To genuinely wonder how or why anyone believes in God?

[ChaosNeverRains]

Genuine question.

I was until fairly recently I think probably agnostic rather than anything else, having been brought up in a very church oriented school where the emphasis was all on sin and retribution and the need to worship this higher being and that if you lived every day then it was through God’s will - you get the picture. Until recently though I was prepared to believe that perhaps there was a higher being out there somewhere, and even now I can see that some could believe that there is a higher being out there or that there was at some point.

But what I don’t understand is why people seem to believe that there is a God who looks over them individually when everything points to that not being the case. People talk about the power of prayer when actually no such power exists. The man dying of cancer is no more or less likely to die if you prayed for him than if you didn’t. I know of some very devout Christians who have fallen victim to the most horrific illnesses and where the church have genuinely believed that praying for them means God will heal them, which of course he hasn’t. But when they die those same people are thought to be up there eternally worshipping the lord. Why?

I can see that a belief in God might somehow make people feel comforted that this isn’t the only life we will have, but what I can’t see is that a God who allows the amount of bad and suffering that goes on in the world, even on an individual level should be so worshipped. If a father treated his children in the way that the supposed Heavenly Father treats his, no-one would want anything to do with him. Yet worshippers of a God go to all and any lengths to ensure that they continue to do things in the name of the father and to not upset him for fear of the retribution they will receive.

I’m not one for dismissing belief as believing in the fairies and what-not (with the possible exception of the dinosaur deniers,) but I am becoming more and more curious as to how it is that people can believe in this individual God and actually believe that it is true when there is no evidence to suggest anything of the sort.

PS: I am talking about any and all religion not just one. My thought process being that if there were one God it would be the same God whether you are Christian muslim or Jewish but that the scriptures are defined by humans to make for the individual religions.

""Bernard": The faith schools in the same catchment areas are not good, however much PP they may have to try to redress the balance. "

You still haven't said what the %age of children attracting PP there are the faith school compared to the non faith school.......

No I have no answers to my questions upthread (and so far downthread also) @CharlotteCollinsneeLucas - And today, I had more desperately sad news about a lovely woman who, having lost her DD just before Christmas, has just had a brain haemorrhage. WHY???

Why? Does the all loving god think this is ok?

I've not had any satisfactory answers to my questions either from anyone of any faith in this thread.

Like why did god make mosquitoes to kill hundreds of thousands of third world children with malaria??

Tbh, I'm sad, baffled and not a little angry @tameka

Yes, I mean even a woman I knew who was very religious & did a lot of good for people & animals died way before her time of breast cancer, and she actually suffered a lot before she died I mean she couldn't move one of her arms due to pain.

@tameka are you Atheist? Why do you need a satisfactory answer from people of faith? I suspect no answer will be satisfactory

I would say I'm agnostic- I lm unsure if god exists but if he does I think he has an evil streak

I think of it as he gave us free will and you can see what's becoming of the world from that. Good things happen, bad things happen. I'm Catholic but I don't think prayers fix things as such. I think it puts good vibes out there but that we need to act to change the world.

Tameka the answer is obvious, some 60 percent of the world's population has some form of religious belief because it gives them something that atheism cannot give. What it gives is down to individuaI. I wonder if intelligent life could have even survived without religious belief, it really isn't going anywhere soon.

Yes but it was allegedly god not man who invented cancer & malaria

Not everyone with faith believes in a God that means love, for example there are 99 names for Allah but not one means love. I think the idea of an all loving God is a modern day Christian idea. I think in the past Christians excepted that God didn't mean love. The world is beautiful, but the price for that beauty are processes which seem incredibly cruel , like offspring dieing young. Regarding the mosquito question, you cannot have the world as we know and get rid of all the cruel horrible things as the beautiful wonderful things wouldn't exist either. It is the price we pay.

But what harm would getting rid of mosquitoes do to the world?

Fish feed in their larvae, birds and insect feed on mosquitoes and they pollinate flowers

I imagine they have a role in the ecosystem. They have a right go exist as any other living creature
Also where would it end - how many humans die from bacteria, lets get rid of them too. You see the issue.
Religious people also tend to quantify a horrible life on earth with a much better after life.

@Tameka Christians have the ultimate answer and hope for the problem of pain - God. But that doesn’t make going through pain and suffering easy. Ask any Bible-believing Christian and they will tell you that we still struggle with these things, but the difference is that we have hope.

Now when tragedy strikes a Christian, whether it be through circumstance, illness, natural disasters, or even a loved one’s death, it’s tempting to wonder “why me?” and to become angry with God for not stopping it. We know death and suffering aren’t God’s fault—they are the result of living in a sin-cursed world. But when suffering becomes personal, we wonder why God would allow us to suffer in this manner, and why He wouldn’t stop it.

God’s Word never promises Christians an easy and pain-free life. Actually, we’re promised that we will have trouble and hardship in this world. Because of Christ, we have hope for now and eternity.

The problem with having a God that does intervene (if he existed) is that he then influences things, and our freewill would not be freewill at all.
I can comprehend that, but I can't get my head around actual purpose of it.

• God creates a universe.
• He also creates sin (or sin somehow exists)
• He creates mankind but is disappointed in his creation.
• He kills most of his creation with a flood.
• His creation still sins, despite the MKII version.
• He then sends his son to earth to 'save' people and ends up allowing mankind to kill his son, but that process then gives mankind a chance to have their sins forgiven.
• He then resurrects his son who tells everybody that as long as they believe in him, the can be forgiven and enter heaven one day.

It just seems so crazy. He 'loves' us all, but we have to abide by some conditions to enter heaven, and he's willing to let his creation (mankind included) make a pig's ear of things, kill each other, abuse each other, ignore the 10 commandments etc all whilst he watches on. It's not even like he's busy tending to other planets with other people on them is it?
Maybe he's got broadband and gotten himself engrossed on a forum and neglecting us in the process?

@thebrilliantmistake that reminded me of the Kevin Bridges sketch of God leaving us an "empty" and that we're all in trouble when he gets back

I've pondered on this topic some more...
Come to the conclusion that there is very little difference between Religion and Mythology...except the latter still provides a smokescreen for generating wealth, starting wars and child abuse.

And of course there would be no child abuse or wars without religion.

@thebrilliantmistake - God didn't create sin. His creation still sins because they choose to do life on their own and believe in other idols, not believe in God.

He doesn't let his mankind make a pig's ear of everything - the majority of mankind doesn't believe in him of follow him. They just do there own thing. They don't believe him, read his word, and pray to him for guidance.

We can't comprehend all of God's ways - he's God. But think when you wake up tomorrow and have breath, when the sun rises without anyone telling it to, when your heart beats without you asking it to, when a baby is born from a mothers body, these are just some of the every day ways of God. Do you never ask why you are given life and what is about? He just wants to us acknowledge him and have faith to believe him.

I've always been of the opinion God and religion is for those too weak & fragile to handle the atrocities of life for what they are.

It's a blanket of comfort for the meek.

@mondaygirl1

The sun rises because the earth is round and spins on an axiss.

I breathe in the morning the same way I breathed the entire night, the cells in my respiratory system are doing their job.

A baby is born because of basic biology.

None of that is anything to do with 'God'. It's literally science.

Mondaygirl - are you serious? What a load of drivel.

The earth spins, you have cells in your body and a baby is born because God created it all. I believe in God.