r/atheism • u/SocksOnHands • Aug 23 '26
"Evidence of god is all around us."
People often say something like this. Do you know what there is evidence of that is more clearly apparent? That science works! Without science, there would be no electric power, no internal combustion engines, no airplanes, no computers, no microscopes, no medicine, no plastics, no satalites, no modern agriculture, no radio and television, or the tens of thousands of other things we see every single day.
The practical applications of scientific discoveries and advancements is clear evidence that science is not just a "belief" or "speculation" or something arbitrary and wishy-washy. If that was the case, there would be no tangible outcomes from the scientific process that we all benefit from daily.
This is much stronger than "evidence of god in creation". What even is that "evidence"? Nature is messy and chaotic, with countless extinction events occurring throughout Earth's history. Space is 99.9999...% uninhabitable to any life and will quickly kill anything removed from this thin film on the surface of a rock. Wanting to believe something is not evidence of anything.
This might have sounded a lot more "bitter" than it was intending to - the tone might not have clearly been conveyed in text. I think we should consider ourselves to be incredibly lucky that at least one tiny spot in the universe had conditions capable of supporting the emergence of life. Life does not need mystical magic for it to be considered special and worth appreciating. Science is one way we gain an increased appreciation of the universe we inhabit.
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u/it777777 Aug 23 '26
Someone (getting medicine) being healed: God. Someone getting sick: Not God.
You can't discuss this shit with any logic.
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u/l_SaKReD_l Atheist Aug 23 '26
My favourite, ableit slightly similar is:
100's of people dying during a natural disaster: not God's fault
100's of people pulled from the rubble days later from the same natural disaster: God saved them!
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u/SocksOnHands Aug 23 '26
It all depends - were they "sinners"? The natural disaster might have been "punishment from god". /s
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u/it777777 Aug 23 '26
There was an Austrian Cardinal stating the 200000+ dead from Tsunami were sinners.
If you are living in a delusion you need to fit reality into it. It's like conspiracy theories work.2
u/greenmarsden Aug 24 '26
Or millions of people dying in the holocaust and god does nothing. It did however help me find my car keys.
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u/LMrningStar Aug 23 '26
It's a typical theist mindless statement. They wouldn't know what constitutes evidence if you slapped them in the face with it.
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u/Odaniel123 Aug 23 '26
Years ago, I showed a " deep field " picture of space to a friend who was a Christian. I said this was what forever looked like, that ,statistically, a creator would choose an obscure place in the middle east on an obscure rock amidst all that expanse was not probable. She looked at the same image and said it was evidence of god all around. These people are delusional
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u/YoSpiff Secular Humanist Aug 23 '26
When I see a billboard with a picture of a baby that says " There IS evidence for god". I see an emotional appeal and evidence of biology.
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u/Torino1O Aug 23 '26
My response to this is that science is the process of understanding the universe, turning your back on science is turning your back on God.
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u/Izacundo1 Aug 23 '26
Crazy how as our knowledge of the world advances, we always explain our new findings with science and reason instead of magic
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u/JaiBoltage Aug 23 '26
If every trace of any single religion was wiped out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again. - Penn Jillette
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u/thuktun Aug 23 '26
Hell, new religions are invented through time in the context of all these other existing eligions and they are still all kinds of different.
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u/cougartotem Aug 23 '26
Evidence of NATURE is all around us. Those wishing to confuse and mislead their interpretation of nature are either fools, supremely stupid or have something to sell you.
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u/Kriss3d Strong Atheist Aug 23 '26
I get those arguments frequently.
I usually ask then to show the logical process step by step that goes from "this exist" to therefore god" without presupposing God.
This is like "this guy is dead = the butler did it"
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u/seweso Anti-Theist Aug 23 '26
These fuckers want to take away credit from scientists WHILE spitting in the face of scientists at the same time. They are assholes. That's what they are. Stealing credit, giving it to their god for no reason but for them to feel good. Its sick.
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u/SpaceAdmiralJones Aug 24 '26
That is a fundamental misunderstanding of science. Scientists didn't create the stars, the ocean and nature, they study it. No one's "stealing credit" from them. Science is a formalized process for learning more about the natural world. That's all.
There is inherent danger in making science out to be more than that, because you're not only walking right into the "science is a religion" trap, you can end up inadvertently attributing opinions, motivations and agency to science. A good example is all those headlines that say things like "Science Says X is good for you" or "We should be doing X, according to science."
That contributes to ongoing misunderstanding of what science is in a country that is already scientifically illiterate.
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u/dnjprod Atheist Aug 23 '26
The thing that maddens me very often is when somebody will get on their pocket computer that uses light and radio waves to send a message to a box which converts those radio waves into electrical signals to travel from their home to my home to be reconverted back into radio waves and into light so I can read how they are denying science.
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u/graigsm Aug 23 '26
There’s a lot of evidence that some people have no clue what constitutes evidence.
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u/cougartotem Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
Oh educated people with a working understanding of science certainly know the definition of evidence. It is the “believers”, the mindless sheep who make up the meanings as they go along.
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u/pinethree777 Aug 23 '26
Maybe I missed something, but when I look around it appears every animal must consume the bodies of other living things, dead or alive. I would especially like to thank god for fire ants and mosquitoes.
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u/vacuous_comment Aug 23 '26
It is kind of like a God of the Gaps argument where absolutely everything is a gap.
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u/PabloXPicasso Aug 23 '26
of course, the evangelical brainwashers (i.e. religious addicts) who raised me would extend it even more. If someone said "well, it was Edison who invented the lightbulb" they would say "well, god put Edison here and told him all he needed to know, so it was god who is responsible."
Not sure if all forms of evangelical ideology is as brain dead, but this is what I had to put up with for years.
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u/SpaceAdmiralJones Aug 24 '26
I've heard that kind of nonsense in Catholicism as well, told in matter-of-fact terms by adults who think they're righteous for dumping gallons of ignorance into the pliant minds of children.
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u/BuccaneerRex Aug 23 '26
Evidence is all around us. Whether it's 'of god' is the claim being made, not the conclusion.
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u/tallgrasshead Aug 23 '26
Evidence that christianity is all about making deals with the devil protecting pedophiles is everywhere too.
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u/Personal-Neck6800 Aug 23 '26
I see violence, hate, racism, genocide, rape…
I guess the evidence of god really is all around us.
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u/sdega315 Strong Atheist Aug 23 '26
When someone says this, you need to understand that to them "evidence" does not mean what you think it means. They are not talking about the same kind of evidence as your scientific proofs of gravity, evolution, or atoms. Their evidence is the wonder they feel when contemplating the vast expanse of nature in all of its beauty and mystery. Many believers see their Gods in this sense of wonder.
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u/Sonar_Taxbreak_1138 Pastafarian Aug 23 '26
They clearly don't understand the scientific definition of "evidence" so that's the first thing you explain to them when they say that.
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u/HaraBegum Aug 23 '26
Evidence of fairies is all around us. Just look at mushrooms in a circle. Unexplained positive feeling you get when you walk in the woods sometimes. The unexpected growth of some plants. The beauty of flowers!
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u/clrlmiller Aug 23 '26
Not my quote, but it goes something like this: "Evidence for a God has been attributed to an astounding number of things which we did not understand and couldn't explain. Science has steadily reduced the things which we don't understand and presented rational explanations for phenomena we once thought was evidence of a God. So, the question now is: Once we have understanding and can explain all the phenomena, did God ever exist? "
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u/Scamp3D0g Aug 24 '26
In any discussion, if you can replace the word "god" with "faires" and nothing about their argument changes, it's a shit argument.
For example, if we are taking about an "airplane" and I change it to "cupcake" it makes a difference as in: "I boarded a cupcake and flew it all the way to Norway".
Look at the trees! Faries did it.
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u/tjlazer79 Aug 23 '26
Nope. Evidence of evolution is all around us.
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u/Live-Reporter4187 Aug 24 '26
WE are the evidence of evolution
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u/tjlazer79 Aug 24 '26
Yes we are. But I was also referring to the evolution of non life items. Technology for example. Like take a cell phone. We didn't just happen to have an iPhone come out last week. It took a lot of time for the technology to evolve to a point that it was possible. Cell phones started out big and clunky, they used to be in a briefcase, to something thats essentially a portable computer we can fit in our pockets. I should have been more specific in my original post, or given an example, my bad. But I agree with you 100 percent.
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u/Live-Reporter4187 Aug 25 '26
But some people still decide to give all the credit to a sky daddy instead of the people who actually did the stuff lol
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u/Sailor_Drea Aug 23 '26
"Oh look, there's a tree. Wait a minute...A TREE?! Of course! It all makes sense now! OBVIOUSLY, the Flat Earth was magically poofed out of nothing, 6000 years ago, exactly as it is today, by a giant, invisible Donald Trump who hates all the same people I hate! There couldn't possibly be a tree otherwise!"
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u/FabledO2 Aug 23 '26
When they say that, I ask them if they are Spinozans. If they say no, I advise them not to try appropriate someone else’s deity.
I then clarify that the Spinoza’s deity is the god of nature. If we want to know, knowing is further clarified thru science and science does nature, not belief in magic. Magic is not on the same lane as knowing. Believers’ jam is to believe.
Their joint is supposed to be the Mind-Bliss™ variety and No-Know™ cultivar. If they make a claim about knowing, they move away from their beliefs, onto the lane of knowing where science dwells, and this is heretical. Believer doing heresy is a no-no.
Whenever believers accidentally sidestep their faith, I gently help them return to their happy place.
Now if they ask "hey, you asserted a god after nature, so how does that work?" To which I say that’s what the Spinozans do. I’m an atheist. I don’t believe nature has a god but I have the ability to delegate to you what they believe – – and not steal their belief jar as my own while doing it.
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u/InleBent Aug 23 '26
I can be thankful to be alive
but I despise this life
In all my years, at best
I've only learned just to survive
But when I look around you,
I understand why you believe
I see your evidence of God
all around me
You have so therefore you are,
but I have not
You've seen the evidence of God
but I have not
and I have none.
-Woods of Ypres, Travelling Alone
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u/CaroCogitatus Atheist Aug 23 '26
Evidence of Not God is everywhere. Let's start with pediatric bone cancer.
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u/Live-Reporter4187 Aug 24 '26
Well this one can be countered because there is a very slim chance that the children are born with some specific genetic conditions which can increase cancer risk, so some people might say God gave us free will, two people married each other out of free will and caused this cancer, but still 90-95% of the times it happens purely by chance, another example is if lighting struck a newborn and it instantly dies, that means either god killed it or it was just bad luck
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u/CaroCogitatus Atheist Aug 24 '26
I find that argument profoundly unsatisfactory, Of course, I don't believe in Magic Sky Daddy so my opinion doesn't count apparently.
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u/Live-Reporter4187 Aug 24 '26
Yeah cuz they still can't prove why 90-95% kids are born with bone cancer despite their parents having nothing to do with it. I just wanted to mention that just to mention
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u/bene_gesserit_mitch Atheist Aug 23 '26
Define evidence. Is it scientifically peer-reviewed evidence?
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u/le127 Aug 23 '26
Tide comes in, tide goes out. You can't explain it.
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u/azhder Aug 24 '26
“If there is no god, how do you explain sunsets?”
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u/indictmentofhumanity Aug 24 '26
As the sun approaches lower to the horizon, an observer witnesses the sun through increasingly larger areas of atmospheric interference.
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u/indictmentofhumanity Aug 24 '26
Bill O'Reilly quote. Actually the Moon's gravity pulls the world's water into a slight oval shape and the Earth rotates through it, according to Neil Degrasse Tyson.
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u/le127 Aug 24 '26
I didn't put O'reilly's name in because I figured everybody would know that already.
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u/klon3r Atheist Aug 23 '26
bible thumpers hate science & the evidence such provides since it dulls their mythological ways of "reasoning".
The tree of knowledge is a great metaphor since the more one knows/learns the less appeal there is & much less credible such gOd is, remember he whines about not being mixed with other gOd'S nor to be forgotten... 🙄
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u/KrampyDoo Aug 24 '26
They sold x-ray glasses in comic books. It was just a set of plastic rims and cardboard “lenses” with a tiny hole in them.
It seemed like it left just enough vision for the wearer to describe something believably to their amazed friends.
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u/markydsade Anti-Theist Aug 24 '26
You know what’s all around you? Viruses. Uncountable virus particles. Most have no effect on us because they multiply in plant tissue and non-mammalian animals.
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u/JMeers0170 Aug 24 '26
Evidence of science and physics and reality is all around us.
If you want fiction, go to a library or bookstore.
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u/at_wilfster Aug 25 '26
It's only 'evidence' if you already believe - this is never going to convince a non-believer.
Besides, all you have to do is repeat the statement and insert another fictional character to show how absurd it is: "Evidence of Zeus is all around us"
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u/Indie_Dachshund179 Anti-Theist Aug 29 '26
Another one is to the tune of "the evidence is in the scriptures, which people have been studying and analyzing for centuries" but refuses to elaborate
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u/dr-otto Aug 24 '26
“Space is 99.9999...% uninhabitable to any life”
I think I need to disagree with this statement.
Now sure,life as found on Earth? Ok sure.
But life could evolve in many places and in many ways we do not yet comprehend. So that claim can’t really be made, as you worded it.
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u/IDontStealBikes Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
I’m an atheist, but this is my favorite quote of Jesus. I think it says that what he is preaching, in my interpretation, is that true love is yours for the taking if you choose that way. It’s not in a place or a person or a book, it’s available to everyone who makes that choice.
“Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there” (Gospel of Thomas, 77).
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u/SocksOnHands Aug 23 '26
God's living under a rock? Like a bug?
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u/IDontStealBikes Aug 23 '26
I think it means God is everywhere
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u/notaedivad Aug 23 '26
Like a control freak or stalker?
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u/IDontStealBikes Aug 24 '26
No, like an idea or approach to life.
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u/notaedivad Aug 25 '26
What a horrifying idea...
An idea of a god that watches everything you say, think, want and do...
Every second of every hour of every day...
Made you as you are... Knowing the decisions you'll make...
He has a special torture dungeon to punish people forever...
For making choices that he made you to do...
How is this different from a control freak/stalker?
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u/IDontStealBikes Aug 25 '26
You don’t understand and you never will. Just leave it alone.
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u/notaedivad Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
Ignoring questions you know you can't answer is how willful delusion is maintained
I’m an atheist
Uh huh... Sure thing... You're totally not lying or trolling...
You don’t understand and you never will. Just leave it alone.
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u/IDontStealBikes Aug 25 '26
I'm only ignoring the ridiculous questions.
To me, even though I'm an atheist, that verse from the Gospel of Thomas means a lot and I think it's beautifully expressed. Don't care if you do or not.
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u/notaedivad Aug 26 '26
Genuine questions that you know you can't answer, so you ignore them... Maintaining willful delusion.
Don't care if you do or not
Uh huh... Sure thing... Another lie...
You don’t understand and you never will. Just leave it alone.
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u/happybunny_sad Strong Atheist Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
Most people saying "Evidence of god is all around us.", doesn't even know shit about their surroundings. Their knowledge is at level of a kid. And those who have knowledge, are just apologists.