Why do so many people believe in God.

Discussion in 'Religion Archives' started by mustafhakofi, Sep 3, 2004.

  1. mustafhakofi I sa'id so Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    599
    WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE IN A GOD


    For a moment, I don't want to argue over whether or not a god exists--I want to know why so many people believe that one does. I usually receive generalized answers to this--"it comforts people," or "they were indoctrinated into the belief," and such related answers.

    It doesn't baffle me so much that people believe that a god exists, but rather that a lot of people believe that a god exists. I could understand it if a portion of the population were theists, but I'm surprised the theist/atheist makeup of the population isn't at least around equal parts. Instead, the majority still believes in the existence of a god.

    To think about why a person would believe in a god just confounds me. Everything about life, everything we know so far about existence, tells me that one most likely does not exist. Even with a fair analysis of the arguments for and against the existence of a god, the arguments against one existing are clearly superior. I'm not belittling the person who believes in a god, I am simply expressing my inability to understand why they believe it.

    It is true that belief in a god and religion provides comfort to those people...but surely the understand that, just because you believe something to be true and it gives you comfort, does not actually mean that it IS true? I mean, if people at least considered this possibility, then they would move on to examine the legitimacy of their beliefs. And thus, I would expect more and more theists to lose their beliefs, but instead they maintain them.

    credit to SECULAR ELATION
     
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  3. pavlosmarcos It's all greek to me Registered Senior Member

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    heres some ideas.

    (1) Safety in numbers. That many people all can't be completely wrong, or Can they.

    (2) Moral code. Belief gives them some sort of rules to live by. (( but they still, kill each other for there religion.) strange morality)

    (3) Consequences. To choose Atheism over Theism means an eternity in (insert horrible punishment of your choice here) whereas there are no percieved downfalls to a belief in God. (not after death anyway)

    (4) Mental illness. To quote Sigmund Freud," Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one."
     
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  5. everneo Re-searcher Registered Senior Member

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    No. Every one seems to think that he/she is more faithful than others, the majority. That is why so many religions.

    Religious morality follows faith in God. Not that they want morality so they believe God, generally.

    Becoming atheist is not a choice. If you become to have no belief in God you naturally become atheist.

    Freud sounding like taking a dig at vulnerable atheists.
     
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  7. what768 Guest

    I believe in God because it feels natural, but it has not always been so. At first I did not understand God. He seemed to be illogical. "It" did not fit into my mind. But I started to sense something there which I wanted to find out if it could be the truth. I saw much wisdom in those words spoken by great teachers on earth, and they all spoke about the same thing.

    It does not matter if God really exist or not. It just started to make sense to "myself". This I consider highly important, that people believe in themselves and have their "own truth". It does not matter whether or not what I speak of is the "absolute" truth. I have great faith that all our personal truths will lead to the absolute truth. Those who are like me will propably listen to me.

    People are different, and those who believe in God, do usually not understand those who do not believe. No man can hear ultrasounds, but dogs and some other animals can. Some people only see God, some of them see science. But only few are able to see the whole truth.

    There are those who call themselves atheists and yet I'm sure they are more faithful to God than those who call themselves religious. If a religious man does good only in fear of punishment or in a hope of reward, he really isn't such a "good" man. But the point with religion is that it would lead man to the truth, not all people understand religions at first, but those whom it is teached correctly, they will have good faith, whether or not they had the chance to build up their own truth. I believe that if something really is "truth" it can be true for anybody.

    Many people want glory for themselves and only few want glory for God. Those who want glory for God speak the truth, and there is nothing false in them.

    Truth comforts people, but there is also a truth which does the opposite, because it is the truth about this world. If the life on earth was perfect, we would never want to get back to "God". There are two sides of all things, (except for God) none of these sides are right or wrong. There are no good or evil "things", they all depend on how we use them.

    Religion could be seen as an uphill and "science" as a downhill. None of these really are what they claim, the uphill turns into a downhill if you go onto the top and inversely. What really makes them seem like down and uphill is the "attractive force" of earth, which is the truth.

    ---

    I have to try and avoid strong words like nothing, everything, perfect... I know, there are always exceptions, and even those times where there are no exceptions. Good words are propably, usually, sometimes, maybe...
     
  8. Historically, wars of conquest planted the seeds. Social conditioning and human nature took the ball and ran with it from there. Our minds are very powerful, and the capability to assign reality to imaginitive thoughts can be overwhelming. About Freud, well.. to quote someone else on these boards, "Making blanket statements while obsessing about your dick [is] not considered part of the scientific method."

    Don't forget, there are large populations of the world that don't believe in a god. Buddhists don't believe that there is a god or gods. Hindus believe in hundreds of gods. Taoist definition of god is something more akin to cosmos or nature. Then you have atheists that believe there is no god or gods, and agnostics feel that the issue is irrelevant.

    Belief in monotheism is generally restricted to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the three most followed and most historically violent (through conquest, etc.) religions. I think there was a point in there somewhere, but I don't feel like typing anymore.

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    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 4, 2004
  9. Dr Lou Natic Unnecessary Surgeon Registered Senior Member

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    5,574
    There are a few reasons. Many people have the "just in case" mentality (which can be cured with a more competent understanding of the real world, it was for me when I was about 12, and many others I know). Others are just optimistic, I've told this story before but its quite relevent; I had a friend who would convincingly and adamantly claim he saw on the weather channel that it was going to be fine and sunny, just because he wanted it to be. He didn't watch the weather channel he just somehow thought he could trick the universe if he believed hard enough.
    Humans, as animals, don't want to die. Its heavily ingrained into their instincts that the ending of their life is a huge disaster. They want to live forever, and that is how the idea of the afterlife came about. "wouldn't it be great if after you died you lived happily ever after in a perfect world?" changed over time to be "when you die you live happily ever after in a perfect world". Its that optimism again, hoping so hard that you believe.
    Also, the fact so many people believe in god makes it seem all the more legit, so it just grows and grows. "All these people can't be crazy, right?", yes they can.
    I'd be interested to know if the percentage of religious people is mirrored in certain tests with random samples of the population. Focussing on gullibility, rational thinking and optimism. I'd bet a correlation could be found.
     
  10. Godless Objectivist Mind Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,197
    The answers to why so many people believe in god, is mind evolution.

    Link

    Read the voice of god

    With that I leave you to draw your own conclussions.

    G.
     
  11. Neildo Gone Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,306
    This isn't a response to quickly answer the question as a whole as to why people believe in God but rather a more personal one to letcha know why I do and how I differ too.

    I believe in a God only for the lack of a better word.

    My God is simply whatever it is/was to have first existed, started the first moment of creation, and created the rules (laws of nature) to make everything interact with each other as they do. And once we figure out what "that" is, God can then be defined and out goes that word, if ever we're able to unlock the secrets of the past that deep, otherwise the philosophy of God will always exist.

    This is why I believe only two types of religious thought to exist in the future: agnosticism and athiesm. Athiests will always exist and remain as they are now, but agnosticism will be the religious types that have smartened up and accepted our knowledge of the universe so they toss aside all the assumptions and religious philosophical doctrines of the past and accept the fact that they'll never have the answers as other religions claimed, but still have that believe in God only due to the .01% of knowledge that we may not ever know of the past which was the first moment of creation.

    The only "personal feeling" of God I have is that God is inside all of us, but only in a way that since "God" was the first thing to have existed, everything is then made up of "it" which would merely be the the original of all atoms (whatever the tinest of all particles may be that we'll find out many years from now).

    God has no influence on my life as I believe we're all in control of our lives other than the random interactions by others and nature that happen in life. If I ever get struck by lightning or hit by a bus, it's all because of that and not "God".

    I believe in reincarnation but not in that we go to Heaven and all that, but rather once we die, the energy that is in us gets recycled and all mixed up back into nature/the universe. Our "soul", for lack of a better word, is mainly like a battery of life and our human body/brain is an organic computer (for lack of a better word, again). That energy then interacts with everything just like the first moment of creation from "God" and then billions of years from now (or whatever the amount of time may be, shorter or longer) our energy is then created through evolution into another form, whatever it may be, and if we're lucky, an intellegent lifeform again. Who knows though, with all the laws of nature and the way things interact with one another, since we're already in human form, our energy (soul) may be able to be created into something new much faster than having to be recycled and created from scratch.

    I believe in karma, not in the usual sense that when we do something good or bad, something good or bad happens to us in our same lifetime but rather that whatever we do, good or bad, we experience it for ourselves since everything in life is made up of the same original thing (particles of God mentioned earlier) so we basically do good or bad to ourselves at that exact moment in time that may also affect us in the future. Take pollution for example, it'll suck if we ever get reincarnted into human form again, it'd suck ass to have to live as a mutant in the year 2310 or something, heh, because of our poor ablility to care for nature.

    I do not believe that "God" created us. I believe we can be created through natural means of evolution, but specifically for us, we were created through another intellegent life form that better understood the laws of nature (genetic engineering) and were thought to be God since they appeared "god-like" with their knowledge. So they're basically our "God" in the traditional sense in that they're our creator just as we're the Gods of a clone we may create, but we don't owe our creators anything since we would have been what we are naturally through time. While we are a unique form of life due to our vast knowledge and ability to invent, it's not a completely unique ability as if our creators gifted it to us since our creators are/were the same way, so it could have naturally happened in how they were first created, so they just helped speed up the process.

    I believe most religious myths to be true. I believe myths to be much less accurate the older the myth gets but more accurate the closer we get to the origins of the myth as opposed to thinking myths are just flat out made-up stories of morality. As an example, I believe what Sumerians have to say about our creation to be more true than the similar myths told later on or what we hear or find out about today since our theories are just that, jumbled theories trying to make sense of it all while going out of our way to ignore past records while we ironically trust what the ancients say about other things. And if ever we find records of creation by a more antediluvian civilizaiton than the Sumerians, then that'll be a bit more accurate. And when it comes to myths, I don't believe them to be taken at complete face value word for word but rather they're told the best they could be at the time of their limited knowledge. An example, a plane would be more like a bird to a much less knowledable person.

    I do not believe in Heaven in the traditional sense although I have a few thoughts on what that Heaven could be. When we die and our energy is released back into the cosmos, that could be heaven. Assuming various past thoughts on what people see, or have had vision of, in heaven is true, and if we're able to see the world through the "eyes" (for lack of a better word) of our soul, that could be what they see. Our energy (soul) could be tiny atoms floating through the universe trying to find that next "soul" or atom to bind with to try and create a new form of life to live (reincarnation).

    Hmm, what else is there in regards to common religious beliefs? I guess I'll just leave it at that for now and chime in if someone brings up another belief I missed. So that's why I believe in "God" and are my feelings on the common religious issues that many believe in. I believe in most of what the majority of religious people do, I just have different opinions of what it all is.

    - N
     
    Last edited: Sep 4, 2004
  12. beyondtimeandspace Everlasting Student Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    554
    Just a comment or two. First, in response to a comment by mustafhakofi... I would be happy to examine the arguments with you concerning "God exists" versus "God does not exist." I do not believe it to be true that "God does not exist" arguments are superior, nor can I simply say that the former arguments are superior. It may be that I am unaware of some arguments that you know.

    I would also like to take the opportunity to correct a common misperception. It is regard to the Hindu belief in God/gods. I have spoken with members of the Hindu religion. They believe in a "God," supreme, and creator of all. The other "gods" that they believe in they would liken to Christian "angels" or "saints." Furthermore, it is also a common misbelief that Hindus believe that WE are gods, or can become gods. This is based upon their believe that humans have divinity. However, their concept of divinity is exactly the same as the Christian concept of the "Image of God." That is, we possess intellect and free will.

    As for the question about why so many people believe in God? There are many reasons, and most a combination of them. For me, quite simply, it just makes too much sense to believe otherwise. I think also, if a person who has believed in it all their life were suddenly to see reasons to believe otherwise, I think pride would prevent them from accepting such reasons. It might also mean that they just wasted the last X number of years chasing an illusion.

    Yet there are many who were not raised in the belief, like what768. For such people, I just think that they are able to make sense out of such a belief, and to hold that belief means, in some way, an addition to their life. A fulfillment where they were once unfulfilled.

    There are many reasons, some good, some evil, some better than others, some worse than others. I think for certain, though, is that there is no one reason.
     
  13. the preacher fur is loose 666 Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    476
    Prof Stephen Hawkins has a pretty good answer.

    Basically, children believe what their parents tell them. "Don't swim in that lake or you'll be eaten by crocodiles" is the sort of thing you are better off not learning through experience. Naturally, in any human-assembled collection of beliefs there are going to be a few that are wrong. But they get passed along anyway: and there you have it.

    It's really that simple. If we could raise even one generation without their parents telling them "there's a boogyman in the sky that will get you if you eat meat on Fridays," we'd be done with the whole thing.

    so has he says there you have it.
     
  14. I think fundamentally you're right, for the majority anyway. And since the majority is what's under discussion, well found.

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    Though there should be considered those who would rebel against those beliefs, and those who go on to later discover them, they wouldn't count for the majority, particularly not in non-1st world nations.
     
  15. Cris In search of Immortality Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,199
    Sheep and ignorance.

    The same reason most people on the planet not so long ago believed the Earth was flat.

    Most people do not think for themselves but prefer to believe what their neighbors think - that is the sheep mentality.

    And most seem to want to chosoe what "feels" right rather than use their inteligence and seek the truth - that is the ignorance factor.
     
  16. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,423
    I have a theory on this. When the primate evolutionary lines produced a
    human being, newly acquired intellegence allowed humans to understand
    just how much they did not understand.

    Early humans of course had the opportunity to make many observations:

    * They could invent tools, music, art. while other life forms could not.
    * They could communicate in a manner that other life forms seemingly
    could not.
    * They would be punished if they tried to break the laws of reality and
    would be rewarded if they took advantage of these laws for their
    benefit.
    * Life can be given (birth).
    * Life can be taken away (death).
    * All life eventually expires (death).

    This could have been interpreted as confirmation that humans were 'higher'
    life forms and that led to a model of reality where a 'highest' life form exists
    and could:

    * Invent reality.
    * Communicate in a manner that other life forms could not.
    * Punsh or reward other life forms for breaking / following his laws.
    * Create life.
    * Destroy life.
    * Allow life to exist for a duration of time.

    Eventually this 'highest' life form became various 'God's and worlds of
    attractive fantasy and enforcement were created amongst these 'Gods'.
    Those whom accepted them (i.e. believed) propogated their genes and those
    whom did not had a much harder time reproducing. After many millenia, a real
    survival trait in humans was the ability to believe (i.e. accept assertions
    as being true without necessarily considering factual supporting /
    contradictory evidence). So here we are, a species genetically bred
    to 'believe'.
     
  17. Jan Ardena OM!!! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    13,968
    mustafhakofi,

    You think like this for two reasons, ignorance and arrogance.

    This is a display of ignorance. Life itself tells us that God most likely exists.

    There are no arguments against the existence of God, not of any real worth anyway. There can never be a proper argument against the existence of God, it can only boil down to whether or not you believe God does or does not exist. The atheist can only deny the existence of God, on the grounds that he wants to.

    It is easy to believe that God exists, one only need open ones eyes. You should be more concerned with your own position on the matter,
    Why would you not want to believe that God exists?

    There are some people who use God as a comfort blanket, and why not. But belief in God is not about comfort as i'm sure you'll find out if you study scriptures.

    I can understand that it is in your interest to keep the reasons for belief in God, down to simple-mindedness, to bolster your reasons for not believing. But this is nothing more than a comfort blanket, similar to the what you described, which doesn’t give your position any real credibility, only a false sense of security.

    Arrogance and ignorance again.

    Jan Ardena.
     
  18. skeptic Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    30
    my belief falls somewhere between Jan's and mustafhakofi's.
    I myself do not believe in a God, however I am definately not confounded as to why people believe. Many people look into the universe and see evidence of creation. I feel that is very understandable. However, this believe by definition is only Faith. There is nothing in the universe that can only be explained by the existence of the supernatural. Of course, there are many things in the universe that we can not explain at this time. However, it is a mistake to assume that just because something can not be explained, that it must be due to a god(s). There are many other explanations that may still exist, and can be discovered in many cases if we look hard enough.
    There are many arguments both for and against the existence of God. Strictly speaking, logically the arguments against God are generally stronger. However, this should not be viewed as an insult to believers as to most of them, God exists because of Faith. If you have faith, you do not need proof, correct?
    Logic and faith are two different realms, and I believe it is a mistake to try to combine them. Logically, i feel that atheism is more valid. But God was not created out of logic anyway, but out of faith. So this should not come as a devastating blow to most theists.
    Jans statement that we only need to open ours eyes to see that a god exists is purely Faith. There could be many other explanations for what we see around us besides the existence of a God. To choose that belief is a matter of opinion. But understand that I do not mean that as an insult in any way. For people who have faith, that is all they should need. If theists begin trying to prove their case based on logic or evidence, does that mean their faith is no longer enough?

    Greg
     
  19. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,423
    This is a perfect example supporting the theory I asserted.
     
  20. Medicine*Woman Jesus: Mythstory--Not History! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,346
    Crunchy Cat: I have a theory on this. When the primate evolutionary lines produced a human being, newly acquired intellegence allowed humans to understand just how much they did not understand.

    Early humans of course had the opportunity to make many observations:

    * They could invent tools, music, art. while other life forms could not.
    * They could communicate in a manner that other life forms seemingly could not.
    * They would be punished if they tried to break the laws of reality and would be rewarded if they took advantage of these laws for their benefit.
    * Life can be given (birth).
    * Life can be taken away (death).
    * All life eventually expires (death).

    This could have been interpreted as confirmation that humans were 'higher' life forms and that led to a model of reality where a 'highest' life form exists and could:

    * Invent reality.
    * Communicate in a manner that other life forms could not.
    * Punsh or reward other life forms for breaking / following his laws.
    * Create life.
    * Destroy life.
    * Allow life to exist for a duration of time.

    Eventually this 'highest' life form became various 'God's and worlds of attractive fantasy and enforcement were created amongst these 'Gods'. Those whom accepted them (i.e. believed) propogated their genes and those whom did not had a much harder time reproducing. After many millenia, a real survival trait in humans was the ability to believe (i.e. accept assertions as being true without necessarily considering factual supporting /
    contradictory evidence). So here we are, a species genetically bred to 'believe'.
    *************
    M*W: Good point, Crunch. Do you really believe that we were 'genetically bred to believe in god/gods?' Or, do you think we evolved and matured to a point where we realized how magnificant the universe was and how we were unable to 'control' the vast universe? So, in order to 'control' our universe, we created a higher power with a personality we could understand, who was greater than us so we would have understanding of everything that we couldn't rationalize. Believing became a part of this reasoning. I believe we could have been bred to think or to give reason to those things which we could not control but rather that which has control over humans. Hence, the belief in god.

    All I know is, if we were bred to believe in a higher power, thank the gods that be for those of us with rebel spirits.
     
  21. Neildo Gone Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,306
    When it comes to God, there is no way to seek the truth. One cannot know everything of the past regardless of how much evidence may be found. Just because someone may believe in a God, it does not mean ignorance is in play because God is about the unknown. How can one have the answers to the unknown? If anything, that's ignorance if one claims to know everything of the past. One can still use their intellegence to seek the truth while at the same time believing in a God. There will always, without a doubt, be a percentage of information we will never know, and that's where faith comes in, and everyone, religious or not, has that faith of trying to figure out that unknown.

    If a religious person is set in their ways when finally some proof is shown to discredit their beliefs and then they still don't change, then that's ignorance in play. But so far when it comes to God, there are no answers so people are able to believe what they want until proof comes along to discredit their beliefs. Their faith in God is no different than scientists faith, err sorry, "theories" on trying to explain the unknown. So don't call a religious person ignorant until there is proof and a concrete theory to discredit their beliefs.

    So far every theory that is presented trying to explain that unknown is no better than a religious person's faith. Seeing two sides claim to have all the answers when neither is able to know they're correct is nothing but foolhardy. It's why I find religious debates so amusing because both sides claim to have all the answers and are stubborn beyond belief when they both don't know jack shit, lol. A religious person's "faith" and a scientists "evidence" is merely .001%, if that, towards having all the answers to everything yet they both seem to have the whole puzzle unravelled with that one small piece. Too funny. Both sides need a LOT more evidence, so until then, both sides are free to philosophize, or theorize, as they will.

    - N
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2004
  22. skeptic Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    30
    medicine woman-
    I think that it is possible (maybe even likely) that genetics play a part in our belief in god(s). However, if so, i imagine it is very polygenetic and complicated. I'm not sure there is evidence that belief in a god directly selected us for survival in a Darwinian sort of way. However, as we evolved, we incorporated many rituals and beliefs which we felt helped us in one way or another. Prayer and dance rituals have been performed for thousands of years to increase disease recovery, success in hunting and farming, and longevity, etc...
    It is very unlikely that any of these rituals actually helped in any direct way, but enough people recovered from disease and successfully grew crops and killed game that many of our ancestors believed it was due to the prayer, etc. This is strong psychological conditioning, and has been passed down generation after generation.
    I'm not sure its as black and white as being "genetically bred to believe" however. For example, in some countries, a very high percentage of people are atheists. (Germany was shown to have a well over 50% atheism rate in 1995). Also, children raised in atheistic homes (even if adopted), are less likely to be believers themselves. While it may be partly due to genetics, i feel a large aspect of belief is due to psychological meme's passed from generation to generation, and to daily environment.
     
  23. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,423
    It's just a model based on existing knowledge and observations. The
    implication is that we're a species bred to 'believe' (not necessarily in
    'God'... just in general). Becuase of this, the concept of 'God' has been
    a substitute for things that are not understood, but as more and more
    factual knowledge becomes available people are starting to reject the
    concept of 'God' in favor of truth.
     

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