Why do so many people believe in God? (Serious Question?)

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Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Aug 26, 2016 - 09:30am PT

Am I supposed to have a purpose, and a further one? I am so over just existing.

Then get on it! It's your job to build something beyond your own life. Only You can do it.

clinker

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, California

Aug 26, 2016 - 10:42am PT

No skipt. Except for a class here and there.

Reeotch

climber

4 Corners Area

Aug 26, 2016 - 11:22am PT

It is amazing that all of these atheists seem to be fairly moral people. Many of them even seem to have found "purpose" in their lives!
How do they do it without an Almighty, or an almighty book, to tell them what's up.

You guys are talking to God on the sly, aren't you . . .

paul roehl

Boulder climber

california

Aug 26, 2016 - 12:53pm PT

After debating on these threads for sometime, I've really reversed my opinion with regard to all this stuff whether on the "What is mind?" thread or the "Religion versus Science thread." I started out as a stone cold atheist ready to smash all religion and now I've come to a couple of conclusions:

It really serves no purpose to convince anyone through reason or rational thought that religion is just foolishness and it's wrong to argue against what some find as their only consolation in this very difficult life, a life in which everyone is eventually touched by the tragic. I know, there are crazy muslims that need to have their faith declared absurd so they'll stop whatever their doing, but they represent a tiny fraction of the millions of believers throughout the world that find great reconciliation through their faith, a faith that serves a very important purpose. I know, you don't need it but others do.

I've also discovered that in the atheism and science I initially fully supported there is a kind of arrogance that makes it impossible to perceive the wisdom found in religious thought, primarily because there is no understanding of the nature of metaphor and what it means. There's great wisdom in ancient texts and religious thought but all the science crowd can see is the ridiculous, literal nature of talking snakes and so on. The inability to understand the function of metaphor and allegory seems outside the realm of the "hard" sciences.

Is there a purpose to our lives? Yes, and that purpose is what we make of it, what we create, how we live our lives, the eudaimonia, the virtue we create: the things that make life worth living. Do these purposes require religion? No. But religion offers a shortcut to understanding and wisdom.

I know these kind of threads are often disparaged as off topic and pointless but I've enjoyed putting ideas into the crucible and over some period of time I've changed my mind.

apogee

climber

Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy

Aug 26, 2016 - 01:04pm PT

"clinker, you're the former skipt?"

clinker definitely is not skipt.

EdwardT....now that's a different question.

limpingcrab

Trad climber

the middle of CA

Aug 26, 2016 - 01:16pm PT

You know about religion by what the religious Believe, not what they're ancient scripture say.

Yikes. If this was how I learned about Christianity I'd be an atheist by now too.

Reeotch

climber

4 Corners Area

Aug 26, 2016 - 01:39pm PT

Amen to that, locker . . . ^^^^
Free the mind!

Reeotch

climber

4 Corners Area

Aug 26, 2016 - 02:42pm PT

2 points:
~ While religious doctrine can inform public policy and legislation, religious doctrine should never become the law of the land. Ever.

~ To coerce any child into a religion is nothing less than psychological violence, and in some cases (as in the FLDS) this leads directly to physical violence.

John M

climber

Aug 26, 2016 - 03:16pm PT

~ To coerce any child into a religion is nothing less than psychological violence, and in some cases (as in the FLDS) this leads directly to physical violence.

Its not the religion. Its the creeps and perverts in the religion. And it doesn't matter which religion you belong to, including the religion of atheism, every religion or group of people has its creeps,bullies and perverts. Including the religion of climbing. I know 2 climbers who were physically abusive to their girlfriends. One of them went to jail for it. There is no climbing organization that one belongs to in order to climb, so there is no way for it to be organized abuse, but the point is simply that abusive people are found everywhere.

so its not about religion causing this or that. Religion is just something a group of as#@&%es saw as something to use to hide in. There is a power structure in churches, and that power can be abused and twisted. There are perverts everywhere. In schools, in governments, in corporations. Fox news is being sued for its corporate policy that allowed women to be sexually harassed.

limpingcrab

Trad climber

the middle of CA

Aug 26, 2016 - 05:32pm PT

Most likely NOT a wild guess on my part that you learned about Christianity from your parents(???)...

That's how they most likely learned it too... (Their parents)...

Until that awful cycle is broken and people start thinking and living in REALITY...

the SH!T will continue and ZERO true progress will be made...

JUST my opinion...

Fair enough, I should say if that was how I judged any belief system then I'd have been an atheist long ago. I think it should be judged by its teachings, not by the people who screw them up.

What to teach children is a weird thing. Pretty sure 99% of parents teach their children about what they believe is true. If you believe something as truth it would be odd to not want your child to know about it. If you believe something as truth and that it will improve their lives, and you love them, then it only follows to share it with them but love them no matter what they end up believing. i.e. I'm going to teach my children that doing their best will be good for them rather than telling them they can try hard or not and nobody knows which is better. Who knows... Also, just my opinion.

WBraun

climber

Aug 26, 2016 - 05:35pm PT

You people are stoopid and brainwashed yourselves.

I was was born into an atheist family.

Everyone I know is atheist.

Yet I'm God conscious .....

Craig Fry

Trad climber

So Cal.

Aug 26, 2016 - 06:42pm PT

I was once very into the belief that the same God we all reference was the head of it all
and that a spiritual lifestyle would bring me closer to God

and as I perused it to the furthest reaches,
I realized that it was all in my mind,
I could believe in things then that I would now say
are nothing more than coincidences exaggerated into being something that had meaning.

I worked hard to not become an atheist
But when I looked into the after life as a possibility,
I had to say no,
There is no possibility of an after life if you are able to think about it critically. It's completely an impossibility for any life form to die and then be born again with it's karmic history intact.

and once you come to terms that there is no after life of any sort,
no reincarnation, no heaven, no hell, no nothing other than becoming fertilizer, like every other living thing.

You have revaluate reality with NO after life.
Then you go to the next step, if there is no after life, all hope in God quickly dissipates into a realist reality, there is No God.

No life after death = No God

jstan

climber

Aug 26, 2016 - 07:12pm PT

Some people are just born needing to believe in something. It seems god just has invested in the marketing.

madbolter1

Big Wall climber

Denver, CO

Aug 26, 2016 - 07:13pm PT

Choice, is what we were taught

Hate to break it to you, Locker, but you enjoy only the illusion of choice. If living in the land of illusion is what you want, more power to you. But that's what you disparage religionists for doing.

If you want to live in the land of reality (so you say), then it's not even acceptable loose-speak to talk about choice. You are a determined automaton, nothing more.

thebravecowboy

climber

The Good Places

Aug 26, 2016 - 07:18pm PT

I'd rather be a self-exciting geodynamo than a determined automaton living in a world of illusory choice, and that is for sure. Illusory superiority OTOH, sure sounds and looks ga-rrrrrayyyettt!

Craig Fry

Trad climber

So Cal.

Aug 26, 2016 - 07:21pm PT

You are a determined automaton, nothing more.

So says MB1

I say MB1 couldn't pass the Turing Test
pure predictable talking points
with a wall of gabber about how the automation is the authority on all subjects that the automation has up loaded.

and as a last note
Locker does make choices

and no one will make them for him

zBrown

Ice climber

Aug 26, 2016 - 07:26pm PT

Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

Craig Fry

Trad climber

So Cal.

Aug 26, 2016 - 07:48pm PT

Locker, do you make choices or not?

I wonder if he thinks I can make choices?
probably not

Who among us can make choices???

just like WB, only he has the keys to the universe.