Does God Exist? There are a number of reasons for apostasy, or the abandonment of one’s religious faith in god. Top scientists, some of the most objective and logical people in the world, overwhelmingly doubt the existence of god(s).   Biblical authors have compiled hundreds of inconsistencies and questionable guidelines in the Bible, which is the basis of Christianity. At uncensored online religious debate groups, Christians quickly discover that defending the Bible and their faith is very difficult. The non-religious are able to debate specific issues logically, while Christians often get mad and sometimes degrade into insults.   There are many secular alternatives to religious faith. Larger cities have secular humanists organizations, ethical unions, and Unitarian-Universalist "churches" that are not faith based. It is now estimated that 14% to 16% of the United States population is non-religious and most industrialized countries are much less religious than the United States.   Once out of the political realm, there are many celebrity atheists including Ron Reagan Jr. and Bill Gates. Famous Dead Nontheists include Katharine Hepburn, Mark Twain and many scientists, including Thomas Edison, Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein and Marie Curie. As Mark Twain said, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so."   Arguments for Apostasy The following two paragraphs are paraphrased from Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan:   Talking to a god is called prayer. Does a god talk back? If an omniscient and telepathic being did start communicating with me and told me that it was a god, the first thing I'd ask it would be to tell the top five cards of a shuffled deck or give a concise proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. If it failed or refused, I would find a doctor skilled in treating schizophrenia.   Faith is all about believing despite a lack of objective supporting evidence. If I approach a physicist and state that his claim that Earth's gravity pulls objects towards it at an acceleration of ~9.8 meters/sec^2 has no foundation in reality and must be tested, he'll hand me a marble and a stopwatch and invite me to test it to my satisfaction. If I approach a theologian and state that his claim that there exists a god and afterlife has no foundation in reality and must be tested, he'll tell me that I require more faith and recommend that I avoid all attempts at testing anything.   The Bible In my opinion the best argument for apostasy is the Bible. Lets read and think about a few scriptures of Jesus.   Biblical predictions about Jesus' return to earth in Mark 8:38 - 9:1 and Matthew 24:30 - 35 say, "The Son of Man will come with angels before the death of some standing here, or before this generation pass away. Heaven and earth will pass away."   This leads to Jesus’s own words in Matthew 13:40 – 42 (NLT): "Just as the weeds are separated out and burned, so it will be at the end of the world. I, the Son of Man, will send my angels, and they will remove from my Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil, and they will throw them into the furnace and burn them. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."   There is no historical evidence of angels throwing people into a furnace and burning them during the generation following Jesus. If Jesus words in Matthew 13:42 "… they will throw them into the furnace and burn them" are taken to be true, do you consider the Holocaust as the fulfillment of this prophecy? After all, the soldiers did wear belt buckles saying (translated) "god with us", and also you can see pictures of Catholic Bishops giving the Nazi salute in honor of Hitler at Nobeliefs-nazis.   Similarly, keep in mind today that two-thirds of the world is not Christian and the teachings of Jesus in John 15:6 say: "Anyone who parts from me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned." I would like to think very few are eagerly awaiting the moment when more than 4 billion people, including their relatives, coworkers and neighbors of different religious beliefs, are to be gathered into a pile to be burned, yet why do so many say they are Christian?   Many more biblical counterpoints are listed in the Biblical Critique and Religious Debate pages of this Website.   Christianity vs. Science Historically people have used God to explain things they did not understand. Some examples are: How did the universe originate? "By the will of God." How did man originate? "By the will of God." Explaining events with "By the will of God" brings no knowledge and in fact perpetuates superstition and myth. For instance, Isaiah 13:13 and Isaiah 29:6 explain earthquakes as a punishment of God, while today the causes of earthquakes are well known.   Scientists have sought to answer questions of nature, including the origination of the universe and man with logic, hypothesis, observation and data collection, testing, and independent validation. The knowledge of science needed in evaluating the God vs. Science questions is beyond the scope of this page, but a very good introduction is A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It covers the Big Bang, the life of stars, evolution, the rise of civilization, and how humans figured it out. The book is easy and fun to read, and also available in Audio CD.   The Bible opposes science in 1 Timothy 6:20 (KJV): "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called". A modern translation of 1 Timothy 6:20 (Contemporary English Version) clarifies this teaching of the Bible: "Timothy, guard what God has placed in your care! Don't pay any attention to that godless and stupid talk that sounds smart but really isn't."   Historically science has been correct instead of religion. For example in the sixteenth century the church taught that the sun circled the earth. Diseases were thought to be demon possession. The latest debate has been evolution verses intelligent design.