50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God (36 page)

Despite my inability to disprove the existence of fairies in my
backyard, I do not believe in them. It doesn't matter that I can't come
up with any evidence or argument that conclusively proves fairies are not real. All that matters is that there is no positive evidence to support
any claim that they are real. No evidence most likely means no fairies.
No evidence definitely means no reason to believe in fairies.

One can, of course, replace "fairies" with elves, aliens, trolls,
ghosts, angels, demons, genies, and, yes, even gods. How, for
example, can I be sure that Ogiuwu, the god of death, does not live in
my backyard alongside the fairies? I can't because I can't think of a
way that would conclusively disprove the existence of an invisible god
in my backyard. But does this mean that I am obligated to believe that
Ogiuwu is really there? Just to be safe should I begin conducting
human sacrifice rituals to appease him? People used to kill for Ogiuwu
all the time. How can any Muslim, Jew, or Christian, for example, be
sure that the Hindu snake god, Nagaraja, is not somewhere in their
backyard? They can't be sure because it's an elusive god with the
ability to become invisible. No one has ever disproved the existence
of this god. So should Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship
Nagaraj a?

Many believers attempt to put the burden of proof on nonbelievers
rather than on themselves when it comes to their god. They incorrectly
assume that an atheist is responsible for proving that gods are makebelieve. They fail to see that this is an impossible challenge given the
broad descriptions of what gods are and what gods can do. A typical
god is said to exist outside the limits of our natural world and beyond
the laws of physics. How can such a being ever be completely ruled
out by a species that lives in the natural world and under the laws of
physics?

I suspect that the reason believers try to shift the burden of proof
onto atheists is because they know they cannot prove the existence of
their god. They hope to escape that basic responsibility by dumping it
onto the nonbelievers. In fairness, however, the person making a claim
about something is the one who must be responsible for backing it up.
As an atheist I have no belief that gods are real. That is different from
declaring that no gods exist. If that was my position then a believer
would be correct to challenge me on it. No atheists can prove that gods do not exist because they are too elusive by definition. Most gods are
supposed to be beyond detection by our five senses at least some of
the time. Many gods are described as invisible and able to fly. Some
know my thoughts and would be able to anticipate every step of my
investigation if they wished to remain hidden. How can anyone ever
prove that beings with such supernatural abilities do not exist? Even if
one were able to see gods, looking under every rock and searching the
bottom of every ocean would fall well short of a thorough search.
Remember, many of these gods are supposed to be able to travel freely
throughout the universe. Some atheists may disagree, but for these
reasons I maintain that no one can say for certain that gods do not
exist. The cosmos is too big and the definition of god is too loose to
ever make such an absolute declaration. Maybe Sukra, Jesus, and
Edeke really are out there somewhere. Of course, given the weakness
of the arguments for any god, coupled with the absence of compelling
evidence for any of them, it still seems far more likely that all gods are
the creations of human imagination. It is true that no one has ever disproved the existence of the gods. Probably no one ever will, given the
apparent impossibility of total verification. Anything goes when we
are dealing with invisible beings, so a believer can always come up
with an excuse for why neither fairy nor god left a footprint in the
garden. It seems the best that a nonbeliever can safely say is that while
gods may indeed exist there is no reason to believe that they do exist
because no one has yet been able to prove it.

Do not forget that believers reject their own argument when the
tables are turned. Believers do not think it is such a good idea to place
the burden of proof on nonbelievers when they are the nonbeliever.
Again, the key question is how many religious people would agree to
believe in rival gods just because they can't prove that they do not
exist?

Finally, this terrible idea that one should believe in something until
it is disproved opens the door for a staggering number of silly things
that would have to be believed. For example, the supernatural claims
made for astrology, psychic readings, palm readings, the Bermuda Tri angle, dowsing, levitation, ghosts, and Nostradamus have been demolished by skeptics repeatedly. But no skeptic has ever conclusively
proved that these are impossible claims that can never be true under
any conditions. So, should we believe all that stuff too?

Gardner, Martin. New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher. Amherst, NY:
Prometheus Books, 1991. Great writing from a great skeptic.

Hines, Terence. Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. Amherst, NY:
Prometheus Books, 2003.

Kelly, Lynne. The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal. New York: Thunder's
Mouth Press, 2004. Informative survey of many paranormal claims.

Stenger, Victor J. God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That
God Does Not Exist. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007.

scrawny dog gnaws on a jagged arm bone with frightening
intensity. Judging by the decay and the smell, the person has
been dead for at least a few days. Walking up on a scene like this was
not in my plans. Instantly I know that this is the single most horrible
thing I have ever seen or will probably ever see in my life. Against my
better instincts, the journalists' reflex kicks in and I drop to one knee
so that I'm eye level with the dog for a better photo angle. Unfortunately, looking through my camera lens doesn't make it any less horrible.

The scenery certainly has changed for me, I think to myself. Just
a couple of hours earlier I was looking up in awe at the Taj Mahal, one
of India's many stunning experiences and my pick for the world's
most beautiful building. Now, just an hour or so later, I am standing on
the muddy bank of the Yamuna River watching a hungry dog eat a
rotted human corpse. "Damn," I say to myself, "this must be why
people take those fancy bus tours with cheerful guides." It's not so
much the sight of this grisly feast that disturbs me as the sound. The
constant cracking of that arm bone is unbearable. I swing wide around
the dog and continue down the river. Overall I handled it pretty well,
I'd say. I'm well aware that the value of travel comes from experiencing new things, even unpleasant scenes like a dog eating a dead person. Bad moments often make the best memories. I've seen and
experienced many disturbing sights and events around the world that
probably made me wiser, tougher, and a lot more grateful for my life.
This one, however, I could have done without. I wish there was some
way that I could unsee it, or at least unhear it. But I can't. This
encounter with death is with me forever now.

The sun is low in the sky and shadows from the trees make it seem
even later and darker but I keep moving. I just want to go a little farther. I'm not sure what I hope to find but the river is too interesting to
turn back now. I come across a human skull, half buried in the mud.
Most of the flesh is gone but, strangely, there is an eye in one of the
sockets. After the dog incident, this is not so bad.

I walk another hundred meters or so and catch a glimpse of a large
fire glowing in the dusk. Several people are moving around it, singing
or chanting. I move in for a closer look, slow and quiet. From behind
a tree I see that it is a Hindu cremation ceremony. It's the final page of
the final chapter of someone's life. Believers would add that it is the
beginning of something new. Branches are stacked up into a rectangular shape with the body lying on top. It's night now and the flames
illuminate the corpse. The body is not in a coffin. There is a robe or
cloth wrapped around him. I can see the head clearly in the flames.
The people gathered around continue to sing and pray.

I keep still and silent. I don't want to disturb the ceremony but I'm
fascinated by the sight of a human body being slowly consumed by
fire right in front of me. I can see his flesh burning away. This man
was once alive and now he is turning into smoke and ash right before
my eyes. A man walks to the front of the body and extends what
appears to be a long metal spoon into the fire. He pours something
onto the dead man's head. The fire flares up dramatically in reaction
to the liquid. I learn later that this was butter or oil. It's poured onto
the head to raise the temperature and aid in cracking the skull.
Believers say this allows the soul to escape the body. I watched closely
but never saw a soul.

I had never been confronted with death like I was this day. A human's body was reduced to mere food for a wild dog. An anonymous skull was sinking slowly in the mud where it likely would be lost
forever. And a man's body slowly melted into fire while those who
loved him said good-bye. It was powerful stuff and remains fresh in
my memories. Whenever I think of death, I inevitably recall that late
afternoon walk in India. Not that I dwell on death. I don't think about
it much. It's not a happy subject because death is so final and unforgiving. So much is lost when a human dies. All their accumulated
knowledge, all their memories, and all their dreams vanish just like
smoke in the evening breeze. Of course believers keep telling me that
I am wrong to think like this. Death is not really death, they say. Death
is not the end at all but a mere pause before the beginning of another
existence. It might be heaven, hell, or reincarnation, but something
definitely comes after death, they promise me.

To live beyond death sounds great. Who wouldn't want to believe
in that? Well, I wouldn't. I reject the claims of heaven, hell, and reincarnation for the same reason that I reject the gods who are supposed
to oversee these post-death transitions: there is a complete and total
absence of credible evidence to support the claims. It is almost surely
a false hope and it's a terribly destructive hope if it leads people to
demand less of themselves in this life because they expect more after
they die.

As a journalist I have enjoyed encounters with many fascinating
individuals and heard many amazing stories. I interviewed a man who
was in the Berlin bunker with Adolf Hitler during the final days of the
Third Reich. I have interviewed famous soccer player Pele, two
heavyweight-boxing champions, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and a
man who had been to the bottom of the deepest ocean. I once fired
questions at the "father of the H-Bomb" and I felt chills as a Jonestown survivor described her escape from religious madness. There
is one interview, however, that stands apart from all the others. It's the
one I conducted with a woman who died, spent a day in heaven, came
back to life, and then returned to Earth.

Although I was skeptical of her story, all my questions were politely crafted and delivered with delicate care because there was the
possibility that she sincerely believed she really had been to heaven.
The woman made money by traveling around conducting faith healing
sessions so it is possible that she was lying in order to help sell her
services, but I chose to give her the benefit of the doubt. The woman
described her bizarre journey in remarkable detail. She told me that
the streets of heaven were paved with gold-literally. She told me
about a magical fruit basket that was in a room she was taken to. The
basket automatically replenished itself whenever fruit was taken and
eaten. Jesus himself even visited her. She said that Jesus was an
entrancing man with beautiful flowing hair and dazzling blue eyes. He
told her that she must go back to Earth and do good work for him.
Once she was back among the living, she says she discovered that she
had been given the power to heal sick people.

Wow. After hearing such a powerful and important story, how
could anyone not believe in her god? He must be real. Heaven must be
real. This is an eyewitness account from someone who met him faceto-face in heaven. What more proof can one ask for? For starters, one
can and should ask for a lot more than a mere story. The woman had
no evidence to prove her claim. She didn't bring back a magic selffilling fruit bowl or a lock of Jesus's hair for DNA analysis. (Who
knows? Maybe his DNA would have some sort of Bible code
imprinted on it or something.) She couldn't even produce a gold flake
from one of those shiny streets. As for her special ability to heal the
sick, she had not bothered to subject herself to a double-blind test conducted by independent researchers. This might have been able to confirm that she is able to magically heal people. It could have ruled out
chance, biased observations, and maybe the placebo effect. All she
was able to do, however, was tell a story. No evidence, just words.