Does Human nature require a god? (atheist, God, religion)

[smattp]

i am wandering whether it is not whether God does or does not exist because he does in human minds and it it yet to be proved whether he does or does not actually exist.

Anyway thats beside the point, i am wandering whether humans need a god to keep going, because without a god people would not have done some of the remarkable things they have done. So even if god doesn't exist i think that human nature will still want to keep god in their lives because it is the driving force that keeps some people going in their day to day lives, and to a certain extent has helped people to advance forward to the state of technology and diplomacy. we have diplomacy today in the western world and we can see that in the middle east for example people are driven so strongly by religion that they will die for it and those who aren't religious are the ones that can say that they have nothing to fight for but in a way that is a bad thing, because it means they have no drive in there life and may have to spend longer before they find a purpose.

I am looking for peoples view on this and whether people agree that god may be in human nature just to keep humanity going.

[Jayhawker Soule]

On the off chance that God created, or at least inspired, punctuation, perhaps some reasonable effort should be made to embrace it.

[stephenw]

Freud believed humans were primarily motivated by sexual drives, Adler thought motivation came from a will to power and Frankl thought it was a will to meaning.
I agree with Frankl, the will to meaning does not need God, rather each individual must create their own meaning. Furthermore a frustrated will to meaning results, according to Frankl in existential angst. There is certainly plenty of evidence of that today.
We don't need God we need meaning. It's up to us how we create it.

[smattp]

sorry i know my punctuatins is terrible and i will try harder next time, english isn't my strongest subject.

[smattp]

But does god supply an easy obvious meaning that everybody can use?

And because it's easier to use an all powerful figurehead like god is this why religion has formed to become such a power and strength in people's lives?

Just to point out i'm aethiest but have a strong desire to understand the way human minds work.

[Rolling_Stone]

Originally Posted by smattp

i am wandering whether it is not whether God does or does not exist because he does in human minds and it it yet to be proved whether he does or does not actually exist.

Anyway thats beside the point, i am wandering whether humans need a god to keep going, because without a god people would not have done some of the remarkable things they have done. So even if god doesn't exist i think that human nature will still want to keep god in their lives because it is the driving force that keeps some people going in their day to day lives, and to a certain extent has helped people to advance forward to the state of technology and diplomacy. we have diplomacy today in the western world and we can see that in the middle east for example people are driven so strongly by religion that they will die for it and those who aren't religious are the ones that can say that they have nothing to fight for but in a way that is a bad thing, because it means they have no drive in there life and may have to spend longer before they find a purpose.

I am looking for peoples view on this and whether people agree that god may be in human nature just to keep humanity going.

None of us, of any persuasion, can imaging life without God. Even Dennett, Harris and Dawkins live lives immersed in God, shaped by God, and find meaning in God. The atheists in RF, too, are no different, else why would they post anything?

[ChristineES]

I am not sure if I can answer your question to your satisfaction since I believe God to be real. But I do believe that motivates us and and the belief in God also motivates us.

[gnomon]

Originally Posted by smattp

i am wandering whether it is not whether God does or does not exist because he does in human minds and it it yet to be proved whether he does or does not actually exist.

Anyway thats beside the point, i am wandering whether humans need a god to keep going, because without a god people would not have done some of the remarkable things they have done. So even if god doesn't exist i think that human nature will still want to keep god in their lives because it is the driving force that keeps some people going in their day to day lives, and to a certain extent has helped people to advance forward to the state of technology and diplomacy. we have diplomacy today in the western world and we can see that in the middle east for example people are driven so strongly by religion that they will die for it and those who aren't religious are the ones that can say that they have nothing to fight for but in a way that is a bad thing, because it means they have no drive in there life and may have to spend longer before they find a purpose.

I am looking for peoples view on this and whether people agree that god may be in human nature just to keep humanity going.

There are biological impulses to life.

While many societies have developed a religious system of beliefs those systems are not always the same and many ideas of god contradict each other. So even if the idea of god is an impulse this not evidence of a god that is the driving impulse. So this just leaves us with god being nothing more than a societal concept for members of the group to, however you are defining it, as a purpose.

Considering the nature of transmitting these beliefs from one generation to the next or even transmitting different concepts of god from one society to the other requires communication we know that the specific concepts of any group are taught. They are not naturally derived by an individual from birth. Which doesn't make the concept of god sound like a biological impulse or drive but rather just the nature of belief. At this point religion is not even relevant.

One just has to believe. Well this belief can be directed towards many avenues other than a spiritual/religious one. They can be ethnic, nationalistic or essentially beliefs directed towards humanity in general. The god concepts have been replaced and become irrelevant but the nature of belief is still there.

In other words, belief may very well be an impulse but we must be taught or determine what to believe. Whether or not that is a belief in god is irrelevant.

Man, that was a mess. I spent about a minute on that and it seems somewhat derived from the notion of an alcoholic who chooses the group or clubhouse as a higher power.

[texan1]

"those who aren't religious are the ones that can say that they have nothing to fight for" - For the record, I don't agree with this statement AT ALL. But I'll stop there :-).

I don't think humans need God to drive them, but throughout history human beings have always searched for meaning, understanding....and for answers to the mysteries in life and why we are here. I think believing there is a God is a result of that universal search. But many people can find meaning and understanding in other ways.

[smattp]

i am now going to sound like a complete hypocrite and say, that even though i am an aethiest and say that they have nothing to fight for, many do because many choose to fight god and many many others have family among other things to fight for as well but me i see myself a someone that keeps going just because it keeps others around me going.