I haven't really gone to church since I was a kid in elementary school but recently my gf has been bugging me to go. I just don't understand the fundamentals of it all. How can people be so sure of something that they are so unsure of? So I am asking, in any religious affiliation, why do you believe in what you believe? Was it because you just grew up believing it? Or did you have a "vision"? I know this isn't a very specific thread but I'm sure there are more skeptics on this board that would like some guidance as well. Here is your chance to inspire us.
How can you be so unsure of something that people have believed in for thousands of years. I guess all of them were uneducated fools
I wasn't brought up religiously and I've been an atheist all my life. After reading The God Delusion, its all become pretty clear to me. ...and no I'm not going to spew my thoughts on what I think about Religion, and get ridiculed by other posters. Just posting my stance.
People like to believe in God because it makes them feel better, like a drug or something. The fact that religion is legal, but smoking weed is outlawed is a travesty of justice.
So is your answer that you believe in it because many before you have, and given how popular the idea is you presume it must be true? I think a true believer should be able to muster a better answer than that.
The concept of God has remained steady because it can neither be proved nor disproved, and (I suspect) there has evolved within us a deeply-rooted desire to believe in a higher power.
Also, women have a deep-seated desire to perpetuate religion and it's morals, because they are constantly worried that men would otherwise enslave them. Our loss is their gain....
i have a hard time too. i'm 29 and have moved from: Growing up in an evangelical household Went to Bible camps, taught Sunday schools, played in the church band, was born again, etc. Start to wonder: why is the Bible valid, who is God, what is God, what has been humanity's historical conception of God -- and how have all those things changed Realized that religion/spirituality has always been in flux -- contrary to its believers' assertions Flirted with nihilism, Buddhism in college; looked at spiritual traditions in other religions -- like Krishna adoration in Hinduism, Sufism in Islam and Christian mysticism in Catholicism Ultimately, I find that the heart of religion means well, that God is God -- that he/it is universal and totally hard to grasp and understand -- but that once you get beyond the immovable truths of human wants, beliefs, fears and joy, then religion descends into a selfish spectacle of Man, governed by hucksters whose impotent power and simplistic reductions of the truth delude those with the best of intentions. I still have a lot of questions, but I'm content and happy that I'm still looking and learning and searching... but most churches to me are filled with good people who settle for the comfort of religion without looking behind the curtain; I don't mind it when it helps them lead their lives well -- but I do get frustrated when religion becomes politicized and becomes a weapon. - -
There is zero i could say on this message board that would change your mind. Not interested in religion...I'm interested in God. But how 'bout them Texans!!???
If you do happen to join a religion, I would avoid the dangerous Jesus cult that has been making some headway these days....
OP, Consider that 97% of humans believe in some conception of God. It is apparently a natural part of our brains.
I think as rational beings, we tend to look for causal relationships between events. So a natural question would be, "Where did we come from?" God is such an abstract concept, that basically any answer to that question could be labeled as "God". In some societies, God isn't a single entity but rather an all-pervasive presence. There are very different views on the nature of God and how the universe came into being throughout the world. And if not for all the innumerable wars of subjugation and assimilation throughout human history, it's quite possible there would exist today an even greater variety of conceptions of God (i.e. answers to that question "where did we come from?"). Perhaps, amongst some societies, even atheistic outlook could have emerged. I think that if God existed, and He gifted us with a natural yearning to seek out His existence, then all the disparate civilizations would have come up with more or less a similar conception of Him. We know that has not been the case. So, while I agree that there is deep inside us an natural impulse to seek out a higher power, I don't think that suggests in any way the hand of a Creator.
