Why Believe????

[mac1]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but how many people here actually 100% believe in a God of any description?

Am I the only person who visits this site, that does not believe in God? It certainly seems that way - Why all the definate belief from you guys? Don't get me wrong, I'm no atheist, but I don't believe anything blindly. Have all you guys (and girls) seen something to make you believe? How many of you believe blindly due to your social background? Is anyone else completely undecided like myself?

- - - - please dont take this post the wrong way. I am merely curious to the reasons people believe what they do. I would never ever presume to judge or question anyone's belief system, but are you all simply going on "blind faith" - just seems strange to the likes of me - thats all.

[foundationist]

I guess belief in God comes from 2 main avenues - being told that there is God, and experiencing something that feels like God.

I'm one of the latter - general life experience has given myself a sense that the notion of a Concept of God (beyond all human comprehension) as like an active conscious aspect of the Universe (but not at all restricted to it), exists.

Nowadays the order inherent in the Universe, and the complexities of life, tell me that belief that all material existence and life came about through an utterly random chance event seems utterly illogical.

I guess I should also state that I would also say not that I "believe" in God, but that I have "knowledge" of God - or that I "experience" God.

However, the word "God" is one of those terrible subjective terms that means different things to different people. I really don't accept a personal anthropomorphic God concept that many religions do.

I guess it's all really hard to explain - which is why I try and include it all in the Chronicles of Empire writing.

As for certainty - I don;t accept that. Spiritually I feel the only things I can be wrong about are the details - but rationally I do quite accept that my personal opinion and personal experience are precisely that, and do not define objective reality. Therefore I am quite prepared to be wrong.

However, whether I am or no is really irrelevant in terms of my final expectations - as I am not cowering for any concept of "Salavation", I am happy to just flow through life and see if anything happens at the end. I sincerely think there is - had an NDE at 18 which gave a few hints - but even if there isn;t, I won't be conscious about the result, and therefore can feel no disppointment in the metter.

[Dave the Web]

Because something inexplicable touched me. I cannot explain. We feel things in life and many times we cannot put words to them. I think here the same is applicable.

[mac1]

had an NDE at 18

Wow! That is truly facinating. Would you mind telling me about it here (or on a new post or personal message), or is it too personal? The subject of OOBE's and NDE's has interested me for years, as you know I tryed astral projection (without success) myself for a while. Such an experience as yours would likely convince me too.

[foundationist]

It didn't actually convince when I had it - at least, rationally. I was probably at my most rationalist then, coming out from science A-levels and then taking a psychology A-level.

I was faced with the rationalisation of the experience in biological terms - but that never actually felt convincing. But I couldn't rationalise it as a "spiritual" experience because I never understood what the concept meant (still being reactionary to organised religion at the time didn't help).

Nowdays, on a rational level I simply accept it as a subjective experience.

It will be in my writing - there's an exact description in Chronicles of Empire, and I refer to the conclusions of it a few times in Emperor.

[mac1]

I will look out for it when Emperor is finally released

[exastra]

people believe in God because they need/want a sense of divine justice; and are comforted by the thought of some higher power applying order to the chaos.

[brian]

People are comforted by the belief of any of their opinions being correct. Applying that reasoning to the belief or no of God is setting up a straw man to the principle.

[Cloud Woman]

Who wouldn't be comforted by the idea that there is no death? But who do you trust claiming to have the answers?

[Dave the Web]

That God exists shows there are bigger mysteries in life. The knowledge is a two-edged sword. If there is God what else is there? What can harm us beyond ourselves and our species? the existence of God promises the existence of the unknown and the existence of the unknown compels us to fear.

[Paul3c]

I was "taught" to believe as a youngster. But that belief never really meant as much as it could until twelve years ago. Something happened which, for want of a better phrase, I'll call a religious experience. Since then, my faith has been very real, and very much mine. Although there have been times of great doubt too.

[brian]

The doubt always seems to be a natural part of the belief. That may sound strange to some.

[Siege]

Why? No, never mind. Having recently stopped spending time at a Christian message board, I dealt with people who seemed to think any trace of doubt was an indication of wavering faith. On the other hand, I have met people who have beliefs which are diametrically opposed to mine, yet who hold them just as strongly as I do. Human logic says one of us must be wrong. I acknowledge the possibility that it might be me.

Getting back to the OP, religious experiences aside, I think one reason I believed as a teenager was I felt there had to be something better than my reality, that there had to be hope, peace, and a place where I was accepted somewhere, that this life couldn't be all there was to things. An atheist might say, "So, needing some such place, some such thing, I made one up." Certainly, the message I received from Christianity met those needs.

Another reason I took to belief early was a child's wonder and awe at the universe. I still remember saying, "OK, so yellow and blue make green, but why should it be that they make green instead of brown or purple or some other color?" I'm happy to say that that child still does live within me.

As an adult, I'll give you this reason. I suffer from clinical depression, and I've faced some rather unpleasant things. My belief has sustained my life, and probably saved it a time or two. I have poured my troubles out to God in tears, and sought and received comfort. My faith is as much a part of my world as the air I breathe and, I would argue, just as necessary.

Finally, as the daughter of an engineer, and programmer, I believe because it works, because my Christian beliefs have given me simple, efficient coping methods. Without it, no doubt I would develop other coping methods, but they'd be clunky and inelegant, a kludge for the soul.

CJ

[Elizabeth May]

Hi seige and welcome aboard! Yes there's still a universe of wonder out there. Sometimes people might ask 'why believe?' and I'd return the answer 'why not?'. Existence and the human mind are both still very inexplicable. Some answers given are far too easy to be acceptable. So long as there remains abject mystery then anything is quite possible. Skeptical reductionism would prefer we just stopped thinking of possibilities and accept their own particular brand of dogma. That's not something I intend to suffocate my own exploration of life with,

[Cloud Woman]

Why believe anything? We trust our sources of information and relate them against our experiences. If they tally we can accept that information unless refuted elsewhere. So I guess the belief issue is one of using sources against experience. What that experience is I don't know.