Why you do or don't believe in God?

[summerbloom]

Interested to hear people's views on why they do believe in God or on why you don't believe in God.....

Religion is totally inconsistent with science.

I always paste this in religious threads and all theists seem to ignore it

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

A pp earlier that asked bout the bible and its prophecies, could you tell me what has been proven accurate by non biblical sources, also to the pp's that say they didnt think evolution is correct what seems more plausible to you

A) Animals fell asleep in front of a tree that had carvings of stripes and spots on them and thats how all the animals have their own designs?

or

B) That animals evolved their stripes and spots through natural selection?

I believe religion and god were created by man to enable people to be manipulated and controlled which it successfully achieved for centuries. It's still evident in Catholicism and Islam today but less so in other protestant faiths.

Religion has been responsible for many evil things in the world from wars to paedophile priests, to Islamic terrorists. Would anyone disagree with that?

How people can believe in a god (for which there is not a single, solitary shred of evidence) and be a part of any religion is beyond my comprehension.

Don't get me started on the people who evidently believe the Earth is not 3.5 billion but 6,000 years old and upon being asked where all the fossils came from, replied 'god put them there'. You seriously can't argue with stupid.

SomewhatIdiosyncratic
Very well put.

SomewhatIdiosyncratic

"Is there a scientific reason or function as to why looking at what is scientifically a load of broken rock has such an emotional impact on me?"

Yes. How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We
by Paul Bloom is a good place to start.

Partly, you find it emotionally precisely because you know the powerful forces, the tremendous time and the impact of the science makes it powerful for you.

Its like art. Some paintings are just good paintings but then the story behind them makes them powerful paintings. Just looking at it, The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David is a little dull but the history of the time, the note in his hand etc all lend themselves to seeing the power of the painting.

Who can look at nature - anything from the tiniest frogspawn or insect to mountains and a beautiful landscape - without believing a greater power has made it?

Anyone who's done GCSE Biology and Geography.

SomewhatIdiosyncratic

"I'm happy for faith and "God" to fill those gaps."

This seems a self-fulfilling prophecy for atheism. These gaps that God exists in get smaller every year. With every new piece of knowledge gain, the gap gets smaller. Does that not diminish God? Eventually we will now pretty much everything there is to know about what we can see and measure. Which will put God on the insignificant margins of knowledge and only existing in places we cannot see.

I don't believe in God because it's clearly all human-invented nonsense.

Just, thanks for that, that's the explanation I should have started with. I know of it but need to learn it well enough to post

Scottish, thanks for the book rec.

JustAnotherPoster00 in the interest of you not being ignored

I can't answer your questions, I've never looked for proof of God's existence myself so wouldn't know where to point you for sources of info. For me belief is just that, I don't need to know all the answers and I'm not fussed about cross examining it. Belief is for me, as I've mentioned previously, a crutch I need.

I believe in dinosaurs, fossils, natural selection etc. I'm a scientist, and I work representing a group who hold very different religious beliefs to my own, for me its never been an issue as my personal beliefs do not come into my professional life, I keep the two separate.

Yes I do believe in God because I see the evidence all around me. My dad does believe too and he worked on the Large Hadron Collider for many years. My husband is a nuclear physicist and he believes in God as well. Science and belief in God are not incompatible.

I don't.

I essentially outgrew my faith. I had faith in a higher power (though never with religion) during my teens until I was about 22. I was scared of everything growing up, just afraid of everything. This faith gave me a crutch to get through it. I'm not afraid any more; I've learned so much more about how the world works and have learned about death in order to dispel the fear around it. I grew up, became more informed, more aware of how things work and now there is no place for god. And I'm happier without that faith although I respect that others have a right to be different to me.

Just don't tell me everything happens for a reason. Can't stand that saying!

Not at all. Brought up a Catholic. Really cannot get my head around anyone believing at all.

Yes I do believe in God because I see the evidence all around me.

Can you let us know what that is and explain why it's better explained by a (christian?) god than a rational explanation?

" I always paste this in religious threads and all theists seem to ignore it

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? ”

Essentially this describes deism JustAnotherPoster00

A deist believes God created all things, but does not believe in their superintendence and government. It's a logical subset of theism; i.e. all deists are theists, but not all theists are deists iyswim.

I just don't know - vaguely similar to another poster - if there was a God why "allow" cancer, paedophiles, bombers, murderers, kidnappers, hatred etc etc. My cousin totally believed and when I asked her to explain, she said its about us all having free will. So I asked her in that case, most folks' free will is surely NOT to have cancer, paedophiles, bombers, murderers, etc etc.... she didn't have an answer. I want there to be a God so I can re-meet my Mum, Dad and all my relatives & friends who have died, but is "want" enough? I look to maybe another poster having some sort of explanation/give hope of some kind!

I don't. Because of the total lack of evidence of any God

Can someone also explain to me what part of the bible do I find the chocolate egg bit, as far as I know zombie jesus day is coming, now do we throw the chocolate eggs at zombie jesus in a silver bullet to werewolves way or do we eat the the chocolate eggs to ward off zombie jesus like garlic on vampires will someone please explain this to me

A deist believes God created all things, but does not believe in their superintendence and government. It's a logical subset of theism; i.e. all deists are theists, but not all theists are deists iyswim.

Yup sorry Sleep consider myself corrected

Look, in my home country, traditional folklore talked about changelings into the 20th century babies stolen by fairies and replaced with babies with something strange about them, babies who looked odd, or old, or refused to eat human food and sometimes new mothers as well (the fairies wanted them to suckle the stolen babies) who were replaced by lookalikes who might behave oddly. It's obvious that this was a pre-scientific community's way of trying to account for babies who failed to thrive, who had a chromosomal disorder, or autism or polio, and new mothers with postnatal depression or psychosis and who seemed unlike themselves. Science now explains these phenomena rather than folklore. Religion has been similarly superseded.

Our God, God of all men
God of heaven and earth, seas and rivers,
God of sun and moon, of all the stars,
God of high mountain and lowly valley,
God over heaven, and in heaven, and under heaven.
He has a dwelling in heaven and earth and sea
and in all things that are in them.
He inspires all things, he quickens all things.
He is over all things, he supports all things.
He makes the light of the sun to shine,
He surrounds the moon and the stars,
He has made wells in the arid earth,
Placed dry islands in the sea.
He has a Son co-eternal with himself…
And the Holy Spirit breathes in them;
Not separate are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
(Patrick c389-461)

I like this.

Older - no to be honest, I don't believe that living in a different culture would have impacted my decision....

Super - I disagree, Jesus, whomever you believe him to be, taught good morals to live by, surely there's no denying that?

Dedication - I don't think our brains are able to fully understand the vastness of life

Mrswolf - that is terribly offensive, I think you may have had difficulties with people of religion to feel that way....

Green - I understand what your saying but the teachings of Jesus, although similar in some respects to other religions are inherently different in many ways...

Ontopofthesunset - I believe it's more plausible because if God is omnipresent (or the three O's) then our minds are not capable of realising the mystery of infinity and a life without time...

Eats - I'm referring to the Christian God, as, in my personal opinion, he is the only one tonne historically accurate for the most part... also, faith led me to him.

A lot of people are using the argument of evil, cruelty and disease etc.... the answer is likely found in the word 'evil'. Evil people, evil forces etc..... a question that often comes to my mind is why are people quick to turn to blame God in disaster and despair and not to humanity?

Why? And is it true?

(That was for Dawn.)

OP "Evil people, evil forces etc..... a question that often comes to my mind is why are people quick to turn to blame God in disaster and despair and not to humanity"

Refer you to Justs post but also....I am not blaming my fellow human beings for earthquakes, diseases etc.