Question from a theist.

I will keep his identity anonymous because I am not really sure if he wants me to disclose his info but here you go.

"hey marco i have a few questions
i am at a point in my life where i am starting to question some things... mainly my faith... i am just confused and not really finding answeres to some of the questions that i am asking myself about god... i am at the stage where i want to believe there is a god but i am just doubting that there is one, i was wondering if u could help me a lil"

Well, not to long ago I was exactly where you are right now. I had a choice to make: I could either continue to believe in something for which I had no evidence and live my life believing things based on faith alone, or I start searching for the truth. I decided I really care about my beliefs and whether or not my beliefs are founded on facts and rational inquiry. I wont tell you to abandon your faith, it doesnt matter what I say to you, abandoning faith requires several steps and they have to be taken by one person only, they can only be taken by you. But trust me, you have nothing to be afraid of, the day I abandoned faith things started to become clearer and my world view improved. I will talk about that later though. First of all, I will never tell you that god doesnt exist because I simply do NOT know that, and such a statement would require tons of faith. What I can tell you is that the god depicted in the bible does not exist. I know this for a fact, I am currently reading the bible and there are many claims there that can be put to the test, and I have. Before we continue I think it is important for me to define atheism. Atheism IS NOT the belief that there is no god, like a said before, such position would require faith, atheism is the rejection of all the god claims. Atheism is simply the lack of belief, there is a BIG difference between saying "I dont believe that god exists" and saying "I believe that god doesnt exist". Atheism is the most rational approach to the god question, for many reasons. First of all, since we have no evidence that a god exists, and the possibility of a god existing is not enough to justify anything (in fact it is POSSIBLE that we were pooped by a universe making machine... its possible) we justify our beliefs with things that are actually probable. An all knowing, all powerful, loving deity is EXTREMELY unlikely, yes.. its possible for such a thing to exist, but its not likely enough to justify the belief and worship of a deity. But lets pretend for a second that deities are actually likely to exist; how do you know which god? Ho do you know which religion god it right? Keep asking yourself these questions, you will realize that your religion and your faith are nothing more than an accident of birth! You believe in the things that your parents believe in, and they believe in the things that their parents believe in too. Its not always true though, your grandparents may be christian and your parents may be catholic, but you never see muslim parents giving birth to christian christian children. We believe in the things that our parents believe in, evolution has programed us to learn from authority figures, the human being is extremely weak and helpless when he is young we need to learn things quickly, we dont have time to do trial and error with things like cliffs and electric sockets. Ask yourself, really think about this; Why do you believe in the specific religion that you believe in? Do you know the one thing that ALL religions have in common? Neither of em have ANY evidence to support their claims, its all based on faith. They could be right! But that doesnt mean you should believe. Since all major religions stand on pretty much the same evidentiary grounds... why not worship all gods? Why not pray three times a day every day facing mecca? Why not grow your facial hair, wear a turban, go to church on sundays, stay home and do nothing all day on saturdays, wear some funny underwear, sell all your belongings, meditate for two hours every day, reject technology etc etc JUST TO BE SURE? As far as we know, this life is the only life we have! Make sure you make the best of it, and if god exists and he really is a loving god... I really doubt he will punish you for being unable to believe in him. According to some believers he has revealed himself to millions! Why not you?!? You either believe or you disbelieve... You cannot for yourself to believe if you dont and you cannot force yourself to disbelieve in you do.. This is a lot to digest lol I will stop here so you can write back and tell me what you think. Feel free to ask me questions.