Why do people believe in god?
- Thread starter LuckAse
- Start date
I think it is ignorant to assume that people who believe in god are ignorant.
I don't feel that I am in a place to say whether god does or does not exist. One thing I think that is worth understanding, is that believing in god is not about logic, reason, or knowledge. Its about Faith. Which is completely separate from logic, reason, and knowledge.
I am not a theist. But I'm also not an atheist. I lack faith in "God". But I feel that just because knowledge and logic can't prove gods existence, does not mean that he does not exist. Looking to knowledge to prove gods existence is contradictory. Its not an issue of knowledge. Its an issue of faith.
I think a better question would be "why do people have faith in god?" There are many things that I have faith in. Take gravity for example, thus far from my understanding, science has done little to explain gravity. We know a little about it, but not much. So while I have little knowledge about the workings of gravity, I have faith that if I jump off a ledge, I'm gonna fall.
I think that people believe in god for a number of reasons. One, it gives them hope. Hope that all will not be gone when life ends. Hope that their good deeds do not go unnoticed. Hope that their bad deeds will be forgiven. Some people think that it gives hope that ones enemies will receive their just punishments. But I have never known a religious person to feel this way, though I am sure that some do.
Two: It makes sense to some people. I think that some people have brains that are more equipped to be religious. From what I have read and understand, humans actually have a part of their brains that is responsible for belief in a higher power. Perhaps this part is undeveloped in some people, which results in atheism, or lack of faith. I would imagine someone who is this way would be more geared to science and logic. Like I said above, I lack faith in a higher power. But my mother is a very religious catholic. I have seen her and countless others get something out of going to church. They go in feeling down, and come out feeling much better. More power to them I say.
Three: Some people need religion to be good. I work in a treatment center for drug and alcohol addiction. I regularly attend A.A. and N.A. meetings for work. I have met some people who have such horrendous pasts. Its unspeakable! All of these people attest that the only thing that made them able to leave that kind of life and live a "good" crime free, drug free life, is to believe in a power high than them.
I don't think it is my place to say whether theists are wrong. I don't know very much at all. But one thing I do know is that I don't know shit! But I am almost more intolerant of atheists than I am of theists. An atheist that goes around trying to argue with theists and prove to them that there is no god is no different than a theist that goes around trying to convert others to their religion. And this new atheist movement crying for atheists rights and trying to convince society to change to suit them are equally as hypocritical as any theist I have ever met. But they do it in the name of "open mindedness", and "acceptance". All they are doing is turning non belief into belief. Atheism into a religion. Those people are no different in any way from a religious person.
I think it is ignorant to assume that people who believe in god are ignorant.
Ya it is. Its hard to get something out of your head that has been pounded in your head with the force of practicly the entire world.
No one is in the place to say wheter god exists. I belive that people can think whatever they want.
One example i can think of is evolution, Whether or not chritians belive it, it is a matter of fact, every single scientific discovory points to it.
All logic suggests there is no god. Yes i understand about faith. You can have faith in the colts but that don't mean there gunna win. i can have faith in my pencil, but it will still break, its irrelvant.
Ya i get that. I think that religion was created to fill all the holes in the things that people couldn't explain. But then it was warped from that to something to control the masses. It worked. But in an age where people are smart enough to know right from wrong without having it shoved in there brain, people don't need it.
Mabye the weak do....
I disagree. I know a lot of people who decide to be theists, despite being raised as atheists.
Good. So do you agree with my statement about about atheists turning atheism into just another religion?
Another thing I might ask, is if you believe that others are free to think what they want, what makes them more ignorant for believing in god than you are for not believing in god?
I know a lot of Christians who believe in evolution. There are many denominations of Christianity that take the bible literally and do not believe in evolution. But there are also many that see the genesis story as symbolic. Who is to say that god did not create life to evolve? I would imagine that if there was a god, he would want us to be able to grow and change over time and become better. The bible doesn't say that evolution does not exist. Just because people interpret it to say that creationism is true, does not mean that the bible says that.
Putting faith in the colts or a pencil is different than putting faith in god. A pencil and a football team are fallible. God is infallible. As is gravity. God will never fail to be god.
I agree to an extent. I believe that for the most part, most religions are in place to control. But the controlers are unwittingly controlling, as they too are being controlled. I think the original intent of all major religions was good. It was just warped by others. Mind you. This is also not a good argument against god. This is an argument against people.
DO you really think that we live in an age where people are smart enough to know right from wrong? Cause I think we are far from it! Take a look around son. Are you missing the news? Wars all over, a major holocaust only about 70 years ago... We as a species are far from being able to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong. You could point out that a lot of the people doing bad things are doing so in gods name. But there are also many who are doing it out of their own volition. Again, just because humans are doing bad things in gods name, does not mean that god is bad or non existent. It just means that those people are bad... and stupid.
Hmm... I've always wondered why people label religious people as weak. What is it about believing in god that makes a person weak? Also, you are yet again stooping to the level of those who believe. They label you as lost, you label them as weak. How are you any different than them?
From what I have read and understand, humans actually have a part of their brains that is responsible for belief in a higher power. Perhaps this part is undeveloped in some people, which results in atheism, or lack of faith
Yep atheists must have under developed brains
Yep atheists must have under developed brains
Again, you are making an assumption and judging people. You are assuming that people who don't believe in god are "free thinking".
And, I think your assumption is wrong. There are way more people on this planet who do believe in god than people who don't believe in god. That includes people who live in "free" countries where the are "free" to have "free thoughts".
How is your label as a nihilist and different from a theist calling themselves a christian?
Could not nihilism also be an invention to "control"?
How has your ascription to nihilism "freed" you?
How is Your ascription to nihilism any different to a theists ascription to a religion any different?
What constitutes someone who is "free thinking"?
What is "Free thinking"?
How does your ascription to nihilism make you more "free thinking" than a theist?
I have to go to bed. I'll read your responses in the morning.
From what I have read and understand, humans actually have a part of their brains that is responsible for belief in a higher power. Perhaps this part is undeveloped in some people, which results in atheism, or lack of faith
Yep atheists must have under developed brains
I did not say that their brains were underdeveloped. I said that maybe a part of their brain is underdeveloped. There is no negative connotation to that? What makes you interpret this as a short coming? I will willingly admit that the part of my brain for math is massively underdeveloped. As is the part of my brain for speaking. I have a stutter. This is not to suggest that they are less intelligent or less of a person. Why do you attach such negative meaning to what I said? Usually people with such black and white thinking suffer from insecurities.
You have a stutter?....Do you play music? piano? guitar?
Why do you attach such negative meaning to what I said?
I'm not. I kind of figure the higher power part of the brain is in the region of where the brain processes narcotics to tell you the truth.
Higher power?
Hi I'm Amygdala.....I'm powerless over my limbic system.....HI Amygdala
But that shouldn't tear you away from god. You can't let others ideas of god steal yours.
Why do you attach such negative meaning to what I said?
I'm not. I kind of figure the higher power part of the brain is in the region of where the brain processes narcotics to tell you the truth.
Higher power?
Hi I'm Amygdala.....I'm powerless over my limbic system.....HI Amygdala
But that shouldn't tear you away from god. You can't let others ideas of god steal yours.
You can't talk about people without judging them first off.
And by free thinking, i mean people who judge every aspect of what they are told. Example, like if everyone around me tells me that the world is going to end in 2 years, i would think about it, research it, etc. A non free thinking person would accept it as true because there are no alternatives.
lol, how could something that means nothing control anyone. By calling myself a nihilst i am simply stating that i have no faith. There is no "bible", no rules, no principles.
Anyone can be "free" even religious people, but most of them give themselves the burden of pleasing their "lord".
Because nihilism litiarly means nothing. It is nothing. Its not even worth stating in my opinon. The only reason I write it is becasue it is the only term that describes my "lack" of faith.
That could be a 200-page debate. To me its not having to worry about pleasing anyone. (aka your lord, or even your fellow man, unless you wish)
Because my ears are always open, and if there even the smallest bit of proof that any religion has anything behind it but made up storys. I would listion, and examine it.
A christan hears that mabye one part of the bible may not be true and they shun it like its the devil. Just one example
logic is based on knowledge.
logic produces different results when being "fed" different(in quality or quantity) knowledge.
while your personal point might be true (logic of believing is based on worse or less knowledge).
it can also be the inverse (logic of disbelieving is based on worse or less knowledge).
the only way to really know is to expand to the other side and know what they know.
whoa, you're self contradicting yourself nihilist, why did you accept that this world exists?
what happened to your "nothing"?
don't facts require belief? faith?
where is the boundary where you and many others shut their belief\faith at? and why there?
some people are so free they're caged in their idea of freedom..i think it's more of "loose thinking" (don't take this the wrong way)
If every logical point leads that their is a fact there is not God, explain to me every logical fact about how life begun.
And dont tell me that a bunch of things blew the hell up. Explain to me where the 'gasses' came from, how it happend, what caused it ect.
In my eyes, it takes more faith to believe there is not a God.
And P.S. Its ignorant to say something like "Every logical point leads to the fact that there is no god." and put no supporting facts
R
Railburn
Guest
Oh boy, a god fight.
Heres some cool info.
There is a chemical called DMT (Dimethyltryptamine) that you can extract from A LOT of things on this planet. You can then take the chemical as a drug, it is a huge psychedelic that many say, gives you a sense of great well-being while visiting this strange type of human in the sky (universe).. Thats just the jist of it.
Weird thing is, your brain naturally creates this chemical and administers it to you at night during your REM stage. IE when your dreaming.
Even more cool is, your body naturally dumps mass amounts of it into your system right before you die..
So everyone who claims to of seen god were just dreaming/tripping.
Heres some cool info.
There is a chemical called DMT (Dimethyltryptamine) that you can extract from A LOT of things on this planet. You can then take the chemical as a drug, it is a huge psychedelic that many say, gives you a sense of great well-being while visiting this strange type of human in the sky (universe).. Thats just the jist of it.
Weird thing is, your brain naturally creates this chemical and administers it to you at night during your REM stage. IE when your dreaming.
Even more cool is, your body naturally dumps mass amounts of it into your system right before you die..
So everyone who claims to of seen god were just dreaming/tripping.
Now imagine that we, all of us have been inbued with the relativistic mass of a singularity, that formed in a phase of preexistence we cannot have experienced since we were not an unchanging factor of an event before, but rather a part of the event, hence did not know anything of the question-type of event after we became the answer, nor the answer that became a new question. The singularity imbued us with the factor one, hence we are now gods, and know our questions and answers as from a third perspective, as from an unchanging factor and plane of existence. 1^2 is still one, and one can be derived from any factor that has still once been a factor of one.
So since 22 years back we are all gods, but we will all blow up from a singularity-photon in a black hole that heats it beyond gravitational influence.
So since 22 years back we are all gods, but we will all blow up from a singularity-photon in a black hole that heats it beyond gravitational influence.
People intuit that there is something more to living than their ordinary surface consciousness, they experience it sometimes, and they find it comfortable to attribute this to a quality other than themselves, because it is so different, so they call it God.
And I say we are gods since 22 years back, because a singularity has formed in a black hole. Questions?
Nope. I'm also tone deaf. My stutter isn't that bad actually. Most people cant even tell I have one.
It sounded like you were assuming that I was suggesting that atheists are underdeveloped people. Your statement may have been made in jest. Its hard to tell on the internet.
I've toyed with this idea too. Working in the field, I have come to learn a lot about addiction and drugs effects on the brain. There is some truth to this. Some drugs do stimulate the part of the brain that is responsible for feeling connected to something beyond our consciousness. A similar thing happens in the brains of monks who meditate for extended periods. However, its just a part of the high. Nearly all of the patients in my treatment center are atheists before they come in. This is why recovery encourages addicts, who wish to recover, to develop a relationship with a higher power. It doesn't have to be "god". It can be anything. Many people use the fellowship of A.A. as their higher power, since they are unable to make a connection to a "god". I've met some people with pretty interesting concepts of a higher power. One individual I met uses gravity as his higher power. Like I said above, its mostly not understood. Its beyond our understanding. Works for him!
Nice
Hey, if it worked to keep someone sober, all the better Im not understanding what your saying here...