Why Do YOU Think People Believe in God?

[Miles]

[Clownboat]

because an intelligent creator seems to be the most logical explanation to me for the existence of the universe and the life in it.

Then you are not taking fairy farts seriously. Just look at all the gas in the universe!

On a serious note, I don't take issue with people hypothesizing about creator gods as an explanations for universes. It would be illogical to rule unknowns out (farting fairies included) when we don't know how something happened.

It's when people take that next step where things become unjustified. Instead of hypothesizing about creator gods as being a possibility, they make claims on behalf of these god concepts and judgements on behalf of these god concepts and then impose them on their fellow humans. This leap is one that Evel Kneivel would not have made and is unjustified.

There is no harm considering creator gods. Much harm and suffering comes from humans making claims on behalf of gods though. Surely you see this?

Person A: I think gods created our universe somehow.
Not a problem for humanity.
Person B: I think gods created our universe and they don't want us to get blood transfusions, or they find homosexuals to be abominations, or they will send you to a place of suffering if you don't act in accordance with how we are interpreting a book to have you behave, and on and on and on...
This IS a problem for humanity.

I blame man for codifying those rules into a book which allowed superstitious people to perpetuate a barbaric practice. Rules that must be followed or face an invisible beings wrath. - KenRU
It is sad that in an age of freedom some people are enslaved by the nomads of old. - Marco

[Clownboat]

[Replying to JehovahsWitness in post #88]
People believe in God because they can see His awesome works all around them. It's difficult, IMO, to not see God in the creations around us.

Ever heard of the phrase of being too heavenly to be of any earthly good?

Crediting the gods held back humans for millennia. They couldn't get past the easy route, which is crediting gods for things (rain, thunder, tornados or what have you).
To demonstrate:
Why does it rain? Because 'insert god concept'. This is the easy route.
Compared to...
Why does it rain? I don't know, lets learn about the hydrologic cycle. This is the harder route.

Humans tend to take the easy road and some become to heavenly to be of much earthly good.

[onewithhim]

It's difficult, IMO, to not see God in the creations around us.

This amounts to an argument from incredulity:

Arguments from incredulity can sometimes arise from inappropriate emotional involvement, the conflation of fantasy and reality, a lack of understanding, or an instinctive 'gut' reaction, especially where time is scarce. They are also frequently used to argue that something must be supernatural in origin or even the contrary. This form of reasoning is fallacious because one's inability to imagine how a statement can be true or false gives no information about whether the statement is true or false in reality.

You can call it what you want, but I assure you that I don't have a mere knee-jerk reaction to the thought of intelligent design. I have studied the creation for years and can clearly see the awesome complexity and intelligence involved in putting together anything in the universe, from the greatest to the smallest.

[Clownboat]

I have studied the creation for years and can clearly see the awesome complexity and intelligence involved in putting together anything in the universe, from the greatest to the smallest.

Do I have this correct? That because you have studied creation (whatever that even means) for years you have gained the ability to see complexity and intelligence for putting together anything in the universe?

How would studying one of the available religious creation explanations lead you to then being able to see complexity and intelligence in the universe? Wouldn't the complexity and intelligence be there without you having studied an available creation story? What is the connection? How does studying one of the available creation stories lead a person to then see intelligence and complexity and why couldn't they see it before?

[onewithhim]

I have studied the creation for years and can clearly see the awesome complexity and intelligence involved in putting together anything in the universe, from the greatest to the smallest.

Do I have this correct? That because you have studied creation (whatever that even means) for years you have gained the ability to see complexity and intelligence for putting together anything in the universe?

How would studying one of the available religious creation explanations lead you to then being able to see complexity and intelligence in the universe? Wouldn't the complexity and intelligence be there without you having studied an available creation story? What is the connection? How does studying one of the available creation stories lead a person to then see intelligence and complexity and why couldn't they see it before?

I didn't say that I studied a "creation story." I have observed the creation itself and I see complexity such as has to come from an intelligent designer. It is obvious that there had to be intelligence to put together the creation of everything. I came to this conclusion without referencing a creation story.

[benchwarmer]

I have observed the creation itself and I see complexity such as has to come from an intelligent designer. It is obvious that there had to be intelligence to put together the creation of everything. I came to this conclusion without referencing a creation story.

So are you suggesting that this creator is not complex? It seems so based on your line of reasoning. In other words, there can't be any complexity to this creator otherwise we would need another creator to create this complex creator. An so on....

I feel some special pleading about to happen....

[Clownboat]

I didn't say that I studied a "creation story." I have observed the creation itself

I don't believe that you observed any creating of our universe. This claim is ridiculous and is rejected. If you mean that you have observed our universe and you call our universe 'creation', then you are just being deceptive by using inaccurate words.
You have in fact studied a creation story from the Bible, not observed creation itself. This is the truth.

and I see complexity such as has to come from an intelligent designer.

First of all, that doesn't follow. See the complexity in snowflakes for one, which are just molecules reacting to their properties.
Secondly, you have shown that you cannot be trusted, not to mention what this would mean about your claimed designer and how it is either not complex or was created from some other intelligence and on and on and on....

It is obvious that there had to be intelligence to put together the creation of everything. I came to this conclusion without referencing a creation story.

Your conclusion is unjustified as it excludes any possible natural causes. It also rules out faire farts! Look at all the gas in the universe!
Your conclusion that is based off of a creation story in the Bible is therefore unjustified.

Want to know the truth about how our universe came about?...... We don't know. That is the truth.
Gods, fairies and natural causes are all on the table. Except for those that pick an option and pretend to know of course.