Why do people believe in God?

Why wouldn't someone believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Look around you, look at the trees and the stars and the little baby kittens.

The evidence is overwhelming, or at least whelming.

Xcntrik InVidor wrote:

Why wouldn't someone believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Look around you, look at the trees and the stars and the little baby kittens.
The evidence is overwhelming, or at least whelming.

Amen!

Interesting question. I agree with Christopher Hitchins on this. He says, as long as we have things to be afraid of -- death, the unknown, each other -- we're going to have religion.

Religion is a product of fear.

DearthOfCouth wrote:

Interesting question. I agree with Christopher Hitchins on this. He says, as long as we have things to be afraid of -- death, the unknown, each other -- we're going to have religion.
Religion is a product of fear.

I am a Deist. I believe in God of the first cause. There is nothing to fear in creation. You are generalizing and in error.

REVEALED religion is based on fear...I agree with that statement.

Who created God? I don't have the answer but that doesn't mean there isn't one, and I'm quite comfortable with that...as I also don't have the answer to "Is there life on other planets?" or "What is the formula for the Unified Field Theory?"

95% of the world believes in a higher power. What a great delusion we are all under.

Xcntrik InVidor wrote:

Why wouldn't someone believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Look around you, look at the trees and the stars and the little baby kittens.
The evidence is overwhelming, or at least whelming.

I agree. Nature is the best arguemant FOR God as we all reason that everything is created BY something. Besides. Believing in God is a uniquely human experience...I will go back to being stardust one day so I intend to believe in God (but reject Jesus and all other myths) and make the most of what being human offers as experiences.

God makes life worth living, as the sole provider of all good things. When things go a bit left(off course)you get some curve ball thrown at you. Stay on the right road and believe and submit in him, and things just fall intom place. And as a bonus you get enternal life. Just like that. The hard part (it shouldn't be) is turning your back on wordly things.

big m8 wrote:

God makes life worth living, as the sole provider of all good things. When things go a bit left(off course)you get some curve ball thrown at you. Stay on the right road and believe and submit in him, and things just fall intom place. And as a bonus you get enternal life. Just like that. The hard part (it shouldn't be) is turning your back on wordly things.

Nah, those are all just rumors.

Keith wrote:

<quoted text>
I am a Deist. I believe in God of the first cause. There is nothing to fear in creation. You are generalizing and in error.
REVEALED religion is based on fear...I agree with that statement.
Who created God? I don't have the answer but that doesn't mean there isn't one, and I'm quite comfortable with that...as I also don't have the answer to "Is there life on other planets?" or "What is the formula for the Unified Field Theory?"
95% of the world believes in a higher power. What a great delusion we are all under.

It's harmful to live under the delusion because it isn't real so it can't actually help you. If you depend on it to help you, you are depending on nothing, and unaware that you are doing everything in life yourself. Also, it's really ridiculous when you think about it, all the churches and temples, all of these different buildings human beings built to worship different gods, but there's no god. Think of the time and money that could have been put into something real, the billons of hours of human energy spent praying and attending church services. And, then when you realize how stupid human being are, you have to wonder what else we believe in that is not real, what else do we put life times into that is not real?

Joan W:

I agree with everything you've said.

And yet, I think the most impressive man-made objects I've ever seen -- St. Peter's in Rome, St. Mary's in Florence, etc.,-- were built mostly by the faithful.

It's something of a paradox....

Joan W wrote:

<quoted text>It's harmful to live under the delusion because it isn't real so it can't actually help you. If you depend on it to help you, you are depending on nothing, and unaware that you are doing everything in life yourself. Also, it's really ridiculous when you think about it, all the churches and temples, all of these different buildings human beings built to worship different gods, but there's no god. Think of the time and money that could have been put into something real, the billons of hours of human energy spent praying and attending church services. And, then when you realize how stupid human being are, you have to wonder what else we believe in that is not real, what else do we put life times into that is not real?

Again...I'm sorry to say that you aren't getting my point.
You are confusing the sham of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and all of their attempts to write holy books and control the masses.
I am a Deist.
I believe in God the creator and nothing more.
I don't believe God talks to people, asks them to pray, has told people to wride down words or created man in "his" image.
I believe that the universe had a creator and NOTHING MORE.
How is that detrimental...a simple belief in God but not in any revealed religion...you fail to answer that question.
I don't deman others believe as I do, ask for money to build my church nor ask anyone to believe fantastic claims such as miracles and resurrection of the dead or going to heaven to screw virgins and getting drunk.
Einstein believed in the same God...Spinoza, Paine, even Sagan felt that the porposition that there was NO God was arrogant.
"Those who raise questions about the God hypothesis and the soul hypothesis are by no means all atheists. An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence. Because God can be relegated to remote times and places and to ultimate causes, we would have to know a great deal more about the universe than we do now to be sure that no such God exists. To be certain of the existence of God and to be certain of the nonexistence of God seem to me to be the confident extremes in a subject so riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire very little confidence indeed. A wide range of intermediate positions seems admissible, and considering the enormous emotional energies with which the subject is invested, a questioning, courageous and open mind seems to be the essential tool for narrowing the range of our collective ignorance on the subject of the existence of God."
-"The Amniotic Universe," Broca's Brain, p. 311.

Joan W wrote:

<quoted text>It's harmful to live under the delusion ...

I don't believe in the God of the gaps nor do I believe that God is supernatural...I believe that God is a natural force...just not of this dimension (by reason of "reason")
I an awesomely aware that I am made of stardust...and while I am alive, I choose...CHOOSE...for myself...to believe that all I see had a creator...this is a uniquely human ability...and I choose to be fully human...and not like a Vulcan.
If this is the only illogical act I perform in this life, how in the hell is it affecting your life in ANY way other than you condemning me for having a BELIEF and not an evil empire set on conquering the minds of children and adults and asking them to adopt the Apostles Creed, pay homage to the dopey pope, crawl on their knees for thousands of miles, flog themselves, pierce their skin, whirl, deny themselves pleasures of the body, procreate or abstain from procreation...
I find those institutions to be loathsome bodies of evil.
How is believing that the universe had a creator and that the laws of nature, in their consistancies and lack of response to fervent prayer, were designed by God and that this world merely came to be due to those laws and not the "hand of God"...bad?
I think believing in Santa, and telling your children it's ok to believe in him, is worse than being a Deist believer in God.
and no, I DON'T celebrate Christmas in any way, shape or form...you walk into my home and there will never be any decorations there.
Christmas is an abonimation. It tells children that it is ok to lie.

Joan W wrote:

<quoted text>It's harmful to live under the delusion ...

I don't believe in the God of the gaps nor do I believe that God is supernatural...I believe that God is a natural force...just not of this dimension (by reason of "reason")

I an awesomely aware that I am made of stardust...and while I am alive, I choose...CHOOSE...for myself...to believe that all I see had a creator...this is a uniquely human ability...and I choose to be fully human...and not like a Vulcan.

If this is the only illogical act I perform in this life, how in the hell is it affecting your life in ANY way other than you condemning me for having a BELIEF and not an evil empire set on conquering the minds of children and adults and asking them to adopt the Apostles Creed, pay homage to the dopey pope, crawl on their knees for thousands of miles, flog themselves, pierce their skin, whirl, deny themselves pleasures of the body, procreate or abstain from procreation...

I find those institutions to be loathsome bodies of evil.

How is believing that the universe had a creator and that the laws of nature, in their consistancies and lack of response to fervent prayer, were designed by God and that this world merely came to be due to those laws and not the "hand of God"...bad?

I think believing in Santa, and telling your children it's ok to believe in him, is worse than being a Deist believer in God.

and no, I DON'T celebrate Christmas in any way, shape or form...you walk into my home and there will never be any decorations there.

Christmas is an abonimation. It tells children that it is ok to lie.

All religion exists for the same reason....because humans are self aware, and the thought of no longer existing is frighteneing. Death scares the crap out of people. Religion eases this fear by letting folks believe there is something more!

Thats why people believe....they fear their own mortality! Its far easier to believe in an afterlife than to accept that this is all there is!

Xcntrik InVidor wrote:

Why wouldn't someone believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Look around you, look at the trees and the stars and the little baby kittens.
The evidence is overwhelming, or at least whelming.

ROFLMAO. Another senseless ego-stroking, editorial poll that offers nothing of value?

DearthOfCouth wrote:

Joan W:
I agree with everything you've said.
And yet, I think the most impressive man-made objects I've ever seen -- St. Peter's in Rome, St. Mary's in Florence, etc.,-- were built mostly by the faithful.
It's something of a paradox....

I never thought of it that way. You're right, they are some of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Maybe it shows that human beings want to be loving or do good things? It gives me something to think about.

all of the above

Keith wrote:

<quoted text>
I don't believe in the God of the gaps nor do I believe that God is supernatural...I believe that God is a natural force...just not of this dimension (by reason of "reason")
I an awesomely aware that I am made of stardust...and while I am alive, I choose...CHOOSE...for myself...to believe that all I see had a creator...this is a uniquely human ability...and I choose to be fully human...and not like a Vulcan.
If this is the only illogical act I perform in this life, how in the hell is it affecting your life in ANY way other than you condemning me for having a BELIEF and not an evil empire set on conquering the minds of children and adults and asking them to adopt the Apostles Creed, pay homage to the dopey pope, crawl on their knees for thousands of miles, flog themselves, pierce their skin, whirl, deny themselves pleasures of the body, procreate or abstain from procreation...
I find those institutions to be loathsome bodies of evil.
How is believing that the universe had a creator and that the laws of nature, in their consistancies and lack of response to fervent prayer, were designed by God and that this world merely came to be due to those laws and not the "hand of God"...bad?
I think believing in Santa, and telling your children it's ok to believe in him, is worse than being a Deist believer in God.
and no, I DON'T celebrate Christmas in any way, shape or form...you walk into my home and there will never be any decorations there.
Christmas is an abonimation. It tells children that it is ok to lie.

Remember when the Vulcan pointed out the it is illogical to hunt a species to extinction? Humans are illogical. They believe in things that are not real, overpopulate the Earth to the point of being willing to kill of the last animal in a species just for one more human to have a family and survive, they take out the last 10 percent of forests left in their country just to have more children, for more humans to survive. It is all illogical and selfish. Religion is as selfish as overpopulation. Any logical person would say to themselves, now that we have smog in the air that is so harmful to us, that we have created by overpopulating an area, our children cannot go outside, we are told to stay inside many days because we have put too much toxins into our own atmosphere, maybe we should stop overpopulating. Instead the selfish human mind says, oh well, we will just live with the smog, won't stop driving cars, won't stop producing more children, god will save us all, I want, I want, I want a family, I want a home, I want three cars. When you take a step back and see that humans aren't the smartest things ever to come around, you begin to see it's not about a god protecting all of us, it's about all of us waking up and protecting ourselves and our Earth and animals and plants.

DearthOfCouth wrote:

Interesting question. I agree with Christopher Hitchins on this. He says, as long as we have things to be afraid of -- death, the unknown, each other -- we're going to have religion.
Religion is a product of fear.

Right on, and you can probably add the fact that some refuse to accept the fact that death is the end of it all. There is nothing awaiting you "on the other side."

I find it amusing when atheist take such an over the top affront to anything religious. It takes an extreme narrow world view for any individual to show such blatant intolerance to anything that does not agree with their ideology.

Beyondhyperbole wrote:

I find it amusing when atheist take such an over the top affront to anything religious. It takes an extreme narrow world view for any individual to show such blatant intolerance to anything that does not agree with their ideology.

That's not true. Most athiests were religious people themselves, brought up in church themselves. We tried god for 20, 30, 40, maybe 50 years, and while going through life found out there really is no god. Once people figure it out, they are not trying to hurt people who still believe. It's like believers still believe the Earth is flat, and nonbelievers believe the Earth is round. One is true and one is not. It's important for people to know the truth.