Why Believe In God?
Offline There are an endless number of bad reasons to believe in God and only one good reason. There are an endless number of bad reasons to disbelieve in god and only one good reason. The only good reason is study and research to one's own satisfaction whether or not to believe in God.
People are funny. If you ask just about anyone what the color of the sky is they will say that its blue, because that's what they were taught. The sky is blue, the grass is green. Sometimes, though, the sky is black, or red, or yellow or green or grey and the grass is sometimes yellow, blue or brown. Even though everyone has seen examples of this the educated response is, the sky is blue.
The atheists are the funniest of all the people. They like to think that they are free thinkers. They are just educated. Being educated is like being religious, only funnier. They say the sky is blue and will tell you why that is. Seeing, or being told, or conformity to the latter is believing to the atheist. Most people were taught very young that there was a Santa Clause. He lived in the North Pole, made toys and delivered them to children on Christmas Eve. Riding on a Reindeer sled and sliding down the chimney. They believe this and when they are told otherwise they think that is ridiculous. Then when they are older they are told that there is no Santa Clause, and so they believe that. They think they are smarter for it, but they haven't done any study or research on the subject. Sure, they've read Christmas stories with Santa Clause but the stories are just made up. So he continues to believe there is no Santa Clause, even if he passes three of them on his way home from work on late December day.
God is like Santa Clause, the atheist will tell you. I'm smarter because I don't believe in them. There are no gods and there is no Santa Clause, just like there are no witches or Chupacabra. They like to think that believers in gods are brainwashed. In other words, trained to be stupid. You can't train a cat, the great and powerful Richard Dawkins once said, they proudly tell you. They only believe what they can see, but they don't know as much as they think they do.
Photos: Red Sky, Green Sky, Yellow Sky, Santa Clause, Witch, Cupacabra, Chinese God Of War, Zombie, Training Cats
- Login to post comments
well, that settles it. i'm convinced. hallelujah.
It was rather convincing, wasn't it?
Just having a little fun. Put away you're evil book learnin' ya unwashed heathen!
well, having just spent 7 hours on a night train, i actually am rather unwashed.
How do you make the best of the time during that 7 hours? Sleep? Study? Relax?
False. There are a few good reasons to believe in god or a religion. It is a very strong social binder, possibly the strongest ever invented. It facilitates communication within a community, and bonds people together. It also seems to do a remarkable job keeping believers from dwelling on the unpleasant prospect of death, provides answers to all questions, and possibly serves as a deterrent to criminal behaviour in certain scenarios to boot.
False again. There is no reason to disbelieve in the concept of god. Such a position would require evidence, which doesn't exist.
There is however plenty of reasons to simply have a lack of belief in either possibility, and to wait for meaningful evidence before deciding whether to believe or disbelieve.
Ridiculous. The sky has every colour. It appears blue more often than not, but it is not blue.
So was I, but I never believed it.
Ridiculous. I learned about the history of xmas and similar traditions back in grade school. I've done more than sufficient research to discard santa as a lie. Maybe you believe whatever you're told, but not all humans have such an irrational way of accepting information. Science absolutely rejects that way of obtaining information as useless.
None of those apparent santas were slipping down chimneys or riding deer. It is also possible for you to become santa. If you do, you quickly find out that you aren't moved to the north pole, you aren't given a deer to ride, and you aren't taught how to squeeze down chimneys or know everything about all children in the world.
Anyone with any brains can look at all the available evidence and discard santa as a myth, because that's what santa is.
Most of them are. It isn't an opinion or thought, but a demonstrable fact. There has never once been an incident where a person began believing in a pre-existing religion without first being taught that religion. So yes, theists are generally brainwashed.
Dawkins is a fool. You can train a cat.
Which is still exponentially more than any theist knows.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
What is a god - beyond being an abstract noun? Can we discuss a thing with no coherent definition?
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
I think he split on us AE.
I think it makes people feel better to think someone with a lot of power loves them and that whatever they’re going through has a good reason behind it, even if they don’t know what it is.
Additionally when you’re scared, it can be comforting to pray. Although it’s really no different then a scared child looking to an imaginary friend or a toy for comfort.