believing Christ is the son of God isn't exactly like believing one is the son of God (since one's belief may not be that strong), it in and of itself has many of the same problems as ONE who CLAIMS THEY HAVE ACCESS TO GOD — dclements
If you're asking "why do people believe in God?" And then proceeding to say that you're only interested in logical reasons, then I don't know if you'll get far; the average Chritian or Muslim or Religious Jew doesn't necessarily have a conscious logical proof in their mind that allows them to participate in their religion. — Noble Dust
Why do you think that? I am not a Christian now, but I was one a long time ago and thought then that God listened to my prayers and communicated back in some vague way. I don't think I am any more or less rational now than I was then. It's just my life experiences that have changed.my point is that many Christians who believe they have some direct access to 'God' are about as crazy as C.S Lewis said about someone who tried to claimed they where a fried egg — dclements
I thought it might be worthwhile to start a thread asking how some people can believe in 'God'. — dclements
Anyways, my point is that many Christians who believe they have some direct access to 'God' are about as crazy as C.C Lewis said about someone who tried to claimed they where a fried egg — dclements
Prophets can be profoundly wise one moment and stupidly dumb the next. Wise teachers can have funny episodes when they go completely weird and then go back to being wise teachers — Cuthbert
I think human beings have certain psychological needs that lead to the belief in God. Probably the biggest one is that we fear death and we need to find comfort in the fact that we are going to die.
After all, what could be more comforting to someone fearing death that, in a sense, you don't really die, but that you instead live forever. With God, that become possible.
So that's the psychological aspect. — Brian
I'm talking about 'logical' type reasoning for believing in 'God', if such a means even exists. — dclements
I think human beings have certain psychological needs that lead to the belief in God. Probably the biggest one is that we fear death and we need to find comfort in the fact that we are going to die.
After all, what could be more comforting to someone fearing death that, in a sense, you don't really die, but that you instead live forever. With God, that become possible.
So that's the psychological aspect. There's also the faith aspect, which I think complements the psychological aspect. We are raised, largely, in a culture of faith in God. We are taught from a very early age in church (or your house of worship of choice) that God does in fact exist. We are socizlized to this belief, and we are told that we ought to have faith in it, which means believing in it regardless of any reasons that may go counter to this belief. — Brian
I think to change my atheistic belief, I would need very strong contemporaneous empirical evidence that the testimony of the Bible was possibly true (i.e. miracles started happening all over the place again, Jesus returned, etc.)
Lacking that, I very much doubt I will ever change from an atheistic viewpoint to a theistic one. — Brian
And if 'God' asks someone to kill their only son or perhaps someone else you don't see any problem with that? Perhaps there are people who can speak to God but I think it is pretty much a given that some of the crazy people who claim they can talk to 'God' are merely crazy people who are not talking to God but instead suffer from some sort of mental problem. Hopefully this is enough for you to realize some of the issues with this problem. — dclements
In your arrogance, you've left out the most obvious reason people might believe in god - they have experienced the presence of God in their lives. I assume you've never experienced God. — T Clark
We are raised, largely, in a culture of faith in God. We are taught from a very early age in church (or your house of worship of choice) that God does in fact exist. We are socizlized to this belief, and we are told that we ought to have faith in it, which means believing in it regardless of any reasons that may go counter to this belief. — Brian
I think an aspect of my argument is that you are trying to argue for and protect what some hard core Christians claim to be 'fake' Christians (ie. Christians who just go through the motions but in many ways do not really believe). My argument is focused on the hard core Christians who believe strongly enough that they believe they have a direct connection with God and if God commands them to kill one of their kids (or perhaps kill someone else) there is a very high probability that they would try and carry out his wish — dclements
I know a lot of Christians, but I have never heard them use the term 'direct access to God'. Also, notably, none of them were crazed. — Wayfarer
Belief is an attitude which accepts a proposition as true without evidence. As such, there is no premise which supports, hence; no argument which proves, anything about God. — Galuchat
But if that is true, than why is it not acceptable of any other belief that doesn't have to do with God?...If what you say is true in your post than why should someone be upset if they think that agnosticism is self defeating? — dclements
Lol. Yeah, and maybe those tin foil hat wearing folk have experienced the presence of extraterrestrials. I assume you've never experienced telepathy from extraterrestrials. Oh, and I see dead people, by the way. Do you? — Sapientia
certainly am not a religious historian, but it is my understanding that the Protestant Revolution was about the belief that you didn't need to go through priests to have a relationship with God. — T Clark
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