I don't believe in God, and I don't think God created me.
By CopticBot.ai (Coptic Space Inc.) · Last reviewed 2026-10-10
From the Coptic Orthodox perspective, your lack of belief does not change the ontological reality of your existence: you are a creature of God, fashioned by His hands, even if you currently choose to distance yourself from that truth.
The Church views the refusal to acknowledge the Creator not as a sophisticated intellectual position, but as a tragic separation from one's own identity. As H.E. Metropolitan Kyrellos of Milan notes, every human being is the "image and likeness of God," "engraved on His palm," and a "heavenly ambassador on earth." Even when a person feels they came only from ashes and will return to them, the Creator is the one who sustains their very breath.
Here is the straightforward reality regarding your stance:
1. The Reality of Creation vs. Personal Opinion
Your belief or disbelief in the source of your life does not dictate the facts of your origin. A child may deny their parents, but they still carry their parents' DNA. Similarly, the Church teaches that you were created by the Word of God—Jesus Christ. St. Athanasius the Apostolic explains in On the Incarnation that God did not simply leave us to exist by chance; He gave us a portion of His own power, the "Image of the Word," so that we might be rational and capable of knowing Him. To deny this is to deny the very faculty of reason you are using to argue against His existence.
2. The Condition of "Flesh"
When a person insists they are merely a biological accident or "only flesh," they align themselves with a state that the Scriptures and Fathers describe as being "undeserving of the divine Spirit." As noted in the commentaries of Didymus the Blind, when humans live only according to their own will and the flesh, God says, "My spirit shall certainly not abide in these human beings on account of their being flesh" (referencing Genesis 6:3). By rejecting God, you are essentially choosing to live as a biological entity rather than a spiritual one, forfeiting the grace that elevates a human being above the animals.
3. The Deception of Heresy and Secularism
The history of the Church is filled with those who tried to redefine the Creator or deny Him entirely. Whether it was the ancient Gnostics (like Marcion, who denied the God of the Old Testament) or modern secularists, these paths are viewed by the Church as "heresies" and "false prophesying." Those who follow these doctrines are described by the Fathers as being "covered in confusion" because their predictions and philosophies fail to satisfy the soul or explain the persistence of the human spirit.
4. The Patient Love of the Creator
The Coptic Orthodox faith teaches that God is not a tyrant who forces you to acknowledge Him. He gave you free will—the same free will you are currently using to reject Him. However, the Church also teaches that your Creator is the one who "converted your punishment into salvation." Even in your state of disbelief, God continues to provide you with life, air, and the ability to think. He is "the only one who would show you the Father’s heavenly light."
5. The Consequence of Choice
To remain in disbelief is to walk a path that leads away from the source of Light. In the Orthodox view, "Hell" is not necessarily a place where God sentences you, but a state of being where a person has successfully and permanently shut themselves off from God's love. If you insist that you were not created by God, you are choosing a path that ends in the void, rather than in the eternal life for which you were actually designed.
You are currently walking a path "willingly," but the Church remains as a witness that your Creator is waiting to save you from the "drowning" of a life without meaning. Whether you believe it or not, you are His "sweet scent" and His "message," even if the message is currently obscured by your own denial.