Why do you or don't you believe in God?

[Masquerouge]

I don't believe in god because for the same reasons I don't believe in Santa Claus. God and everything related to it is to me obviously man-made.

 

[Marx]

I don't believe in god because I can be a good human without believing in god. To much people use religion as a justification for their acts against humanity.. So I don't see any reason to believe in God.

There are enough ways to explain life on earth. In my opinion the darwin theory is much more believable than the theory that world is created in seven days.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

Birdjaguar...

I make moral judgements about lots of things all the time, but I think one should hesitate to make too many judgements about historical subjects of the distant past. The mindset of people has changed quite a bit just in the last 100 years, so that if you go too far in the past, you lose perspective. That doesn't mean that I support atrocities committed at any time in the past, just that I can understand better why they happened if I remain unbiased. Same things goes for religious belief. If you remain fixed in one religious belief, you lose perspective because your perceptions about religions of the historical past may be read in terms of your own religion, rather than in terms of their true historical development and function. Of course, the same can be said for lots of biases.

As for organized religion, I see that as a completely different animal. Whereas religious belief itself can be just another form of magical thinking, organized religion is nothing more than a political exploit. This may be why some priesthoods have a survival that far outlasts any of its dogmas.

 

[col]

I've asked Christian friends to describe this thing called faith and they assert that they just know that GOD exists. They have this feeling of certainty that GOD exists. They dont need any proof or evidence they just know. They call this FAITH or BELIEF. They think that one day because I'm such a good person,I may feel this too. I ask what I can do to acquire this thing and they shake their heads and say there isnt any way to get it. It just happens. They pity me. I pity them.

I dont have anything like the thing they call faith or belief.
I dont BELIEVE God exists.

From another thread.

 

[joacqin]

It just plain doesnt make sense, at least not the god/s of the recogniced religions. Why would the ponderings of some dude dead since thousands of years be the answer to the truth, the universe and everything? Especially since this dudes ponderings was not the only ones but that there are thousands upon thousands of them.

If I ever got the inclination to start to believe in some religion I wouldnt know which one to pick. All of you who have faith in a specific religion, how did you pick it? How do you know it is the right one? Even if one religion happen to be the absolute truth the chance of picking just that as ones religion is less than one in a thousand if we choose between all the religions throughout our history. Why do you believe in the Bible but not the Q'uran? Why the Q'uran but not the Bhagadavita? How do you keep from applying the same arguments you apply for not believing in the religions you dont believe to the religion you do believe in?

 

[Syterion]

Err, Syterion, at the moment I beleive in God quite strongly and doubt the existence of an afterlife quite strongly as well. Often I am filled with existential dread about my mortality, but that doesn't lessen my faith in God in any way.

Then you aren't as Christian as you think.

 

[Sims2789]

I don't believe in God because it makes no sense to me and I only believe things that make at least some sort of sense to me. That's basically it.

This is what I think too.

 

[cgannon64]

Then you aren't as Christian as you think.

I understand where my ideas deviate from orthodoxy.

Still, to say that people beleive in God because they want to get into Heaven is a severe generalization. And, if generlizations are anything, they are a sign of mental laziness.

 

[Syterion]

I think it is mostly true. People have two huge fears-death and the unknown. God solves both. There's the motivation. I'm sure it worked well for the Jews and Muslims, it did for Christians.

 

[punkbass2000]

Don't forget public speaking.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Birdjaguar...
I make moral judgements about lots of things all the time, but I think one should hesitate to make too many judgements about historical subjects of the distant past. The mindset of people has changed quite a bit just in the last 100 years, so that if you go too far in the past, you lose perspective.

people have an amazing ability to mix the rational and the irrational and not get them mixed up. Totally biased people can look at data and render an objective opinion, especailly if the data is not directly related to their particular bias. And most of us are biased in pretty specific areas. You can see that here in OT all the time. Do my religious bias' affect my posts on economic or economic threads? Most history, as presented to students, is a superficial look at events and a superficial judgement rendered. Events are rarely as simple as presented. Even well researched hstory is full of conjecture to fill in the gaps. You have to learn to guess where those gaps are.

That doesn't mean that I support atrocities committed at any time in the past, just that I can understand better why they happened if I remain unbiased. Same things goes for religious belief. If you remain fixed in one religious belief, you lose perspective because your perceptions about religions of the historical past may be read in terms of your own religion, rather than in terms of their true historical development and function. Of course, the same can be said for lots of biases.

Sometimes an objective approach prevents you from understanding events. Many of history's great events were driven by great passions and fervor. Unless you have experienced such things you can never understand, let alone explain to others what drove people to extreme behaviors. Most of us cannot grasp the minds of islamic suicide bombers and will never "get it". I suspect that the evangelical christians in OT have a much better grasp of whats going on than the rest of us, because they are emboldened by the same type of passionate feelings for their religion. The rest of us are just "white guys trying to dance".


PS: love your name.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

See it to believe it man, see it to believe it.

__________________________

Warhawks:

Hippie peace lovers: :thumbdown

 

[cgannon64]

I think it is mostly true. People have two huge fears-death and the unknown. God solves both. There's the motivation. I'm sure it worked well for the Jews and Muslims, it did for Christians.

Early Jews (I'm not sure if they still hold the belief today) had a pretty depressing view of the afterlife. It was a place that reserved no judgement for good or bad, and you basically moped around. No one would turn to Judaism for that.

Anyway, I can't really argue with the rest of your post. You are making a huge judgement over the motivation over an entire class of people, a judgement I beleive no one is capable of making objectively.

 

[CurtSibling]

No one ever defines who this 'god' is:

Do we mean a cosmic macro-universal metaphor?
Do we mean a mystic 'godhead', a totem that holds power for personal use?
Or a mere devotional/commercial anti-philosophy to salve the unquesting mind?

Whatever.

I am looking into the occult sources and literature to find pure wisdom, or perhaps to unlock the mind.

If I find something pertinent to the divine along that path, I will definitively take note.

 

[onedreamer]

I don't believe in God simply because I don't need to. I'm sure if I needed God and religion to live my life day to day, I could convince myself that all that was real.

So, what about you guys?

I don't believe in God, and I think for you is the same, because you are free to think what you want. Other people in the world don't have this freedom. From kids they have been taught to believe in God, and thus, they do... and defend their beliefs even in front of the evidence of no evidence (pardon the game of words ) of God anywhere.
Personally I am not totally atheist. I do believe there is something "superhuman", let's call it, around us. I call it Nature. It sums up everything that we, poor human being, can't or didn't manage yet to understand. For this reason I don't like the word "supernatural". Everything is natural, while there's alot of stuff above humans. I respect this something because I know I am part of it, but I sure don't think that praying or whipping myself it will listen to me or will grant me ethernal life, or worse, punish me if I don't

 

[onedreamer]

But there is no innate belief of God. You have to have been given the notion by someone.

If this is true, how did the first worshiper of God ever begin to believe?

You made an assumption that is not necessarily true. The first worshipper of a God (better specify the article, since there are many Gods around, you know) didn't necessarily believe in any God. He may have made up all the stuff just to control other people's thoughts. Process that has been repeated in thousands and thousands of years until today.
Or, the first believer of a God could have lived part of his life and found a lot of questions without an answer, and then made up a God who knows all those answers, but will never tell us, because... well, because... because he is God and he wants to check who really believes in the unbelievable. Sure.

in short, a first "believer" didn't need to have an innate belief in God, at all. And I seriously doubt it's possible. But who can tell for sure ?

 

[onedreamer]

I believe in God because he seems to be real to me according to my experiences. It is all about faith really.

I know a lot of you guys believe that love between humans exist, and I think the reasons why I believe God exist is very similar to the reasons why you believe love exists. I of course don’t believe in love for many reasons. You guys are so good at explaining why:

-I don't believe in love simply because I don't need to. I'm sure if I needed love and a partner to live my life day to day, I could convince myself that all that was real.

-I think, above all else, it is a waste of time.

-I don't believe in love because it makes no sense to me and I only believe things that make at least some sort of sense to me. That's basically it.

-Because it is irrational and foolish...

-I do not believe in love because I hate organized marriages and how it turns people into mindless drones (at least it does around here.)

-I don't believe in love because I've never encountered any thought-model requiring such a thing.

-I don't believe in love simply because I have no reason to. I don't necessarily think love doesn't exist, but you could say that about anything, really. I put as much weight in love as I do in Star Wars.

You tried to prove something... but it's not too well thought. Your comparison has a major flaw.
In fact, there is a huge difference between love and faith: love involves something you can see, at least. Or better touch. There is a proverb here which I think you can find anywhere "Far from the eyes, far from the heart". Do you really think you can have a love relationship with someone you will never meet, never have a chance to talk to, etc ?
But maybe you met God. Is that why you call him "he", rather than she, or it ?

 

[sebanaj]

No, it's just another ideology to impose order.
Could work until the Age of Reason, then men -more or less- woke up.

I can differ between ideologies and reality. The world is ruled by physics in first and economical activities in second place, upon economics the rest of the things are built (ideologies, laws, social stratification, bla bla bla).

In the ancient age it was believed that the gods would favour economical activities, that was how the priests became important power figures. But they were just ideologies to keep control of the alienated people.

Once the economical system is
developed, then ideologies, tradition and education reproduce it.

A big material collapse is needed to change an economical system, because material facts and conditions generate the thoughts of the people.

A big and disastrous fire on a club was needed in Argentina, so the people would act differently and the State imposed harder control on clubs. You see the determinism of the material fact.

 

[puglover]

This is a cause-and-effect universe. There's a note on your door, someone wrote it. The door swings open, something caused it to swing open. Everything springing into being is the effect. If there was absolutely nothing BEFORE everything springs into being, there is no cause to produce the effect. There had to have been a cause, but according to atheists, there was NOTHING before everything sprang into being. Hmm. There had to have been an eternal object, something that is not an effect but a cause, something that isn't created.

That's why I believe in God.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

Evolution is real, "God" played no part what so ever in it. God is just a myth put in place by the ancients to explain natural events, and it is also as a way of controlling people (religion I mean) and another reason partially to blame for creating a higher power is that people don't like the thought of just dissipating out of existance when they die, they like to think they're going somewhere after their life has ended, be it heaven or hell.