Why do people believe in God??

[Dream Angel]

Hello Everyone!!

I am helping my younger brother who is 13 with a school project he has to do for religious studies. He has to ask people the question..

"In your view why do people believe in God??"

Then I thought what better way than to ask all you lovely people on here as there are lots of diverse views and faiths.

He has already sent off emails to people for a longer answer, but I thought it would be a good idea to get a collection of short answers from a range of faiths. If you would like to, if you could do the following:-

a) answer the question (if you would like to give a longer answer, please feel free!!)
b) tell me your religion if its not in your details
c) tell me the country you are in if its not in your details.

Cheers guys!!!!

 

[Sunstone]

I think the main reason people believe in deity is that they have been taught from a young age to believe in deity. That, and the human mind seems to be predisposed to believe in something at least akin to deity -- supernatural agency.

But another reason that at least a few people believe in deity is that they have had experiences -- mystical experiences -- that they have ascribed to deity.

In other words, there are at least three reasons people might believe in deity.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Most people believe what they're told.

 

[Willamena]

a) answer the question (if you would like to give a longer answer, please feel free!!)

For myself, I have to say I believe in but an image of God. An image is like an idea, but more fundamental. It simply the form we give to things. I acquired an image of God by listening to people express themselves about God --it's there, buried in their words.

b) tell me your religion if its not in your details

I don't have one.

c) tell me the country you are in if its not in your details.

Canada.

 

[waitasec]

a) answer the question (if you would like to give a longer answer, please feel free!!)
1. because they are indoctrinated
2. fear
3. insecurity
4. it's an easy solution to life's problems


b) tell me your religion if its not in your details
none

c) tell me the country you are in if its not in your details.
usa

 

[England my lionheart]

a) answer the question (if you would like to give a longer answer, please feel free!!)

IMO some people believe in a God or Gods because they were raised to do so and some people believe in a God/Gods to fill in the gaps of their own existence and some because they want to.

Some others believe in a God or Gods because the responsibility of life is out of their hands.

b) tell me your religion if its not in your details

I don't have one

c) tell me the country you are in if its not in your details.

England

 

[Eliot Wild]

For myself, I have to say I believe in but an image of God. An image is like an idea, but more fundamental. It simply the form we give to things. I acquired an image of God by listening to people express themselves about God --it's there, buried in their words.

Why do you believe in an 'image' of God? Just curious.

To answer the OP, I will say that people believe in God 'cause the alternative is unsatisfactory and/or unpleasant to them personally. This is the broadest answer I can give. It seems to me, when considering how this ALL came to be, there are but two options : (1) Either a divine creator acting with express and deliberate intent designed and engineered our reality; or (2) it was a random, accidental occurance.

It has to be one or the other, right? Either it was intentional or accidental.

Humans seem to be somewhat hardwired and predisposed to assume intent, at least it seems so to me. Perhaps it is the symmetry and functionality of our natural world that strikes us as beautiful and practical, two qualities which we as creative creatures ourselves often strive to reproduce in our own fabrications. Since we 'naturally' perceive beauty and practicality as products of intelligent intent, many assume those qualities when found in nature originated with a motivated divine actor.

Now, here is the rub: Why do many who assume there was intent behind 'creation', also assume a particular God or another? Laziness. As Kilgore said, people believe what they're told. Hell, more to the point, 'children' believe what they're told; adults are just too freakin' lazy, complacent and/or ambivalent to strain themselves in an honest exploration for truth. So, many just continue to eat from the plate their parents set before them.

Lastly, I have no religion. And I have no country. However, I reside in the United States of America. Tell your brother, 'good luck', on his assignment.

 

[sandandfoam]

I believe in God because God is what I see when I raise my eyelids.

 

[Falvlun]

I believe in God because God is what I see when I raise my eyelids.

Your bedroom wall is God? Sweet!

But seriously, when I was a devout 6 or 7 year old, I was convinced that God lived in one particular upper corner in my bedroom, and I would always address my prayers to that corner.

 

[Willamena]

Why do you believe in an 'image' of God? Just curious.

The image of God is not god; however, belief in god is belief in the image of God.

 

[Penumbra]

a) Humans are wired to locate patterns, and so sometimes they are found regardless of whether a pattern is actually present. I'd wager that had a part to play in the earliest anthropomorphizing of the universe, and it's likely conducive to survival in certain environments. In addition, beliefs are passed down through the generations, so local populations typically maintain a religion for a long period of time.

b) no religion

c) United States

 

[jmvizanko]

a) I think people believe in god for several reasons. The most common is that they are taught to, as children are atheists until they are indoctrinated with whatever beliefs. To quote The Truman Show: "We accept the reality with which we are presented." After that arbitrary reason, people believe in god because they think it is a good explanation for why the universe is here, seemingly not really considering the question of why god is here to begin with as well. A lot of people seem to be attracted to absolute truths, and much prefer having an answer to having no answer. And as for why people believe in god X over god Y, when they have equally lacking evidence for their existence, I think requires very similar thinking to why people prefer sports team X over sports team Y.

b) Implicit atheist. Which means I do not believe there is no god, but I do not believe that there is one either. This is what most people consider the term agnostic to mean, but that is based on an incorrect understanding of what agnosticism means.

c) The United States of America (Jesusland)

 

[Katzpur]

Hello Everyone!!

I am helping my younger brother who is 13 with a school project he has to do for religious studies. He has to ask people the question..

"In your view why do people believe in God??"

Then I thought what better way than to ask all you lovely people on here as there are lots of diverse views and faiths.

He has already sent off emails to people for a longer answer, but I thought it would be a good idea to get a collection of short answers from a range of faiths. If you would like to, if you could do the following:-

a) answer the question (if you would like to give a longer answer, please feel free!!)
b) tell me your religion if its not in your details
c) tell me the country you are in if its not in your details.

Cheers guys!!!!

Hi, Dream Angel. I seriously believe that some people are more or less predisposed to feel as if God exists. I know you are going to hear a whole flock of atheists (they think it's only we "mindless sheep" who flock together but they're wrong ) tell you that people believe in God because the idea was introduced to them early enough in their lives that they were simply brainwashed into believing it. Once the fear element (i.e. "You're going to burn in Hell if you don't believe!) was introduced, they were unable to free themselves from the God myth. Obviously you know that wasn't true. When you and I "met," you were describing yourself as an agnostic. Not only do you now believe in God, you believe He knows and loves you personally. My guess is that since you became LDS, you have never heard a talk or lesson in church about what horrible fate is going to befall you should you stop believing. If I recall correctly, your parents are not at all religious. I can't actually remember whether they believe in God or not. I feel pretty safe in saying, though, that neither of them ever drilled the idea of a God into your head when you were a child. Something inside of you felt it, though, and even when you wanted to shake the feeling, you just weren't quite able to.

Unlike you, I was told about God as a child. So was my sister. When she was about 16, though, she gradually lost her belief, not just in the teachings of the LDS Church, but in God himself. She was agnostic for 35 years, leaning heavily towards atheism. All that changed about two years ago, but that's another story. My point is that we were raised by the same parents and their parenting style did not change much at all in the years between when I was at "that impressionable age at which one wants desperately to believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster" and when she was at that age. We were both told about God, but He was presented as a loving Father in Heaven, not as a monster whose wrath was to be appeased. I have felt His presence in my life for 62 years. I have listened to people ridicule my faith in Him and have tried to imagine what it would be like not to believe in Him. I have tried to look objectively at the universe around me and at human life, in particular. I have seriously tried to convince myself that it's possible I'm wrong, that maybe there was never any Supreme Being at the controls and that our earth and all life on it happened as a result of "a series of fortunate events." I have never been successful at doing that. As surely as it is possible to know there's a God, I do. No, I can't prove it, but I absolutely cannot deny it either.

 

[Smoke]

I suppose that when I believed in God it was because I had always been told about God from an early age, and because I wanted to believe in God. I liked the idea. If you're indoctrinated from an early age, and you find that in which you're indoctrinated pleasing, there's little reason to diverge from it. (Of course I did find the particular church I was brought up in unsatisfactory, but not the God idea itself.) I don't believe anymore.

However that's just me. I wouldn't suggest that all theists believe for similar reasons.

Buddhist, atheist, USA.

 

[Dream Angel]

Thanks all for your replies!!! Very helpful.

If there are anymore who would like to offer their ideas..especially people from different faiths - Muslims perhaps??

 

[Caladan]

Hello Everyone!!

Hey Dream

"In your view why do people believe in God??"

There are few levels that I see to the phenomena of belief in God. one is centuries of unconscious and conscious tradition which has shaped the institutions and social systems of our societies, and has been a basis of emotional support to community and in some cases individuals. even those of us who may be the strongest atheists, are surrounded by the religious experience and have to interact with it, religion has been here for thousands of years, and to millions of people its a reality they may never have taken the time to seriously ponder about and study in depth in order to understand what drives them. people might be surprised how beliefs they have never questioned or examined too much control their most basic urges.
another thing might be that the vast majority or even all human beings are wired for belief in 'higher power', or something bigger than themselves, since prehistoric time, men and women have attributed a spirit dimension to the natural world around them, I have no doubt that this supposed biological need is also magnified by the sheer mystery and sense of power of the wild world around us.
to get more specific, its also important to note, that 'God' might mean different things to different people. Christians believe in salvation through a messianic figure willing to take the sins of the world on his shoulders, the Jews expected their messiah to be a genius military leader, Buddhists have spiritual ideas which may seem more abstract than the Abrahamic ones, of course in many levels that is only the case to the untrained eye, the Abrahamic umbrella of faiths has a highly sophisticated series of philosophies to describe their experience and ideas of what divinity or spirituality is.
while some people view God as the ultimate judge, other people view God as unselfish love, maybe some believe in both. some believe a God is very active in the world, some believe God only observes, or in some cultures has completely retired from the world after creating it.
there are practically a myriad reasons of why people believe in God other than the general ones.

b) tell me your religion if its not in your details

I'm an atheist, given I have plenty of experience with Judaism and Islam because I live in Israel, and also with Christianity to some extent.

c) tell me the country you are in if its not in your details.

Israel

Cheers guys!!!!

Looking forward to read your feedback on my answer.

 

[cottage]

'Why do people believe in God?'

My view:

I'm not too keen on the word 'indoctrination', which might suggest that people have been coerced or intimidated in some way into coming to their beliefs. I prefer to use the word 'introduction'. And in that sense, I would say the majority of believers have been introduced to the idea in their early or formative years, which then stays with them for the rest of their lives. I say 'idea' because I don't think the child necessarily takes on board the entirety of what is taught, but in adulthood it may build other pieces into the idea so that it conforms to an existing doctrine.

Religious faith is an idea or a concept that works, paradoxically, by not having all the questions answered. Believing that there is a truth (whatever that may be), which is in part concealed from us mortal, finite and imperfect creatures, serves to reinforce or underpin the belief. And clearly, the further view that there is a benevolent figure who will take care of us and has our best interests at heart is a very compelling notion.

In sum: there is a disposition or inclination in some people that makes them suggestible to the idea of a deity. The idea, introduced at childhood, becomes ingrained and the believer seeks to build a worldview around the idea, or a particular belief system may be adopted, or adapted, to fit with the conception. Great comfort may be derived from such a view. Any evident conundrums or contradictions are accommodated by appealing to the absurdity of the deity being explicable in human terms.

N.B. It’s important to make the distinction between the idea of a deity, or personal God, and a logically possible First Cause, ie a belief-in and a belief-that.