I'm a hardcore atheist. But let's not discuss the truth or falsehood of God, but rather why I wouldn't even hope there is.

Religious people are often shocked to hear this. Many people's conception of God lies solely within hope itself.

IF there is a God, one of two things MUST be true:

A) God was the start and created the universe and ethics themselves. What is good and what is bad was solely upon God to decide.

B) What is Good and what is Bad existed as part of reality and God is bring those ethics with him upon his creation.

c*) (updated 3rd option: counter argument #3 [below]) Ethics are human made.

Most religious people get defensive at B. Probably because God would lose his title as highest power and be limited to constructs of the universe that made him.

Let's go to A. God made it all including the concept of Good and Evil.

Now we have a universe that some egotistical unknown entity "decided" what actions you take are correct and which are incorrect. You have been enslaved by this God. You may have free will, but you will still face his judgement and incorrect actions will bring you eternal horror.

Who in their right mind asks to be enslaved?

I am free. I just deal with the existential dilemmas of nihilism, but I am free.

Hoping for God is hoping for enslavement. A king that sets the rules and takes away our freedom.

​

UPDATE 8/31:

Ok I can't keep up with all the replies, but I've noticed they all say one of only a couple things So I'll get ahead of some of these arguments....

1. If you use the bible or bible verses, I counter with quotes from Harry Potter to prove that wizards are real.
2. "I have a limited view of God and what that means". If God has so many definitions, the word GOD is useless. Here's a word, "nslkdnfoe" I made it up and its super hard to pronounce. Its definition is anything you subjectively want it to be. Should we add it to the dictionary? No, because words are sounds that convey ideas from one person to another. If a word has multiple fluid meanings, its useless as it is not a sound that conveys an idea from one person to another.

When God was shown NOT to be a dude on a cloud (we created in his imagine) he just became more abstract and heaven was in the cosmos. We checked he wasn't there so now Heaven is another "dimension".

I'm not interested in chasing God into the semantics of the metaphysical. That's just human thought and word play.

By God I mean:

A. monotheistic

B. It is an entity

C. it is conscious

D. It had something to do with the creation of our reality

\*I'm letting us off the hook on "god creating humans in his image" since we proved that false way beyond a reasonable doubt with evolution. Also its paradoxical as we no longer view God as a dude on a cloud. So if he's abstract we were obviously NOT created in his image or we would be abstract interdimensional everywhere all the time floating looking things. So I'm generous here and not using that in the definition.*

​

1. Ethics are a Human construct.

Well, if God dictated the reality mechanics, its his construction.

If he allowed us to navigate freely with free will and we just came up with the system of morality, we will still have to settle for his decision of what afterlife is.

If God simple created us and walked away from the universe, that's within my definition as well, however, at this point whether I live in a universe with or without God seems to have no different outcomes. In which case, I'm still justified in picking the universe without God, cuz the choices are equivalent.

​

PS, I've done things Id consider bad, not evil, but I've made mistakes. The parental God did not scold me, or do anything that I could see. He doesn't talk to me. If he's real, he's so quiet I can't see the difference with or without him.

People tell me I'll see when I get to the afterlife, but I've noticed almost all (I think all) of those people are people that are not dead so could not know. So I'm having trouble trusting their call.

*If you are dead and from the afterlife, please correct me.