Why do many Americans believe in God?
- Thread starter Saint
- Start date
Because they have no desire to evolve into thinking people. And that's what the US. Government counts on.
I find that many religious people are intelligent and successful people, holding positions of influence and power. I don't believe being spiritual has any thing to do with a persons ability to survive and prosper in our world. If we look at the success of American culture, we find that it has stood on the shoulders of Christianity through much of its history.
- Why do many Americans believe in God?
For the same reason the Israelites and Spanish conquistadors and British colonizers believed in a God: because he made them special and gave them permission to do exactly what they want, to whomever they want. A national religion is affirmation of a way of life; a divine dispensation of power. And for the subject peoples, the serfs, rail-gangs, slaves and residential school children, the same god holds out a remote carrot shimmering beyond a curtain of whips.
(In the sure and certain hope of the resurrection...)
- Why they choose Christianity?
They didn't choose it; they inherited it from most powerful colonizers and rulers, who then imposed it on their subjects.
- Are majority of Americans believe in spirituality, after-life?
Yes, probably. They may not believe, or even know, all the tenets and myths of their religion; they just choose the parts that suits them, and eternal life tends to suit most everybody.
For the same reason the Israelites and Spanish conquistadors and British colonizers believed in a God: because he made them special and gave them permission to do exactly what they want, to whomever they want. A national religion is affirmation of a way of life; a divine dispensation of power. And for the subject peoples, the serfs, rail-gangs, slaves and residential school children, the same god holds out a remote carrot shimmering beyond a curtain of whips.
(In the sure and certain hope of the resurrection...)
- Why they choose Christianity?
They didn't choose it; they inherited it from most powerful colonizers and rulers, who then imposed it on their subjects.
- Are majority of Americans believe in spirituality, after-life?
Yes, probably. They may not believe, or even know, all the tenets and myths of their religion; they just choose the parts that suits them, and eternal life tends to suit most everybody.
Why do Jewish atheists still identify with and many participate in Judaism? Religion is often a significant ethnical component which shaped and unified a culture in the past. Trying to immediately discard it wholesale is like yanking a tree's roots out of the ground without disturbing the latter and the tree still remain standing.
If most of a person's family, friends, neighbors, etc belong broadly to a traditional system, then the "I don't like struggling alone" or the "I have enough problems as it is" individual either continues to relate amiably with that fellowship, conforms outwardly to it, or participates in constructive discourse. I've known science teachers and so forth who believed in evolution, the Big Bang, etc, yet were still were very much part of their church's activities and events (a downright ancestral affiliation when it came to German-descent Mennonites, etc).
First worldwide survey of religion and science: No, not all scientists are atheists / irreligious: [...] "More than half of scientists in India, Italy, Taiwan and Turkey self-identify as religious," Ecklund said. "And it's striking that approximately twice as many 'convinced atheists' exist in the general population of Hong Kong, for example, (55 percent) compared with the scientific community in this region (26 percent)."
The researchers did find that scientists are generally less religious than a given general population. However, there were exceptions to this: 39 percent of scientists in Hong Kong identify as religious compared with 20 percent of the general population of Hong Kong, and 54 percent of scientists in Taiwan identify as religious compared with 44 percent of the general population of Taiwan. Ecklund noted that such patterns challenge longstanding assumptions about the irreligious character of scientists around the world.
When asked about terms of conflict between religion and science, Ecklund noted that only a minority of scientists in each regional context believe that science and religion are in conflict. In the U.K. -- one of the most secular countries studied -- only 32 percent of scientists characterized the science-faith interface as one of conflict. In the U.S., this number was only 29 percent. And 25 percent of Hong Kong scientists, 27 percent of Indian scientists and 23 percent of Taiwanese scientists believed science and religion can coexist and be used to help each other.
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That's because people who believe in God are sub human, and unable to think. Right?
jan.
You might be more surprised to discover how many who say they believe are lying, either to the survey or to themselves.
Certainly, their collective actions as a nation don't appear very Christian - at least according to the New Testament I've read.
kx000
Valued Senior Member
Faith is objectlivly for two entities; religion and eptstyology. Knowledge is objectivly for reality or all things. You need to believe or your in hell with fractal things like sorrow and anger. As you understand you don't always know with faith, but you don't always know and you don't always want to know. You have to believe in God.
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"You have to believe in God" is there a better way ? In what we see we don't have to believe , because it is there, but we look into what we don't see. " I see a polished glass it is smooth, but if I want to see the real surface of the glass I will use a microscope , and I will see how rough the surface is " So it is with me and other believers
kx000
Valued Senior Member
Nothing is a paradox. Hell needs to be kept in hell. It can't be trusted but it's where we put all the liars.
As science moves forward more people are seeing that religions do not always tell the truth but are made up, to start with, to control people with fear and intimidation. Imagine living during the Bronze age and not knowing any science but only being told what to think by religious leaders. If you did not obey them they either killed you or tortured you until you did believe.
What for?
Surveys only show what people say about themselves. Most Americans identify themselves as Christian and name the denomination of Christianity to which they belong. Each of those churches has its own definition of belief, its own description of God and its own set of rules for the practice of their faith.
To answer the OP with any degree of success we have to know what it means to believe in God, and what it does for the individual.
Self identification says nothing about the process of belief.
While there may be different descriptions of God, there are characteristics of God that are universal to humans, and those characteristics, although few, lie at the heart of both belief and non belief, in God.
jan.
And yet, it is the only available information. They have not yet devised an objective test of faith.
In light of that statement, can you answer the OP questions? I can't, since I don't believe that statement is true.
Yazata
Valued Senior Member
Christianity is prevalent in America for the same reason that Islam is prevalent in Morocco or Hinduism in India. Americans don't exactly 'choose' Christianity, they are born into a culture where Christianity is already commonplace, so they absorb it and conceive of spirituality and transcendence in its terms.
I'll add that is true for atheists as well. Atheists, especially atheists of the more militant and less thoughtful sort, typically seem to think of 'religion' in thoroughly Christian terms, imagining that religion is synonymous with belief in 'God' and oftentimes with belief in the literal truth of the Bible. Atheists are often just as embedded in the Christian paradigm as their more devout neighbors, except that they react loudly against it.
Because 'God' is the apex figure in the Christian myth.
I'd say yes.
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What does faith have to do with it?
In light of that statement, can you answer the OP questions? I can't, since I don't believe that statement is true.[/QUOTE]
Which is why I made this point: The real question is why do so many Americans claim not to believe in God.
jan.