Why don’t you believe in God? I get that question all the time. I always try to give a sensitive, reasoned answer. 
This is usually awkward, time consuming and pointless. People  who believe in God don’t need proof of his existence, and they  certainly don’t want evidence to the contrary. They are happy with their  belief. They even say things like “it’s true to me” and “it’s  faith.” I still give my logical answer because I feel that not being  honest would be patronizing and impolite. I
t is ironic therefore  that “I don’t believe in God because there is absolutely no scientific  evidence for his existence and from what I’ve heard the very definition  is a logical impossibility in this known universe,” comes across as both  patronizing and impolite.
Arrogance is another accusation. 
Which seems particularly unfair. Science seeks the truth. And it does not discriminate. For better or worse it finds things out. 
Science is humble.  It knows what it knows and it knows what it doesn’t know. It bases its  conclusions and beliefs on hard evidence -- evidence that is constantly  updated and upgraded. It doesn’t get offended when new facts come  along. It embraces the body of knowledge.
 It doesn’t hold on to medieval practices because they are tradition. If  it did, you wouldn’t get a shot of penicillin, you’d pop a leach down  your trousers and pray. Whatever you “believe,” this is not as effective  as medicine. Again you can say, “It works for me,” but so do placebos. 
My  point being, I’m saying God doesn’t exist. I’m not saying faith doesn’t  exist. I know faith exists. I see it all the time. But believing in  something doesn’t make it true. Hoping that something is true doesn’t  make it true. The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists  or he doesn’t. It’s not a matter of opinion. You can have your own  opinions. But you can’t have your own facts.
Why don’t I believe in God? No, no no, why do YOU believe in God?  Surely the burden of proof is on the believer. You started all this. If  I came up to you and said, “Why don’t you believe I can fly?” You’d  say, “Why would I?” I’d reply, “Because it’s a matter of faith.” If I  then said, “Prove I can’t fly. Prove I can’t fly see, see, you can’t  prove it can you?” You’d probably either walk away, call security or  throw me out of the window and shout, ‘’F—ing fly then you lunatic.”
This,  is of course a spirituality issue, religion is a different matter. As  an atheist, I see nothing “wrong” in believing in a god. I don’t think there is a god, but belief in him does no harm. If it helps you in any way, then that’s fine with me. 
It’s when belief starts infringing on other people’s rights when it worries me.  I would never deny your right to believe in a god. I would just rather  you didn’t kill people who believe in a different god, say. Or stone  someone to death because your rulebook says their sexuality is immoral. 
It’s  strange that anyone who believes that an all-powerful all-knowing,  omniscient power responsible for everything that happens, would also  want to judge and punish people for what they are. From what I  can gather, pretty much the worst type of person you can be is an  atheist. The first four commandments hammer this point home. There is a  god, I’m him, no one else is, you’re not as good and don’t forget it.  (Don’t murder anyone, doesn’t get a mention till number 6.)
When confronted with anyone who holds my lack of religious faith in such contempt, I say, “It’s the way God made me.”
But what are atheists really being accused of?
The  dictionary definition of God is “a supernatural creator and overseer of  the universe.” Included in this definition are all deities, goddesses  and supernatural beings. Since the beginning of recorded  history, which is defined by the invention of writing by the Sumerians  around 6,000 years ago, historians have cataloged over 3700 supernatural  beings, of which 2870 can be considered deities.
So next time  someone tells me they believe in God, I’ll say “Oh which one? Zeus?  Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra?…” If they say  “Just God. I only believe in the one God,” I’ll point out that they are  nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t  believe in 2,869.
I used to believe in God. The Christian one that is.
I loved Jesus. He was my hero. More than pop stars. More than footballers.
 More than God. God  was by definition omnipotent and perfect. Jesus was a man. He had to  work at it. He had temptation but defeated sin. He had integrity and  courage. But He was my hero because He was kind. And He was kind to  everyone. He didn’t bow to peer pressure or tyranny or cruelty. He  didn’t care who you were. He loved you. What a guy. I wanted to be just  like Him.
One day when I was about 8 years old, I was drawing the crucifixion as part of my Bible studies homework. 
I loved art too. And nature. I loved how God made all the animals. They were also perfect. Unconditionally beautiful. It was an amazing world.
I lived in a very poor, working-class estate in an urban sprawl called Reading, about 40 miles west of London. My  father was a laborer and my mother was a housewife. I was never ashamed  of poverty. It was almost noble. Also, everyone I knew was in the same  situation, and I had everything I needed. School was free. My clothes  were cheap and always clean and ironed. And mum was always cooking. She  was cooking the day I was drawing on the cross.
I was sitting at the kitchen table when my brother came home.  He was 11 years older than me, so he would have been 19. He was as  smart as anyone I knew, but he was too cheeky. He would answer back and  get into trouble.
 I was a good boy. I went to church and believed in God -– what a relief for a working-class mother. 
You  see, growing up where I did, mums didn’t hope as high as their kids  growing up to be doctors; they just hoped their kids didn’t go to jail.  So bring them up believing in God and they’ll be good and law abiding.  It’s a perfect system. Well, nearly. 75 percent of Americans are  God-‐fearing Christians; 75 percent of prisoners are God-‐fearing  Christians. 10 percent of Americans are atheists; 0.2 percent of  prisoners are atheists.
But anyway, there I was happily drawing my hero when 
my big brother Bob asked, “Why do you believe in God?” Just  a simple question. But my mum panicked. “Bob,” she said in a tone that I  knew meant, “Shut up.” Why was that a bad thing to ask? If there was a  God and my faith was strong it didn’t matter what people said.
Oh…hang on. 
There  is no God. He knows it, and she knows it deep down. It was as simple as  that. I started thinking about it and asking more questions, and within  an hour, I was an atheist.
Wow. No God. If mum  had lied to me about God, had she also lied to me about Santa? Yes, of  course, but who cares? The gifts kept coming. And so did the gifts of my  new found atheism. The gifts of truth, science, nature. The  real beauty of this world. I learned of evolution -– a theory so simple  that only England’s greatest genius could have come up with it.  Evolution of plants, animals and us –- with imagination, free will,  love, humor. I no longer needed a reason for my existence, just a reason  to live. And imagination, free will, love, humor, fun, music, sports,  beer and pizza are all good enough reasons for living.
But  living an honest life -– for that you need the truth. That’s the other  thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or  uncomfortable, in the end leads to liberation and dignity.
So what does the question “Why don’t you believe in God?” really mean. 
I think when someone asks that they are really questioning their own belief. In  a way they are asking “what makes you so special? “How come you weren’t  brainwashed with the rest of us?” “How dare you say I’m a fool and I’m  not going to heaven, f— you!” Let’s be honest, if one person believed in  God he would be considered pretty strange. But because it’s a very  popular view it’s accepted. And why is it such a popular view? That’s  obvious. It’s an attractive proposition. Believe in me and live forever.  Again if it was just a case of spirituality this would be fine.
“Do  unto others…” is a good rule of thumb. I live by that. Forgiveness is  probably the greatest virtue there is. But that’s exactly what it is -‐  a virtue. Not just a Christian virtue. No one owns being good.  I’m good. I just don’t believe I’ll be rewarded for it in heaven. My  reward is here and now. It’s knowing that I try to do the right thing.  That I lived a good life. And that’s where spirituality really lost its  way. When it became a stick to beat people with. “Do this or you’ll burn  in hell.”
You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway.
Thoughts?