Ryan Bell

I had stopped believing that heaven was a place we were going or that God was really going to step into our world, stop the pain and bloodshed, and usher in a new age of peace. It seemed to me then, as it does now, that the belief in paradise after death is the very thing that disempowers people from doing the things that will save us from premature destruction. Everywhere I turned people were claiming that my efforts to make the world a more peaceful and equitable place were doomed to fail because that is what was prophesied just before Jesus returns to make it all better.

So I stepped away to consider whether I had spent my entire life pursuing something—or someone—that didn’t exist.

Now, at the end of this year, I have discovered no evidence that a God exists. For me, theism fails for a number of reasons.