Why do some people find it hard to believe in God?

[MosEisley]

I believe in God.

However, I am attending an adult confirmation class and we have been asked to consider why some people do not believe in God. DH and I came up with:

• there is no absolute proof of God's existence
• they are rebelling against a strict organised religion that they can't accept as literallly true

If you know someone who doesn't believe in God, why don't they?

(I thought that about the rudeness as well, Rational. Never mind)

Maybe you could just explain your position instead of being defensive.

I reckon a lot of people would be open to religion if the religious (and particularly Christians) weren't so up their own arses.

What do you perceive as being rude, rational?

I am sorry if this thread has not panned out the way most participants would have wished. But I hope there is some food for thought.

rational I actually didn't find it that confusing! Maybe because my religious belief wasn't really that strong in the first place. It just seemed suddenly obvious for some odd reason! ( i still can't say to people that I don't believe in God- My atheist DH had to ask me outright and I couldn't say yes, I did believe!)

I agree yellowraincoat. Apparently true doctrine is extremely complicated and hard to explain, so much so that someone directs you to Google when asked about it. Surely a religion which is essential for the good of the world, should be a little more simple and self evident. Why so complicated?

I haven't read the thread yet but I'll return later.

I don't believe in God because I like to keep an open mind about everything. If I follow a set belief system I'm going to be closing doors and I might not be open to the truth if it ever finds me.

I have no reason to believe that there is a God, nothing has ever happened to me to make me think there is. I don't believe in unicorns because I've never seen/sensed/spoken to one, I've never met anyone that's seen one and therefore until there is strong evidence that they exist I'll continue to not believe in them. There could be a God but nobody really knows anything they just think they do.

People want to believe there is a God because its comforting, but I'd always rather know the truth even if its a less desirable truth. If I was God I think I would give people some hint at my existence instead of leaving them with all this uncertainty and confusion.

I have lots of questions about why people believe the things they do.

Honisoit: why are bad things automatically God's will?

Christians argue that we have free will but:
Exodus 10:17 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.

Therefore the Christian idea of God (at least) has control over what people do.

Honisoit I think the thread has panned out exactly as expected- that atheists can quite clearly explain why they don't believe in God, but religious people just come up with 'Because I do" or words to that effect!

I don't think I ever said or thought that I was in control, either as a Christian or as an atheist. One of the things that tends to make me think there isn't a God is that this world doesn't look like a world where anyone is in control.

My mistake, not 17, 20.

No one has given me any food for thought on this thread. There are some Christians who just radiate goodness and calm and sometimes that makes me think it over a little bit. Here though I just hear hectoring and smugness. "I believe and you don't and therefore I will pray for you".

I find it so patronising, I swear people just say it to get up your nose.

Ariel:

Jesus' death was painful and violent because that is what the atheists Romans did in those days.

Why did Jesus die?

Jesus was perfect and free from sin (free to have a relationship with God the father). We, however, are all sinful (I won't go as far as totally depraved) and not free to have a relationship with God.

The wages of sin is death - that means a spiritual death, cut off from God.

The payment for sin was sacrifice of an unblemished lamb (literally in OT times, metaphorically Jesus, the lamb of God).

Jesus died to pay for our sins. The he rose again to conquer death once and for all. For all eternity, he made it possible for his followers to have a right relationship with God.

I don't know if I really believe in God anymore although I was brought up Catholic.
Someone once described it to me- If I look outside and the sun is splitting the trees and the ground is dry..then there's no way someone can convince me its raining. Its all about the evidence..if you think it's real. And I don't think I have good enough evidence to make me believe.

"What do you perceive as being rude, rational?"

The piece I quoted, it's not difficult.

"I actually didn't find it that confusing!"

That's good, it can be real torture for some people to lose their faith. It can really mess with their heads. I'm glad your revelation was relatively pain-free

Thank you for addressing the question.

honisoit- Do you really believe that literally?

honsoit, honestly I think anyone who grew up in a Christian context knows all of that. I could recite it back and forth all day. It doesn't convince anyone who doesn't believe.

i didn't mean that to come across the way it did..i meant do you mean that that is the way it actually happened.

It actually doesn't explain anything.

PS Romans weren't atheists. They had their own gods and goddesses.

Ariel, you came up with extreme reaction that no one can do any good whatsoever. I don't particularly identify with this but see what you said as related to the Calvinist doctrine of Total Depravity. You asked what this is; I am not an expert so I invited you Google. Simple.

Yellow - precisely! It is all quite incomprehensible to those who don't believe. That is it in a nutshell.

"he who has ears to hear..."

It wasn't an extreme reaction. It was a logical conclusion drawn from what you had said. I asked if, without God, there could be any good in the world. Also, by extension, whether all good (kindness, charity, love, forgiveness etc) is directly attributable to God/Jesus.

Clara, do I believe what, literally? Penal substitution - yes.

Preaching again! I have ears and can hear perfectly well.