Is Atheism More Rational than Belief in God?

You're in a conversation and someone tells you that they don’t believe in God because they’re rational, and rational people only believe things that are supported by evidence. What would you say? Atheism is the belief that there is no God. One common atheistic critique of religious faith is that it requires belief in something that can’t be proven scientifically. Is it true that atheists only believe things that science can prove? No. And here are three reasons why. First, atheism requires us to believe that something came from nothing. Science tell us that something can’t appear out of nothing. Matter can’t suddenly appear out of a void. But galaxies, stars, planets, people, and animals exist. Everything we see came from somewhere. Atheists know that there was a beginning of the universe, but they deny that it was created. As a result, they are forced to claim that, at some point in the distant past, everything we see came from nothing. Not only is there no evidence to support this belief, everything we know from science tells us that’s not possible. Second, atheism requires us to believe that life came from non-life. Science also teaches us that something living can only come from something else that was living. A new tree can only come from a tree that is alive in the same way that a new cell can only come from an organism that is alive. Atheists acknowledge life exists, but by denying a creator, they are required to believe that, at some point in the distant past, a living thing came from something that wasn’t living. This has never been observed and everything we know about science tells us it’s not possible. Yet they believe it because their belief that there is no God requires them to. Third, atheism gives you no reason to trust your reasoning process. We trust our brains to engage in reason and logic and we use reason and logic to form opinions and beliefs. But ask yourself this. If our brains are the result of an evolutionary process, rather than design, what reason is there to believe your brain is capable of performing the task you have given it? For all you know, your brain is still 10 million years from being fully functional and rationally reliable. Atheism not only requires irrational beliefs, like life came from non-life, it also destroys the reason to believe anything is rational by undermining the credibility of our minds, the tool we use to reason. Regardless of your belief system, there are difficult questions that the limits of human knowledge don’t have great answers for. But the next time someone tells you that faith in God is irrational but atheism is rational, remember these three things. Atheism requires us to believe that something came from nothing. There is no evidence that this is possible. Atheism requires us to believe that life came from non-life. This contradicts everything science has ever taught us. Atheism requires you to trust your mind, but gives no reason why you should. An atheist wouldn’t trust a computer that was assembled at random, but they depend on a mind they believe was created by chance.