what makes people believe in god?

Simple answer: they were brought up in their belief. I think that accounts for most cases.

Of course, when I first read the question I wanted to post a nasty answer because I'm in a foul mood.

Over the course of my life, I've gone back and forth among three lines of thought: there is no God (atheism), the existence of God is unknowable (agnosticism), and there is a God and He hates me.

Right now I'm just an atheist.

lol, normally i would go with there is a god and he hates me, but im having a good day so i will go with atheist, at least in the christian sense of the word god.

i want to know what makes those completely dedicated believes that way, im fascinated by what makes people tick

A Jesuit once said "Give me the child until he is seven (years old) and I will give you the man".

Rigorous indoctrinization at an impressionable age can render an individual permanemtly malleable and subject to whatever superstitions and paradox you choose to implant in their psyches.

That's why "missionaries" take particular pains to target the YOUNG.

i know, but im aiming more at people who have a relatively religion-free upbringing, and end up 'the lord is our saviour' , you know?

and magus , did you use a thesaurus in when creating your post or do you just have a very extensive vocabulary you like to use?lol

As most people are brought up with some sort of spiritual beliefs, it is going to be tough to find a "religion free upbringing."
What I do think you find is that most people decide upon what religion or non-religion they choose when they reach some form of adulthood.

It is my experience that most people who become religious and believe in G-d do so out of a desire to understand how things work - people; Life; the Universe and Everything.

Once a person starts upon that track, they will usually find an answer - be it "G-d hates me," or be it, in my case, Orthodox Judaism...

Mostly...people "believe" in God (or "believe" there are no gods) simply because they want to.

Most just choose a side...and stick with it through thick and thin.

That is the way it is with "beliefs."

"Beliefs" (as applied in religious or philosophical discussions) are, after all is said and done, merely guesses about the unknown.

And the moment someone decides to disquise the fact that he/she is guessing about the unknown (by using the word "believe" instead of guess)...

...it seems to become a life and death matter.

Well, not raised with religion at all until I was 10 or so, then fairly sporadic until highschool, I would not have termed myself a religious person. Then: I took one look at my first-born and just knew this complex, screaming, wiggling, perfect child was not a cosmic accident. A sceptic by nature and scientific mind by trade, I researched, studied, questioned, argued, etc and came to the conclusion that: You have to believe in something. Science doesn't disprove God. Our lack of understanding of God does not disprove God. Explaining the mysteries of life in scientific terms makes them no less miraculous. And, yes, I choose to believe.

No! You don't "have to believe in something" at all.

One can simply, and very logically, reserve judgement.

Give me any arguments you have that one has to believe in something.




What does that have to do with things?




That really doesn't make any sense...but in any case, what does that have to do with things?





Miraculous? You have absoutely no foundation for that. Where does it come from?





Great!

So tell me...do you "choose to believe" there is a God...or do you "choose to believe" there are no gods.

You left that part out.

I believe in God because I had a semi-out-of-body experience when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I was raised with religion but have since rejected it. I still believe in God though. I just don't believe that God is a man-type figure who does nothing but condemn or save us at his will.

I choose to believe in the Christian concept of God.



Okay, this is just my opinion, but choosing to reserve judgement until such time that God is proven to exist or not beyond all doubt is a statement of disbelief, since the chances of such proof during your lifetime are unlikely at best. You have to believe in something in order to take a stance. Your stance appears to be, "Prove it!" which is faith in your ability to sense and reason.

In any case, I'm not attempting to convince you of anything, really; I was just answering the question posed by d-l about my personal beliefs.

Not really sure what you mean by that.

I am an agnostic on the question of whether or not any gods exist. I certainly do not "believe" in any gods...which is to say, I am not willing as you are, to guess there is a God...but that does not mean that I am guessing that there are no gods.

So if you are saying that I do not know...you are correct. If you are suggesting that I am therefore saying "No gods exist"...you are wrong.




So what. One can reasonably say: I do not know if there is a God...I do not know there are no gods...and I do not see enough evidence upon which I can base a reasonable, meaningful guess.





NO YOU DON'T!

Why are you repeating this silliness?

I can easily take a stance that I DO NOT KNOW...and I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH EVIDENCE UPON WHICH TO BASE A MEANINGFUL GUESS.

That is a stance on the issue...a very powerful stance. And it has the advantage over the guess you are making in that it is not a guess...simply a recitation of the reality.







I am not asking for proof. I am asking for evidence in either direction.




Oh, please. My comment that I do not know...and do not have enough evidence upon which to base a meaningful guess is not a FAITH matter in any way.




I didn't suggest you were attempting to convince me of anything. But since you are posting a comment in a public Internet forum...I asked questions about what you posted.

You said "One has to believe in something."

I asked you to back that up...since I think the comment is nonsense.

In your first sentence, you seemed to be agreeing that it has no basis in fact. But later, you went right back to the same stuff, by saying: "You have to believe in something in order to take a stance. "

Are you confused?

Well I'd imagine people believe in god for a few possible reasons, first of which of course is upbringing. But beyond that let us say a person chooses to believe in god, what possible reasons can he have to do so? I can think of a few:

1) By believing in a higher being, whether it is a part of some religion or other or simply freelance one is in fact denying that the world is in a state of pure chaos and that everything has a course, and thus one can believe that by staying one's own course that the desired fortune is predestined. The alternative being "$hit happens", not especially comforting to many. Instead you have the rather lucrative "it is his will, who are we to question it" if something goes amiss, and hey if something bad happened and it's the will of a being greater than yourself then it could very well be for the best, and if something good happens then instead of saying it's a fluke it's more of a "god has blest you with his grace" scenario, which affirms one's deeds. Ok i think we can move on to the next scenario hehe

2) Most people are generally social creatures, you can see this in the way they interact with others and how they are affected by others mentally in the short term and long. A being which can listen to your woes and for you to simply believe in his presence even in the worst of times can be quite theraputic at times, and quite assuring since you get to have your say and no voice criticises you, and yet hopefully this being can somehow lighten the emotional load. I'd imagine few want to feel as though they are all alone in this universe, especially if they can have a friend in extremely high places.

3) A person sees the world entirely through his eyes and his eyes alone, all he has are his own thoughts and such, and frankly the rest of us are but billions of props in his lifetime. He has to question why it is he "exists" and the rest of us are but players throughout his lifetime. The concept of a higher being, something beyond this mortality and fragile existence, is an attractive venue to pursue in order to search for some still of mind. We are flawed in every way possible and since we cannot possibly take our frustration out on something as vast as the universe itself, we vent through other expressions be they social or through internal dialogue. By focusing all that is possible and wrong and right into the will of a single entity known as a god, this anthropomorphism of the universe makes us feel somehow as though we can have some sort of say in our fragile state, whether by talking to this focus of everything we couldn't hope to understand, or simply believing that somewhere there is something more than a fragile prop, a reason to why we're here and that when we die that something will have the good graces to make us eternal thereafter.


That's my two cents on the matter, have a good day guys

Thankyou Perdition, thats very helpful!!

*nods and strokes his sagely beard*

I think people believe in a god/gods mostly because of established religions. Without them, the whole concept would be down the tubes in a few generations.
I also think that established religions are products of an evolution. Churches are money-makers. If they were not, they would have a hard time pervading our society. If there ever were seeds of other religions that started in much the same way, and didn't collect money from their believers, they just died off, because they were not suited to their environment. The reason Churches are around has nothing to do with whether there is a god or not. It is about the self-propagation of the Church and the NEED its members feel to convince others they are right. Without that NEED, it would be the same as before, where it dies out. A goal of these religions is to spread their belief set over the face of the earth (ever read the bible?). If this were not their goal, they would have died out long ago.

Well, of course, as many have already suggested, there is indoctrination, and inculcation, an hypnotism at an early age when we all exist in a highly suggestible state of mind. Any message repeated over and over again becomes firmly implanted as the truth, an axiom. However, that doesn’t answer the question of how or why this process starts in the first place.

We live in a culture dominated by massive organized religions that espouse dogmas that preach a separate reality cutoff and alienated from nature, that is, from the physical. I think in the early agricultural cultures, matriarchal cultures, the identity was with the physical, with nature. Now with our patriarchal cultures, we’re taught to identity with an abstract idea. Or worse yet to worship something abstract that is separate from and above nature, a strictly male idea consistent with patriarchal authority and control. Instead of the ritual and mystical experience—experience beyond mere intellect—of the matriarchal cultures, we have belief, dogma, and hierarchy.

I think most people go through a period of spiritual evolution, but with some it freezes prematurely in a state of literal belief and reliance on authority. We believe in Santa Claus as a child, and then discover it’s untrue but still retain the spirit of giving, and Santa Claus becomes the personification of giving. We present this personification to our children as the literal Santa but forget to tell them, when they grow up, that it’s a metaphor for giving. But we all get beyond the metaphor, the image, anyway, and that’s called maturity. In religion, for some reason, we stick with the god metaphor throughout life and take it or reject it in the literal sense only. In other words, we have a hard time getting past the image projejected by our mind.

Now the intellect forms the ego, a very non-substantial thing, and the ego becomes our identity, but that is very insecure because it’s an illusion, and it wants to identify with something bigger and more substantial over time to gain a sense of security. So it’s very convenient and soothing to project a future with something omnipotent in control, and the more people that believe the same way simply reinforces that security.

Religion can be a tether... or a harness.
In the wrong hands it becomes shackles.

I would say people believe in God or a Creator to this universe because when humans look at things around them, they realize that there are many things thats out of their control but they are happening all the time. We see that the issue of death is out of our control, we see that the world functions in orderly manners, even the universe functions in an orderly manner. When we think deeply about these things, it pushes us to think who could have put these here. Is it possible that its all chance? All these things that happen, I have no control whatsoever over them, so who does?

These are some reasons why people believe there is a Creator.

1. People feel safer that way.
2. Religious Experiences.
3. People were raised that way.
4. Intellectual understanding/definition.
5. Pascal's Wager type thinking.


Add to all of these James's argument The Will to Believe and you have a reason/justification for believing.