Why don’t some people believe in God?

Reasons for atheism

Why don’t some people believe in God?

In this lesson you’re going to learn:

• Reasons why some people don’t believe in God

Keywords:

• Theist – someone who believes in God

• Atheist – someone who doesn’t believe in God

• Agnostic – someone who believes it is not possible to know whether or not God exists

What are some reasons for atheism?• The problem of evil

• Unanswered Prayers

• Scientific explanations that ‘rule out’ God

• Moral and natural evils

Scientific Explanations:

• Steady state theory

• Biochemical theories

• Chaos theories

Steady State Theory

• The universe has always been here – nothing caused it

Biochemical theories

• Big bang theory

• Evolution

Chaos Theory

• Everything happened by chance – no creator, no plan

Christian Explanations:

• Religion and Science can be in harmony – this is called ‘Conservatism’

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The Problem of Evil:

• If God is omnipotent – he must be able to stop our suffering

• If God is omniscient – he must know we suffer

• If God is benevolent – he cannot want us to suffer

Moral & Natural EvilsMoral: Natural::Borderline::

Unanswered Prayers:

• If God existed – surely he would answer our prayers

• When people pray for something, and it doesn’t happen – they may come to the conclusion that God doesn’t exist