Why should I believe in God?

Question

Don't give me bible bashing cliched answers, what are the actual benefits.

If he is true then I am questioning him, does he like this or not? I think he would.

then there can't be such a thing as sinners

Maybe the belief in one god, is actually a belief in one conciousness throughout humanity.

so god is just your own personal experience, and life. Shouldn't repect be earned not just granted.

Answer 1

Personally I think you'd be better off not believing in God, and instead believing in helping others and doing good. If there is a God, who will he open the gates of heaven to first... someone who knows the bible inside-out and who can think of a psalm for every situation; or someone who spent their life working hard to earn money to raise a family, and who led a good kind life?

And if there is a God who created the earth and all living things, I think he'd prefer that we get out and enjoy his creation instead of sitting in dim churches reading about the death of his son.

Answer 2

(sorry, I can't answer a question like that and leave the bible out)

It's as simple as this. If God exists and the bible is true (I am assuming you don't) then we ALL deserve to go to Hell for breaking God's laws (the 10 commandments). The bible clearly states that sin is the breaking of God's laws and the punishment is Hell, where you will burn for eternity (along with having to hear all the screaming and people tearing at your flesh). Now, for breaking God's laws, payment is required. A perfect sacrifice. And that is what God provided through Jesus. He did what we could not. It's like standing before the judge and being completely guilty and the judge says you can get off only if you hand over 100k dollars cash right now. You can't pull that kind of money out. So, this guy comes in and says ," here it is. I'll take care of it". That's what happened and all you have to do is accept it. It seems so simple, but I know it's so hard for so many.

What are the benefits... let's see. There aren't many worldly benefits that I could offer you. Does becoming a christian make your life better? No. It makes your eternity better.

Keep seeking and I hope that you find someone you can relate to.

Answer 3

No bible-thumping here, but I do believe and acknowledge God. He is omni-potent. God gave us free will and will not interfere in whatever our decisions are. This is a wonderful option, for the most part, but at some point in time, we begin to learn that we have screwed ourselves up more than once, then we begin to pray and talk to God and his angels (oh yeah, they are most definitely real!). Benefits. Hm, you don't want cliched answers. Ok, but how do you explain obvious miracles? The things you hear about either on TV or in print? Have you never been in a near-death situation? How do you explain getting out of something without a scratch? God loves us all and is only waiting for everyone to welcome Him into their hearts and homes.

By the way, I'm not the perfect Christian! Far from it. But I do believe in God and his angels. I know I cannot argue with what is so obvious an angelic intervention sometimes.

Answer 4

I could give you the biblical reasons, and would prefer to mainly due to the fact that those are the best reasons. Why fix it if it ain't broken? But, if you insist:

There was a philosopher known as Blaise Pascal. He posed non-biblical reasons for believing in God. He stated that:

In decisions under risk, the person assigns subjective probabilities to the various states of the world. Assume that the states of the world are independent of what the person does. A figure of merit called the expected utility, or the expectation of a given action can be calculated by a simple formula: for each state, multiply the utility that the action produces in that state by the state's probability; then, add these numbers. According to decision theory, rationality requires you to perform the action of maximum expected utility (if there is one).

In mathmatical formula, you'd look at it like this:
-1 + 2 = 1

If you had to choose between +2 and -1, you choose +2 because the usefulness of that 2 is greater than the detriment of the -1.

Pascal used this formula to applied to whether a person should believe in God. (The following is directly from Pascal. I do not fully agree with all of his thinking, I do not believe there is an infinite chaos which seperates us and you just see how things go out. As a Christian, I have a personal relationship with God, I don't need this wager to tell me I should believe in him).

"God is, or He is not." But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up... Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must of necessity choose... But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is... If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.

Wagering that God is:
If he is, and you follow him, then you gain happiness eternally, you gain freedom, you gain love, you gain purpose.
If he is not, and you follow him, you gain nothing, however, you have lost nothing by doing so.

Wagering that God is not:
If he is, and you don't follow him, then you lose happiness, you lose your soul, and you lose an opportunity to have his forgiveness.
If he is, not and you don't follow him, then you gain nothing still, but you have not lost anything either.

Clearly, the choice is in favor of believing that God is rather than believing that he is not.

Personally, I do not use this reasoning for my faith in God, but that's the best reason I can come up with outside of Scripture.

Answer 5

Because God is the only true source of Love and you were created with a desire for love. Any other source of Love that any of us look for will always leave a void. All other sources are temporary and have an end, therefore,we have a void.

You will not believe in God until you are convinced that you need him. You will not be convinced you need him until you're convinced you have a void that you alone can not fill.

Once you meet him, you will certainly know. And if you seek him you will meet him, it's his nature and promise.

You will experience him in a very real way on a physical, psychological, and spiritual level.

James

Answer 6

There's no way to prove or disprove God. Therefore it is a matter of faith. (Faith is belief without facts.) Many people chose to believe in God because it is a way to explain events beyond their control or understanding. Also, an idea like God can remain unchanging in one's mind while everying else in a person's life may be unreliable or even hurtfull. Whether or not you should believe in God isn't something someone else can decide. It might be best for someone who is intelligently skeptical and curious, like yourself, to leave room for the existence of God, but not to go around thumping on tables proclaiming that he exists and anyone to say otherwise is wrong. This would be considered believing in God, but leaving wiggle room. Good luck, and don't think about it too much!!

Answer 7

At some point in most people's lives they experience questions about who they are and where their purpose of life comes from. I believe that being human means that we have at least four aspects of life; the Mental, Physical, Emotional and spiritual. I believe that the physical or body is created from the union of man and woman but that inside each body is a God created spirit that starts it's existence created by God and although has a finite beginning it has no ending but our spirit will live on forever and after it transcends from our human physical body upon death. The reason I believe people should believe in God is that God provides instructions for man that tells how we can satisfy the requirements of the creator. Another thing that being born human means is that we are imperfect and have an inner longing to be close to our creator. That inner desire and need becomes evident if we but listen to what that inner spirit is saying and craving. I also feel that God at some point actually, through his Holy Spirit reaches out and communicates with our inner spirits and actually ask us to believe in Him and that it's not necessary that some person beat you over the head with scriptures. I feel that the inner thirst is proof that we don't have all there is to have and that there is more. I feel that if a person is open and receptive to that invitation from God the Father that they will experience His call and His presence at one or more points in their life. The reason I feel you should believe in God is that He does exist and does provide a way to hide our imperfections from His judgment and provides a way for us to abide with Him in His Spiritual world that exist apart from our physical world. I try and explain this and reasons I believe what I believe in my personal blog found at http://acaseforinsanity.blogspot.com/

Answer 8

There are essentially two very good reasons to beleive in God.

The first one is quite obvious really. Say you didnt beleive in God and more crucially an afterlife and at the end when you die you finally get to find out for yourself if there is such a thing as heaven. Well what do you know, there is. Its right in front of you the Pearly Gates, St Peter but more importantly the big book that tells him whether you're allowed in or not. But you spent your life not beleiving in God so your barred and sent to the other place. This is not a good scenario at all and for the want of just simply beleiving in God right know which come to think of it shouldn't really be that painful, would have avoided all this unpleasantness.
The other possiblity is that there isnt an God and no afterlife and no heaven. The problem with this is your not going to exist and so wont't be around to say I told you so to the the poor misguided believers. So you see, based on probabilites alone its an extremely shrewd decision to beleive in god right now.

The other reason to beleive in God, or at least something is based on human psychology. Our minds all operate with various filters called beliefs, not just about God but about who we are and how the world works. A lot of the time we are unaware of these filters working but say for instance something unlucky happens to you like you wait in a queue at the supermarket and they close the till just as you get there. You might say to yourself 'just my luck'. Well it isnt really just you luck you just uncovered a belief that this sort of thing just happens to you. Beliefs can be quite arbitrary and neednt be thought of as being right or wrong but try to consider them as usefful or not. A lot of people use their beliefs to give them license to hate other people but other use a belief in God to get them over hurdles like grief and loss, sometimes leading to dramatic improvements in themselves and their lives.

So from today nurture a belief that there is a God and he's on your side and as you begin to entertain the possibility that all the nice things that happen to you he somehow had a hand in, whether hes real or not you may notice your beliefs/filters changing.

Answer 9

First may i say that yes you should question God, and what he does and yes there are sinners, also the Bible and other holy books were written by man to con, and profit from them, any truth that is left in the bible has been twisted.
But you should believe in God, he will return your love to him, he will be there for you when you need him, but don't be like lots of others and expect him to come running when things go wrong, why should he clean up our mess.
Don't have religion, that's man made, have faith in yourself and faith in God, try it you have nothing to lose, but lots to gain.

Love & Peace

Answer 10

Think for a while how you came into this world, its not magic, someone created you right ? who is your creator ? who is the creator of this earth,celestial bodies, creatures etc etc. how did all this exist, i think here you have to know that there is some superior power who has created all this and that is GOD ALMIGHTY, THE MOST POWERFUL AND MERCIFUL.
And when HE has made you with such perfection and care, should nt you respect that by believing and obeying him. Every breadth of yours is HIS gift to you, if HE wishes it could be stopped and you are dead in no time. If every human looks at him or herself and think in a practical or realestic way how his body functions on daily basis,his brain,blood,heart etc etc they all perform their perfect duty in a human where any little defect can cause harm to the body and as a result the body suffers. It is GOD who has full control over you and you belong to HIM, with HIS permission you came into this world and with HIS WISH you will return to HIM . When you think of all this, you will personally feel that " yes somebody has created me and that is GOD "

Maybe you could help yourself by reading some text in the link below.

Answer 11

Atheism holds no answers--only empty questions. Only a personal quest through the Bible can answer this question. Any answer here would be most inadequate; you need to dwell in the Word in order to answer this question. It has something to do with the fact that failing to believe does not prevent your soul from being lost (acceptance); also God has a plan for you and only those who seek God and His plan can find Him (hope); and only God can answer why you even exist (understanding).