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?

Good evening all! Are you feeling any better, Madhair? Hope you get better soon!

What science is that, Human Catapult? Really - ask him. Evolution doesn't count!

I don't suppose he is covering sociology of reigion in his GCSE RS, but I wonder how his theory deals with the huge global resurgence of religion (Europe being the one anomoly?)

cosmology maybe?

Catapult's son has hit on part of the answer but there's other factors contributing to why religions evolved.

Hi Grimma! [waves]

What kind of cosmology might prove a problem for Christian faith?

And meandering on... anyone else been reading/hearing about Alain de Botton's new book 'Religion for Atheists'? Sounds like it could be my sort of a book

What kind of cosmology might prove a problem for Christian faith?
eh? no one said any sort of cosmology was a problem for christians.

I was thinking of Egyptian/Greek religious interpretations of the sun, moon, stars, seasons etc. Here comes the sun again- hiya Apollo/Ra/whoever!

No, I've not read that one. Seriously, is cosmology an issue? I know v. little about contemporary cosmology, other than BBC2 documentaries and Prof Grinnychops Cox - I know waaaaay too much about ancient near east / Greco-Roman cosmology!

So I wonder what kind of science could prove a seriouus intellectual prooblem? Hmm...

No, cosmology isn't an issue now. I'm not talking about contempory cosmology - I was responding to 'people invented relgion to explain the science they could not understand' - you asked 'what science' and (with my pechant for answering other people's questions) I waded in with one area of science which the ancients didn't have the knowledge to understand and therefore invented religious explanations.

I'm not de Botton's biggest fan. I was just reading about him in the Guardian through the week, about his 'Temple to Atheism'. He's trying very hard to be atheisms new poster boy.... Me no likey

I can't find a good link to details about the book. Do you have one?

ah I asked him and he said when times are tough people need something to believe in and since the human race have let people down ,He reckons they turn to something else tha is beyond human failings.Hence when people are desperate even non believers they turn to faith

He said yes evilution but also says creation .Its a lot easier for people to think being created as we are rather than the fact we started of as nothing .

And some things that are described as relgion he feels its just science not caught up yet to give the explanation

He is quite a deep thinker and he does love a good discussion ,Luckily his RS teacher allows it

No, I haven't a link - just listening to R4 interview this morning and some comment in Times. Personally I don't want a Temple to Atheism... I want a 'church hall' with teamaking facilities I think. And possibly an archcommunity songster (to borrow the one idea I liked from Brave New World]

Well, tbh, Grimma, the ancients had a v. highly developed cosmology in its own right.

It puzzles me how 'science' is invoked as an alternative to religion with little thought behind that invocation (not saying this of you, it's a general observation). 'I believe in science' is often as much a blind faith as any other belief system. It genuinely puzzles me...

"No, I haven't a link - just listening to R4 interview this morning and some comment in Times. Personally I don't want a Temple to Atheism... I want a 'church hall' with teamaking facilities I think. And possibly an archcommunity songster (to borrow the one idea I liked from Brave New World] "

Lol, you just want a bloody church with no god. De Botton WILL suit you fine

for him take evioution he likes the fact you can track the changes from Ape to modern day man

for him science is in the proof of seeing things or being able to test for them for the ones that you can not see .

But bare in mind he is only 14 but yes he is planning to be a scientist .But he is a good lad wheile he may disagree he is respectful of someone elses choice .Maybe i should point him towards here

of post but we was talking about mice being trained to press switch for food he said nah the mice have got the human trained to provide them food when the button is pressed

HumanCatapult, does your DS know anything about sociology of religion? (Probably not as he's only young but he ought to if he wants to explore these issues more fully - it'd help his GCSE grades too! ). The findings that sociologists have made don't bear out his ideas. It's not the case that the more scientifically advanced we get, the less religious. A global perspective really helps on this - Europe is an anomaly, as sociologists recognise, and we need the self-awareness to bear that in mind.

i will ask him but if not i can pretty much gurantee he will google it and shall report back with question s

but he does insist on pointing when the chips are down suddernley how many people suddernely get religion

'I believe in science' - I think this is largely a failure in the English language.

I don't think many scientists 'believe in science' in anything like a similar way to a religious person 'believing in God'. I find the methodology the best way we have yet developed to ascertain truth about the universe we live in. I 'trust' properly peer reviewed scientific findings as far as one is supposed to.

It's not a blind faith, its a trust based on the reliability of the scientific method. The insistence on falsifiability; the peer review; the insistence on reproducibility of results; the rejection of baseless assertions.

HolofernesesHead

Can you provide a link to this information about the huge global resurgence in religion?

So is that the real question - is it just that he enjoys science at school , wants to work in that field and sees some real good in it (I hope so! Fair play to him) but really, 'science' is not an issue regarding the validity of religion?

It's a good question. I'd probe a bit more though - who is he talking about? Which people turn to God when things are tough? Friends of his? Famous people? Historical figures? Does he know any names? IME people pray in a crisis, yes, but don't end up as church going followers of Christ. Again, if he's bright, get him to think properly on this. Why might that be? Is there any real difference between the two types of belief? (Can you tell I used to be a secondary school teacher?)

Notfluffy, yes, books like God is Back

The British sociologist of religion Grace Davie has written loads on this. I could link to scholarly journals too but you'd need access to an academic library...

Is there a resurgence in religion elsewhere - TBH I didn't know it had ever gone away. (forced underground in the Soviet union, to be sure, but it didn't really go away there)

ok he has gone to read about socialogy of Region as is curiours about it .

He is talking in the broad sense and said that when ever you look after for example massive natrul disasters .There is a up swing in relgion and for some people it is sunstained

.And praying if they feel their prays have been answered for some people even though the thanks may be down to moder medcine etc that is enough to turn them to relgion in more than the short term espeically if they are wavering

He enjoys learning about peoples beliefs

Grimma, just sen your post with which I x-posted. What kind of truth do you think science gives us? Is it a competing truth / meta-narrative than that of Christianity? Genuinely want to know, as I've never had anyone give me a decent answer to this...

ah he says some people pray as they need a sense of hope or that someone is listerning to them , but he said give him a while to read up a bit and gathe rhis thoughts

lol would not like to be his RS teacher this week