If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

People love gossip and word of mouth is how new spread the fastest. Actually, if you do a small bit of research, you'll still find that's the case.

I want to get into technicalities have because they're distracting and never lead to any answers. Most people predicate their arguments on them, but discussion of veracity is religion would be never ending.

The truth is that all of us individually only hold a part of the truth, so our views are in some way convoluted or not accounting for every piece of evidence. No one has everything figured out, and one life-time is too short for any one man to know the answer to the universe, and that's exactly my point.

Anyone who claims to know God's plan is full of it. That person may not quite understand that himself, if ever, but one life-time on the Earth isn't enough to have a full grasp on reality. We each live our own. If we did fully grasp reality, we wouldn't struggle with our existential crises so much. We wouldn't feel affected by information that contradicts our points of view; yet, we continue spreading gossip.

We believe what others say because we consider them reliable. Sometimes those we trust most blind us to the truth because they impose their own personal truth(s) or believe what others say is true, then pass down that misinformation. You have done the same and will continue to do so unwittingly, as will I.

Worse though than admitting you can't answer a question or that you've found your information is wrong is justifying. It's not the same as proving, and many people think they're proving when they're really justifying. The key difference is in disproof. You'll see what I mean further down this article.

In addition, we might ask questions and feel satisfied with answers that don't necessarily grant us view of the entire picture because they seem to make sense. After all, we don't all have an infinite amount of time to deep dive into the veracity behind every piece of information we're told and come to believe, but you also can't lazily accept what others say. Don't settle when you haven't scrutinized your beliefs to the fullest. If you feel like you've ever avoided any part of scrutiny, you should probably face up and confront it.

Just be careful not to fall into confirmation bias. It's dangerous when all indicators point back to proving you right. There's no instance in which we're wholly correct about any one thing as it relates to our philosophical disposition in relation to the creation.If you're not sure, talk to someone you trust who holds similar but not the exact same beliefs as you. Preferably someone who asks questions rather than try to argue you away from your undeveloped views and into theirs. Smart people ask questions without worrying about winning or losing arguments. Now back to God.

In my experience, God is an easy answer to everything so people don't require themselves to think about the fact they're afraid of that which they will never know. Not knowing the answer to your existence and purpose may scare you. Learn how to not let it. Learn to overcome it so you can find answers with a clear mind. And remember, they answers you're looking for won't always be the answers you want. Remember, don't force alternative truths to make yourself feel better. You'd be paving over potholes instead of repaving the whole road.

It's not uncommon to encounter people who use God as the answer to everything to make themselves feel better. He's the answer to loved ones dying. If he dies it was his time; if not, it's because God answered prayers to not take him from the Earth. Do you see the contradiction in this logic? To think God has a plan for him because his life was saved is arrogant. No one knows who God has a plan for. No one knows what God's plan is, or if he even has one at all, assuming he's real.

Scientists who unlock another piece of the puzzle to identifying the origins of the cosmos must mean they're unlocking God. He's the last piece. Yet again, this is wrong. It's easy to say that yes, God did this. It's harder to ask, how do we know? That's in the burden of proof.

The burden of proof is in disproof. Science operates from a stance of disproof. A scientist discovers something that could be true and tests it in order to disprove it. If he can't disprove it, he's likely right. If he can disprove it, his discovery may most likely be a fluke.

The same goes for arguments. If we can't disprove ourselves we can't disprove anything. Believers and non-believers haven't disproven each other enough to call one of them right, but that doesn't mean you should think you are either. Someone admitting they themselves could be wrong but then failing to identify how they could be wrong just makes that person feel open-minded when they're actually not open minded at all.

As mentioned previously, intelligent people ask questions without worrying about who's right or wrong. This is open-mindedness. Don't force your answers. Most of us like to think more immediately than we should that we're right and someone else is wrong. We take an incompetently short amount of time and research to determine our beliefs.

You want to ask question until the day you die, even about the ones you feel most sure about. The second you're positive you're right regarding anything that hasn't yet been entirely proven for every instance of reality, you've closed off your mind. You've stopped getting uncomfortable with challenging the truth. So keep asking. I will too.

But for now, note that I have not believed in God for a fairly long time because of the simple answer, not the easy one: If it's too good to be true, it usually is.