Out of interest, why do you believe in God?

stan1980 · Nov 18, 2008

I have noticed there are many intelligent posters here with a Christian symbol next to their name <staff edit>

I'm just wondering if you could explain from your own point of view, why you believe God exists?

I'd prefer to hear positive arguments in favour of God, rather than stuff like "well, atheism can't be valid because..."

Also, I expect most of you will say there is a chance that you could be wrong, but for those that think there is no way you could be wrong, I automatically don't want to hear from you, again, no offence.

This is just sheer curiosity more than anything...

levi501 · Nov 18, 2008

Because mommy daddy and the church told me to and so I've never honestly and critically questioned that belief.

stan1980 · Nov 18, 2008

levi501 said:
Because mommy daddy and the church told me to and so I've never honestly and critically questioned that belief.

hilarious

God-free · Nov 18, 2008

stan1980 said:
levi501 said:

Because mommy daddy and the church told me to and so I've never honestly and critically questioned that belief.

Click to expand...

hilarious

And true!... at least it was for me until I finally came to my senses.

~Barbara

Chesterton · Nov 18, 2008

Well this thread's off to a good start.

stan1980 · Nov 18, 2008

Chesterton said:
Well this thread's off to a good start.

Hasn't it! I suppose I do bring some of it on myself.

Sylvanspirits · Nov 18, 2008

stan1980 said:
I have noticed there are many intelligent posters here with a Christian symbol next to their name <staff edit>

I'm just wondering if you could explain from your own point of view, why you believe God exists?

I'd prefer to hear positive arguments in favour of God, rather than stuff like "well, atheism can't be valid because..."

Also, I expect most of you will say there is a chance that you could be wrong, but for those that think there is no way you could be wrong, I automatically don't want to hear from you, again, no offence.

This is just sheer curiosity more than anything...

I'm sure you've heard all of the standard fare as far as arguments for theism go, so I won't bother with that.

I'll be honest. Our universe, and more specifically, our planet, have always held me in awe. Just the sheer magnificence of a blade of grass. The world we inhabit is fascinating to me. And while I believe that our universe is an old universe, created primarily by the means that have been and are being discovered by science, I have never been able to believe that the wonders of our universe were not set in motion by something. In all honesty, it seems more likely that some being started things in motion, gave natural processes a 'push', than that all we see is just... there.

Obviously I could be wrong, and you can make the case that I have a "God of the gaps", but I've never been able to shake that view, so even if I were to lose my faith in Christianity I'd probably be a deist.

As far as why I chose Christianity out of the religions I have looked at (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and the Baha'i Faith), I'm sure it's a combination of many things. My location and relatives probably played some part in it. I can't say I wouldn't be a Muslim if I was born in Saudi Arabia. But, I find the teachings of Jesus to be very much aligned with my personal moral beliefs, and think the example of self-sacrifice on the cross is an example to live by, namely valuing the lives of others as highly as your own. Obviously it is difficult to fully live up to such an example, but I try my best.

levi501 said:
Because mommy daddy and the church told me to and so I've never honestly and critically questioned that belief.

Cynic.

brinny · Nov 18, 2008

ROFL!! Hi stan :wave:

selfinflikted · Nov 18, 2008

I think there could be as many reasons as there are people. But, I highly suspect that belief in a particular deity is largely determined by two, or a combination of two things: 1) Geographical location and, 2) Parents.

Robbie_James_Francis · Nov 18, 2008

I think a lot of people that believe in God wouldn't be able to succinctly answer the question of why they have faith. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. There's a whole world of human feeling and experience beyond pure logic and reason. There are a lot of logical arguments, don't get me wrong, but they don't IMO fully answer the question.

In a way it's similar to asking why you love someone or why you appreciate a certain piece of art. I suppose I could tell you I love my family and friends because of a host of evolutionary reasons, but I don't think that would fully capture what I feel and what I'm trying to express when I say that. I'm aware, of course, that belief in a deity, unlike the above, tends to posit some actual external being we otherwise have little evidence for.

We could try to reduce faith to its constituent components, such as personal experience, tradition, community, charismatic leaders, historical evidence, individual psychology, need to believe something etc. But that doesn't seem, to me at least, to fully capture what it's all about for people of faith.

selfinflikted · Nov 18, 2008

What levi posted can be found to be true in a large number of christians, I would imagine. What he said is pretty much my exact story, up until my deconversion. Of course, there were more personal things involved in my deconversion, but I only ever really believed in god because that's how I was brought up. I bet there are many others out there who could tell you the same story.

selfinflikted · Nov 18, 2008

edited for stupidity.

Oneofthediaspora · Nov 18, 2008

I honestly cannot see any possible explanation for existence that doesn't include God.
My belief in God is completely rational and I could defend that statement pretty well I think.

However, whilst I hold that cool and intellectual assent to the idea; it was only through a very strange and very unpleasant set of circumstances that I realised what it meant to actually feel the the belief to which I assented.
This would take a lot of explaining and I'm not sure I possess the words to describe what it felt like. A lot of it would not really paint me in a nice light either; so I'm not going to do that.

Not a very good answer I know, but I don't think you wanted the usual arguments.

Mike.

QuakerOats · Nov 18, 2008

QuakerOats said:
I choose to believe there is a God, or some sort of 'higher power,' because I have experienced things-situations-that have lead me in that direction, though I fully acknowledge that I could be 100% off the mark.

That was my answer to this same question in 'Whosoever Will, May Come' and it hasn't changed.

Edit to add: Good question, by the way.

jcook922 · Nov 18, 2008

I personally believe in God, I think something had to spark off all that we see before us. Now to me, I don't think with how big the universe is that we're somehow alone as one pet project of God. To be honest, we might just be a spec on the radar to him, I see God as having purely the role of an observer, rarely interfering in our physical world and never in any unsubtle way.

My key divide with Christians, aside from the belief that none of us really know for SURE what the powers that be are, is that I don't trust a dusty old book that for all I know, could have been written in the same manner as the books and writings of every other religion. Obviously Christians would agree with me that EVERY religion can't all be correct, since many of them would contradict eachother. So I think it is reasonable to decide that none of them are correct in any manner but the foundations of God-belief.

wanderingone · Nov 18, 2008

stan1980 said:
I have noticed there are many intelligent posters here with a Christian symbol next to their name <staff edit>.

I'm just wondering if you could explain from your own point of view, why you believe God exists?

I'd prefer to hear positive arguments in favour of God, rather than stuff like "well, atheism can't be valid because..."

Also, I expect most of you will say there is a chance that you could be wrong, but for those that think there is no way you could be wrong, I automatically don't want to hear from you, again, no offence.

This is just sheer curiosity more than anything...

I don't know if I'm intelligent but I'll toss in my comment despite obnoxiousness on the parts of others. Yes mommy and daddy were believers and my sisters and I were all cradle Christians raised in the faith.

However we were raised in the Moravian church where questioning was welcomed, differences accepted, and while choosing to leave the church may have been greeted sadly did not result in any banishment from the family or from the friendships formed in the church.

My parents welcomed a variety of people to our home as well as encouraging us to learn about the beliefs (and non beliefs) of any religious group or individual we wanted to learn about. Honestly my mother didn't even blink when my friends and I started taking regular meals with the Krishnas (who served really good veggie feasts at their Brooklyn temple in the 80's)

I do not generally attempt to explain my faith. There is (in my opinion) no justification for this faith, and no logical explanation. It just is. I could say "signs are everywhere" in some new age faith version of things but of course signs are everywhere if you look for them and want them to mean something specific. I could say it's about the things that can't be explained.. and someone who does not believe will say everything can be explained. I simply do believe. I question it, I have at times in my life decided it is ridiculous, I am simply insane, sane, intelligent people do not believe in some invisible being in the sky and the deity of a human being who ran around leading his cult of merry worshippers preaching about being the son of this invisible being in the sky.

But here I am, still believing. So why? There is no why (for me), there just is.

wanderingone · Nov 18, 2008

Polycarp_fan said:
This thread is a typical atheist Christian-bashing thread.

Typical:

Originally Posted by levi501

Because mommy daddy and the church told me to and so I've never honestly and critically questioned that belief.

yet, when the idiocy of atheism is displayed, these same people get all huffy.

So put off what levi said as obnoxious believer bashing and move on. Why deem it worthy of such a response. Why do you need atheism to be "idiocy" in order to be comfortable with expressing your own reasons for your beliefs?

selfinflikted · Nov 18, 2008

wanderingone said:
So put off what levi said as obnoxious believer bashing and move on. Why deem it worthy of such a response. Why do you need atheism to be "idiocy" in order to be comfortable with expressing your own reasons for your beliefs?

It's a basic component of human psychology. Sometimes, people tear others down to make themselves look better. By making "the other guy" look as dumb as possible, it will in turn make PC_F look much smarter. That's the theory, anyway.

wanderingone · Nov 18, 2008

selfinflikted said:
It's a basic component of human psychology. Sometimes, people tear others down to make themselves look better. By making "the other guy" look as dumb as possible, it will in turn make PC_F look much smarter. That's the theory, anyway.

I know, and occasionally I'll respond to some particularly annoying anti believer comment, I usually try to incorporate it in my response to the OP - as I did here. It just gets so tedious listening to the but "they" said and "what you did is worse" I didn't let my kids use that tactic at the dinner table when they were 5 or 6 years old I certainly can't stand in supposed adults capable of defending their own point of view. To be fair there's some baiting going on, and saying mommy and daddy blah blah blah in response to a question asked of people who do believe is an invitation to similar responses.

selfinflikted · Nov 18, 2008

wanderingone said:
I know, and occasionally I'll respond to some particularly annoying anti believer comment, I usually try to incorporate it in my response to the OP - as I did here. It just gets so tedious listening to the but "they" said and "what you did is worse" I didn't let my kids use that tactic at the dinner table when they were 5 or 6 years old I certainly can't stand in supposed adults capable of defending their own point of view. To be fair there's some baiting going on, and saying mommy and daddy blah blah blah in response to a question asked of people who do believe is an invitation to similar responses.

You're right, and I myself am guilty of this behaior on more than one occasion. However, I only respond in kind, and always try to at least start out on the right foot.

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