1.3 Theological Conclusions                                                                               (Statement 3)

We have to use reason to decide, because faith alone is not enough.

All the reasons suggested for believing in god are inadequate, and there are good reasons why we should not believe in God:

●          Existence itself is the ultimate mystery that is not resolved by any philosophy or religion – God does not explain existence itself, because it does not explain how God came to exist;

●          In a sense, everything that exists is part of reality, so there can be no ‘transcendental’ God outside of this reality;

●          There is no reason to believe in a God who is “supernatural” (not controlled by the ordinary laws of nature) or “transcendental” (somehow outside the universe). 

●          An ‘immanent’ god that is the good or loving part of nature could be defined but it is hardly worth calling God in the traditional sense;

●          There is no reason to believe God is anything like what people say, but an incomprehensible, indefinable God is not worth believing in, is no help to us.

●          God does not explain how the universe actually works: the design of the universe, natural events, apparently paranormal events, life, consciousness, religious experience, beauty, good and evil or meaning and purpose. 

●          The problem of evil is too great to believe in an all good, all knowing and all powerful god; God doesn’t really explain why we have good and evil;

●          The sacred texts that are supposed to promote a belief in god are too inconsistent between each other and within themselves to be the basis of a belief in God;

●          God doesn’t ultimately provide meaning or purpose, or explain why we are part of the universal narrative.

1.3.1   It doesn’t help to explain our existence to say that God created the world.  It just pushes it further back to “who created God”.  If it is OK to say God is self existent it is just as OK to say the universe is self existent.  Absolutely no-one can explain existence itself.  more (later)

1.3.2   The universe has not been designed, so we can’t say it must have had a godlike designer.  We do not need God to explain things like life itself, movement, eyes, consciousness or good and evil.  more (later)

1.3.3   The universe is not being guided, or maintained or sustained.  It does not help to believe that a transcendental God works somehow ‘behind’ the laws of nature, that God keeps the laws of nature working, that God somehow pushed evolution along, or that God controls the probabilities of subatomic events.  more (later)

1.3.4   Some apparent miracles are frauds.  Other apparent miracles are best explained without using God.  Different religions have different explanations of the miracles they see, which cannot all be literally true.  There is no reason to take apparent miracles as signs of God: natural explanations are better.  more (later)

1.3.5   Prophecies supposedly made by god or the prophets are often explained in a misleading way, and they can all be explained better without using God.  Different religions have different prophecies, which cannot all come true.  When we examine these there is no reason to take them as signs of God.  more (later)

1.3.6   Science is gradually explaining more and more things that were once attributed to God.  People once thought God caused thunderstorms and made rainbows.   Now they wonder whether God makes us conscious.  God is being used as an explanation to fill the gaps in scientific knowledge, but these gaps are getting smaller and smaller.  This idea of God doesn’t help in any way.  more (later)

1.3.7   All the undeserved suffering in the world means there cannot be an all powerful, all knowing, all good God (omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent).  Perhaps God does not completely care, or God can’t know everything. Some prefer to believe God’s power is limited, so they call God almighty, not omnipotent.  We cannot say all suffering is deserved, or that it always leads to something good, or that it always ultimately the fault of flawed human beings. Only a small proportion of suffering is due to our inhumanity, much suffering is pointless, and much is unfair.  It would be inhumane to allow some animals and people to suffer just so that others have the change to do some good.  This is not the best of all possible worlds: surely it can be better.  more (later)

1.3.8   We use the knowledge that we have, that comes from our culture, to explain personal experiences of the divine.  Many discover the Christian God or the Muslim Allah.  Others glimpse the Buddhist enlightenment, and others find it even more mystical.  There is no reason to believe such experiences point to the truth of one religion over the others.  When we examine these there is no reason to take them as signs of God.  more (later)

1.3.9   Many feel that the beauty, majesty and awe of the universe, the world, life, art, music, and love must come from outside the universe, from God.  But this beauty is not lessened if it arises only within us or within the world.  We cannot judge it in an absolute sense because we are part of it: the actor cannot objectively critique the play.  more (later)

1.3.10 We can’t believe in a supernatural or transcendental God on faith alone.  We must decide, based on some reasons, if this God, and each of this God’s commandments, is good or bad.  more (later)

1.3.11 Even if you accept one of the reasons to believe in God, that does not mean God has all the other features people claim.  A creator may not care about individuals or provide a purpose or values.  A God who does miracles may not be a creator.    more (later)

1.3.12 Even if there was a powerful God who created the world and the people in it and who cares about us as individuals, that provides meaning and purpose only within the story God provides.  Why would God need us?  It still does not explain God’s existence, or why we should follow the purposes god has laid out for us.  We still need to work out for ourselves whether to follow this God, to be sure he is not really Satan.  We still need to use common sense and to be compassionate.  more (later)

1.3.13 To avoid these criticisms God has been defined to be incomprehensible and indefinable.  This does not help us at all.  We have to make decisions.  We cannot base our lives on something we don’t understand that no-one can explain to us!  more (later)

1.3.14 There is no philosophical reason to believe in a God who is “supernatural” (not controlled by the ordinary laws of nature) or “transcendental” (somehow outside the universe). 

1.3.15 We could define an “immanent” God that is not “supernatural” (outside the ordinary laws of nature) or “transcendental” (outside the universe). This “immanent” God is the source of “Love” in the world, whatever that is, but it includes goodness, beauty, meaning, purpose and value.  This God almost by definition must exist because there is some good in the world.  There is no reason to believe this God is affected by rituals or prayers, it doesn’t tell us any specific ethical guidelines or provide us with our purpose in life.  more (later)