Why Do People Believe in God?

[Hazumu]

  By Larry Beinhart, AlterNet. Posted January 31, 2009.

Many people continue to clutch to their belief in God, even though there's no evidence of a higher power. Why?

We're doing that because if we start with the idea that if God does exist, then we have to explain why there are so many versions of Him (her or it) and why we can't figure out the right one. Historically, that's a dead end, stuck in the same battle as Saladin and Richard the Lionheart in the Crusades.

The agnostic position -- either we can't know, or let's wait until rocket ship (real or metaphorical) finally lands in heaven or some place of infinite vistas from which we can see there is no God -- leaves like Samuel Becket's two tramps, eternally Waiting for Godot.

[klodefm42]

I assume its, well one just cant merely die and thats it. There has to be something more after one is gone. I just dont want to die and that be it. Thinking about it sends shivers down my spine. Plus all the great genius people who have come and gone. It would so suck if there nothing after death, cause I would like to meet these genius people. Plus the whole existentialist thing..What is done has to mean something..right? I think people choose to believe in god due to the wanting of more out of life or just cause they were brain washed into it at birth. 

[tekla]

Its much more easy that thinking its all fate?

[whatsername]

Honestly, articles like this one irritate me.  People "clutching" to a belief in God...as if people who believe in something more than meets the eyes are so wacky and quaint.  I don't "choose" to believe in the gods anymore than someone "chooses" to be gay, it's simply the reality of the world I live in.  I know there is something else besides the matter of our bodies that tie us all together and which exist often beyond our perception. 

Hey, maybe I'm wrong in my interpretation of that energy or spirit or whatever it is, but we're still discovering things we didn't know about existence all the time, things you can't see, but they're still there, waiting for us to develop the ability to do so (like germs, or cells, or a lot of other things science has figured out).  I'm quite sure science will tackle the spirit world someday too, we just haven't stumbled upon the right questions to ask yet.

Now, there's reasons why people continue in the same faiths and don't have a more fluid view of spirituality, but the two aren't the same thing.  Not everyone who believes in "God" believes in a Christian one, or even something remotely similar to him.

And honestly, if this writer wants to know why people believe how they do, and what evidence they have, subjective though it may be, he could just ask them.

[Monique Martinez]

...well one just cant merely die and thats it. There has to be something more after one is gone. I just dont want to die and that be it. Thinking about it sends shivers down my spine. ......

THE answer.

When you realise this planet is just a fluke it makes everything seem a little pointless.. despite what humans have done to this planet both good and bad it's still (mostly) amazing, the power of our minds and imagination is spell binding.. literally! When you have people realising that death is death then you get selfish choas, hence an all knowing all seeing god that can control everything and everyone. Well depending on which country you're in and which religion you subscribe to 
But despite all the evil that religion brings (not excluding all the good) without it the world would be a lot lot worse.
There will always be 'the jerk'  .
IMO.
And at the end of the day.. The truth is subjective. pphheeww glad I covered my ass on that one.

[europopprincess]

I personally believe that the basis of the belief in deities of any sort comes from the human desire to have an explanation for everything.  In many of the ancient polytheistic religions, if something could not be explained using the current available sciences or technologies, it was assumed to be an act of the gods, hence, we had gods who threw lightning bolts, controlled the weather, pulled the sun across the sky, and determined who got to look pretty and who got beat with the ugly stick.  Now that we've figured out that lightning is caused by electric charges, the weather is variant on gravitational pulls and solar energy, that the earth revolves around the sun, and that our appearance is determined by genetics, the only unknowns left are how the universe was created, if there is an afterlife, and how did humans come to be, although Darwin seemed to figure out the last one with convincing evidence.  To solve these problems, we have a god who created the universe in seven days, a heaven and a hell, and Adam and Eve.  However, what lies to be determined is how God came to be.  Even knowing this, many still choose to believe because of "Pascal's wager," which basically says that if a person believes in God, and God exists, then one will go to heaven; if one believes in God, and God doesn't exist, then that person is denied only a few worldly pleasures that they could have had; if one does not believe in God, and God doesn't exist, then that person will simply have led a life of pleasure and enjoyment; if one does not believe in God, and God does exist, then that person is sentenced to eternal damnation.  When thought about in this light, the choice seems quite obvious, hence why ninety-something percent of people believe in one religion or the other.  The only question left is this:  what happens to those who believe in God, but only because they believe in Pascal's wager? 

[klodefm42]

yea. I also think religion was just meant to control the masses at a time when the majority really wasnt all that educated. Instead of going through the troubles of explaining something to a village scientifically, why not "Um a magic man from beyond the stars brings fourth the sun, and the wind you feel is his hand moving it". Alot of religious texts do hold valuable life lessons. It would be great if people didnt take em literally. I just hope that I just dont stop existing. One's suffering has to be worth something ya know. I would like for some one like HP Lovecraft to see his rewards or someone like Martin Luther King the same. I dont want to belong to any religion but it would be nice to get some answers that put more meaning into life.

[Lisbeth]

If you put any stock in the theories of Karl Jung, it would be because it's instinctively built into us. Somewhere in the dark of time, a belief in god was a positive factor in the survival of the human race, so it has become part of out genetic makeup. This would then be visible as some belief in god being expressed in every culture, or as Jung would call it, an "architype."

[Jeatyn]

I sorta wish I had some sort of faith. It would be comforting to be SURE in my head that there was something out there taking care of me, and that there was something to look forward to after death. If you have strong faith in the afterlife, you can't be afraid of death; or of any of the choices you make, knowing that god is there to guide you.

[Lisbeth]

I sorta wish I had some sort of faith. It would be comforting to be SURE in my head that there was something out there taking care of me, and that there was something to look forward to after death. If you have strong faith in the afterlife, you can't be afraid of death; or of any of the choices you make, knowing that god is there to guide you.

You must be young. I have no faith in the afterlife, and that is a great comfort to me. I think it would be hell to continue on forever.

[Alyssa M.]

Lisbeth, I think Jung is probably more or less correct on this subject. But I'd say that a belief in the principles of rational argument, at some level, is also hardwired into our brains, despite, shall we say, evidence to the contrary. Just because it's hardwired doesn't make it true -- or false.

If the question is changed to, "On what basis do people believe in God?", then the most compelling argument is, to me, is the same one that might have been used by the Cro Magnon. Big crazy world, hard to understand, who made it? Must be Big Powerful Creator. Now we have beautiful scientific theories that bury the question under decades of schooling, but after you've cranked dozens of Physics Review theory papers on GUTs and quantum gravity and string theory and Big Bang cosmology, there's still that nagging question: "Okay, that's nice -- where did it come from?" That's why C.S. Lewis's demon Screwtape complained, "There have been sad cases among the modern physicists."

[klodefm42]

Yea Alyssa, the more you learn the less uncertain you are of everything.

[Ephilei]

I second everything Alyssa said. I totally agree with Jung and God is an archetype, but explaining why we believe something does not prove our belief is wrong. In fact, Anselm the monk and John Spong the Episcopal found proof of God's existence via their very thought of God. Without a doubt, the "idea of God" exists whether the Creator exists or not. In a strong way, that's good enough for me.

What I DO NOT LIKE is theists who think that a proof of God is any and every example of what they cannot explain. Only the most recent example is "science cannot know where the universe came from" (which is presently true) "so God must have dun it." This is the "God of the gaps" reasoning. The first problem is technical; you're not proving God exists, you're only proving there is something you don't know. The second problem is ecclesiastical - what happens if and when science does find where the universe came from? You're setting yourself up for a future failing and one with a high probability of coming true. We used this for weather, the heavens, children, species,  the earth, and even Time and science has shown where all those things come from. If God really means that which fills in the gaps of our knowledge, God will forever get smaller and smaller. Theologically, it's a slap in the face to God to say, "I just need you so I can feel like I have a grasp on my environment and I don't need you anywhere else."

i'm rambling.

[Anima]

The idea about God as a archetype seems to be supported by the bible.

Rom 2:14(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)

Mircea Eliade also wrote something interesting that could point to the same, that the idea of a High God has been something common in many "primitive" cultures. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mircea_Eliade#The_High_God ) And this could also point toward a idea that God is something that is integrated into our hearts/soul/psyche/subconsciousness. But I don't think it can be said for sure that this is because of that God is a archetypal idea in our subconsciousness developed from evolution or if it is because God is actually real.

My own personal opinion is that since humans seem to have lots of ideas about gods and a afterlife, this could point to that there actually is something like that. Why would people be religious if there were nothing to be religious about? Where do all those ideas come from? Nothing comes from nothing. There is a cause and a effect in all things.