Thread: Why do you believe in God?

Using my own process of deduction I can see that previous notions of god simply creating everything so quickly is much much MUCH less complex than it actually is. Check off mono-polytheism. (Mono is closer to the truth though.) We're all part of the universe and thus part of 'god' (the universe).

^One of the reasons religion became so popular. It makes you feel like you understand the universe without wasting time with all that stupid math and logic and science and other junk.

Quote:
Logic And God
One of the objections to studying logic most often cited is that logic does not apply to God or to any of the mysteries of the Christian faith, such as the Trinity or the Incarnation. If that were true, then logic might be of use in natural ................. ......... ...........
[/b]

Was anyone able to get any useful info out of this article? To me it sounded like a bunch of contradictions hidden by fancy wording, but then again, I didn't read it very carefully...

I'm afraid I had trouble understanding the first few paragraphs. Being 13, my vocabulary isn't exactly that advanced, and I do have to go to rather stretching feats of redundancy in order to make sense of what some of you people argue (your reasoning). And the article wasn't exactly the most exciting thing for me ever, so I did get bored of it fast. At least I tried.

Originally posted by SteveHatton
One of the reasons religion became so popular. It makes you feel like you understand the universe without wasting time with all that stupid math and logic and science and other junk.

Well said!!

Allow me to clarify...
Most philosophers agree that the realm of logic exists(unless you,re a nihilist and claim that nothing has existence). So logically I can argue that there is a God, but of course, someone else can logically argue that there isnt a God and depending on whose the better logician, one of the two will defeat the other...incidentally, the realm of God(if there is one) can never be experienced through logic because logic is a function of the intelligence; most people would admit their intelligence is limited so how would it be possible to perceive the unlimited through a limited tool such as intelligence.
So to really find out once and for all if there is a God we will have to engage in a different process than logical debate.

That is of course if we really want to know, because "logically" there are many reasons why one person believes in God and another doesnt. It takes a clearheaded, unbiased thinker to really know if God exists or not....

well said jags.... i will post my "logic" theory in this thread when i am less tired and intoxicated than i am at the moment... but again, well said, well said

So logically I can argue that there is a God[/b]

I'd love to see you prove the existence of God logically.

Originally posted by dreamwalker007
I was wondering what all the different reasons you have for believing in God.

My reason is that everything in the world, the ecosystem, the temperature, the fact that we have free will, is all too perfect for me to believe that there could be any other explination. Even in the entire universe, I think that the odds are too slim to have it be anything else.

I believe in the multiple universe theory which says that everything seems "perfect" because those are what the conditions are like in a universe with the potential for intelligent life. Other universes may be much duller or more hostile, so they don't have any intelligent beings to observe this.

I didn't read this entire thread, but I remember having seen articles that say that it's possible humans evolved to believe in the presence of a "divine being", and this can explain why believing in a god comes naturally to so many people. I'm not atheist, myself, because you can't prove that there is no God, and I don't quite believe in nothingness after death. I do believe that we're here to make our own destiny. Whose to say that the human race won't become a virtual God with sufficiently advanced technology?

Originally posted by bradybaker

So logically I can argue that there is a God

I'd love to see you prove the existence of God logically.[/b]

Me too.

Originally posted by Kaniaz+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kaniaz)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-bradybaker

So logically I can argue that there is a God

I'd love to see you prove the existence of God logically.[/b]

Me too.[/b]

Actually my dear brethren, as you can see from the above quote, I said I can "argue" that there is a God not "prove" there is a God because, as already explained, the realm of logic is never conclusive!!
The realm of knowledge however is conclusive, just like someone whos had an LD "knows" what it is, someone whos had an encounter with God "knows" He exists! And those who havent experienced an LD or God will just have to believe or disbelieve; and on the basis of that "belief"(and lets face it even atheists have faith;the faith that God doesnt exist!) they will argue "logically" with eachother but neither of them will ever know the truth!!

I don't believe in one God as Christians believe. I believe all of our energys form to be one God, and we all are our own Gods. I just have not found any proof of a God or a Satan.

You need energy to understand God...

Originally posted by jags
Actually my dear brethren, as you can see from the above quote, I said I can \"argue\" that there is a God not \"prove\" there is a God because, as already explained, the realm of logic is never conclusive!!

Ok, have it your way. I'd still like to see you \"argue\" logically that there is a God, some of the greatest minds in history have tried unsuccessfully.

Originally posted by jags
The realm of knowledge however is conclusive, just like someone whos had an LD \"knows\" what it is, someone whos had an encounter with God \"knows\" He exists! And those who havent experienced an LD or God will just have to believe or disbelieve; and on the basis of that \"belief\"(and lets face it even atheists have faith;the faith that God doesnt exist!) they will argue \"logically\" with eachother but neither of them will ever know the truth!!

A typical theist argument, basically it boils down to "you have to believe in God to understand". Completely circular, completely meaningless.

Well i guess its entirely subjective, but I really dont see anything that justifies the presence of a god...
There are perfectly reasonable explanations for just about anything and for what we cant explain yet there are perfectly plausible theories... Which are ofcourse not proven yet, but seem alot more rational then the equally un-proven theist explanations.

But ofcourse, I guess even THOSE require a bit of 'faith', as does believing in a God.
I'm really opposed to all the 'mysticism' bullshit that surrounds most religions, I mean really its like a fricking fairy tale that is supposed to be real... come up with a more plausible story and then maybe I'll see the sense in it.

there are a lot of ways "God" can be argued. Actually, Jags did make a good argument. The truth is, we living will never know for sure if there's a god or not. Unless of course you have faith. But for those of you who dont have faith in a god, this answer is resolved in Death. Really, it's one of those questions that cant really be answered very well unless you've been dead for long enough for your WHOLE physical being to shut down (brain too) and come back. Which is imposible to do without getting brain damage.

Personally, i do believe in a god, i just dont know what's going to happen after death. I believe there is a creator. i also believe in a savior. But i dont know.

I wont know untill death invites me to the answer.


Vox

[edit] when i said "Unless of course you have faith" that's a personal knowing, not necissarily TRUTH. we'll not know the TRUTH untill we die. that's what i ment

You are right, CT, that all external beliefs require faith. My problem is that I don't see how faith in gravity is any less extreme than faith in god, I would like someone to explain to me how this is so.

Gravity is testable through the perceptions that we generally trust. God isn't even observable let alone testable.

But you must trust those senses, that takes a degree of faith.

It doesn't take any belief to experience physical reality day after day after day, but it takes consistent belief to experience God as real.

It doesn't take belief to experience it, but it does take belief to think that your experiences are caused by an objective, physical, and scientifically-explained universe.

of course there is no difference between faith in gravity, reality, god, insane conspiracy theories about insects ruling the world, whatever...
But what happened to keeping your feet on the ground?

I mean, do a "reality check " once in a while in your thinking. if you don't, you can just give up thinking about anything because "nothing is certain"... you'll just lay there getting nowhere, since everything you think about is equally in value (or lack of it) and nothing is real

The truth is, we living will never know for sure if there's a god or not. [/b]

Then WHY are people still choosing to believe one way or the other? There's just no point in doing that at all, just as there's no point in even contemplating the existance of rock eating 2-tailed space monkeys in a distant galaxy, because we have never seen reason to believe they do or don't exist. Although we can calculate the probability that they might exist to some degree (which is basically meaningless), we'll never know for sure until we see them, and knowing whether they exist or not obviously has no effect on us, so we just plain shouldn't care. Ditto with god. He/She/It should be treated like any other fairy tale character.

It doesn't take belief to experience it, but it does take belief to think that your experiences are caused by an objective, physical, and scientifically-explained universe.[/b]

Well then I can go and say "what defines an objective, physical, and scientifically-explained universe?" You can't define it really, because "fake" and "real" don't apply to what is percieved, even if two seperate people's perceptions don't match up exactly. I just sense what I sense, and that's all there is to it. I don't waste my time thinking "well what if it's all just an illusion (again, hard-to-define word), nothing really exists ect.", because that kind of thinking doesn't ever get anywhere. It just doesn't mean anything.

Originally posted by Belisarius
But you must trust those senses, that takes a degree of faith.

Agreed, but in order to form a belief in God you must not only trust your senses, but also something that is obviously beyond your senses and cannot even be observed with those supposed senses. Therefore, based on the way that you worded your question, faith in gravity is "less extreme" than faith in God.

My view is there isn't a "God" as most major religions believe. People believe in God's because they are just an easy way to explain our world. For example, the romans and greeks used god's as a way to explain simple things that occured like thunder, or how the grreks believed in Bacchus the god of wine. Gods were a way to explain everything.