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 think what gets my goat about the "I'll pray for you" thing more than anything else is that it seems more for the benefit of the person doing the praying rather than the person being prayed for. The person doing the praying can get to feel all righteous and giving while not actually having to put themselves out.

In the moments in my life when I've been absolutely overwhelmed by the shit hitting the fan, someone saying "I'll pray for you" always seemed a lot less useful than someone saying "What can I do to help?"

I'm an atheist, but I am interested in religion and it doesn't bother me if people want to believe. I just find it a bit odd.

I always find it strange when people say god helped them through a difficult time. Like "I fell off a cliff but god helped the rescuers find me". Er, why didn't he stop you falling off the cliff in the first place?

Some friends of ours lost their 19-month-old daughter last year. She was healthy and happy and one day she died. They will never know why. They are lovely, lovely people and she was a gorgeous little girl. That, in itself, is reason enough for me not to believe in any god.

Snorbs - I think you've hit it with prayer - its a behaviour which has evolved because it does something for the pray-er. Gives them an illusion of control maybe. Meditative (as opposed to intercessory) prayer might have some deeper mental effect akin to Buddhist meditation maybe (which of course is entirely non-theistic).

Its another example of how religions are rationally explicable.

Mos: > I don't think God cares one bit about whether a person follows one religion, or another, or none, and certainly not about people's sexuality.

If this was the case, why would these beliefs be so prevalent, a major feature of many religions? If there was a God, surely he could reveal himself a bit better so that his followers, in their different varieties, didn't spend so much of their energy on judging other people's sexuality and warring (metaphorically and literally) with people who have a different religion.

The 'all religions lead to god' idea is intellectually dishonest - they are just too incompatible. If you're a Christian, surely it matters whether Jesus was actually the Son of God, resurrected versus the Muslim's mortal prophet (or the Hindu's position of irrelevance, come to that). These positions cannot all be true.

As soon as you start to think about this, surely you either have to pick one or throw out the whole lot. That still leaves you able to believe in some sort of god if you 'feel a presence' - but that's about it.

I always take offers of "I'll pray for you" in the same spirit as "I'm thinking of you". They are meant kindly even if you don't feel that way when you hear them. It would help if they asked what else could be done though!

I'm a bit of an oddity here, I have tried over the years to believe in God again, but that belief seems to have been lost in the same way as my belief in faries was (that was also a much more firmly-held belief, I used to talk to the faries in our garden ). My head just refuses to comprehend the idea of an all-powerful god who is interested in our lives but not in behaviour of dogs (for example).

in terms of Christianity, a lot of people struggle to believe in God because they struggle with the Bible

if you steer well clear of the Bible and all its contradictions, it is still difficult to believe in God because you look at history, at all the people who believed fervently in Him, prayed daily, gave their lives over to his service - and did atrocious things.

It makes it all difficult to choose and accept if you are not brought up in the faith by parents who practice what they preach tbh

You can of course also read the writings of people who lived a very holy life and contemplate their lives and that might bring you closer to God but not many people these days do that. I think the things that put you off wanting to know more are actually quite strong.

Sometimes it is speaking to Christians who are very zealous in their belief that they are saved and you are not etc which can put you right off. As unattractive as they come across, you cannot help but feel what is governing their lives just cannot be good. Sad in a way because no doubt they mean to obtain the exact opposite effect.

despite all that, many people do find their way to God

I was brought up in a very religious family and believed in god till i was about 18. I was brought up to believe if you lived a good christian life then god would look after you. Well if thats the case why was i emotionally and physically abused as a child or raped as an adult? Was i just being tested or is it just a big pile of crap? Either way i no longer believe. Look at all the religions out there that believe in a different god. Which one is the real god and how can you prove that the rest of the religions are wrong? Im sure they would say the exact same thing about the god you say is real.

I think I agree with Grimma - it's all very well saying that the different religions all lead to the same God, but if that is true then we know practically nothing about God, and most of the things claimed by most religions must be untrue because they contradict each other.

I think I feel what religious people feel when they 'feel God' - for me I call it feeling wonder, love, beauty, strength, the complexity of the universe. Maybe all that is God. But when people start claiming that God is an all-powerful all-knowing all-good being who is personally interested in our lives, then it starts to cause contradictions because then there would be no pointless suffering.

Elaine: > The thing is, the way your question is phrased makes it sound as though believeing in god is a thing one would and indeed should try to do (why do some people find it hard to.... stay organised, bond with their babies, say they're sorry). It's not that I've tried and it's too hard for me: it's that I think the idea is risible, so why would I?

Yes, I accept that. To explain, I phrased the question in exactly the same terms that it was put to me, to try to get genuine answers (which I think I have). Just to clarify, I personally don't think one should necessarily try to believe in God. Actually, I didn't try myself for much of my life. I have always been wavering, just laterly more convinced.

I don't beleive in God because there is no reason to. And no need.

I was brought up in the CofE, went to church regularly and had a lot to do with the church community. I sort of assumed I beleived in God, and thought that I wanted to. When I actually started to think about it I realised I was just going along with what I had been told and that actually, I didn't beleive in God at all. And it didn't make me sad, angry, happy, excited....anything. I jsut accepted that there was no God and that was that.

For most people the whole issue is an utter irrelevance.

It simply doesn't make any sense to me.

I understand why humans created the idea of Gods...for all sorts of positive and not so positive reasons.

I don't really get why Gods would create and care about the conduct of humans. It seems like a contrived idea...reminds me of a huge game of diety led Dungeons and Dragons.

I might be persuaded down a Pantheist route; but that's just seems like semantics and hardly relevant to the running of my life.

If god is anything useful it is surely only Physics. And then why call it God when Physics is a perfectly good word.

Because if 'god' created us all and has a plan, then that plan is very messed up and he is one sick bloke - a plan that includes cancer, children being murdered etc? Nope.

Evil is within us, as is good. Believing in a god, any or all, is just the same as believing in santa

I don t see any reason why anyone should try to believe in God. If they don't, they don't. If they do, they do. But the important thing is that they respect each others' views. I never TRIED to believe, I just do. Nothing to do with upbringing as neither my brother or sister believe. All I know is my faith, and everything that comes with it, makes me incredibly happy. I am sure that equally people without a faith find other things in life which makes them happy. Everyone has a right to go with what they feel is best for them without being judged.

YY tuffie. :)

If there is a god and he is omnipotent and can intervene with life on Earth why do innocent people suffer so horribly with diseases, in war & famine. If God can't intervene and but is powerful enough to have created the world and set us off with our own free will etc etc etc then its just a big mean experiment and that doesn't sit right with me.

I was brought up in an atheist household and was never taught a need for 'God'.

This is all before you even get to the politics involved in organised religion (which I am wholeheartedly against)

I find it quite hard to respect anyone who ought to be capable of rational thought who hasn't examined their beliefs - either way. I'm not entirely sure why the OPs confirmation class leader posed that question but I certainly respect her for coming here and looking for some answers to it!

Thanks Grimma. I appreciate that. Feeling a bit overwhelmed after this thread, actually, like I am supposed to defend something that isn't what I actually believed to begin with. But I am probably too sensitive and I realise people are just stating their views.

If nothing else, it has taught me a lesson that people feel much more strongly about this than I realised and that I need to be careful about raising this subject in RL.

'like I am supposed to defend something that isn't what I actually believed to begin with'

Your very first words on your OP are 'I believe in God'

Grimma I'm not sure whether your comment was directed at me, but if it was, then yes I am capable of rational thought, and yes I have examined my beliefs - in very great detail. I totally respect the fact that you are also capable of rational thought, and that you have also examined your beliefs, but have come to a different conclusion.

I don't believe in god for the same reasons I don't believe in Santa and unicorns. There is not a shred of evidence to suggest there is a god and I see no need for one in the creation or subsequent control of the universe.

God was man made to answer questions about what we now know as natural phenomenon. Science has provided evidence to tell us what causes earthquakes, thunder, disease etc, before this it was attributed to god. Apparently the all loving god liked to keep us in our place by smiting us en masse every now and then.

There is also the fact that humans are conditioned to look for pattern, there is some suggestion that we are pre-conditioned to believe in god because of this. It's a throwback to pre-science just like our coccyx is a throwback to our ape ancestors.

Tuffie - no, not directed at you; your post prompted me to think about the 'respecting each others views' thing in general and the OP in particular (she's taken it as meant ).

I get a bit tired of this 'respecting each other's views' thing, asking me to respect the views of a theist is unreasonable, I think believing in god is a bit childish at best and completely stupid at worst. I'll respect the person but I won't necessarily respect their views, not if their views are entirely unreasonable.

I don't know what "respecting other people's beliefs" actually means.

It means "stop questioning them, that's rude! And, it doesn't matter that there's no evidence, we have faith and you can't argue with that!"..... essentially

People seem (to me) to believe in God so that they are absolved from taking responsibility for their own lives - they crash their car and kill someone = god's will, the earthquake and tsunami that killed so many in Japan = god's will, one of my best friends getting breast cancer = god's will.
The best one I overheard the other day about why a woman might be having recurrent m/c's = god's common sense.
I believe in the tangible, in evidence, in what can be proven to me not in a false "saviour" written about in a book commissioned by a Pagan king.