Why I'm an Atheist
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A Clearer View
of Reality

I read the Bible, then checked it against the real world. This is what I found, with the evidence, the original texts, and experiments you can try yourself.

Read the reasons See the big picture
◈ Interactive models▤ Original sources⚗ Try it yourself↗ Evidence & citations

Real surface maps · sizes and spin speeds not to scale · drag to turn

The solar system
Beyond our solar system

Our Sun is one of 100–400 billion stars in the Milky Way, which is one of hundreds of billions of galaxies.

A universe of galaxies
Artist's illustration · not to scale
The Big PictureFrom the Big Bang to today.
Science & the UniverseHow we discover what's true.
The Bible & ReligionClaims, context, and history.
Morality Without GodHow people develop ethics.
History of ReligionsHow beliefs change over time.
Myths & Common ClaimsTest the explanations.
Why I'm an atheist

Seven reasons, in the order I found them.

I didn't stop believing because I was angry at God. I stopped because I read the Bible all the way through, checked what it says against the real world, and kept asking one question: where's the evidence?

  1. I read it
  2. It gets the universe wrong
  3. It gets history wrong
  4. It contradicts itself
  5. Its stories are older than it
  6. I need evidence, not belief
  7. I can be good without it
01

I read it. All of it.

Most people who believe the Bible have never read it cover to cover. When I did, I found things nobody preached on Sunday.

  • 66, 73 or 81 books? Protestant, Catholic and Ethiopian Orthodox Bibles don't even agree on what's in the Bible. People decided that, over centuries.
  • No originals survive. We have copies of copies, with hundreds of thousands of differences between manuscripts (most small, some not).
  • Read it yourself, in the original. Every verse on this site opens in Hebrew or Greek, with each word's meaning.
Open the Bible reader →How we got the Bible →Laws on women →
02

It gets the universe wrong.

The Bible's authors described the world the way everyone around them saw it: a flat land under a solid dome, with water above it. They were wrong, and so is the book.

  • A dome holding back water. Genesis 1:6–8 calls the sky a raqia, something hammered out solid, with "waters above". Job 37:18 calls it "strong, and as a molten looking glass".
  • Light and days before the Sun. Days and nights happen in Genesis 1:3–5; the Sun isn't made until day four.
  • The Moon isn't a "light". Genesis 1:16 calls it one. It only reflects sunlight.
The Bible's cosmos →Flat Earth vs. evidence →The Big Bang →
Water depth0 m
Extra water needed0 billion km³
That's0 × all the oceans
03

It gets history wrong.

A flood over the whole Earth, a tower that split up every language, a woman turned into salt. Each one should have left evidence. It isn't there.

  • Where would the water come from? Covering Everest takes over 3 times all the water in the oceans. If all the water in the sky fell at once, the sea would rise about 2.5 cm.
  • 40 days of rain would mean about 9 metres of rain every hour, everywhere, non-stop.
  • Nobody noticed. The flood is usually dated to about 2350 BCE. Egypt's Great Pyramid was already standing, and Egypt carried on without a break.
Noah's ark →Tower of Babel →Sodom & the salt pillar →How old is Earth? →
04

It contradicts itself.

If one perfect God inspired it, it shouldn't disagree with itself about who did what, in what order, or when. It does, again and again. Tap any reference to read it in the original.

  • Two creation stories that put things in a different order.
  • Four Gospels that disagree about Jesus' death, burial and resurrection.
  • Jesus vs. Paul. Jesus says not one stroke of the Law will pass away. Paul says it's been abolished.
All the contradictions →Paul vs. Jesus →Did Jesus fulfil prophecy? →
  1. c. 1754 BCECode of Hammurabi"An eye for an eye", long before Exodus 21:24.
  2. c. 1700 BCEAtrahasisA god warns one man to build a boat and save the animals from a flood.
  3. by c. 1100 BCEGilgamesh, Tablet XIThe boat lands on a mountain; birds are sent out to find dry land.
  4. c. 900–500 BCEGenesis is writtenMost scholars date the flood story's sources to this period.
05

Its stories are older than it.

The flood, the garden, the law code: older cultures told these stories first, about their own gods. Genesis looks like a retelling, not a revelation.

  • Noah has an older twin. In Gilgamesh a man builds a boat, saves animals, sends out birds, then offers a sacrifice the gods smell. So does Noah.
  • A serpent and a plant of life appear in Gilgamesh centuries before Eden.
  • Virgin births and dying-and-rising gods show up across the ancient world, with real differences worth knowing.
Borrowed stories →The giant timeline →
? gumballs
06

I need evidence, not belief.

Christians often say atheists "believe there's no God". Most of us don't. We just haven't been given good enough evidence to be convinced there is one. Try it: is the number of gumballs in this jar even?

Pick an answer.

Thinking tools →Science is a method, not a religion →Arguments on both sides →
EgyptConfucius · c. 500 BCEBuddhismMahabharataJesus · 1st c. CE
07

I can be good without it.

People say you need God to be moral. But versions of the Golden Rule were taught across the world long before Jesus, and the Bible itself gets basic morality wrong.

  • The Bible regulates slavery instead of banning it: Leviticus 25:44–46, Exodus 21:20–21.
  • Morality comes from us. Empathy and fairness show up in other primates and in babies, before anyone teaches them a religion.
  • 83% of non-religious Americans say avoiding harm to others is key to how they decide right from wrong (Pew, 2024).
Morality without God →Laws on women →
Live interactive · The big picture

13.8 billion years in perspective.

Genesis gives creation six days. The evidence gives it 13.8 billion years. Slide through the story and drag the model to turn it.

Read the evidence
The Big BangFirst stars & galaxiesToday
0380,000
years≈100–200 million
years1 billion
years5 billion
years13.8 billion
years

Explore the model

Models, not photographs. Distances, speeds and sizes are squeezed to fit.

New · Earth & sky

There is no dome. Fly up and see.

The Bible pictures a solid sky with water above it. Here's what's actually up there. Drag the blue line up through the air and read off the height, temperature and pressure.

Gravity, orbits & satellites →
Try it yourself

Don't just read it. Explore it.

All topics and tools
Reproduce an experiment

Measure the Earth

Use shadows to calculate Earth's circumference, like Eratosthenes did 2,200 years ago.

Try the experiment ↗
Experiment with time

Radiometric dating

See why different clocks agree about deep time.

Open the simulation ↗
The cosmic calendar

Everything in one year

Find when Earth, life, and humans appeared.

Explore the timeline ↗
Compare sources

Stories across cultures

Flood stories appear around the world. Trace where they came from.

Trace the history ↗
The original texts

Don't take my word for it.

Read. Compare. Investigate.

Every verse reference on this site opens the original Hebrew or Greek, each word's dictionary meaning, and three English translations side by side. Try one:

Genesis 1:6–8 · Isaiah 40:22 · Psalm 22:16 · Matthew 5:17–19 · 1 John 5:7

Open the Bible reader →   How manuscripts work →

Psalm 22:16 (Hebrew v.17)
כִּי סְבָבוּנִי כְּלָבִים עֲדַת מְרֵעִים הִקִּיפוּנִי כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי
KJV: "…they pierced my hands and my feet."
Hebrew: "…like a lion, my hands and my feet."

One word, two very different readings. This is why the original matters.

✦ In plain words

An atheist is someone who isn't convinced that any god exists. That's all. It isn't a religion, there's no holy book, and it doesn't mean having no morals.

How I explain things

Every page starts with a short summary; switch to Detailed in Choose Your Path for the deeper context. Evidence and interpretation are kept apart, original sources are linked, and every page includes the best reply from the other side. The paintings help explain; they aren't evidence.

Everything on the site

Every topic

28%of U.S. adults are religious "nones": atheist, agnostic, or "nothing in particular" (Pew, 2024)
31,102verses in the built-in Bible, each with its Hebrew or Greek original
4.54Byears: the age of the Earth, measured by many independent methods
13.8Byears: the age of the universe, from the cosmic microwave background
  1. Pew Research Center, Religious "Nones" in America (2024). USGS, Age of the Earth.
  2. Planet facts: NASA Planetary Fact Sheet and NASA Science: Solar System. Water figures: USGS, How much water is there on Earth? (oceans ≈ 1.335 billion km³; all atmospheric water ≈ 12,900 km³).
  3. Atmosphere temperatures and pressures: U.S. Standard Atmosphere (1976), rounded. Satellite heights and periods: NASA and the U.S. GPS program (gps.gov).
  4. Visuals: Earth textures from the three.js example assets (derived from NASA imagery); Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune maps by James Hastings-Trew (Planet Pixel Emporium, via the threex.planets project); the Moon map from the three.js example assets. The painted cards are AI-generated concept art, animated in code: illustrations, not evidence. Sizes, distances and spin speeds are not to scale.
  5. Ancient texts: Code of Hammurabi (law 196), the Atrahasis epic and Gilgamesh Tablet XI. See Borrowed stories for sources and the scholarly debate.