Why do people believe in God?

Write4U said:
I agree. Pinball definitely did.
Click to expand...
If you agree that all we have expressed are opinions, why do you continue to state that "we know" such and such. Do you comprehend the difference between opinion and knowledge?
 
Sarkus said:
But given the views that some have chosen to express here, it would not be surprising if they opted not to put themself in the firing line. And that's a shame.
Click to expand...
Yep, in deference to the believers in an unknown. In Holland they offered an alternate way out, the FSM, but that was denied.
Spaghetti injunction: Pastafarianism is not a religion, Dutch court rules
The Netherlands’ highest court said de Wilde, a law student from Nijmegen, could not be exempted on religious grounds from a ban on headwear in official identity photographs, because Pastfarianism was essentially a satire and not a serious faith. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/16/pastafarianism-is-not-a-religion-dutch-court-rules
Click to expand...
IOW, its not what you believe in at all. It's fear of the unknown.
 
Sarkus said:
If you agree that all we have expressed are opinions, why do you continue to state that "we know" such and such. Do you comprehend the difference between opinion and knowledge?
Click to expand...
Knowledge about God and why people believe in such an unknown, unproven idea?
All we have here is opinions,
There is no knowledge unless you are a psychologist. I admit I am not and everything I have posted is my opinion presented in my own words, take it or leave it, ok?

People believe because they are AFRAID to be judged, not by god, but by his earthly representation, the Inquisition or the Mufti's Fatwa.
 
Last edited:
Write4U said:
Yep, in deference to the believers in an unknown.
Click to expand...
How do you know it is an unknown to them?
Write4U said:
Knowledge about God and why people believe in such an unknown, unproven idea?
All we have here is opinions,
There is no knowledge unless you are a psychologist. I admit I am not and everything I have posted is my opinion presented in my own words, take it or leave it, ok?
Click to expand...
1. How do you know it is unknown to them?
2. If you finally acknowledge that you know nothing with regard God, then please, please, please, stop asserting everything as if it is fact. Stop asserting things like "there is no heaven" as if it is true when you can't know. You may think that the accuracy with which one expresses their views is not all that important, but it is. Really, it is. If you're agnostic on such matters, and you want people to understand you to be agnostic, then it behooves you to communicate in a manner that gets that across. Simples, really.
 
Write4U said:
In Holland they offered an alternate way out, the FSM, but that was denied.
Spaghetti injunction: Pastafarianism is not a religion, Dutch court rules
Click to expand...
??? In what way is this offering "an alternate way out"??? Again, you seem to just be posting things you think are remotely related as if they prove some relevant point.
Tell me: how does this Dutch ruling provide a view on why people believe in God, given that Pastafarianism was deliberately set up to satirise religion? How is it relevant to this thread??

If you can't answer why it is relevant, take this as a request to STOP POSTING IRRELEVANT SHIT! Please.
 
Write4U said:
Do you know you are playing the fear card? Pascal's wager carried on to the extreme.
Let's play safe and kill all the unbelievers, just in case. If there is a God He will love us and make room in heaven.
And the apostates have been dealt with.
Click to expand...

You missed the point of my post, maybe we are here suffering for a reason. Maybe if man didn’t rebel against God, and if the human faithful didn’t fight the angelic faithful, God would not be punishing you.
 
Sarkus said:
Tell me: how does this Dutch ruling provide a view on why people believe in God, given that Pastafarianism was deliberately set up to satirise religion? How is it relevant to this thread??
Click to expand...
Tell me: how does your ruling provide a view on why people believe in god, given that Abrahamic Scripture was deliberately set up to foster religion? Why do you not believe in many gods? Can you answer why this is relevant?
 
kx000 said:
You missed the point of my post, maybe we are here suffering for a reason.
Click to expand...
Are you suffering? I am not. I am very happy with my life and being one of the fortunate natural patterns that made me human, an extraordinary good fortune. The odds against becoming a human are incalculable. And when death comes, I am not afraid of Nothing. Because I will have ceased to exist.
Maybe if man didn’t rebel against God, and if the human faithful didn’t fight the angelic faithful, God would not be punishing you.
Click to expand...
This is a perfect example of what I am talking about.
You are in effect laying blame on atheists for god's wrath, while you may drive a Hummer and pollute the Earth's atmosphere to the point that the Earth's biosphere is in the midst of what is now being called "Holocene Extinction". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction#
The planet's biodiversity is plunging, with a quarter of species facing extinction, many within decades. Numerous experts believe we are living through, or on the cusp of, a mass species extinction event, the sixth in the history of the planet and the first to be caused by a single organism—us.
Click to expand...
All of us!

Let me reply using a slightly altered version of your words.

Maybe if man didn’t rebel against Nature, and if the human naturalist didn’t fight the human capitalist, Nature would not be punishing all of us.
 
Last edited:
Sarkus said:
The issue with this thread, in this website, is that we are all mostly non-believers of one flavour or other, so the answers we give will, unless we are careful, will all stem from what we perceive the reason to be for believers to believe
Click to expand...
Yes I gave the atheist view but I was a Christian too, till after uni when I decided to PROVE my belief.
To myself.
I failed so I ditched it.
Prior to this I do remember defending my faith to atheists in the dorms and also an ex girlfriend.
Obviously this is very personal experience but my reasoning would not have been that unusual for Catholics at least.
God sent his son to give mankind a chance of salvation, Jesus died for our sins. That was the mantra, did we believe it?
I think I always thought it was rather convoluted but who was I to question? A peon.
So lack of really challenging myself to question it all until the contradictions had stacked too high was one reason I still believed.
Letting go of heaven/afterlife was tough. I wanted to see my loved ones again. A reason I continued to believe.
It must have been much easier to believe in god pre science, where did all this stuff come from!? The sun, moon, wind, ocean mountains, us? A supreme being, designer makes sense otherwise our ancestors were left with option of nothing leading to something.
Some people still hold on to that, how can the void bring us here? Today?
 
kx000 said:
If there were a omnipotent God, what are the chances that he hates atheist back, and that is why we suffer? Is that possible to people? (No offense intended).
Click to expand...
A little off topic, why we suffer but I will reply as Bart Ehrman happened to write a treatise on this.
In the Bible god punished people for disobedience/wickedness (read the prophets) or to test (Job) or neither and it was the devil and his minions (Daniel/ Apocalyptic view)

Ehrman was a theist till he investigated this question in depth.
 
Pinball1970 said:
Yes I gave the atheist view but I was a Christian too, till after uni when I decided to PROVE my belief.
To myself.
I failed so I ditched it.
Prior to this I do remember defending my faith to atheists in the dorms and also an ex girlfriend.
Obviously this is very personal experience but my reasoning would not have been that unusual for Catholics at least.
God sent his son to give mankind a chance of salvation, Jesus died for our sins. That was the mantra, did we believe it?
I think I always thought it was rather convoluted but who was I to question? A peon.
So lack of really challenging myself to question it all until the contradictions had stacked too high was one reason I still believed.
Letting go of heaven/afterlife was tough. I wanted to see my loved ones again. A reason I continued to believe.
It must have been much easier to believe in god pre science, where did all this stuff come from!? The sun, moon, wind, ocean mountains, us? A supreme being, designer makes sense otherwise our ancestors were left with option of nothing leading to something.
Some people still hold on to that, how can the void bring us here? Today?
Click to expand...
Similar journey to me, but upon reflection I am not sure I ever really believed, at least not once I understood what that meant, so all I can give in response to such questions is an atheist experience of growing up and rebelling against the indoctrination. As such I'm not in a position to answer why people actually believe, other than provide explanations that satisfy my lack of belief. "Oh, it's indoctrination and not knowing better", or "oh, it's an hereditary belief", "it's because we're social animals and pack together thereby reinforcing our groupthink", to "out of fear, ignorance, wishful thinking etc".
 
Write4U said:
Do you know you are playing the fear card? Pascal's wager carried on to the extreme.
Let's play safe and kill all the unbelievers, just in case. If there is a God He will love us and make room in heaven.
And the apostates have been dealt with.
Click to expand...

Unbelievers should get help before the spoil their true self. I’ll pray for mortality to run its course with dis belief and heart break inside. Maybe pure dis-belief is a problem, but partial non-believers who have that nature as a victim would surly pull weight around the tree of life just to be saved.
 
kx000 said:
Unbelievers should get help before the spoil their true self. I’ll pray for mortality to run its course with dis belief and heart break inside. Maybe pure dis-belief is a problem, but partial non-believers who have that nature as a victim would surly pull weight around the tree of life just to be saved.
Click to expand...
The title is "Why do people believe in god."
It seems you do, can you outline why for us please?
 
James R said:
What sort of help? Can you help? If not, who can?
Click to expand...

Like help from a guru, someone who understands what dis-belief is. Dis-belief can be deeply painful, and I wouldn’t want to lose a good spirit trying to find help in something that hurts people.
 
Why not? Why do people not believe in god? Why do people believe in the rapture? Why do people believe we'll be rescued by aliens? Why do people believe in the Illuminati? Why do people believe the Earth will ascend into a 5th dimension? Why do people believe the global society will be dominated by the elite in some dystopian future? People love to cling to something.

Also, just out of curiosity because I have always wondered this. I have a question for the atheists who believe in total oblivion of consciousness upon the so-called "death" of the physical body. Do y'all have any concerns about the state of society and where it's heading? Do you worry about your friends and family and what the future holds for them after you have "died"? If so, why?
 
Zero Point Native said:
. Do y'all have any concerns about the state of society and where it's heading? Do you worry about your friends and family and what the future holds for them after you have "died"? If so, why?
Click to expand...
That is isn't the question. If you want to ask that you can start a new thread.
 
Zero Point Native said:
Also, just out of curiosity because I have always wondered this. I have a question for the atheists who believe in total oblivion of consciousness upon the so-called "death" of the physical body.
Click to expand...
If not dead, what do you call it? Suspended animation? Have you ever seen a decomposed body?
Do y'all have any concerns about the state of society and where it's heading? Do you worry about your friends and family and what the future holds for them after you have "died"? If so, why?
Click to expand...
I hope now they will continue to live full lives and have fond memories of me. After I die I no longer exist as a human. I'll return back to "dust" and have no more thoughts of any kind. Total oblivion. Pfffhhhhht........ gone away.......
I see the description of soul as a misplaced attempt to explain "memory " in those who knew you.

We live on in memory. It is your life's accomplishments that leave a lasting "impression" in the memory of your family and friends.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top