This is the first installment of a short series on why I do not find any modern or pre-modern religion convincing. Because I am exposed more to Christianity and the OT is the basis for the three of the big five religions, you may find that I bias my responses to Christianity. The reasons that I cite are applicable to most religions, though.

I will begin with several philosophical arguments.

The first is generally termed the argument from evil. The essence is that if god is all-good, all-powerful and all-knowing then evil could not exist. The logical formulation can be found rather easily via google and these are more about my thoughts on the subject rather than formal logic.

I find this argument to be very powerful against the idea of a personal god, mainly because of several examples. The first of which is the pain and suffering of innocents. Cancer and other diseases and injuries of the very young are antithetical to a loving personal god but fits perfectly with what we know of nature and evolution. The other example of the evil that would be illogical for a personal loving god is the animal world. Are animals worthy of punishment for some odd reason? Why would a loving god make the world in such a way that animals must be forced to prey on one another or lead their lives trying to avoid predation?

The next philosophical argument is the illogicity of omnipotence and omniscience. It is illogical that a being could be either or both. An omnipotent being is limited by its own abilities and is, therefore, not omnipotent. The easy example of this is the ‘can god make a rock so heavy that he cannot lift it’ statement. An omniscient god could not be omnipotent because it could not alter the future, thereby ruling out omnipotence. There are numerous fine points that could be delved into with this argument, but these are the basics.

These are some primary arguments against the notion of a loving and all-powerful god. There are many more philosophical arguments but for me it is the multiplicity of available information that has swayed me against any type of god belief. That is why there will be more to come.