QUESTION No. 23 SUNDAY September 20, 2026
Q. What is the best argument for not believing in God?
For most of my life, when asked, "Do you believe in God?" I reflexively answered, "Yes."
But to be honest, I’d never really sat down and thought about it. I said Yes because I was raised Catholic and that meant I believed in God.
And I never stopped to question it.
Of course I believed in God.
Didn’t I?
"But I trust in you, Lord; I say, 'You are my God.'"
- Psalm 31:14
But when I finally and purposefully sat down and asked myself that same question, the answer did not make itself known. The answer only became more questions. Then more questions on top of that.
Who is God?
Where is God?
Does this God know me?
What does it mean to believe?
How do I know if I believe?
.....
There is a broad consensus among anthropologists that some form of underlying framework or baseline belief is universal to human experience. We seem to want or even need to believe in something.
Shared belief is how we come together, align in purpose, and cooperate to achieve almost unimaginable things.
Perhaps it is easier to believe in something as a group than it is to believe something alone. (A subject for another day.)
But what we are asking here is…what is the best argument NOT to believe?
A WORD ON THE WORD: The ancient Hebrew word tummah (pronounced “toom-AH”) means integrity, innocence, or blamelessness - the idea of being complete, whole, finished, sound, or without inner fracture. More spiritually, one’s inner and outer life match. From a carpenter’s perspective – tummah describes a piece of wood under enormous pressure which bends, creaks, even scars, but does not split. It retains its integrity and remains structurally whole.
Some of the strongest arguments are:
• There’s no evidence that God exists. I need proof. Why would I believe in something that can’t be proven to exist?
• An all-powerful God would not allow such extreme levels of evil, cruelty, and suffering in the world.
• When I needed Him most, and reached out in prayer, there was no answer. He was not there.
• It’s all a lie - a bunch of stories to make us feel important or fill in the gaps of evolution that science has not answered. Yet.
• We are all born with an innate sense of morality – right and wrong. Why do we need God?
• I have studied all the world’s religions and they’re all pretty much the same. Pick one and be kind.
On the surface, all seem quite reasonable. What makes the God of the Bible any different or better than the great stories of Greek mythology or the colorful creation stories of ancient Egypt?
Then there are the quick reactions that sound more like excuses than well-considered objections:
• No intelligent person I know believes in God.
• Religious leaders are all hypocrites.
• I don’t need to worship anything.
• Where are all the modern miracles?
• Religion is a cult.
In my experience, responses to the question – “Do I believe in God?” – fall into 4 buckets.
1. I’ve never really thought about it - Life is easier if we simply ignore the subject.
2. Of course, I believe in God - Reflexively affirm without doing any real work.
3. I will deal with eternity one day, but for now I have bigger things on my plate - A lofty subject that demands time and effort is best delayed.
4. I don’t know, but I wrestle with the question a lot.
This final group ultimately breaks down into those who respond, “No. I have decided that I don’t believe.” This group has done the work and convinced themselves they don’t believe. Unlikely they will return to the subject one day and reverse course. They are opposed by the group that responds, “YES. YES. YES. I do believe. But I confess I don’t really know Him, and don’t exactly know why I believe.”
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."
- Blaise Pascal, Pensées (Thoughts), 1657-1662
For me, the most convincing argument wasn’t on either list. In fact, it’s not really an argument at all.
I’m afraid. I fear what I might encounter if I attempt to discover what I truly believe.
A willingness to enter the realm of questioning one’s belief is without comparable equivalent. No relatable parallel exists.
It’s just you and God.
“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.”
- Genesis 32:24
Honestly confronting belief is an experience made all the more isolating by a God who remains hidden, refusing to speak.
“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts, and day after day have sorrow in my heart?”
- Psalm 13:1-2
But God does speak. He has spoken through the psalms, the prophets, the apostles, the parables, the teaching and the life, death, and resurrection of His own Son. He has gifted us His word to study and understand.
Yet, even studied diligently over a lifetime, His word offers no proof. Certainly not the kind we seek.
Can we ever truly know?
Has anyone ever lived free from doubt?
Can we believe even though we may never know beyond a doubt?
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
- Corinthians 13:12
In a book of private letters published after her death, Mother Teresa revealed that for nearly 50 years she experienced an extraordinary absence of any felt sense of God. She spoke in confidence to her spiritual directors of God's silence and her inability to feel any true belief.
And yet, she found solace in believing He was there.
“I accept not in my feelings—but with my will, the Will of God. I accept His Will.”
- Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (2007)
BoBQ Vol. 6 pg. 21-22