WHY DO PEOPLE BELIEVE IN GOD?

[Solitary]

I know what you mean. When I was very young I feared death, but then I only feared it thinking I would sill be alive after which is a delusion, therefore it is an imaginary fear. However, since I've been dying many times in my life by accident, and in unbelievable pain and sickness, I'm afraid of dying and the finality of it when it happens because you die alone, and I can't shake the dread of it, so I try not to think about it and keep busy. Even though I know intellectually it isn't something to fear if I just let go, I still hang on for dear life. It's a really strange experience, very similar to getting too high on really strong marijuana, but then you just go to sleep if you relax.  :shock: Maybe it's the same thing but never wake up again.  :(  Solitary

I used to have this sort of thought process that if I believed something, and millions of other people believed with me, then it would be true. I picked my favorite religion(Hinduism) and held on to it for that reason :(
I know it makes no sense to fear something like death, but I still do sometimes. Only time I don't is when I go into periods of depression, then I'm more comfortable with it(not for suicidal reasons)  :-?

It's strange you said that, because I have always preferred feeling depressed rather than scared.  I've always had the feeling that everyone knows something I don't and I'm the only one that doesn't. :shock:    We have evolved to be afraid of danger, that is the reason we have survived. It's called the fight or flight response, and whatever we think our body responds with the feeling evoked by the thought.  Have good thoughts-good feelings-bad thoughts-bad feelings. So think good thoughts, even outrageous ones, if they make you feel good. It's that simple, but also that hard to do, but it can be done unless you are really in danger. Take care! Solitary

[Solitary]

Why do people believe un god?

Because they're stupid.

 :rollin:  :rollin:  :rollin:  I really didn't want to say that. Solitary

[SGOS]

I watched a youtube video of Julia Sweeney speaking on her life as a Catholic. She really got a lot from the ceremonies and enjoyed it all very much. Yes, in the end she realized that the beliefs they held were rather wacky, but the religion did give her a lot too.

I know that part of her presentation well.  Sweeney seems to handle her life with a grace that I don't have.  She not only loved the ceremony and ritual, but also liked other aspects of her faith as well.  The very title of her monolog "Letting Go of God" describes her journey well.  She loved something with heartfelt warmth, but when she realized that her religion was betraying her, she simply let it go, and drifted away to reality.  I suspect she may still have warm feelings for her Catholic experience, but just as she may still have warm feelings toward an unfaithful lover, she comes to a realization that letting go and gracefully drifting away is the healthiest solution, even if it looks back with a certain fondness.

I don't have such grace.  My journey was not a letting go.  I felt like I had become engulfed in a sea of melted mozzarella cheese that had glommed onto my extremities so that I had to struggle to get away, and as I did, these long rubbery strings of mozzarella kept preventing me from making significant progress.  I was stuck in quagmire that I hated.  I thought the ritual and ceremony was utterly boring, but the worst part was the nonsensical dogma and this bizarre hold that indoctrination had on me.  I didn't let go.  I fought tooth and nail to get away.  But the horrible monster of religious indoctrination followed me, slowing me down until finally the last string of cheese severed and I found myself free.

Julia separated herself from something she had learned to love.  I separated myself from a nightmare that took forever to wake up from.  Her story is much sweeter than mine.

[Cocoa Beware]

The idea of a single god seems to be something of a recent development. Ive never heard of any of our nomadic ancestors worshipping a single god.

I don't think its a coincidence that the idea of a single god came about at roughly the same time humans started to live in large cities. One ruler became the focal point, and in places like ancient Egypt this person was considered divine.

The notion that someone is always watching you is a very powerful idea, and no doubt very appealing if you wanted to control people.

The Pharaohs had this funny habit of trying to get rid of monuments built by previous Pharaohs in an attempt to convince the people that the current Pharaoh has and always will be in charge. Kind of autocratic if you ask me.

[Colanth]

The idea of a single god seems to be something of a recent development. Ive never heard of any of our nomadic ancestors worshipping a single god.

I don't think its a coincidence that the idea of a single god came about at roughly the same time humans started to live in large cities. One ruler became the focal point, and in places like ancient Egypt this person was considered divine.

So explain why Akhenaten was the only pharaoh to introduce monotheism (ca 1350 BCE) and why it failed to take hold.  Just in the New Kingdom, that's 3 dynasties, covering a period of over 500 years.  And that's not counting over 2,000 years of the other kingdoms, during which Egypt had large cities and was polytheistic.  17 years of monotheism out of 2,500 years of cities, a single ruler and polytheism.

Even the Canaanites, whose descendents eventually wrote the Old Testament while in exile in Babylon, were polytheistic until they invented monotheism.  And they were among the early Neolithic herders and farmers, not nomads.

[the_antithesis]

The idea of a single god seems to be something of a recent development. Ive never heard of any of our nomadic ancestors worshipping a single god.

I don't think its a coincidence that the idea of a single god came about at roughly the same time humans started to live in large cities. One ruler became the focal point, and in places like ancient Egypt this person was considered divine.

The notion that someone is always watching you is a very powerful idea, and no doubt very appealing if you wanted to control people.

The Pharaohs had this funny habit of trying to get rid of monuments built by previous Pharaohs in an attempt to convince the people that the current Pharaoh has and always will be in charge. Kind of autocratic if you ask me.

[youtube:2v9zm196]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlnnWbkMlbg[/youtube:2v9zm196]

[WitchSabrina]

Why do people believe in God?

Because they are scared.  That's why.

[The Whit]

Reality is not very attractive for most people.  We're born, suffer various types of pain, and then die.  Our standing in our communities is never satisfying.  Our mates are never attractive enough, and we are uglier than we tend to think we are.  I could go on, but I think you get the point.

Yes, we do suffer various types of pain in between birth and death, but we also (hopefully) find much greater amounts of love and joy.  Not having a satisfying standing in our communities, not finding yourself or your mate as attractive enough are all symptoms of the years of religious dogma that paints humanity as some "deprived" monster.  You'll never be good enough for god.

With religion, we are given a purpose for our suffering.

What purpose?  So god gets a laugh?  What good reason could god have for inflicting children with terminal cancer?  What good reason could he have for even allowing it?  

Dying just means moving someplace else.

"If I knew I had another life after this one, I'd kill myself right now"  -Bender  

If we just go somewhere else then why are we here and not there?  

You are one of God's chosen, so it doesn't matter your place in the community.  When you move on, after death, your given a perfectly beautiful body and your mate will have one too.  Pretty neat deal eh?  Just say the magic words and bingo, you have it all.

Well if the life after this one is so much better, then why not put a bullet in your head?  God outlaws suicide?  So the kids with cancer are the ones who have it easy?  The ones who starve to death before they turn 5 have it the best because they don't have to potentially go through 70+ years of life to get to heaven?  They got the express ticket?  No, life after death ROBS VALUE from this one.  The infinite has NO value.  If life is infinite, it is not precious.  The only way you get someone to strap a bomb to themselves or fly a plane into a building is to tell them that death isn't the end.    

It is kind of a wonder, more people don't embrace some religion.

You mean, like, the 70% of the people in my country?  No, it's a wonder how more people don't accept science.  The REAL universe is filled with far more beauty and wonder than any bronze goat herder could possibly have pulled out of his ass.  Galaxies, black holes, neutron stars, magnetrons, and supernova, all the way down to quarks, photons, and microwave background radiation from the beginning of the universe!  To me, that kicks the shit out of some 6,000 year old playground for a capricious god who would lay waste to his creation because they didn't do what he said.  

One of my biggest pet peeves is sympathy towards the ignorance that is faith and theology.  I do wholeheartedly believe that religion poisons everything.

[Aleps]

Some simply "Feel it in their heart."

[ZachyFTW]

To put it quite bluntly, because people (formerly myself) are afraid to accept the realistic correct view of people like us. I want so badly to go back to believing what I once did. My life would be better I think. I wouldn't have the burden of being a closeted atheist afraid of family and friends disowning me. A big reason why I wish I could believe is because of my grandfather who passed away. I would give everything I have to spend another hour  with that man. He's gone and I'm never going to see him again except in my memories. This is why people believe. I'm tearing up because of that sentence and I really do wish so much I could have that comfort of being able to think that I'd get to see him again. I'm just not stupid but I really wish I was. As many things as religion fucks up, that comfort you get from it is irreplaceable. I miss the comfort, I really do.

But hey, at least I get to spend time with you guys on this forum and hell in the future  

[The Whit]

A big reason why I wish I could believe is because of my grandfather who passed away. I would give everything I have to spend another hour  with that man. He's gone and I'm never going to see him again except in my memories.

I feel the same way about my Great Grandfather who passed away a little under a year ago.  I had breakdown in my car outside of Starbucks one morning because it really set in that I was never going to see him again.  A man so filled with joy and love gone forever, just like everyone else will be.

I, too, wish there was some way to meet loved ones on "the other side" but that's all it is.  Wishful thinking.  Besides, is it REALLY worth all of the hate-speech and ignorance just to get this tiny bit of comfort?  

Why can't you believe that you'll see him after death anyway?  We don't know what happens after death.  We may very well live on in some form.  You don't have to go to church every Sunday to worship some hate filled and misogynistic deity.

[Cocoa Beware]

So explain why Akhenaten was the only pharaoh to introduce monotheism (ca 1350 BCE) and why it failed to take hold.  Just in the New Kingdom, that's 3 dynasties, covering a period of over 500 years.  And that's not counting over 2,000 years of the other kingdoms, during which Egypt had large cities and was polytheistic.  17 years of monotheism out of 2,500 years of cities, a single ruler and polytheism.

Even the Canaanites, whose descendents eventually wrote the Old Testament while in exile in Babylon, were polytheistic until they invented monotheism.  And they were among the early Neolithic herders and farmers, not nomads

No doubt, the Romans and Vikings were also polytheistic.

However, if we assume humans were primarily animalistic for many tens (or hundreds) of thousands of years, the shift is rather dramatic.

Was this new god (who was a rather insanely jealous and paranoid character) a reflection of some of the more ruthless heads of state? What role did politics play in this gods evolution?

Was having one god with all the abilities of the lesser gods more convenient somehow? Did this new singular god make people easier to exploit? Was it more intimidating?

[Cocoa Beware]

[youtube:3ddv8909]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlnnWbkMlbg[/youtube:3ddv8909]

Interesting. Although I suppose its hardly surprising that conflict was a significant factor.

It was also interesting how even in those days they had it set up so god always won.

Victory/defeat in battle was viewed as reward/punishment. That kind of re-enforcement continues today.