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?

The endlessly repeated context argument loses most of it's power when you are claiming this book as being written by an omnipotent, omniscient deity...

Oh Big, all the discussions here about the bible being a collection of different books, written by different people, at different times but you think that Christians believe the bible is one book written by god. I'm for you.

"You cannot really understand the Bible without the help of 2000 years of Christian thought, history, archeology, etc."

Why do you think God did it like that?

What Dione said, Hakluyt.

OK- so are you now saying that God has//had nothing to do with the Bible? He didn't inspire any of it or anything? No word of God in there at all?

What about Bible believing Christians, by the way. Are they wrong?

It's difficult to see how believers can have it both ways. If it's just a book of songs and poems (and threats and myths) and not the word of a god, where do believers get their knowledge of god or Jesus from?

The phrase 'Bible Believing Christians' is code for conservative 'read the bible literally' Christians. The Christians on this thread in all our different denominations are mainstream and reading the Bible respecting its translation, genre etc, etc, etc. I'm not sure that any Christians, except a very small minority who carry on as if the authorised version was faxed down from on high, believe God wrote the Bible. Inspired yes, channelled no.

I get the impression that some atheists want all Christians to be fundamentalists and want to redefine the rest of us as not proper Christians. That is a bit of a weird one as I've met plenty of fundamentalist Christians who reckon I'm not a proper Christian as I'm Anglican, a woman in leadership and have degrees that didn't come from a conservative Bible college. Can't win really.....

Big, that's not what Context means at all.

Context - the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement or idea, and in terms in which it can be fully understood.

You're welcome.

It's funny cos normally I get irritated with one side more than the other with these kind of rows; this time it's more or less reversed

Hack, because we aren't God's pets. We are free, independent, moral creatures. We could not be this way if there was an active dictator.

thegreen if it's not belief in the bible that informs christian belief, what does?

King, thanks for the tips
Niminy, went to a bookshop today

And I asked DW if she'd still love me if I went to church, she thought it was a massive joke but when she thought I might be serious she said 'yes of course I would' phew.

Vivacia that depends. For RC's it is both Scripture and tradition.

Scripture? The collection of poems and stories that have nothing to do with any gods?

The Bible is a collection of books written by people, over centuries about their understanding of a god.

HTH Viv.

That's pretty much my belief about the bible Dione, except I'd add "mythical" in towards the end.

No need to use "HTH", you're better than that.

viv, (some of) the authors were inspired by the Holy Ghost. I have a feeling that your understanding of Christianity is fairly shallow. I recommend spending a year or so actually reading the Bible and how Christian thinkers understood it.

I think the addition of "mythical" to my explanation would be a tautology Viv.

It's certainly not a single book written by god Big. Some of its contents have informed morality and even laws in countries with a high Christian population or whose leaders are Christian. A better comparison would be The Vedas (books written over time by different authors) which deals with the religion, philosophy and cultural practices of people who identify as Hindu.

Really? You're going ad hominem Bongo?

Some of its contents have informed morality and even laws in countries with a high Christian population or whose leaders are Christian.

Quite, there are plenty of christians lobbying their governments to legislate against homosexuality or a woman's right to choose.

And there are plenty of Christians who lobby for gay rights, a woman's right to choose, social policies to combat poverty, anti slavery legislation and tackling climate change.

They're a diverse bunch those Christians.

"viv, (some of) the authors were inspired by the Holy Ghost"

Which ones?

Oh for flips sake, not THIS ONE again...

Mumsnetters guessing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.