Expert: Clint - 7/18/2011

Question
hello sir,i'm 20 years old male and i pretty much believe that god exists but i only say this because the reason i have heard about his existence came from religious guys which convinced me that there is some BEING controlling everything.i still haven't heard the point of view of an atheist yet.the explanation i was given was that since everything(car ,fan ,house,mobile,etc) was made by someone(in this case human beings),how is it possible that this world came to existence on its on.but the thing i'm confused about is if he exist why doesn't he show himself.even for this question i was given explanation but i wasn't satisfied.the other thing i'm confused about is if he really exist then which religion represent true god.

Answer
It just don't make sense does it? But you don't have to make sense of something to believe in it, you just have to have faith. And if you accept faith over reason, you can believe anything. It's a decision you have to make, convince yourself it's all true or at least doubt and ask questions. Myself, I believe in the natural and physical world instead of magic and fantasy.

How did the world come to existence on it's own? That's a good question but can you tell me how God came to exist on it's own? If something complex has to be made by something even more complex in order to exist, then God had to be made by something even more complex than it. And something even more complex had to create that, and so on to infinity. Unless maybe everything that exist has just always existed in the first place, without any creator.

Growing up the only explanation I was given as to why 'he' don't show himself is because if we looked at him we'd immediately die. Silly I know, but a that age it was convincing. Then when I got older I was simply told that these kinds of questions were wrong to ask and to do so was a blasphemous sin. There's something wrong when the only explanation they can give is "you can't ask questions or else you're a bad person and we won't like you." How can you possibly believe in something they have to threaten you to not question? Something so fantastic and powerful should hold up on it's own under questioning, or so that's what I believe. Basically God doesn't show himself because you shouldn't ask why.

As for which religion represents the true God; which ever one you want to convince yourself does. You can find comfort and meaning in anything that comforts you, including believing in yourself and nature through reason and logic. I believe in questions, curiosity and mysteries for which I have no answer that I don't make up.