I know that there are many reasons for both non-belief and belief in a God, Allah, Krishna and other supernatural deities. Currently I do attend church sporadically and occasionally watch a sermon on TV, but my Christian status is, how should I say, currently under harsh review (see God, The Mountain Climber and Faith for more details). But this is a random question that I've been stewing over, which has been made all the more pertinent by the horrific situation in Japan and the unbelievably moronic "God Is Good" video by some wacky fundamentalist chick about the tragedy:
Why do you believe/don't believe in God? For those who are theists (a.k.a believers), why/how do you continue to believe in spite of the vast amount of suffering and evil in the world? Despite stories in the bible that detail God commanding the Israelites to slaughter tribes of women and children, and laws saying women who are raped have to marry thier rapists? For atheist/agnostics: At what point did you realize did you come to the realization that you no longer believe? And have you made your non-belief known? What are your reasons for not believing?
The are no wrong answers. Just keep it civil.
Update: The video is hoax posted by a confessed atheist troll. But the question still stands.
