I have had more than my fair share of attempts by Christians to convert me into a god-believer.  I am constantly told that I am an idiot for not using my common sense in realizing that all of this that we see around us could not just come by chance – someone must have created it all.  I am even told that I could not be here if it was not for this god that Christians worship.  However, is it really true that I am an idiot in rejecting the concept of god?

First of all, let me make one very important point – there is the possibility that there may be an entity (or entities) out there that may be far more powerful than us humans.  However, I cannot logically accept the Christian god.  This is the god that is supposed to be timeless, space-less, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, logical, and personal and everything else.  Such a god simply could not exist.  Why?

It is not that one has to search all over this vast universe of ours to find god, and not finding him (or her) one can then say that such a god could not exist.  One only has to look within this god.  If it is that this god of the Christians (or the god of the Rastafarians, and may others) can be shown to be contradictory and not coherent, then I can always laugh at Christians when they try to convince me that their god is real.  But how can this god be contradictory?

By now, most of us would have heard that the Universe was not always here.  Most of us are now familiar with the “Big Bang” theory, which attempts to explain the origins of the Universe.  In short, according to this theory, the universe (including all space and time) began with a massive explosion about some fifteen to twenty billion years ago.  Now, since the universe was not always here, it had to have a beginning of some sort.  Christians have seized upon this great news, as it seems to confirm that since the universe had a beginning, someone must have started it all – namely their god.

However, I am at a loss as to how this “fact” could help the Christian cause.  In fact, I think that, if the universe began to exist, then it is the worse news for the Christian.  How?  Firstly, we must remember that what is being proposed for the cause of the universe’s beginning is a theory.  I would want to caution the Christian apologist into rushing to accept what has not yet been solidly established.  However, there are worse problems for the “god created the universe” concept.

Let’s take it for granted that the theory is solidly established, with no problems.  Remember that the theory said that the universe began to exist.  It also said that time and space began to exist with the beginning of the universe.  Now is it I alone who sees it, or isn’t there a clear problem here for god?  If time began to exist at the start of the universe, then there was no time and space before the universe.  If, on the other hand god existed before the universe, then how could he have created it?  Indeed, how could he have done anything?  Don’t see it yet?

You see, when anyone, even god, does anything, he needs time to do it.  If I do anything, I require an instance of time to do it.  However, before the universe, there was no time.  If there was no time, how could god create the universe, which required some instance of time to do it?  Indeed, how could god do anything without time?  If god is timeless, then clearly, he must be immutable, and if he is immutable there is no way that he could have done anything.  He could not even lift his finger; much less create this universe of ours.

I am also told that this god is eternal, an infinite entity.  Yet we are also told that the universe is not eternal, but a finite entity.  Again, is it just I or doesn’t anyone yet see that the beef is missing from the burger?  How can god, an infinite entity, fit into our finite universe?  How can I fit more than twelve into two?  It’s simply not possible for an infinite entity such as god to exist within our finite universe.

However, the Christian will respond by saying that his god “transcends” the inside and outside of the universe.  However, this is a fantastic claim to make – to say that something exists outside of our universe.  How can anyone be so sure that this claim is true?  Can anyone check if something really exists outside of our universe?  To make the claim that god exist outside of our universe is the same as saying that he exists outside of our reality, as the universe is our reality.  No one can safely make this claim.  Why?  Because, we simply cannot go outside of our reality.  Also, infinity does not exist within our reality and god is an infinite entity.

However, this could not be.  If anything exists outside of our reality – it’s not real.  We have absolutely no evidence whatsoever that anything exists outside of this universe.  Anyone who makes the claim that there is something outside of our universe must provide some evidence.  It’s not good enough to just make the claim and then leave it at that.

Since we have no evidence to say, for sure, that something exists outside of the universe (and outside of our reality), then we are forced to confine what exists to be of and inside of this universe (and our reality).  And since our reality is finite, an infinite entity like god simply could not exist.

However, let’s assume that the Christian god could have overcome these contradictions.  In some strange way, he managed to create our universe without time and he somehow manages to be eternal, albeit in our non-eternal universe.  Fine.  We are told that he can do anything and yet, at the same time he knows everything.  Again, there are impossibilities here.

If god can do anything, then it means that nothing is impossible for him.  On the other hand, if he knows everything, then he knows the past, present and future.  The future is what is important here.  If he knows the future, then he knows all future actions that he himself must do.  He knows the future actions that may or may not happen.  Logically and by extension, he knows the future actions that will and shall happen.  If he knows those future acts that he must do, then there is no way that he can avoid doing them.  Being in this dilemma, god is forced to do what he knows he must do.  If he is thus forced to do his future actions, there are some future things he can’t do (the ones that would not have happened).  Therefore, it is not true that he can do anything and everything.

This restriction of his future actions also strikes at another of his supposed attributes – his freewill.  An all-powerful entity such as this god must be free, but, as I just demonstrated, his knowledge of the future means that he knows that he is not free.  Indeed, the god that Christians worship is worse than a slave.  His future actions are set and he knows it.

Now some people reading this will say that even though god’s future actions are fixed, it is god himself who determines his future actions.  However, this only re-enforces my point.  The very act of him controlling his future acts is itself set.  It’s like trying to figure out which comes first – the chicken or the egg?  God, being infinite, would have no time to do anything, except trying to figure out if his future actions control him or if it is he who controls his future actions.

Finally, we must look at the practicality of the Christian god.  You know, for as long as man can remember, he has been trying to find convincing proof that there is a god.  What good is god if we cannot relate to him or him to us?  If there is a god, he sure knows how to play hide and seek.  He seems to be totally indifferent and irrelevant as far as us humans are concerned.  If he did create everything around us, he has surely done a good job of making it appears that he doesn’t exist.  So even if this god does exist, for all practical purposes, he does not.

Of course, I could on and on with other reasons as to why god could not exist.  However, I think that what I have said will suffice.  With all of this said, I am thoroughly convinced that god as presented by Christians could not exist and therefore does not exist.  It is clear, that Christians have been wasting their time worshiping something that really isn’t there to begin with.  This may be more than too much for the Christian, but it is the truth.  However, there may be one consolation – a god may exist, however if he did, it is highly unlikely that Christians would recognize him.