope that they will reap the benefits of their devotion. There are many other reasons why people believe but truly the main reasons people are religious is due to the default way that they were raised, social reasons, fear, and to have an explanation of the world. Beliefs are passed down to children who are intrinsically disposed to trust their parents. This indoctrination, though, makes them vulnerable to misinformation and as a result there is a manifestation of belief systems into religion. Once religion has a hold on someone, its attribute of being against reason helps its own survival. Unfortunately, religious faith is a

"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is."

This was a vivid feeling, an atmosphere that I had never before experienced. Dense lights were somehow beautifully articulated with the rich sound of harmony filling the room. Others around me identified this too, and in response some raised their hands, some sang at the top of their lungs, and the rest simply enjoyed it. My senses were overloaded at this moment, but it was not what my heart was admiring. My 14 years of life had never recognized such a presence as this. Freedom is one word to describe it. Realization is another. Internally, I had always told myself that I would never associate myself with religion and its monotony, but I could not deny that this was beyond religion. This was beyond my preconception of any deity that had the slightest chance of actually being reality. My only response was to fall on my knees in worship of this God whom I can now discern was the Holy Spirit. This moment, a worship service on the night of February 18th of 2012 at a winter retreat, has and will continue to mark my existence on this planet. On this night, I gave my life to Jesus Christ.