You have to understand — and to some extent accept — this: “Atheist” is a constructed term to describe the absence of religious faith. Nothing more, nothing less.
Like being a life long non smoker, you don’t have to apply for membership, subscribe to a specific dogma, and create congregations to not smoke.
Not believing in a deity is the neutral “factory setting” for a human being.
In the absence — or shortcomings — of scientific/knowledgeable understanding of the world, man created God, the soul, the afterlife, and developed religions and religious sciptures.
With an improvement of science, a growing number of people leave religious doctrines, and increasingly people grow up without faith, and embrace the tangible world.
This creates a backlash, and very dedicated believers will note that science is imperfect and flawed, and still contains gaps and unanswered questions, which is perfectly true.
The most fanatic will even claim the Bible actually contains all the answers, which is — obviously — very far from true. (I’ll get back to that.)
The backlash is understandable, to some degree, as the soul is simply the frontal cortex, making it possible for humans to have a highly developed self-awareness, imagination, and ability to communicate in complex details. All very cynical and cold.
The idea that you are created with love, and embraced by this superhuman love, even into an imagined afterlife, feels like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket, as opposed to the sterile cold laboratory of science.
If you can believe that.
If you can’t, no Bible verse can change that.
When Christians keep referring to the Bible, to “prove” the Bible is correct, it’s simply like plugging an extension cord into itself, expecting it to create electricity.
It doesn’t work.
Many theists question the morality — or the origin of the morality — in atheists: “How do you distinguish between good and evil, if not dictated by God?”
Because the “morals” are based on logic and experience. A society, tribe or settlement can’t function and thrive without some basic ground rules, that can basically be boiled down to the same teaching described by all religions and philosophies in the world, throughout time: “treat others as you want to be treated yourself”: Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal, don’t harm, and don’t kill. Over time and distances there are locally adapted variations on the finer details.
One example is in the US, where some people advocate “Christian Family Values”, which has no basis in the Gospels — on the contrary; according to the Gospels, Jesus actually demanded that his follower abandoned their families, and he never spoke out against homosexuality or abortions. That is assumed perceptions, not based on the Gospels. In exactly the same way religious people in Laos, Nigeria and Afghanistan are assuming perceptions not based on their respective religious foundations, but on local traditions.
Science is not pro- or anti-religious. Science is perhaps best explained using the Danish term “videnskab”, which means “knowledge cupboard”: It’s a “cupboard” where we gather all knowledge. Whenever something needs to be adjusted or expanded, we take it out of the cupboard, change it and put it back in.
In modern science every observation is tested and peer reviewed, until it can’t be perfected any further — for now…
See, where science is dynamic, the religious scriptures are more or less static.
However, you might want to do some further reading on how the Bible was created, as a political tool in the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire, by cherry picking and editing a vast number of documents floating around, among disagreeing Christian groups.
In a modern society, if religious groups insist on political, educational and ethical influence, based on a bronze age superstition, people will react, and to theists this might feel like an attack. You have to understand this is not an offense, it’s a defense. The religious people are the offenders. If you kept your religious belief to yourself, in the privacy of your home, there would be no conflict.
And you have to accept that schools are teaching knowledge, not beliefs. The belief will have to be introduced in the comfort of the home and the church, where it belongs.
For the final questions baffling theists: “Why have you abandoned God? Who do you pray to? Where do you find comfort?” Etc…
This is perhaps best answered with an analogy: As a life long non smoker, how do you negotiate your craving for nicotine, the urge to fiddle with a cigarette, the pleasure of filling your lungs with something with a higher density than air?
And the answer is: You don’t. You don’t have these feelings, and you don’t even understand the desire to smoke.
That’s how atheists feel about supernatural deities. We don’t get it, and we are sick and tired of the peer pressure to take up a bad habit.
I promised to get back to the imperfections of the Bible. Many theists struggle with the lack of scientific explanations, like “how did life appear out of nothing?”, and the likes.
You have to remember the Bible attepting to explain this, has similar logical flaws: “Where did God appear from? How long did he exist in solitude before creating the world? Why doesn’t he reveal himself in a non-debatable way, to end all religious disagreements/conflicts?” and so on.
There’s even a more mind-crushing question unanswered: “Did God solely create life to be worhipped by the people who were smart enough to read the Bible the correct way?”
There doesn’t seem to be any other purpose of the creation, no matter how many times you read the Bible cover to cover.
The greatest flaw in the Bible is, however, found in Matthew 28:19-20:
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
What he is basically saying is: “I know best, and everyone disagreeing with me must change.”
This clashes with the modern ethical framework, as phrased by Friedrich Schiller: “Leben und leben lassen” — “live and let live” (in mutual respect and acceptance).
The Christian and Muslim urge to convert people to a specific doctrine is — to modern people — simply an unacceptable lack of respect for people’s ability to shape and maintain their own individual perceptions of the world, life, universe and everything.
Many christians have the urge to note that certain phenomena wouldn’t exist without Christianity, and that is — to some extend — correct. Many things in our modern life is shaped by ancient traditions: The days of the week are named from Ásatrú (Norse Mythology), the months from Ancient Roman Mythology, and the number of the year from Christian Mythology: “Tuesday the 26th of May, 2026” – that’s three religions in one line, all based on ancient traditions, but somewhat practical.
Christmas is a Christian adaption of the Roman Saturnalia Festival and the Old Norse Jól (et al). The Ten Commandsments is a localised adaption of the Law of Hammurabi, that again is an adaption of something even older. Some of these phenomena makes logical sense, others are just traditions we have no practical reason to change. None of them, however, proves that Roman, Norse or Judean religions are objectively correct.
We could of course insist that atheists should not be allowed to take a few days off during Easter, as they don’t believe in Christ, but so could Ásatrú insist that Christians should not be allowed to use the terms Thursday and Friday, as they don’t believe in the God Thor and the goddess Freyja, and we could all be incredibly childish about it. Or leave it to be…
Most importantly, however, is it that you understand the following: When I say, loud and clear, that it’s an indisputable fact that there is no God, the way you feel provoked and annoyed, is the exact same way I feel provoked and annoyed, when you claim the opposite. And none of us will be able to comprehend the other person’s experience and feelings about the subject. A debate is fruitless and a waste of time. We just have to accept eachother, and live in peace. If you keep your faith to yourself, I will keep my lack of faith to myself.
I’ll end this on a more tongue-in-cheek notion: In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (by Douglas Adams) God has left his final message to his creation in great flaming letters on a hilltop:
“We apologize for the inconvenience”.