Originally Posted by
GAMEchief
This is a common question asked to atheists by theists. I typed up this response for another, but figured I'd stimulate discussion here while I'm at it.
Things I "knew" at the time (of being Christian):
1) Evil exists in the world.
2) God is real.
I decided that a moral, omnipotent, omniscient god cannot allow evil. It just can't. I think that's contradictory. We, as humans, hold ourselves to higher standards than apathy. It's not an admirable quality to allow evil. So, I now knew this:
1) Evil exists in the world.
2) The god I believed in did not exist exactly as I had believed (all of omniscient, omnipotent, and moral).
3) God was either not: A) omniscient, B) omnipotent, C) moral, or D) non-existent.
A god that can stop evil but doesn't know about it, doesn't know about you, doesn't know about your attempted communication with or worship of it, in no way deserves worship.
A god that knows there is evil but can't stop it is not a god.
A god that both knows about and can stop evil but doesn't is immoral. That god is below me, and I think anyone who thinks otherwise is belittling the human race to lower than what they proclaim their religion teaches. Do right. Stop evil. That is what we as a society do. That is what we as people should do. That is not what god is doing. A god that is morally inferior to people is not a god worth worshipping.
And, of course, lastly, I settled with there simply isn't a god.