

I am often surprised and frustrated by willful ignorance, and the worst of all these offenses is the willingness to believe in god. These instances are the awfulest, silliest, most damaging beliefs because they distort reality, create an environment in which we are inclined to believe lies, and lead us to debate whether or not we should teach our children things we should know aren’t true.
The only people who tell me there is a god are people, never god.
A strident Christian angrily told me once, “I believe the Holy Spirit will found you somehow.” Despite this, most Muslims stay Muslim, Hindus stay Hindu, Jews stay Jewish.
Somebody commented on my social media note “I am an Atheist” that atheism is an “epistemological nightmare,” but did not explain why, and I’d like to hear why.
“Yeah! Atheism is bullspit! Whoo! USA!”
“You reject fact based evidence that proves what you believe is erroneous, you refuse to use an objective lens, and you choose to believe false data because it confirms your bias.” ~Social media friend who believes in god and miracles.
Some of this entry stems from another “proof of god” link floating around the webbernets, “Seven Things that Prove God is Real.” Here is the list…
- Babies
- Thunderstorms
- Flowers
- The Bible
- The Global Spread of Christianity
- Jesus
- Personal Relationship with God
With claims like this, I know the faithful will be inspired by this image…

It shows the beautiful light of god drawing a saved soul into heaven.
Or.
I made it by mowing a gopher mound. Oops.
It is both generous and blameful to call all this reasoning childish, but it is not false.
Okay, if you insist, point by point…
- Babies. Sure, we all think babies are beautiful, particularly when they are our own. To me, that speaks very directly toward evolution, not god. We are wired by evolution to love, protect, and nurture babies because that’s how evolution works. Safe, loved, nurtured babies grow up to successfully reproduce, the goal of evolution.
- Thunderstorms. Aside from their obvious meteorological causes, what about the ones that spawn tornadoes and kill people? (Note: if it was not you, kneel and thank god for his mercy.) Thunderstorms are well-understood, and arise from demonstrable forces, not magic.
- Flowers. This is another splendid, and very well-studied and well-proven, example of evolution in action. You appreciation of their beauty is, by the way, also a direct result of evolution.
- The Bible. This one is always thrown out there as evidence, but the Bible is best-dismissed due to its circular reasoning: the Bible is the word of god. How do we know? Because the Bible says it is so. But why believe the Bible? Because it is infallible. But how do we know that? Because the Bible is the word of god. Also, the Bible is intensely self-contradictory and historically inaccurate, so much so that it’s insulting to an educated person. Read an in-depth review of the Bible here (link), unless you are offended by truth.
- The global spread of Christianity. This is a logical fallacy argumentum ad popular, or “appeal to popularity.” This is also, by the way, an argument in favor of Islam, which is also spreading globally.
- Jesus. This argument is married to the Bible argument, because it is a self-affirming myth. “Love our messiah or go to hell” is one of the least compelling reasons to believe something.
- Personal relationship with god. This one is the least “proof” argument of the bunch, because by definition it can’t be demonstrated or falsified.
Sometimes the argument comes down to “There is something we cannot prove, and we can prove it.” Faith itself is fundamentally flawed. This is embarrassing, people. You don’t even know what the word “proof” means. The only people who tell me there is a god are people.
I happen to think the “lean not upon your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5) isn’t just dismissible, it’s a brilliantly evil form of mind control. Don’t think. Don’t question. Just obey. You are a four year old. You are a puppy.
In the middle of all of this, I happened to watch a YouTube video by popular sceptic/devbunker Thunderf00t called, “Why do people laugh at Creationists (Part 44)“, calling out Ken Hamm’s $100M Ark Encounter not only as the fraud and tax cheat that it is, but for the ridiculous tale it espouses.
The basic Christian salvation narrative goes like this: Jesus was made man, died a brief, terrible death, was dead for about two days, then came back to life and has been in heaven from that day to this one, and will be forever. I talked about this before, but I am still waiting for anyone to explain to me how this is a sacrifice of any kind. Bottom line: god gave his only son so he could be in heaven forever.
Another dude seemed trivially concerned for me, saying, “So sorry Richard! Better hope your [sic] right! Jesus is the only way!”, which several readers dismissed as “arrogant and rude,” which it is. But to address his point, if Jesus is the “only way” (to be saved, I guess), does that mean that every American Jew who died storming the beaches of Normandy in 1944 is in hell now and forever? Every Jewish cop and firefighter who died trying to save lives on 9/11 is in hell now and forever?
I got this next pearl of wishful thinking from Beliefnet…

The web site claims, as it should, to have found “shocking proof of god’s existence.” Do I even need to debunk this for my adult readers? Children believe anything we shove down their tiny throats.
Sometimes I think sites like this must surely be false flag arguments secretly designed to debunk the deity myth. I mean, they can’t be serious, right?
Yet another Christian troll tried to tell me that atheism is a religion, which I have heard my entire adult life. Though widely and thoroughly debunked, the willfully ignorant still hide behind it. Atheism is a religion the same way that not collecting stamps is a hobby.
I LOVE this entry. Well done. Some thoughts:
“Sure, we all think babies are beautiful…” — I don’t. At least half the babies I’ve ever seen seem ugly to me. Oddly formed, helpless, useless. And X percent of them will grow up to be criminals, some of them horrific criminals. A significant percentage of them will grow up to believe nonsense and vote for theocratic-leaning Texas politicians, thus making life worse for everyone who lives here.
“Thunderstorms” — ah, yes, the vengeful God trope. Weird how his vengefulness is entirely more likely to flip over a mobile home than a brick house. What does God have against trailer parks? (Note: I currently live in a trailer park.)
“The Bible” — thanks for the shout-out (link to my review)! The Bible is absurd, as you say. If the Bible is proof of God’s existence, then the god it supposedly proves is one messed-up half-wit.
“The global spread of Christianity” — Christians always forget/ignore that their religion’s period of fastest spread was when they were using the sword and threats of death to do it. Just like Islam. And ever since, they’ve spread via childhood indoctrination.
“Jesus” — The guy who bags my groceries? I definitely believe in him. He smiles every time and separates my frozen items from my laundry detergent. Good guy.
“Sometimes I think sites like this must surely be false flag argument secretly designed to debunk the deity myth. I mean, they can’t be serious, right?”
YES! I’ve come across so many Christian websites that are EXACTLY what I’d design and write if my purpose was to make Christians look like idiots. Poor design. Extremely bad grammar and spelling. Non sequiturs all over the place. “Jesus is God because I had tacos yesterday!” See how much proof that is? I find the same thing with a lot of conservative (politically regressive) websites though. If they’re TRYING to look bad, they’re succeeding.