Why believe in god? The theist perspective.

"Love one another, feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the destitute, tend the sick, visit the prisoners, look after the poor"

There is something that happens when you do these things though; might that be why he told you to? There are a lot of innocent people in jail; sometimes people in jail know things you'll never figure out. So do the homeless. Christ who believed people were dejected for reasons. The world is the enemy of so few, Christ being one: it might not just be morality.

I seem about four years late, but this is a question I have myself, all I have gotten so far is a Hypothesis of why people believe. So if anybody wants to explain the Theist side of it, or hear my Hypothesis. Hit me up.

God is all lies. Anyone who believes in this stupid story needs a slap

I am a Christian and heck this thread(or website) is 4 years old, man it's now now the 6th of December 2014, I see no one's replied ever since 2010, is anybody home??? Man its kind of spooky on this website. Well, it all depends on what your definition of god is. Not all Christians think alike either, I even think other Christians I come across have a weird unrealistic way of thinking. I don't believe in literal magical bible stories, mythologies, fantasies or fairy tales. Nevertheless, an amazing teacher of human psychology, Lord Jesus, is camouflaged(hidden) by a lot of unrealistic metaphoric stories, mmmm... a sad situation indeed. However, god to me is the spirit of family, if you don't believe in god you don't believe in family or vice-versa. Lord Jesus said that god is the spirit of the father, which comes from the spirit of family which includes the spirit of the mother. I believe Lord Jesus is the spirit of god because he has the ultimate teachings of the HUMAN FAMILY SPIRIT. Without the family spirit no specie would exist. I think God Heavenly Father Lord Jesus Christ is the true way of human psychology. If you need to know what is normal or crazy human behaviour, he's the teacher who will tell you. His main message is for us to value all human life and ourselves. What human being can deny such a great teacher?

What rubbish ! Haven't you worked out that the fairy tale metaphor of "God the Father" as "a caring all powerful protective parent" is simply a palliative against the fear of the unknown. One function of religion is to promote group social cohesion in general, with "the family" being a mere microcosm of such cohesion We inherit such "tribalism" in common with other animals , and you can see more displays of "family caring" in some animals than you do in some humans.

If your mum or dad (or caregivers) had no sense(we'll use the word 'sense' to compliment the word 'spirit') of family, they probably would have left you to die or something like that etc etc. Is that realistic enough for you? Or do you still think this Christian needs a reality check?

If you think "Christians" (or even humans), have a monopoly on "compassion and caring" or "parental instinct", you are a fool. It is quite possible that evolutionary genetics alone can account for such behavior, together with inherited tendencies in humans to believe in mythical omnipotent entities. All "realities" are parochial, but some are more parochial than others.

I never said that the spirit of family(or god) belongs only to Christians (or human beings as you put it). The spirit of family belongs to non-Christians, all species and life, otherwise they wouldn't exist or want to exist. Having a sense of family(or god as I understand it as a Christian) helps living things care about themselves and their own kind, otherwise it is just self-distruction. The family psychology of Lord Jesus (minus all the metaphoric fairy tales) makes sense to me, I don't know if it does to you but that's your business I suppose. I'm not a Christian who believes in any being who is floating around in the sky with a magic wand. The universe is a battlefield, living things are dying all the time, even at this moment. All species are only obligated to the battle of survival of their own kind. This is where Christianity helps me or works for me, knowing the real world, not fantasia. I respect the family beliefs of you and all non-Christians. Thats what keeps us all striving to keep improving our quality of life. You don't have to be a Christian to believe in family (or God as I interpret it as), but it helps.

And I would say that you are merely trying to justify your existence by clutching one of a set of ad hoc principles opposed to Shakespeare's celebrated ...

An accident of birth led to your conditioned choice of your particular principle which you term "Christian".
But the cosmological evidence supports Shakespeare's contention and we all have our own contrivances for trying to ignore it.

I initially replied to this topic to give the so-called atheist another Christian perspective on the rationalisations believing in the spirit of god(or family as I define god) And yes I do read the bible, but only the words of Lord Jesus. And no I don't care about the rude sadistic attitude of Fresco. I'm very happy and proud to be a Christian, I wouldn't want to be anything else in all eternity. That's why most of us Christians pledge our allegiance only to God Heavenly Father Lord Jesus Christ.

"Rude"?....perhaps... but "sadistic" implies that you feel that your personal integrity has been damaged. If so, it says something about the strength of your faith don't you think ?

To be honest, i don't even know what i believe in. But lately I've been turning towards atheism more. I used to believe that God exists. Not the God that created men in his own image. Obviously the cosmos is vast so to think God designed one specie in his image is just kinda silly. So then to me that must means God created the cosmos. Maybe it was a clap of his or its hands. Maybe he or it farted out the cosmos I don't know. But that is i think is as far as God has anything to do with life in the cosmos. God created life, and evolution took place and that's how we live in a world filled with many different species today. God does not necessarily have to be omniscious. But when I think about it, thousands of years ago, rain, storm and lighting were all explained by the act of God. But as science progresses, we found out that that was actually not true and we were able to explained those phenomenon with calculated facts. Like how the sun constantly shoots radiation waves at Earth which is why we have wind. Or how positively charged particles and negatively charged particles form lightning. But that's besides the point. My point is that whenever you find something that is explainable you automatically assume that it's a higher power. But then a few years past and science can explain what it is. This pattern formed since the beginning of modern science. So right now the only problem that we have is that we cannot explain why the big bang happened therefore a lot of people still resolve to God. But then it is only natural that eventually, science will be advanced enough to able to explain the big bang. So I feel that science is the only thing that is actually making an effort to find out the truth of the universe. So that's why i choose to be an atheist, to not believing in anything and support science until it finds the answer. With that being said we should not have a war over atheism or Christianity. It's like a civil war again that's silly. So what i think we should do is just presenting the idea of atheism or Christianity and not trying to convert anyone. If you're really a Christian then you should simply ignore these ideas and move on. And If a Christian converts to an atheist then that just means that you were never really a Christian and you have been confused for a long time. However, most politicians (the people controlling our country) are Christians law majors. Wouldn't it be fare if there were more atheists and scientists in politics? I donno that's just my opinion.

One thing I like about religions is that they encourage people to be good to one another. One thing I dislike about religions is that they encourage people to be cruel to one another.

As for me, I can be good to the people around me without a religion. I can also be cruel to people around me without a religion.

I choose to be good to the people around me who aren't hurting others, and I don't need a religion to make that choice. If I'm less than nice to someone, it's because I see them doing damage to others. That's pretty much it.

This is the essence of the god-of-the-gaps fallacy, coupled with the irreducible complexity argument. These have been shown to be flawed reasonings.



Funny. Many atheists/agnostics would say that they don't believe in the existence of a god because it sounds too good to be true. Period.

However, it doesn't sound all that good, if you think about it. An omnipotent and omnisicient being who created a universe that is overwhelmingly hostile to life, and the systems on our planet have all sorts of suffering built in. Doesn't sound like a creator of this is very benevolent. Seems to enjoy watching suffering too much.

As a Christian I think one needs to define what god is to them. Then they can explain why they believe in this perception. I do find it amazing how other people who call themselves Christians give a sort of definition that god is some magical magician hovering over the universe. I too believe that everybody is intitled to their own opoinion whether we think its fairy tales or not. But you'd think common sense would prevail sometimes. I guess its because we all have different experiences which determines our perceptions of things. From my own experiences i found solace in reading the words of Lord Jesus in the New Testament. He says God is spirit, and the father, therefore i concluded that God is the spirit of the father(or family where the father factor comes from)) I percieve the word "spirit" as when someone behaves a certain way like: Thats the spirit Joe! You remind me of your grandfather! A no nonsense hard working man he was! It was a time in my life when things were going magically wrong and i needed guidance on what is normal human behaviour? Otherwise I'd go bonkers. You start distrusting people when things go wrong. I was really impressed by his human family values and morals. They are crucial to our survival, especially for our children. Lord jesus is not anti-human, hes honourable, he values human life, he's not sexist or racist, hes not greedy or perverted. I think he's the greatest teacher that will ever be. It's a pity he's camouflaged amongst a lot of fairy tale literature.

It made me laugh when you said god farted out the cosmos. Were you thinking that you have solved the mystery to the Big Bang theory?

I read your last post stating that God made man in his own image. I interpret it like this: If god means male immortality, like goddess is female immortality, then a man is in the likeness of a male which they say his maleness comes from god who is supposed to be the ultimate male of all males. Thats my own interpretation anyway. I don't really like reading anything else in the bible except the words of Lord Jesus who is my only teacher. You start getting confused when you read things from other teachers, you start to wonder who is the real teacher? Lord jesus is the teacher of all teachers on God and the bible.

Your emphasis on 'the Family' seems contrary to what Jesus called for. He said (paraphrased) that if you love family more than God you are not worthy of him. If you put anything or anybody on the same level as God, you're screwed. Jesus was kind of a hard ass on this point.

"I believe in God." is a fairly meaningless statement.

Which god? Which religion? Which religious denomination or tradition? And how does your belief in this god, and this religion manifest?

Is therefore no belief in a god absent belief in a given religion. If I say I believe in, and worship Dionysus from the Greek pantheon, "I believe in God." means something else. Thus the need to specify religion and what deity you're talking about. And belief in one in particular may not then mean you believe in all the others.

I've said it before (on a different thread) but I'll say it here again.

Screw religion. What a shitty tactic it is to tie God to some religion. 'Finding God' is obviously a one on one thing. Associating with other people in a religion might be great for pot luck dinners after church but not that.

But to the point of the OP, since it included a number of good reasons for seriously considering believing in God, I'd like to hear the atheist position for NOT considering it?