I don’t need a reason not to believe in God anymore than I need a reason not to believe in Shiva, Kali, Zeus, Minerva, unicorns, moon women, ESP, and any number of other ridiculous propositions. Belief requires positive evidence. There is no evidence that supports the belief in God. Not knowing the answer to a scientific question is not an excuse for positing the existence of a supernatural being. Ignorance is not evidence. What we are given by our senses, which is our only source of knowledge, is that the universe exists. By definition, the universe encompasses all that exists. If there were some omnipotent being, he would be part of the universe. That makes the question of how the universe got here nonsensical. You can’t get outside existence, stand inside the Void, and ask how Nothing was able to produce Something. If it is sufficient for God to account for himself by saying “I am,” then it is sufficient to account for the universe by saying, “It is.” The universe has the distinct advantage over God of being observable and knowable by all Men. We don’t need Faith to believe in the universe. We are all of us in direct contact with it. By contrast, those who claim knowledge of God base it on a subjective experience that is available only to them. If I were to recognize that sort of claim as valid, then I would be leaving my mind open to any arbitrary assertion any self-proclaimed prophet wanted to make.
That’s not to say that I think the children of religious people should be force-fed evolutionary theory. If people want to try to hobble their children’s minds with a brainless, literal interpretation of the Bible, I think they should have that right. To that purpose, I support privatizing education, and letting each person choose to which school they wish to send their children. We can let the marketplace–a kinder, gentler version of natural selection–determine which theory has greater value.
