Where does belief in God come from?

[TooBusyByHalf]

I want to believe in God but I just don't. Can't make it make sense. Am vaguely thinking of returning to the church anyway, without faith, cos I like the singing and smells and all that but I think that would be dishonest.
Atheists, I know, ok? No need to explain why not to believe. Thank you.
Believers, why? Where does your faith come from?

Really BigD this is an example of you thinking you knowing my stance on something, just by knowing part of what I have said, before. To know more fully, what I believe, concerning this issue, you really need a more holistic understanding of everything I have said, why and in which context...which would take a great deal of time because I have generally said a lot.

Cherry picking, holistic understanding, context....reminds me of something else

Viv there are lots of subject areas I would like provision to be made for, within education, but that really is a whole other thread.

What about just this issue though, of compulsory provision of christian worship? To use your language, why is it your construct that you subscribe to?

Why do you subscribe to your own construct viv, you undoubtedly have one?

Ah, I wasn't clear, I mean why is it compulsory provision of worship for your god and religion? Why not one of the others?

Because this country is still officially Christian, viv. However if it wasn't, I would be happy for compulsory provision (optional uptake) to be made for other religious worship. As it is, I am ok with other types of religious worship being provided for, as the law stands, on an optional basis.

It is absolutely useless trying to engage with Capsium on the subject of christian worship in schools. Her attitude is one of the most extraordinary intransigence on the subject.I recommend not continuing this particular aspect of the discussion- she is selectively blind to others needs and wishes on this particular point.

Oh, I am not blind, at all, to other's wishes, Hak, you have made your own, regarding this point, very clear to me, previously on more than one occasion. Needs, and how well they are provided for, as ever, is debatable.

I said you were blind to others' wishes, capsicum, because if you are aware of them, you don't mind riding roughshod over them. I would rather not think that of anyone.

I am not campaigning for any change, no.

However if I thought any particular school was acting unfairly, with regards to any aspect of their worship provision, I would support any campaign against this. I would support any campaign against practices which discriminated against children who have opted out of collective worship. I believe it is only worship that the ones opting out of it should miss. I would support parents, who wished to exercise their right to opt their children out of collective worship, in doing this.

Do I agree with your views on this issue, Hak and BigD, no. So I will not be supporting your views. I think it would be unfair for you to expect me to actively support views I disagree with.

And BigD my position has not changed from what I posted in July 2014.

I don't believe in worship in non-fee paying schools.

Here you can give your child a religious education at a faith school but you've got to shell out for it, which is right in my book. I think churches will help with scholarships etc if you really want a faith school for your child and can't afford it.

Our DS receives no religious instruction at school at all and that's the way I like it, despite being devout. (In my own way.) The churches provide after school lessons on Wednesdays for kids who are 7+ to get them ready for First Communion and you can send them if you want to. (The Lutherans also do this though they don't have First Communion. I think the other religions have Sunday School.)

I can choose my own.

Did anyone watch The Big Questions this morning? There was a Christian who said that she reads the bible to find out 'what god is like' which made me guffaw. This is the nub of this issue. The reason that the OT is wheeled out so much is that it is part of the book that Christians believe god wanted them to have, and that he approves of the depictions therein I would assume. Your assertion that you can choose your own belief highlights the point we are making, your god is your own construct, we do not want you to follow a vengeful god, and we know you wouldn't want to which is why we refer you back to the Amalekites and so on. It is not that we want you to love a horrid god, it is that your ability to whitewash the violence in the OT is very interesting to other people, how you marry the two is fascinating to hear.

Our understanding of Him, who He is and what He has done develops over time.

But there is no consensus amongst the people who are reading it. Some people who have been Christians for 40 years think god wants equal rights for LGBT and some think god thinks it is still immoral, and that's a difference of opinion even within one congregation. Why would god tell Mike he doesn't have a problem with gay marriage but tell Pete he does?

Unrelated but you know the verse about a man not lying with a man, there are no verses that say a man should not lie with a child. How come he sees gay sex worthy of a mention but not even child abuse?

BigD I have said before, I appreciate the difference between opting out and opting in. Hence, I support the most, as I see it, neutral option of everyone making a choice of option. This would be between Christian worship, other religious worship (as made available by the religious community within the area) or non religious activity. As my July post referred to - there were more posts in the thread of mine which discussed the possibilities.

head my point is, that if you believe my God is a 'construct' you cannot argue and tell me my construct is incorrect, from your own 'god' is a construct perspective. Constructs are individual.

If you believe in God, you are in a position to advise me, my interpretation of God in the Bible may have missed something because then God is not being regarded as a individual construct, He is (regarded as being).

You cannot choose both options.

head there are differences in understanding because we all have different individual strengths and weaknesses. We come to God from different starting points. Unity is an aim of the church, though, although we know now 'only in part'.

Is the Bible divinely inspired?

Hak I already answered I believe the Bible is divinely inspired.

So why did whoever inspired it make it so hard to understand?

Capsium- a genuine question- I hear god being referred to as "he".
Is he/she male? Does it even have a gender?

Hak We can find the nature of God and how He is portrayed in the Bible difficult to fully understand because He is God, a divine creative being, with all knowledge and understanding - we, in ourselves, as corporal beings are not equal, we are not God or divine creative beings with all knowledge and understanding.