I am an atheist. I don’t believe in any god, but important to distinguish that this doesn’t mean I believe there is no god. It’s epistemologically impossible to prove a negative.
I follow this general line of thinking:
> If there is a god, I have never seen him interact with or influence the world around me. In the sense I’ve never seen anything that I consider paranormal.
> If this is the case it leaves open the possibility that any “god” must be playing by our “rules”. That is to say “he” either deployed the framework within which we live and operate (as a creator) but cannot influence that framework, or in some essence he “is” the framework (like Spinoza’s definition of an impersonal god).
> Therefore, if god exists and he can influence our world, I don’t see it. If he can’t influence our world but perhaps he created it, then he is somewhat inert and can have no meaningful impact on my life.
> Ergo we should live our lives in the way we think is right and not in a way which we think has been approved by some higher power.
If I get to the pearly gates one day and god meets me there, then I can say with hand on heart that I earnestly lived the way I thought best. And that if he truly created my mind and my way of thinking he must have known the lack of evidence of his existence would lead to the conclusions I have drawn. It was inevitable. And any decent god would see that belief must come second to virtue. Lest we think it is better to cynically believe and do evil than be sceptical but do tremendous good. Any god who disagrees with that would seem to me morally dubious. And if a god is morally dubious, engaging with that god on their terms would be a futile endeavour anyway.
