Why do atheists ask for evidence for the existence of God?

Question

Does there have to be physical evidence for the existence of God? What's the purpose of faith then?

I'm Muslim, and the Qur'an says that the Muslims are those who believe in Allah without seeing Him or needing evidence of Him.

If there was evidence of God and He was proven to exist, then why would there be Heaven and Hell? Heaven is the reward for those who believed, and Hell is the punishment for those who didn't. If there was physical evidence of God, then why would Hell even exist?

Answer 1

Because it's the only ammunition they have. They think it makes believers look stupid. It underscores their claim that we believe fairy tales and myths. They don't understand that the very thing that we are credited with is our faith; the fact that we believe, even though we can't physically see, touch, taste, etc. Don't let it bother you. In the end, God will separate the sheep from the goats...

Answer 2

Because faith is logically null, and in any non-religious circumstance everyone knows it's ridiculous, for example if I said "have faith that you can put your hand in this fire and it won't hurt" you would have to be an idiot to actually do what I'd said, yet for some reason religious faith (which from an atheist's point of view is exactly the same) gets exempted from this skepticism.



So we need evidence. Our understanding of faith is as a poor call of judgement based on potentially misleading information.



Besides why should belief be rewarded? Belief is not a choice, it is a reaction based on... wait for it... evidence. It's like a set of scales tilting one way or the other with new information. I can say to myself "Jesus is real" a billion times, it won't make me believe it because I'll know in my head that I'm just saying it and I believe otherwise.

Answer 3

The only purpose of faith is to get others to believe you while removing your burden of proving you claims. That's not a noble purpose.



Atheists ask for physical evidence because most religions make claims about god interacting with the world in ways that would leave physical evidence for us to examine.



"I'm Muslim, and the Qur'an says that the Muslims are those who believe in Allah without seeing Him or needing evidence of Him. "

-- Well of course it does. If you were trying to convince people to believe in something you cannot prove is true, wouldn't you make the same type of appeal?



Why can't Heaven be a reward for those who acted good in this life? Or contributed to the betterment of humanity? Or furthered scientific research? Why tie Heaven to mere belief? If there was evidence of god we could all make informed decisions about how to live our lives with respect to god, but since there isn't any we are all making decisions in the dark. If there was physical evidence of god, then god's evaluation of us would be based on something more meaningful than mere belief.

Answer 4

You have hit upon a fundamental flaw in both Christianity and Islam. God cannot demonstrate his existence plainly because to do so would be to deny people the possibility of disbelief, and make faith meaningless.

Therefore God must feed humanity with ambiguous information, suggesting his existence but never actually demonstrating it. This he does by delivering his message in obscure backwaters of the world, relying on fallible, greedy and corrupt humans to preserve the message. He also makes the message ambiguous, vague and liberally scattered with tribal lore, so that it looks like it was written by people, not God.



Having done that, God knows that some people will believe, and some people will not believe. So why then punish the people who don't believe, the ones who couldn't find you because you were hiding? God sets us up to fail, then punishes us for failing. It's perverse, or at least it would be if God was real.

Answer 5

What is the purpose of faith then?



Faith is a completely gullible thing to have. It didn't take me very many years of my life to realize that.



I ask for evidence because I am incapable of accepting extraordinary claims without it. It is this way for everything. Unlike you people, I do not make an exception for God and just accept your word that he exists without evidence.

Answer 6

Most atheists don't.. Based on experience most of those asking for evidence are really scientismists. Scientismists are adherents to the faith of Scientism. In essence, scientism is a world view that sees science as the absolute and only justifiable arbiter of the truth and anything that cannot be ascertained using science is false.



Of course any scientist will tell you that is nonsense and the reason science has been so successful is that it limited itself to what questions it would attempt to answer.

Answer 7

FAITH IN SOMETHING DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE!



Avoid anything that promotes "FAITH!" over free inquiry, skepticism, reason and critical analysis. "Faith vs Hellfire" is a kind of mind control tactic that organised religion uses to keep people in line and to assimilate other people.



This is why organized religion has been so successful over the population - because it essentially tells people to accept a belief system and to not break it down with critical analysis and reason - in other words "Faith OR ELSE!" - "DO NOT THINK OR ELSE!" is what faith and threats of hellfire is about and they reinforce each other together over the minds of people. It is an organism of mind that survives and grows off of us using our ignorance to do so. This is WHY Reason is often seen by strict religious people as the enemy of faith - because it makes the mind strong against brainwashing and conformity into rigid social structures and false notions about reality. As civilization becomes more scientifically advanced and knowledgeable, and more based on Reason, it is harder for "FAITH!" to take over people's minds and psychology through scare tactics playing on our decreasing ignorance which it needs to survive.

Answer 8

I will believe in God when presented with better evidence than "look around, God is everywhere!" Or "(insert religious text here) says he exists, so that means he does". Religious people cannot hope to convince atheists of God's existence without solid proof. Saying "you just need faith" is a way of avoiding the fact that you cannot prove that your God or deity exists.

Answer 9

>>>If there was physical evidence of God, then why would Hell even exist?



Why does Hell exist at all if god is supposedly so loving?



Why is god exempt from everything else? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Answer 10

Because most atheists are driven by science, which is clearly observable around them. If there was evidence provided of a God, then they would gladly change their thought process and accept God. They have a fact-driven brain, and do not accept things that have absolutely no proof.

Answer 11

Atheists need evidence because they work with evidence even though evolution and the big bang theory is evidence there is not enough evidence to support this so they continue to lack evidence therefore there is some level of belief that these theories are true therefore atheists do have beliefs and will defend these beliefs until scientists find more evidence but until they do atheists will claim that their beliefs hold more sufficient evidence than religion ever will. Evidence.

Answer 12

Faith is believing things without evidence. There is no purpose of faith other than to perpetuate your own bias in order to force belief through confirmation bias and surrounding yourself with like minded individuals to avoid being challenged.

Answer 13

Agnostic here. You cannot prove that ANY "god" does exist (including yours) and you cannot prove that ANY "god" does not exist (including the "gods" that other religions believe in, so belief in "Allah" as the one and only god is not is not a sustainable position).

Answer 14

Belief requires evidence..



No evidence: no belief.

Some evidence: some may believe.

Strong evidence: many will believe.



Edit:

And then you have solipsism where none of these rules are valid.

Answer 15

Because faith is a cop-out ... there is no Hell ... everyone goes to Heaven ... even Hitler is there ... God does not condemn his own creation.

Answer 16

I couldn't care less, but if you want me to believe you when you say a gawd exists, you better show some evidence

Answer 17

Because it is really stupid to believe in ANYTHING for which there is absolutely no evidence. Do you think it makes sense to believe in mermaids? No. Why? Because there's no evidence they exist. That's why it is also stupid to believe in a god. Any god.

Answer 18

If we saw God like most people here want, it takes away choice. Here we are to choose between him and the other. If he revealed himself, we would know. That is not what has been set up here.

Answer 19

Because the lack of evidence doesn't really prove anything.

Answer 20

Your 'logic' is *facepalm* stuff.



I'm not surprised you're a believer.

~

Answer 21

If you expect me to believe your personal delusion, then you have to provide evidence that it is *not* just your personal delusion, regardless of what your book might say.

Answer 22

Cool.



So you admit that Inanna exists.



Thought so.

Answer 23

imagine how completely psycho believers would be if the truth wasn't important to them.....oh wait.....

Answer 24

Which god would you like us to all pretend is real?