In modern societies we have laws, courts, and police. These are responsible for keeping people from doing bad things. Religion didn't do a great job on this task, partially because people people find amazing ways to justify evil through religion and partially because religions tend to ban all sorts of things which aren't evil, such as eating shellfish or owning dogs.
Isn't the concept of Heaven and Hell in Religion nothing more than "right" and "wrong"? Religion offers up a sense of punishment and reward as a way of helping convincing us which path would be best chosen.
Isn't that why the formation of religion took place to begin with because for most accepting their was more to life than the grim black abyss of nothingness? I can tell you a story of a atheist teacher he was always happy to push his religion onto his students as would any other atheist zealot of his caliber. The funny part if the religious zealot and atheist zealot both have alot in common. They both think it is beneficial to push their religion down your throat every avenue they get because they both think they have all the answers. This is otherwise known as self persecution. Go figure a atheist nailing himself to the same cross as a religious zealot for the betterment of mankind! Ironic and funny. With that on a personal note. I do believe in God but I don't think it is a requirement to tithe or goto church. God does not want us to make a huge spectacle of our beliefs because our actions will be what attracts others to our beliefs. My belief is just that I don't feel it necessary to shove my religion down someones throat or require it of them for a friendship. As anyone knows and that learns from the mistakes of the past, atheism vs religion has brought us wars, death and will be the ultimate destruction of us if we don't just accept one another for just what we are. I refer it to as an awakening where mankind can move together as a whole and stop with the hatred of one another. Saying the Bible is absolutely myth is simply not true many of the landmarks in the Bible are being unearthed by archaeologists today but then again taking the Bible for its literal interpretation is just as bad. When you study the time period when believers where writing and circulating each chapter down on papyrus you get the feel their was a awakening occurring. Soon after the catholic church banned all other teachings calling them heresy except for their selected books. That is when they started burning "heretics" at the stake to their own demise. They will never fully recover from what the founding catholic church leaders did and rightly so. That awakening of when the each chapter was first being wrote is what we need to get back to. The whole good vs evil well just look at the Nazis and the killing of 6 million Jews, how much more proof do you want that their is evil in this world.
Probably one of the most over asked questions on the subject. I like this set of explanations which are both Biblical and Logical http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/673-who-made-god
What evolved and became nature has a persuasion that possibly could differ so the answer would be the same for the present Creator as any other as the one having the greatest perpetual existence based on knowledge over time. The present one if not the original definitely has a vested interest in accommodating whatever may infringe on the present and states quite clearly a warning for the attempt.....if that is your purpose. .
Science can never prove the existence of Allah. Because Allah has given humans a limited knowledge and limited way of thinking. But Allah is all knowing.
^^ so why doesn't Allah show himself? Why is he hiding behind "prophets"? Is he a Coward? Who created Allah?
Science isn't very useful for proving things that aren't true. Don't blame Allah -- your bad thinking is your own responsibility. You reject both fact and reason, the two pillars of good thinking.
Do Atheists have some sort of Faith? Because its faith that drives all the religious people. And i guess its by faith that they believe that there is no God.
I suspect most Atheists will tell you their beliefs are grounded only in science, though that continues to be debatable.
Atheists, in general, believe there is no God because no evidence of the existence of a God has been discovered. There could be a dozen ancient Achaean warriors in the room with me right now. Should I believe that they exist, even though there is no evidence for their existence? It seems to me that everything requires some amount of faith. The human brain works with a lot of fuzzy logic and is seems to me that the word "faith" is sometimes used to describe fuzzy logic. "Atheism, because it requires less faith" is just a bit too complicated for a good slogan.
Just as the Deity that expelled them needs no more to do with them either - let them rest in Peace. There is no real religious text is the problem of the religious that defers them to a limited existence rather than using their own eyes that would lead them eventually to their opportunity of an everlasting goal. The garden is the physical presence of God and is the visual beginning to life.
Memenode recommended a TED presentation by Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions. The presentation is mostly for weak-willed liberal-left atheists and agnostics, but it does address some of the concerns posted in this thread by aggressive Islamists. I can't agree with everything in the presentation, but he does cover some of the basics fairly well.
Here's Sam Harris again, in a blog debate with Dennis Prager: What are Atheists So Angry? Prager embarrasses himself in the debate, which makes Sam's job far too easy.