god help: Why do you believe? - Help.com

Well, I’m a agnoathidon’tgiveashitist, so I’m not the person appropriate for here!

Hey snar. Great post. I don’t believe in a God that can control events in the world for many of the reasons you’ve stated. So we’ll both have to wait and see what someone else says. That says, i do believe you can have faith that life is much much more complicated than anything we know about. That simply requires you to believe that we will continue to make as many incredible discoveries in the future (about chemistry, biology, physics, etc.) that we have in the past. and it’s a safe bet that history will repeat itself.

if you were to read and study the Bible you would have your answers,its all in there .Its like finding the pieces of a puzzle and putting them into place .Like when I read it It was like ide be reading along and I would think’Thats why this is this way and oh,thats why that happened or happens.

ok, i want to know how everyone can belive that our entire exictance is by mere chance, the odds are so low that everyhitng would work out so perfectly for life to exist here, think of it like this, you get all the peices of a clock and put it in a box, then shake the box up, what do you think are the odds of it landing together so perfectly that it would tick and tell time, crazy right? how could people believe that they have no purpose in this life? that they are live an experiment? and people may not think that they belive in god, but think about how many pepole go to psychic or median to try to get in touch with a higher power? people are looking for somthin in life, somthing that gives them a reason for being, just take a look at this world, how beautiful it is, how could all of this be an accident just astronomical odds working out, so my question to you is how can you belive that this is all by chance, look up the odds of this world forming perfectlly, there not good, the bible says that god has made him self known , threw creation, jesus christ, and his word, its a historical fact that jesus lived, and everyone sees him as 1 of 3 things, a lier, a nut, or who he said he was. i believe in god because i am not a gambling man, what if you live your whole life not believing in god, then you die and there is a god? i would rather be on the safe side. I also believe in god because the the inspration he gives people, when people come to god the slowly straighten their life out because of fear of god, so what is wrong with that?

Its a tough one to reconcile Snar. I appreciate the search you are on and your refusal to take religious dogma at face value.

I believe there are two ways of perceiving reality. There is an objective external perception of reality and a subjective internal perception of reality. Both, in my opinion are equally valid, but one can’t prove the other (eg, you can’t objectively prove something that exists only within your internal perception, and you can’t hold your internal perception up as an objective truth, no matter how passionately you believe in it). Faith is an internal perception of reality.

Thomas Aquinas said “Faith is believing what you do not see, and the reward of faith is seeing what you believe”. For me, my faith that there has to be something BENEVOLENT at the centre of it all is purely subjective and grounded in my own experience which, I have no doubt, will continue to change over the course of my life. It is not something that I feel I have to defend or evangelize. But in so believing it, I can see it in the patterns of my life and this world, and I know my mind wouldn’t make those connections if I wasn’t open to it.

Just remember that faith in God and/or religion does not automatically grant you a higher sense of morality or ethics. Choosing to be a good person is independent of choosing to believe in God.

And for the record, I don’t believe in God because it increases my odds of post-mortal happiness. That “better cover my bets” faith isn’t faith at all. It’s fear.

Good luck. Keep reading.

faith and fear are not the same, if you sit in a chair you have faith it will hold you, if you jump off a cliff, you have fear that you will die, faith is believing in what you cannot see, take the wind, we know its there, but can you really prove its there? or is it just making it self knowing as it impacts objects, fear is the begging of faith, but by no means is faith fear.

nathandaviso wrote:
faith and fear are not the same, if you sit in a chair you have faith it will hold you, if you jump off a cliff, you have fear that you will die, faith is believing in what you cannot see, take the wind, we know its there, but can you really prove its there? or is it just making it self knowing as it impacts objects, fear is the begging of faith, but by no means is faith fear.

Actually, you can really prove that wind is there, and you can prove what causes it. I can google it if you like. Wait, here you go:

The basic cause of all winds can be traced to contrasts in temperature. These differences occur because air is not heated at all points with equal intensity. The differences also occur on scales of varying magnitude. A coal-stove fire, for example, causes differences of heating in a small cabin, At the seashore on a summer afternoon, differences in temperature exist between the hot sand and cool water. On a planetary scale, the equatorial belt is warmer than the Temperate Zones.
When air is heated, its molecules are agitated and their movement accelerated. They tend to draw away from one another and the air expands. As the molecules expand, they occupy a greater volume and the density of the heated air parcel is decreased. Like a huge invisible bubble, the heated air starts to rise. Surrounding cooler air flows in to replace the rising air. This movement of air, from cooler (higher pressure) to warmer (lower pressure) areas is wind.

Bah I’m just messin’ with you. I do agree about one thing you said though, faith is not fear. Faith is something that can preserve you through fear.

Well, part because I know there must have been someone to create all of the things around us, and part because I was raised that way. I don’t think God causes the problems in the world or wants them to happen, but He gave us free will and we messed some things up ourselves. He may want us to learn from these incidents. Another reason is because it’s nice to think of someone up there that will love you no matter what. And the thing about any faith or religion is that it may be beyond what we can now prove and you just believe for one reason or another. That’s why there are so many ways of believing that may fit some better than others.

personally for me ,its a lifetime of being taught,by something far greater and knowledgable within myself that could only have been placed inside before i was born ,to ignore the truth of my heart would be, to deny myself

well I don’t believe to answer this post

Snar ,the answer to that question,just like isaid,is in the Bible.ALL the answers are in there.Every person that reads it will see how it relates to them.And no,its not soley or mostly.I see and feel things everyday that prove .Its a individual thing.

Most people believe based on faith alone without a thorough understanding of what it is that they believe in, exactly. They fear people that question their faith and mostly end up shouting down people that argue. I’m not saying that they’re bad people, they just can’t imagine a crack in their faith. And all the more to them, I say. But the idea that you would believe based on the book alone is called “sola sciptura” and I haven’t been raised to believe that, so I can’t defend them, I’m sorry to say. Nor am I able to defend those that rely on “Faith Alone”, since I’m sort of a mutt, seeing as I have Faith and the Book to (for lack of a better word) “guide” me in my beliefs.

God is impossible to define, according to Buddhists. And I find that I agree with them. God as a being is different for all people and thusly explaining to you who /I/ think he is has no point, since your god might be different then mine. I’m also not the sort of person to say “God is in rainbows and sparkles and all pretty things.” I can, however ask you to define Evil. We see genocide and things like that as Evil, am I not right? So what is Evil? Its only possible to define things by their opposite most of the time (What is a girl? The opposite of a boy)the answer appears as “Evil is the opposite of Good.” So what is Good?

Good is seen as different things and yes in different societies good is defined as different things. But its easiest to define Good as God. If there is a God, then God can define what is Good. (”What is made law in Adams words will be made law in Heaven”) God means that laws can be justified, and that Good can be justified in His name. (”In God We Trust” being the most often used example of God in modern society.)

The theology of Deism suggest that God is benevolent one that created the world then removed itself. Christianity states that God is a “Final Judge”and lets his people be free willed. This insinuates that while we are allowed to do as we please, in the end we will still be judged for our sins. It’s a system that allows total freedom: as long as you are willing to pay the price. It’s often that someone who is Evil is described as “A godless man”. This makes sense since often those who commit what they know are sins expel god because they fear the consequences of their actions.

And then there are the Atheists. I love this paragraph on account of the fact I get to say (quite factually) “Some of my best friends are atheists”. Actually, that isn’t true. My /best/ friend is an atheist. She is opposed to religion in any form, but that doesn’t stop her from being a good person. (Actually, she isn’t the best example of someone that is good. She’s actually quite mean, but at the same time the reason she’s considered mean is because she’s brutally honest. While other people would say “I love your skirt!” she’d be the one to say “I love your skirt! too bad its hideous on you never wear it again.” and be telling the whole truth.)So what I’m trying to get at is that not having a god doesn’t stop you from having a good personality. God is just a method to get more people to have a good personality, since it can be used as sort of a fear factor of scaring people into doing what is right.

(and this is split between 2 posts since it was over 5000 characters oops)

(Cont.)

God, though, held the most sway over feudal Europe. With nothing else of their own, at least the vassals could believe that their good intentions could get them a spot as king in heaven. So it can be assumed that hunger is a good motivation for religion. Rough times usually are, since people grasp at what they can when they have nothing. So what about modern times? People, being well fed (I’m speaking for the middle/upper class) have no purpose in believing in this God you speak of. They, through their own work and time, have gotten to where they are, not from some random glowing dude.

So why do I believe? I’m well fed, but I’m not atheist, am I? Why do I find the need to see a god in a book? Maybe because I have the littlest bit of fear. And I’ve read the Bible, and not once have I found myself truly agreeing with everything proposed in it. I can’t hand you a Bible and tell you that reading it makes you Catholic, because reading it might only make you confused. So maybe I believe in the small miracles, maybe I believe that without God I’d be lost and faithless, maybe my sole reason is that I’m scared I’d be kicked out of my house if I don’t believe.

So several digressions later we draw to my point. I’m saying that I have no supreme purpose for believing, just like I have no supreme purpose for many things I do. I keep my hair as long as it is for no reason, I dress like I do for no reason, I believe in magic for no reason, I paint my nails because I can. So maybe I’m the wrong one to be answering this post, Snar, but what I’m trying to say is that you have to find your own reason to believe. I can’t fling a Bible at you and declare you confirmed, you have to pick it up on your own, interpret on your own. I can’t stake you with a cross and declare you an official martyr. It’s all up to you, and what you believe, and no matter how many times I glue you to a church pew, that isn’t going to change?

Please read more carefully, i said ‘And no,its not soley or mostly.I see and feel things everyday that prove .Its a individual thing’

Hm? Was that directed at me? I’m sorry if I offended you, honestly it wasn’t a reply to anyone’s post in particular it was my opinion, is all. I agree with you, actually. I wasn’t trying to cause offense, it just happened that my post came after yours, no connection. Sorry anyway, though, I really wasn’t trying to oppose anyone or anything.

Indigo,just a misunderstanding and/or coincidence i guess.then,good.but just to make things clear-Snar asked me’So just to clarify, the basis of your faith is mostly / solely on the actual reading of the Bible?Indigo,’your reply had me stirred up a little.Okay,no problem,all kewl! :)

Good to hear ^^.

I believe in God and I don’t know why. But I think it is the best thing to be a believer in God (whatever religion one follows). I think some things we are not meant to understand. Maybe it’s better that way. To me, it’s better. The obvious things in life and the simple ones sometimes makes us feel tired and worry. What if I were to know more complicated and big stuff? I think I’ll go crazy then. But believing makes me have a thread of hope all the time. I hope not to loose that EVER.

I think that’s a good post although people wouldn’t talk about relegion that much these days. I have no idea why. I think it is NOT an insulting topic!! so why not talk about it?

Hope is everything to me.I’ve seen people on this site and otherwise that when they lose that last bit of hope is when theres nothing else for me and/or themto do but pray .Once its gone,they give up.