About 5% of the people in the world say there is no God. According to the Pew Forum, the atheist population has been increasing at about 220% in America. In an effort to understand atheists and this modern day movement I've started to ask some tough questions. One of the first that came to my mind was, is there a way to know that there is no God? I'm talking about moving beyond belief into concrete testable knowledge. After digging through the different possibilities I've come to the conclusion that there is no way to know if there is no God. Let me explain my reasoning.
The tactic I chose to test this against was to take the situations we could know if there was a God and see how these situations would play out if there wasn't one. I'm not talking about the situations where we would believe there is a God but actually know it.
Gone When We Are Dead
The first situation that came to my mind, and I'm sure many others are the same way, was meeting God when we die. This is a situation that many of the worlds religions claim happens. It's a situation that, if it were to happen, would bring us face to face with God. This would move us beyond belief.
What would happen if there was no God? Well, we wouldn't just not come face to face with God. If we simply die and cease to exist than we no longer exist to even know if there is no God. So, in this situation our question is not answered.
If we move to a different form of reality, as some like the gnostics talk about, and we don't meet God that does not mean that God is not out there. The question is still left unanswered. We may believe or not but we still won't know.
Can't Reveal Himself
A common method, according to religious scriptures and faithful believers in religion, is that God reveals himself to the person. One such situation that I recently read about was when Moses sat in a tent with God and they had a conversation. That is the kind of revealing many of us wish would happen to us in our lives.
If there is no God this situation can't happen. If there is no God there is no one to reveal himself to us. Our question is still left unanswered.
Science, Science, Science
After looking at these two situations where we can know there is a God and seeing what would happen in there is no God I decided to test other avenues.
Science for me is a strong hobby. I'm an engineer which is essentially an applied scientist. Since I was a kid science was always something on my mind. So, I asked myself, can science ever prove there is no God?
The simple answer is no. Science can't tell us if there is no God. Science deals with nature, the universe, the environment, and all this stuff around us. If there is a creator of that it would be outside of the system that was created. This means that science is not capable of testing, measuring, or working it's processes on such a being. God would be outside the scope of science.
Conclusion
I'm left with the realization that we can't know if there is no God. There is no situation in life where we would know the answer. There is no way our best science can tell us. Anyone who says there is no God is making a statement of belief. A statement they will never know the answer to.
Atheism isn't a belief, it
Atheism isn't a belief, it is a lack of belief. It means without theology. Some people (atheists included) act as if it is a religion or structured belief system itself, it's not.
Faith is by definition an unproved hypothesis. If it could be proved or disproved (known), it wouldn't be faith. So, faith is based on a lack of knowledge, and atheism is a lack of faith. We're all stumbling around in the dark, looking for answers, and either path can lead to wisdom or ignorance.
It's all a matter of whether you try to ask questions, or to state facts.
Not Exactly
This seems more like a conversation of semantics. There are really two things here. There is belief and there is faith. There is an old saying that says, "Even the devil believes in God." To believe something to be true or false and to have faith in someone is different and I think that can often be downplayed.
But, here is how it pertains to this conversation. Athiesm isn't a matter of lack of belief. Being agnostic is when people aren't sure of belief. Atheism is a firm belief that there is no God. If someone says they aren't sure if there is a God or not they are not an atheist, by definition. That would make them an agnostic. Atheism is a belief that there is no god.
Beliefs aren't just for religions. Everyone has beliefs.
Then there is faith. Atheists have a lot of faith. I find it rare to find or hear of an atheist who doesn't have some basis for their stance that there is no god. They have faith in the people who help formulate their stance. They do have faith in others.
I'm just trying to point out that there is faith and belief all around is in the world and in many places that aren't religious.
When you refer to faith being needed in light of a lack of knowledge I think you are referring to what is often called blind faith. This is something that does happen and I'm not a fan of at all. From a religious angle I can even justify that scriptural writings like the bible tell us not to have blind faith.
That being said, there are things we are just not going to know in our lifetimes. So, we have to operate in that world.
On the flip side let's look at a little faith and belief from an Atheist. Dawkins, the famous evolutionary biologist, has said that we don't know how life began on Earth. But, he believes that it began somehow. There is a belief. He doesn't have information and his theories don't have a foundation.
Faith and belief are part of our lives and are all around us. For the Christian, for the agnostic, for the atheist, and for every person in the world.