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 really can't not believe in God. Truly. I promise. :)

What a funny word "coccyx" is when you look at it too long... :o

Hey Cheerful! Yes you can, you just need to really think about it, not rely on blind faith. It's easy!

Coccyx is a good word :-)

And you can question me all you want. I don't mind. :)

Handful of cuteness, Rational?

X posts. Oh believe me, I think about it all the time. Literally, every day. And have since I was a small girl. I was the terror of confirmation class with all my questions, believe me! :)

Thank you! That is cute! But the condition I gave y'all was 'fluffy'

Picky, picky :o

I wasn't raised to have blind faith, or really any. My brother is an atheist. Well, with the occasional twinges of agnosticism.

Better

It makes it harder for me to understand how you got your 'faith' when it wasn't indoctrinated into you from childhood, but it still is just blind faith.

Did you choose your words wisely there? Did you want to write "it makes it harder for me to understand how you got so stupid?" :o

I always knew that my parents believed in God, but it wasn't something we talked about...didn't pray, etc. I have just always known It. I know I should put it in a better way, but I can't. I have read about and explored all religions from the time I was very small and my parents have supported that. Except when I wanted to be a Rastafarian. My Dad called me on the whole "just wanting to smoke a bunch of pot" thing. They don't care that I'm a deist and they don't care that my brother doesn't have religious beliefs. We're just not allowed "to be assholes." Succinct man, my father. :)

I guess I just sort of feel "there are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio" if you know what I mean. I don't think anyone has all of the answers, not priests or doctors or scientists or certainly not me. I don't think anyone can grasp the extent of what might be in such an infinite and beautiful Universe.

I can't get too pissed off with you, you're just so laid back about it all, lol. That's why you got to join the 'fluffies'

I just can't go with the supernatural explanation for 'something' just because we don't know 'something' yet, and I say yet because I know that science is filling the gaps at some pace at the moment.

Yeah, I'm pretty even-keeled temperament wise. Although once on here I did end a post with "GO FUCK YOURSELF, BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT." :o Most un-cheerful.

I didn't mean the whole "God of the Gaps" thing really...as in, I didn't mean using the "well, fuck it, I guess it was a supernatural being" answer to specific questions. Just that I don't think we'll ever know everything the universe can hold. Or if parallel universes or alternate planes of consciousness exist or...

My ds sees the hand of the Divine in the beauty of mathematics.

My DH is like that Rapturous . Don't get him started on string theory or the golden ratio.

I do wish the 'believers' would stop attributing science and medicine to their divine being, that really does piss me off. Thank science and doctors for saving your life, not god, if god was that clever or great and loved you that much you wouldn't be gravely ill in the first place....... or maybe you weren't 'good' enough.

No Cheerful, we don't know everything, still doesn't mean there's a god though. There is no space for it in my universe, if you excuse the pun, he he

Some people don't believe in God because the Holy Spirit has not awakened in them. There is nothing for them to yearn or to respond to.

Not everyone has ears to hear.

:o

The only spirit in me is the Gin from the Gin and Tonic I had about 9pm.

Do apes have this 'spirit' or just human animals?

I have ears, I put my earrings in them daily, that is some of the evidence I have for my ears. Should I start hearing spirits that had been sleeping inside me I would be seeking help from a mental health practitioner, not a priest.

I'm not taking the piss, really I'm not, but that statement was just mumbo jumbo honisoit

He's on it already, Yank.

It's the same as feeling God's breath on your face. I hadn't heard that phrase before.

If you're an atheist, do you have political beliefs which put your individual life into context?

Yes, but those are based on sociological ideals and evidence from what I have seen and experienced. I have yet to see or experience anything that I would call god.

So you are moved/motivated to do things for other people?

Because it's a mass delusion.
Because some people need to believe in something .
I prefer to raise my DC to believe in themselves.
Do my job as long as I have and still come back and tell me you believe in God.
I have seen so many elderly people lose their faith after having believed in God their whole life.

What is your job?

Of course I am moved to do things for others. What a strange question. You're not going to suggest that's god moving me are you?

I meant don't get my DH started on it, Rapturous. :) It's like "Uh huh...uh huh...yes, very interesting...OKAY CAN YOU TAKE DS TO TAE KWON DO NOW!"

:o

I just don't feel anything in the god-shaped bit of their brains that some people have. Like the previous poster said, I feel exactly the same way about the Abrahamic God as you presumably do about Ra.

Though that said, through social conditioning I find all religious belief faintly ludicrous, but only some truly nutty. The beliefs of Mormons and Scientologists in particular make me howl with laughter at the idea that anyone could take such crap seriously. My best friend is a Catholic and I'm totally meh about her beliefs, though technically they're neither more nor less credible than Thetans seeding the universe.