I was watching some you tube videos on the reasons some people give to disbelieve there is a god. Having studied proofs for gods existence at university and, at that time, agreeing with Kant that such proofs are either easy to refute or so abstruse as to be virtually incomprehensible to reason, I have always had an interest in the arguments people have to believe or not.
Yet what strikes me is the way in which thinkers have one reason above all others and how they seem to be always different. Stephen Fry mentioned that people see beauty and say there must be a god completely ignoring anything in nature that is wretched or ugly. Ricky Gervais said he was very young and accepted what his mother said until his brother questioned the reason for believing in god and he picked up his mother’s discomfort and knew she was hiding something from him.
For myself I have always found much to critique in each religion but that is because I have made a study of many philosophies. But even I have one overriding argument because I have always looked with interested into the need people have to believe and see all religions as founts of human ignorance used to explain and control – most atheists do.
We all need reasons. That is both the strength of humanity and its weakness because reasons are often hidden or simply unknown or mis-assigned.