I'm Catholic but I still find this site humorous. I always find it silly how people atheists and theists try to PROVE themselves right. You can't do it. There is no proof that God exists. But there is also no proof that God doesn't exist. (sort of a paradox we got there eh?)

I don't plan on becoming atheist anytime soon but I'll admit I like some atheistic people. Why? Because they don't get up all in your face and make you feel like crap. Religous people (and I'm not saying ALL people with religon.) have a tendency to get all uppity.

But when YOU try to get uppity the religous people tell you to humble yourself. Also the techniques they try to use to convert people are not gonna work. Scare tatics, guilt trips, and all of that crap isn't gonna change people's minds. I know as a Christian (Catholic is a denomation of Christianity which is the religion. Anybody who says Christians and Catholics are different are dumbasses.) that I am suppose to try and "save" as many souls as I can. Well you know what I think? If people don't people what I believe and they end up getting burnt for eternity for it well then screw them and on the vice versa if I am wrong and they are right well then screw me! I admit I was raised a Catholic and there are probably a lot of you out there who I think I was brainwashed. They think I believe in Jesus because I don't want to go to hell. It's the opposite I don't want to go to hell because I believe that there is a Jesus (he lives down my street. Makes good burritos! Just kidding.) and a God and all that. Sure my parents probably did influence me but wouldn't society influence me too? Although there are more theists than atheists we live in a secular nonreligous world. Wouldn't that have some impact on me?

I believe that there is a God simply because of 2 reasons

1. There is no proof that he DOESN'T EXIST

2. If god does exist well then thats cool. and If I am wrong well then I lose.

It's all gamble. I'm really only hoping I am right.

Also even though I am Catholic I probably don't follow all the "rules".

For instance I don't read the bible.

Yeah I know that some religious people think I am gonna be influenced by the "non-believers" and all that crap because I don't know what the bible says. I don't think God really gives a crap if I read it or not. I believe in God and I don't want to kill anyone. What more could God want? a sandwich.

I don't believe in God because of what my parents, my pastor, my family or what anyone else thinks. I believe in God cause I feel like it.

You are right that an atheist can't prove that there are no deities in general (although it may be possible to prove that a specific description of God is impossible). This is why most atheists don't even try. There is no paradox because atheism (meaning simple disbelief in a deity) doesn't need to prove that there are no gods, it just doesn't have to be convinced that there is a god. It's up to religious people to prove that something supernatural exists, since disbelief is the default position from a scientific standpoint.

You say, "Anybody who says Christians and Catholics are different are dumbasses." You also say (essentially) that you believe in God because there's no proof of no God and if there is no God then you've lost nothing. The problem is, many of those "dumbasses" believe that Catholics are not true Christians because Catholics believe in salvation through works, meaning that you would be going to Hell if God exists.

So, let's look at a new way of deciding what religion to be:

1) Some Protestants (the "dumbasses" in question) believe that Catholics will go to Hell, even if they are good people.

2) Catholics believe that Protestants who are good people will go to Heaven.

3) If you are Protestant and Protestants are right you go to Heaven, but if you are Catholics and Protestants are right, then you will go to Hell. So shouldn't you be Protestant instead of Catholic?

Now, I don't for a minute think you should switch religions based on this argument. I'm just trying to illustrate a flaw in your thinking (which is essentially Pascal's wager).

I am also surprised that you haven't read the Bible. If you are a Catholic, then you believe that the Bible was written under the divine inspiration of God. It seems to me that if you believe this then the Bible would be the most important book in the universe. Isn't that good enough incentive to read the thing? And why would God go to all the trouble of putting the thing together if He didn't want you to read it? More importantly, by saying you are Catholic you are implying that you follow the Bible-- but what if there is some stuff in there that you disagree with? And are you familiar with Catholic doctrine (the eternal virginity of Mary, the sinfulness of using contraception, etc.) to know whether you agree with it or not?

There's nothing wrong with believing in God because you "feel like it." But if that's why you do, don't pretend that you have a logical reason for doing so (since you don't need one). I think you should also take a hard look at why you call yourself a Catholic. By saying you're Catholic you're saying things about yourself that may not be true.