In my opinion, there is probably no God. The odds against his (or her) existence are minuscule. I say probably because I cannot disprove his – I’ll stick with the male God for the rest of this piece – existence. In my mind, I am sure there is no God but I have to allow for the possibility that one day someone will come along with a shred of evidence that he exists. However, no one has managed it yet.
Really, it’s up to the believers to prove he does exist, not for me to prove he doesn’t. I can no more disprove the existence of God than I can disprove the existence of there being fairies at the bottom of the garden. In terms of evidence, both are equally unlikely to be true. So, should people believe in stuff, even if it is unlikely to be true? Shouldn’t they just accept reason? My answers to these questions are simple. It’s up to you.
People get solace and comfort from ‘faith’ in supernatural beings and in the so-called spiritual world. And people argue things happen for a reason. I have absolutely no problem at all with that, nor should I. What others believe in is a matter for them. I am not just an atheist, I am a secularist, too. If I think that religion is all nonsense, if I think the spiritual world is made up – and the science says both are nonsense and made up – it is my view that everyone should be free to believe in whatever they like, so long as they get no special privileges nor rights for their beliefs. And that their beliefs should at no stage impact on my life. As Richard Dawkins pointed out many years ago, we are all atheists when it comes to most Gods who have ever been invented. Some of us go one God further.
It is also true that we are here on earth by the accident of our birth and the reason we exist is to procreate. We can seek ever more complex explanations – and science, unlike religion, constantly evolves to find new meanings to life – but to date everything that happens sometimes by our own design, into terms of the decisions we make, by luck (getting a great job, meeting a great partner) and by bad luck (by getting ill, by marrying the wrong person). The rest of it, unlike life itself, is man made.
Does it really matter whether we believe that we will survive our own death and ascend to heaven, or descend to hell? Death is not the most pleasant thing to contemplate. Much more pleasant to believe we will one day meet up with dead family and friends. If people find ‘faith’ helps see them through, then good for them. It is none of my business. My belief is that death really is the end and it’s my main reason for trying to make the best of the life that I have.
I was with my stepfather when he died. It was an incredibly powerful moment, the end of life. However, there was, at least for me, nothing spiritual about it. On the contrary, given how much he suffered in his later years, it was good that he was no longer suffering, no more in pain. To be fair, as he passed, a sign from ‘spirit’ or the ascent to heaven were not exactly in my mind. Perhaps someone with a different set of beliefs could have been looking for signs? Who knows? Who cares?
I would hate it if there was a God. The very idea of being under permanent surveillance by a celestial dictator appalls me, a character deciding whether I had been good enough to end up in heaven or send me to hell if not. But I’d always stand up for the freedom of someone to believe. If faith – belief without evidence – is all some people need, then good luck to them. I need much more than faith, but I am me, not them.
