Why believe in God?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Perfect on November 10, 2010 at 11:39am

I think it's a way of holding onto something higher than we are, maybe giving the hope of life after death or the security of a being who is in control without the rules of religion. An acting coach I had was similar to that, mostly holding on to beliefs she wanted to, and not believing what she didn't like. I didn't understand that way of thinking, but not everyone feels the need to logically analyze their beliefs.

Permalink Reply by Edward Becker on November 12, 2010 at 10:51am

I can appreciate someone believing something despite the evidence, but I don't like that some of those people are in positions where they make decisions that affect a lot of people.

Permalink Reply by Bob Miller on December 5, 2010 at 10:40am

I agree. As in George W actually believing god told him to attack Iraq. Scarry stuff. Unfortunately I hear this stuff frequently in 12 step meetings. Just yesterday a lady shared that the lord jesus brought her to the meeting and he was there with her right at that moment. Hard as I tried I could not see him anywhere. This stuff is hard to listen to but there is some humor in it for me. I had a picture of this middle eastern taxi driver sitting on a wooden beaded seat cover driving this lady to meetings. I am there to share how I recovered from the extreme fundamentalist religious upbringing and how freeing it is to be out of the conflict and confusion it had caused in my life.

Permalink Reply by Gregg Bayes-Brown on October 21, 2010 at 12:51pm

It's not too tricky to get your head around. You don't have to be religious to believe in God. Just because you think something is there, some people don't feel compelled to worship it, or believe that religion has the wrong end of the stick, and therefore don't follow it. For example, if I believed in God, I'd assume that being the all powerful bloke that he's made out to be, he wouldn't be anywhere near of much as a prat as people make out. I use this whenever anyone asks me if I worry about the afterlife. No, because in all likelihood when I die, I'm dead. However, if I'm wrong, I highly doubt an all knowledgeable God would throw me into some fiery pit just because I didn't like his book. He'd understand I led a good life, and would probably overlook the whole thing of not believing after I lay out just how ridiculous I thought this faith lark is.

In a nutshell, like you don't have to be a democrat to believe Obama is president, you don't have to be religious to believe in God.

Only difference is, we have proof that Obama is president, much to the chagrin of religious people who believe he isn't.

Permalink Reply by Noh Name on October 21, 2010 at 3:36pm

I was a non-religious believer for about 10 years before I realized I was an atheist. For the first 8 years it worked quite well. I rejected christianity and the christian god when I was a teen, and did some exploring in the pagan beliefs. I returned to monotheism in my early 20's. How I saw it was there was only one true god, and each stage in monotheism judaism, christianity, islam was started by people who were on a spiritual quest and was enlightened by "god". So Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed were wise teachers and their teachings were bastardised by the religions that developed out of them. I had the belief that all religions developed from someone's spiritual quest that led to the Truth only to be corrupted by generations of believers.
It amazes me what we have to concoct to believe in something. But that's what allowed me to hold on for another 8 years. I guess the unknown can be quite frightening.

Permalink Reply by ahmed on October 23, 2010 at 5:39am

God is the inability to understand the universe. fuck god?But there are human beings, even if they knew the truth (God is a myth). Will not leave their religion !!!!!!!!!!!!

Permalink Reply by Dr. Terence Meaden on October 23, 2010 at 6:39am

And there's the huge problem: The believers never give up, whatever the immensity of the rational evidence against these manmade belief systems.

It is a dismal defect of the human brain that the implantation of such absurdities into people's heads get to become immoveable from most heads.


It is why I so much admire the relatively few people, in percentage terms, who have been able to escape from the clutches of their religio-social environments. Islam and Christian fundamentalism is especially depraved, perverse and tenacious.

Permalink Reply by Maurisio Santiago on October 24, 2010 at 8:31pm

I was never able to make sense out of religion, and believe me, I've tried very hard. The contraditions between religion, and how religion was used to create so much pain in the world really pushed me away from believing. When my teenage daughter began questioning the validity of religion, I really did not have any answers for her. She is now a staunch atheist. I've sought answers to the g-d question in the Baptist church, Islam, the Catholic church, and lastly, Temple. I found them all filled with ceremonies, rituals, and beliefs that I could not relate to nor accept. It's when I dropped the strain of religious "baggage" that I truly felt at peace with myself, and the world around me. It took half a century for me to finally awake from my religious slumber.

Permalink Reply by Bob Miller on December 5, 2010 at 11:31am

Right on. Being one of the lucky few who has finally excaped the very deep seeded Fundamentalist Christian abuse. I can vouch for this with personal experience. At a young age I was a rational free thinker. Once they realized that, they were extremely vigorous. At age 5 I questioned who wrote the bible. They told me god. I said, but I thought you also told me guys like Matthew, Mark etc. wrote it and they are just men. They tried to say it was god writing through these men and I just could not wrap my mind around that. Needless to say they dug in deeper and used shame, fear, and eventually severe physical abuse to plant their seed deep within. It continued to cause deep conflict within even though when I finally got away I was able to get back to thinking and spend 8 years in College and 33 years working as a Scientist. In spite of that I continued to have deep seated conflict that I finally got help with. It took 6 months of extensise deprogramming to be comfortable in my own body again. The point is. They are extremely good at planting their beliefs in children. To paraphrase James Dobson of Focus on the Family: If we can control what young people think and believe, we can control our nation. They are very serious about this and it is exactly what they are trying to do. Today I am working to help others escape from the bondage of Funamentalist Christian brainwashing. They are extremely good at what they do and will go to any length to control young children.

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on December 5, 2010 at 4:13pm

At age 5 I questioned who wrote the bible. They told me god. I said, but I thought you also told me guys like Matthew, Mark etc. wrote it and they are just men. They tried to say it was god writing through these men and I just could not wrap my mind around that.

Same exact age, here. For me, I think it was Jonah and the Whale. I just kind of sat there wondering why they expected me to actually believe such an obvious fairytale.

And Jesus walking on water. I'd already seen magicians do far more impressive stuff than that. Religion never stood a chance of taking hold.

To paraphrase James Dobson of Focus on the Family: If we can control what young people think and believe, we can control our nation.

Who was it who said, "Give me the boy, and I'll give you the man?" Was that one of Martin Luther's? And am I the only one who thinks it's an even more creepy statement, in light of recent priest molestation issues?

Permalink Reply by Gordon Spofford on October 23, 2010 at 10:19pm

Well off hand it's easier than asking for the real answer to anything. Finding out the answer requires work, and we are lazy beings for the most part.

Permalink Reply by Jason Aylsworth on October 23, 2010 at 10:19pm

A lot of non-religious believer’s faith in “something” probably hinges on the same philosophy applied by Blaise Pascal with his wager, referred to as Pascal’s Gambit or Wager. This states that whether there is a god or not is irrelevant, but that the idea that there might be a deity, why not believe just in case. It may sound reasonable since it creates a belief system without having any real belief and still saves your soul from god’s wrath, but I am not satisfied by this. I prefer to go with the atheist’s wager which states that if you live a good life, even without a belief in a deity, and even if the absurd is true, then a benevolent god, as described in part of the bible, will not care about the belief or worship of this deity and will “save” your eternal soul based on your good deeds. I prefer this wager of the two, even though I know that no god(s) exist and feel that a wager of any kind is completely absurd.

One of the biggest problems with convincing the religious masses of their own hysteria is the issue of faith, which, by the bibles own definition, is completely outside of the scope of reason. I’m paraphrasing but essentially it states that one should have assured expectations of things that they cannot see.

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