It has been a roller coaster with me, regarding my faith (or lack thereof). On one hand, I absolutely, positively, want to believe that there is a God, a Heaven, a Hell...you know...SOMETHING other than this life. I WANT to believe that...but my scientific mind will not allow it. I've danced back and forth between complete atheism and agnosticism over the past few years.
When I'm feeling agnostic, my beliefs tell me that if there IS a God out there, He isn't some omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, omnicompetent deity. Omnibenevolence brings up the philosophical "problem with evil." I believe that some evil is necessary in order for people to actually witness good things, as well as commit true acts of courage and kindness, and show compassion. Moral and natural evils MAY BE necessary for good to exist in the world, but what about gratuitous evil? Gratuitous evil can be defined as "unnecessary pain" or "pain for no conceivable reason." Some say that gratuitous evil is impossible to differentiate from regular ol' moral evil. I'd argue that the Holocaust was a gratuitously evil event. Was it REALLY necessary for God to allow 6 million (maybe MORE) Jews to be killed to make a point? To quote the famous philosopher David Hume: "Is He (God) willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is impotent. Is He able but not willing? Then He is malevolent. Is He both able and willing? Whence then evil?"
The evidential problem with evil states: 1) If God exists, then there is no gratuitous evil; 2) It is likely that there are instances of gratuitous evil; 3) Therefore, it is likely that no God exists.
That is about as far into the philosophical side as I care to go at the moment. I guess the point I am trying to make is that this isn't something I take lightly. I have come to my own conclusions based off of years of independent research and soul searching. And these are not conclusions that I have come to easily. My lack of belief has been a spiritual tug-of-war, and it has been painful. But I have gotten to a point now where I am comfortable with my beliefs (or lack thereof), and am willing (and able) to back them up if I have to. Always respectfully, of course.
I respect those who believe in God, Heaven, and all that. Religion and spirituality do many good things for many people. I don't respect people like Harold Camping, who seemingly only want to take your money and scare the shit out of everybody. I don't respect the ones that try to shove it down my throat. We have an infestation of Mormons here in Southern California who love to interrupt you while you're eating dinner. Hell, I'll be on campus grabbing a quick bite before my next class, and they'll just plop their pompous asses down right beside me and start preaching. I tell them I don't believe, I'd like to be left alone as I only have 15 minutes before my next class...but they continue. So usually I just tell them to go to Hell, which always gets me a nice reaction.
Sorry for the rant. Just wanted to give a little insight into the atheistic/agnostic side of things.
