I considered becoming a liberal Christian in my late teens, but then reached the conclusion that I had no rational reason for believing that a deity existed, rather than rational reasons for wanting to believe. I'm not trying to suggest that belief in God is neccessarily correlated with psychological benefits for the believer, I know that many believers see God as harsh but important. In my case, I saw him as paradoxical and troubling, but ultimately rewarding to me by my acts of faith and love and how they related to Him. In the end, however, I more wanted to believe in Him than had any epistemological reason to do so. Treating God as an explanatory gap-filler would go against Occam's principle, and there is no indication in science that He might exist. Besides, if there really was a god, would I be willing to comply with him just because he was a god (or God)? I don't think so. In the end, my ethics ultimately turned to rational, consequentialist (rather than theological) criteria, even though I still follow Jesus as a model. Thus I now identify as an agnostic Christian (Catholic) atheist. I follow Christ as a model even though I am not a theist, and I base my life on the imitation of his model. I still fail, since I'm human, but I don't think I fail neccessarily any more than a Christian theist does. I see God as a symbol of perfection and abstraction central to my life, as a standpoint that is always present, but not as an entity I actually believe exists.
Please tell me - Why don't you believe in God ?
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I considered becoming a liberal Christian in my late teens, but then reached the conclusion that I had no rational reason for believing that a deity existed, rather than rational reasons for wanting to believe. I'm not trying to suggest that belief in God is neccessarily correlated with psychological benefits for the believer, I know that many believers see God as harsh but important. In my case, I saw him as paradoxical and troubling, but ultimately rewarding to me by my acts of faith and love and how they related to Him. In the end, however, I more wanted to believe in Him than had any epistemological reason to do so. Treating God as an explanatory gap-filler would go against Occam's principle, and there is no indication in science that He might exist. Besides, if there really was a god, would I be willing to comply with him just because he was a god (or God)? I don't think so. In the end, my ethics ultimately turned to rational, consequentialist (rather than theological) criteria, even though I still follow Jesus as a model. Thus I now identify as an agnostic Christian (Catholic) atheist. I follow Christ as a model even though I am not a theist, and I base my life on the imitation of his model. I still fail, since I'm human, but I don't think I fail neccessarily any more than a Christian theist does. I see God as a symbol of perfection and abstraction central to my life, as a standpoint that is always present, but not as an entity I actually believe exists.