Read the book “Wasting Time on God”
by Paulo Bitencourt
Preface
When the dear reader has finished reading this sentence, close your eyes and slowly say three times: “Know”.
Incredible as it may seem, believers in God consider atheists arrogant. Incredible because it doesn’t take a genius to realize that the truth is the opposite. Atheists supposedly are arrogant because they supposedly deny the existence of God, even though they know he exists. Well, it’s impossible to deny the existence of what one knows exists. Therefore, atheists don’t deny the existence of God. Atheists just don’t believe in God. After all, why should they? Believing is not knowing. Believing may be satisfying for some, but it’s not for others. When searching for God, atheists not only find no evidence of his existence but even find evidence of his nonexistence. And when they analyze the arguments of those who claim to have found God, atheists perceive their flaws, incoherences, discrepancies and illogicalities.
Believers don’t know if God exists. That is why they have belief. That is why they have faith. That is why they have hope. Yet, they say they know. They build temples, knock on doors, write books and magazines, talk on the radio, television and internet, evangelize in other countries, promise protection, cure, prosperity, eternal life and a mansion of gold. Some even threaten with torture in a lake of fire and brimstone those who don’t believe in God, or believe in a different version. Others go so far as to blow themselves up near those who don’t believe in God, or believe in a different version.
Who, then, is arrogant: those who don’t know if God exists or those who don’t know if God exists and nevertheless say they know?
As one can see, not believing in God is the purest humility.
Since being an atheist is nothing more than having no reasons to believe in God, it’s impossible for an atheist to convert a believer to Atheism. Disbelief has no content. If it has no content, it has no doctrines. If it has no doctrines, it has no teachings. If it has no teachings, Atheism is not a philosophy, nor an ideology and much less a religion. Replace “Atheism” with “lack of belief in God” and it becomes evident that calling Atheism a religion is ridiculous. Atheism is only a “thing” because Theism is common and many people find it disturbing not to believe in God. No one considers not believing in Santa Claus a philosophy, ideology or religion, since not believing in Santa Claus is the standard attitude of all people over five years old. Consequently, there is no need for a word like Asantaclausism, since there is no Santaclausism to contrast. Atheists simply explain why they don’t believe in God, and these explanations lead some believers to reflect. At most, what occurs is a self-conversion to logic, reason and coherence: the believer acknowledges that there are no reasons to believe in God.
If the dear reader is a believer, my objective is not to convince you to stop believing in God. It’s as if someone had asked me: “Paulo, why don’t you believe in God?” or “Do you have something against the belief in God?”. The answer is this book.