New user with a question

[Enculasse Deskeubs]

Hi, everyone.

I was "politely" asked to take this question to a religious debate forum, which, I guess, this is.

I see all of this discussion about so many complex topics, and I would love to jump in on it, but first I have to get an answer to my very simple question. Why do people believe that God exists?

I'm not an atheist, I've just never seen any evidence to show that a god or gods exist, so I'm wondering why other people believe it.

[Goat]

Hi, everyone.

I was "politely" asked to take this question to a religious debate forum, which, I guess, this is.

I see all of this discussion about so many complex topics, and I would love to jump in on it, but first I have to get an answer to my very simple question. Why do people believe that God exists?

I'm not an atheist, I've just never seen any evidence to show that a god or gods exist, so I'm wondering why other people believe it.

That's a good question. One of the foremost atheists, who was wondering that too. He ponited out that in the literature of pre-industrial scientists, when a scientist was working on something they knew, they were strictly business and precise. But, when they reached the limits of their knowledge, beyond which were puzzles they could not understand, they put their language into religious terms. The next one who figure out more would put the 'additional' information in precise terms, and when they reached their limit of understanding. So . for some, it appears that the belief in God is to explain what can not be understood.

To other people , belief in God gives meaning and structure to their life. They feel they were given a purpose.

Yet other feel that believing in God let them be compassionate to their fellow travelers on this journey called life. .. because they want to live up to God's expectations of love and compassion

I am sure dozens of different reasons that different people belief in God. Why do you believe in God?

[otseng]

I see all of this discussion about so many complex topics, and I would love to jump in on it, but first I have to get an answer to my very simple question. Why do people believe that God exists?

Here's one recent thread on this: Which is more rational? God is real or imaginary?

[McCulloch]

Why do people believe that God exists?

Simple questions seldom have simple answers. I suspect that the answer has a lot to do with extending human societal principles (justice and mercy) beyond human societies to cosmic levels, a denial of our own mortality, the human tendency to find patterns and tell stories to explain things.

I'm not an atheist,

That all depends on how you define atheist. If you agree with the statement, "God exists" then you are a theist. Otherwise you are an a-theist (not a theist).


A chart showing the relationship between the definitions of weak/strong and implicit/explicit atheism. Explicit strong/positive/hard atheists (in purple on the right) assert that "at least one deity exists" is a false statement. Explicit weak/negative/soft atheists (in blue on the right) reject or eschew belief that any deities exist without actually asserting that "at least one deity exists" is a false statement. Implicit weak atheists (in blue on the left) would include people (such as young children and some agnostics) who do not believe in a deity, but have not explicitly rejected such belief.

Sizes in the diagram are not meant to indicate relative sizes within a population.

From Wikipedia: Atheism

[Enculasse Deskeubs]

Why do I believe in God? I don't, because I have no reason to. I do believe that, if such a deity exists, it has one sick sense of humor.

I always thought that "atheists" denied the existence of a god or gods, and "agnostics" simply hadn't reached any conclusions on the subject, but I must confess that I've never done a Wic search on the word.

[Baz]

Why do people believe that God exists?

I'm not an atheist, I've just never seen any evidence to show that a god or gods exist, so I'm wondering why other people believe it.[/quote]

I don’t think anybody can explain what or why others think or believe, but I tend to work on the principle that if you ask enough people a question the majority opinion is likely to be correct.
(Not at a technical or specialist level but in general principals it seems to work)
As it is wildly accepted that more than 90% of the world population believes in some sort of God then I think it is reasonable for me to do the same. (?)
So I am a Theist for this reason and also because my life experience has brought me to this conclusion.
As for the rest of the world if you had time you could ask them.[/quote]

[Zzyzx]

.

I don’t think anybody can explain what or why others think or believe, but I tend to work on the principle that if you ask enough people a question the majority opinion is likely to be correct.

Not too long ago majority opinion stated that the sun, stars and planets revolved around the Earth.

Not at a technical or specialist level but in general principals it seems to work)

If “go with what everybody thinks� seems to work at general principle level, why would it not work at technical or specialist level?

As it is wildly accepted that more than 90% of the world population believes in some sort of God then I think it is reasonable for me to do the same.

By that reasoning one would “go along with the crowd� when a great percentage of the world’s population though the Earth was flat and that sailing too far would result in falling off the edge.

Is that a reasonable basis for making a decision?

So I am a Theist for this reason

Many are Theists because “everybody else is doing it� – because their family, friends and society are religious. The trite saying, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree� seems to apply. A few of us fell or bounced FAR from the tree and chose our own path that differed from our upbringing and from social / family pressure or expectations.

and also because my life experience has brought me to this conclusion.

I am interested in what life experience can convince a person that one (a particular one) of the thousands of proposed “gods� actually exists.

[Baz]

In reply to Zzyzx
Wow that’s a lot of questions from a short post. Being simple minded I will address just two areas for now or I will defiantly get lost.

First of all can we get rid of the irrelevant stuff like what science, astrology, religion, and politics used to think? (By the way I’m with you on the planets round the earth thing but doubt more than a hand full of people ever thought the world was flat )
Also with regard to your saying and I quote ....“The trite saying, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree� seems to apply. A few of us fell or bounced FAR from the tree and chose our own path that differed from our upbringing and from social / family pressure or expectations.�... You have no grounds for that assumption and anyway I am very proud of my tree and only hope that I can do it justice. I do feel sorry for anybody that feels otherwise, not you personally but it must be difficult for those from a granny smith that want to be a golden delicious.
In fact my parents brought me up to be a free thinker from the start and in my day that was hard. I was the only one in my class at school that had a letter sent in saying that I was to be excused assembly on the grounds that I had no religion and should not be asked to pray. At that time I thought as you probably do that all religion was rubbish and only any good as an excuse for war. What it also did was give me an interest in whatever all the other kids thought.
Well that lot is just my opinion of your opinion and not very to the point at that but then again your points had no real point. See now I’m getting lost.

As for you asking why general consensus doesn’t work on a technical or specialist level that’s easy
I for one would not understand most of the questions.

[Enculasse Deskeubs]

How do we get from here

In fact my parents brought me up to be a free thinker from the start

to here?

As it is wildly accepted that more than 90% of the world population believes in some sort of God then I think it is reasonable for me to do the same.

This is what I'm fascinated with...why do people, who can otherwise think and reason, stop thinking and just decide to believe something? Is it because other people believe it?

[Baz]

How do we get from here

In fact my parents brought me up to be a free thinker from the start

to here?

As it is wildly accepted that more than 90% of the world population believes in some sort of God then I think it is reasonable for me to do the same.

This is what I'm fascinated with...why do people, who can otherwise think and reason, stop thinking and just decide to believe something? Is it because other people believe it?

How are you with contradictions? Because I’m full of them.
In an effort to answer your question of how I get from Quote A to Quote B, can I say that in the same way that “because the majority thinks something is so it does not mean that it is�.... is it also not true that “just because you think the majority are mistaken they don’t have to be�.

I haven’t decided to believe something just because others do that was your statement.
What I said was, It is reasonable to believe them and I stand by that and it is likely that in most cases when a majority believe something it is true.
You could argue on a different level that if everybody believed something to be true it would have to be so.
But that’s a different debate.