Why do we believe in God

Going back in time, I expect that humans questioned their existence and the world they saw around them. Without the knowledge or tools to find rational explanations, they assumed that a more powerful, but unseen, force ie. God was responsible. Today, we have a lot more knowledge and understanding of how things work and less reliance on a God to explain the unknown.

However, we're human and maybe take comfort in the belief that if we're good boys and girls we'll go to Heaven when we die and the bad guys will get what's coming to them. In the meantime we'll thank God - if you still believe one exists - for the good times and make excuses for the bad ones.
 
VaughanJB said:
DNA is a "code" in terms of a descriptive sense, but some could argue against it in reality.

But how does it point to a "planning mind at work"? It's purely chemical.
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I respect your right to your opinion. But please note that the evidence of a planning mind are not nullified simply because chemicals are involved. Also, please keep in mind that anything, no matter how compelling the evidence might be, can be argued against in many fallacious ways.

BTW

Here is a short sci fi story I wrote related to this subject:
Oops, there was an error! | Varietygalore
 
Traditional belief is passed on early so there isn’t usually a moment when a person confronts a decision whether or not to believe. People growing up in a traditional culture would probably assume everyone believes in God, and rarely would anyone encounter a nonbeliever.

Obviously it must have had great survival value to us as a species by allowing us to live in far larger communities of our own kind than any other creature as evidenced by its being so widespread for as far back we can learn. Of course language had an even bigger role in that.

One advantage of belief in a sacred dimension over a purely physical belief is that it makes better sense of our inner experience. Intuitively one cannot easily imagine oneself to be nothing but atoms following a course long determined by natural laws. But the way in which reflection can sometimes turn up deeper insight and inspiration than simple brainstorming can lends itself to a natural inclination to regard a portion of our inner life as of greater value. It doesn’t inevitably support belief in anything supernatural but traditional systems of belief evolve naturally and will have idiosyncrasies accordingly.
 
Stuart Chase: “For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible.” If this is the case why do we try?
Stuart Chase was an American economist, social theorist, and writer. His writings covered topics as diverse as general semantics and physical economy.

There's a couple of questions that puzzle me. When I ask how did the universe start I usually get the big bang answer. When I ask how did the big bang happen, I get told gasses. When I ask how did the gasses come about I usually get an annoyed stare. Nobody has ever explained to me how something like gasses or whatever, existed.

The other question is infinity. The universe must be infinite, meaning no end, because if it's finite what's at the end of it? So if infinity in space exists, does it exist in time, too?
 
horseless carriage said:
There's a couple of questions that puzzle me. When I ask how did the universe start I usually get the big bang answer. When I ask how did the big bang happen, I get told gasses.
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It gets worse for simple physicalism when realize it must explain not only how life came about but also Bach and Shakespeare. Physics and cosmology are of little use.
 
Capt Lightning said:
There are those - a lot smarter than me - who would argue that the universe is finite, perhaps even toroidal in shape.
I would also question why a 'planning mind' would make things so complicated and liable to failure?
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Since when does water, or anything that is mindless, have the ability to come up with detailed information on how to assemble , brains, nervous systems, immunological systems, skeletal systems, circulatory systems, digestive systems, etc,, and then proceed to arrange those CONCEPTS into a DNA code, and then design molecular machines to read that code,, and design other molecular machines to carry out its instructions and another molecular machine to repair it in case it makes mistakes? All that requires forethought. If SETI received anything even remotely resembling DNA, they would immediately identify it as proceeding from a mind. Science ceases to be science if it allows personal preferences to interfere. with objectivity.



Also, please note that the premise is flawed. Why? Because we would not disqualify a machine as having been designed simply because it was prone to failure? Instead, we would simply identify it as being poorly designed. The first airplanes were prone to failure. So were many other inventions. Yet we never doubted that they had been designed.​
 
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chic said:
Ok. What if we were intended to become a strain of pets for an alien but brilliant species somewhere in the universe?? There could be so many explanations for why people believe or not, in what we now refer to as God.
:unsure: Don't you think?
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One film that seems based on that idea is the film 2001 a Space Odyssey. Another film is Prometheus. But that only begs the question of who designed these aliens. Right?
 
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horseless carriage said:
Stuart Chase: “For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible.” If this is the case why do we try?
Stuart Chase was an American economist, social theorist, and writer. His writings covered topics as diverse as general semantics and physical economy.

There's a couple of questions that puzzle me. When I ask how did the universe start I usually get the big bang answer. When I ask how did the big bang happen, I get told gasses. When I ask how did the gasses come about I usually get an annoyed stare. Nobody has ever explained to me how something like gasses or whatever, existed.

The other question is infinity. The universe must be infinite, meaning no end, because if it's finite what's at the end of it? So if infinity in space exists, does it exist in time, too?
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From a purely theistic perspective, our material universe itself might simply be located in some corner of the spirit realm referred to as heaven. Also from the same theistic perspective, time existed before the Big Bang within that same spirit realm, since events, such as creations, were occurring there before the Big Bang. In fact, certain residents of that realm are described as cheering when Earth came into existence..
 
Here is the rational reason that Paul provided for believing in a creator.

Rom :1: 20
…19. For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.

Today, this rational reason should be far more plainly compelling after the discovery of the DNA code which demands a coding mind..
 
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Earth came into existence approx 4.5 Billion years ago and the first forms of life about 3.5 billion years ago. The first modern humans did not appear until over 300,000 years ago. What was a 'thinking mind' was doing all that time?

Now, I'm off to say 'goodnight' to the fairies that live at the bottom of my garden.
 
I am sure there is no God and no Jesus Christ. We simply live and then CEASE to exist.

However, I still play Jesus music on my Amazon Echos many hours per day because hearing about Jesus and His miracles gives me hope that He will not let me suffer too much but will take me to Heaven when appropriate.
 
CONCLUSIONS:
  •  Rational behaviour, which means that human intellect, finds no other satisfactory answer to the chain of cause and effect. He finds the ultimate cause, the first cause, God at the end of this chain. He finds the only answer to “The Basic Questions” is religion.
  •  Man believes in God due to his consciousness or anxiousness (Taqwa or fear) to find out about God and his relation with him and the life after death. This is the rational behaviour, which leads many to believe. Man studies the universe and
To believe in God is a natural and instinctual behaviour of
human beings. Philosophy, history, psychology and genetics admit
this fact. This is further confirmed by the religiosity of all the
primitive tribes without exception. This natural inclination to faith
works in many ways:
Why do we believe in God?
feels and understands the intrinsic truth of the divine scriptures, especially of the Qur’an, and gets convinced of God.
  •  There is a natural love in man for his creator and sustainer. The examples of this divine love are found in almost every religion and every society in the world for example, Bhakti, Sufism, etc.
  •  Man also shares some common grounds of believing and disbelieving, for example, affiliation with his culture and environment or his family tradition makes him believer or non-believer.
  •  Man believes in God when he gets inspired by the character, nobility and morality of the prophets or the preachers of a religion.
  •  The power factor influences man to believe if the believers or the religion comes into power. It is observed that influence of character and the nobility of preachers work on individuals, and the influence of power works on mass conversion. This phenomenon can be observed in the history of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.
  •  Man believes in a particular religion when he finds in it a remedy for his problems and miseries.
  •  Man inclines to believe an invitation to a faith when he hears it in its own language and dialect and finds it in correspondence with the cultural norms and ideas, he is familiar with. For this purpose, a Greek version of Christianity was introduced to Greek and Roman lands. And in the subcontinent, Islamic Sufism in correspondence to the sadhuism and Bhakti of Hinduism spread Islam in local terms, dialect and idiom; and it worked.
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Radrook said:
One reason that I believe in God is because the DNA code and molecular machines indicates a planning mind at work.
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Agreed 💯 Evolution is the AI function of the genetic code that God the Creator / master programmer wrote into the DNA matrix. But it was first creation then evolution to aid living species to adapt to changing environments.

The Primordial Slime theory is just a little short on credibility. Lol, you can't Google "primordial slime" and get a straight answer, the term apparently has been co opted by Japanese fantasy entertainment stuff.

"Primordial Soup" points to a sufficient definition. Primordial soup - Wikipedia
 
Ahhh ..... Did God create man, or did man create God. - This is the age old question, and at first, it would seem that it is dead on arrival, since there is no proof either way. It seems quite natural for the human mind to try to make connections between cause and effect (It was a survival mechanism). We exist, so something must have caused that to happen, and it could be a supreme power. However, without any evidence, the cause must remain unknown.

I tend to gravitate to the philosophical. Why would any supreme power create man and woman. Humans don't have a good track record for someone you would want to spend a great deal of time with. We are temperamental, prone to boredom, and often do things that are not in our best interests. Perhaps if you could make all that go away, then maybe it could work. However, if God has existed forever without the need for companionship, why at this point decide to create irrational beings to commune with?

There are over ten thousand religions throughout the world, with each believing something different, and each believing they are the correct one, and the others are wrong. If you were God, wouldn't that be something you would want to address or alleviate. In addition, why make our existence appear to be a product of evolution if you wanted the created ones to believe it wasn't. We share 95 % of our DNA with Chimpanzees. That seems counterproductive to the God made man in his image argument.

Here's another troubling thought. Could a loving and compassionate God watch for thousands of years while hundreds of millions of innocent humans (Including little children) have suffered with a staggering number of illnesses, others horribly tortured, beaten, raped, killed, and starved to death, eaten alive by cancer and other diseases just so that God could have company in heaven or be worshipped?
That's a disturbing thought.

I don't know if there is any "God", as I have no proof either way, but if this superhuman entity exists, I don't think it is even close to the traditional concept many have come to embrace. Perhaps I'm missing something. It won't be the first time.
 
Man can never know more then the teacher imparts. So you are limited by your creators decisions. Blood, suffering. Jesus was nailed and bled out.
You pose so many questions. All valid. Our view of pain and suffering is not the same as Gods view. You come from the perspective of this life. God comes from the perspective of eternal life after this one passes. Blood, suffering, misery, pain, sorrow, regret are all part of the human condition.
 
Do I believe in God? To me that is not the right question.

I have some doubt about the existence of a divine being, even more doubt about my own existence after my death.

I do believe that humans are creatures of faith. I equate faith with trust. As we grow and develop our faith is shaped by our trust relationships and as adults we do not all place out faith in the same things. Some of us place our faith in science, others in money and power, but everyone has faith in something or someone. When that faith results in a feeling of betrayal, the consequences are likely to be anger and bitterness.

In my late teens I began to doubt the existence of the god that was presented to me at Sunday school. I was fascinated by stories about Greek and Roman gods and came to the conclusion that stories about gods were all just stories, ancient myths, because humanity needed them. My faith moved away from the god of the christians and settled on science. I became a scientific atheist. I did not become antagonistic towards people of faith and avoided arguing with them.

I became an angry feminist. I felt injustice towards women and girls very keenly. As I learned more about the world, I saw injustice everywhere and felt helpless to do anything about it. The problems were too numerous and too big for me to solve.

I married young, became a mother at the age of twenty and dedicated myself to raising my children to be responsible adults and was successful in that endeavour but during my daughter's teens I had a suspicion I had hold her by one hand and the devil held on to the other, and we were in a tug of war for her soul. I knew I must not let go, no matter how wayward she might appear to be.

My faith in science proved inadequate when my father died suddenly and when my sister delivered a still born son. I needed to pray but could not. I was experiencing a crisis of faith and it is a very unsettling feeling.

Some years later I opened myself to the possibility of faith in something that was unlike anything that can be defined by equations, that cannot be proven, nor defined rationally. After an experience that I have talked about before I chose to place my faith in something that is both infinite and eternal, and therefore unknowable.

So, what do I believe? I believe in love, forgiveness, hope and justice. We cannot fully understand what these words mean but I know and feel their presence in my life. So it is with God.
 

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