why is the superstitious belief in an omniscient creator prevalent in nearly every culture?

Question

what is the psychological attribute common to all human cultures that makes people believe in god?

Answer 1

Cognitive dissonance.

It is helpful to think of this interms of the creation myth of Genesis. They were trying to do what science is trying to do today... trying to understand reality. Today, we have technology and disciplined meta-procedures (scientific method) to help us extract answers from nature.

Back then, they did not.

Today, we have 'theories' to provide consistent explanations for what we are able to observe in nature, supplemented and validated by the additional information that we are able to extract from nature by means of our technology, our disciplined methods and our intellectual tools (mathematics, logic). Most of our theories are incomplete, so we continue to work on them... because we know that they are incomplete.

Back then, they did not have disciplined methods, and they did not have the technology to extract answers from nature. The only information they had access to was what they could see with their own eyeballs. There was no technological knowledge base or scientific context in which to interpret their observations, so they had to appeal to their imaginations... and the 'supernatural'... in order to make sense out of what they saw. Actually, what they really achieved was deluding themselves into thinking that they knew the truth. Amazingly, over time, this delusion has become codified, institutionalized, and incorporated... complete with franchises.

Basically, Genesis can be thought of as a 'theory', concocted by people who were constrained by lack of technology, methodology and intellectual tools... but they sure weren't constrained by lack of imagination.

Today, we try to interpret Genesis in the context of what we know to be true of the universe... galaxies, stars, planets, moons, gravity, orbits, inclination of the earth's axis, planetary rotation, etc. They problem is that Genesis can't be interpreted in terms of those things, because Genesis was written by men, based on oral traditions, and those men did not know about those things. They could only write about what they could see and what they could guess about the reasons that lay behind what they saw. In any event, it provided them with a mechanism to quell the innate anxiety that comes with fretting about how and why they came to be here.

They guessed wrong.

So... I think that the cosmological aspects of Genesis require a literal interpretation... no metaphors... no allegory... no hidden meaning. The key, though, is in understanding that the literal interpretation does not lead to a description of the way things are... it leads to a description of the way they thought things are. It leads to a naive description of reality, concocted by people who were doing the best they could with what they had.

It is absolutely appalling, though, to realize that hundreds of millions of people, TODAY, including participants in this forum, BELIEVE that this ignorant bovine excrement is actually TRUE.

Answer 2

I'm not a psychologist- but if you look at it logically I think it's pretty simple.

Imagine you are early-man. You have migrated with your tribe (group or whatever) to a place with a different climate from where you came. You notice for the first time something that nobody has ever seen before- the sky lights up with a thunderous display of lightning. You're tribe is scared- they need to know what is happening. What do you do? You have no idea what is happening because you're brain isn't developed enough- it is prehistoric times after all- and the tribe is on the verge of self-destruction.

You come up with a God. And in time the story develops into something quite complex.

Unfortunately, the very thing that saved the prehistoric tribe- and allowed man to evolve - could very well be mankinds ultimate destruction.

Answer 3

There are many beliefs about a diety...

The most logical one to me is that If there was a GOD, He would have sent down messengers to all cultures, in order for them to know that He exists.

And please don't try explaining a scientific theory to me. It's quite interesting that most scientists only 100 years ago (inluding Einstein) believed in ONE GOD (yes even Galileo, Newton, Plato, Avicenna, and many more also did, but thought they lived way before). Now it's the "in" thing to be an Atheist, otherwise you are not of "science material".

Science can only explain a limited amount of information. Light, for example, is limited EM wave in space. You can NOT measure the Limitless One with limited equipment and knowledge. I mean, we can't even see an electron these days... nor can we see the wind, but we can feel it's presence! So we don't NEED to see God to believe in him.

Also, I believe it is more logical to believe in something than to believe in all this millimetric accuracies arising from chance. You can't, for example, open the window and allow the wind to blow the chemical bottles off their shelves and mix on the ground to form a cough medicine! You need 1 mL of this, 5 mL of that, and if a tad bit over or under, you might get poison instead.

Point being, it's more logical that a Chemist made the complex syrup than the wind analagy of chance.


EDIT:

In reply to J T, if we are to accept that the laws of Cause & Effect (C&E) are applicable all over the universe and beyond time resraints, and also beyond ALL dimensions, i would have agreed with you. However, we can not prove that it is a "law" occurring beyond our sight. I believe that C&E is a CREATED law, just like Newton's laws of motion, for us to benefit from. Could you imagine a world without Newton's 3rd law? no!

ANALAGY: if there is a God, it Needs to be self-sufficient. You can't ask silly questions like "if the locomotor moves the train, what moves the locomotor?" because everybody knows that it is self-sufficient, so why are we mentioning that God needs to have a creator? I'll answer for you...It's because our brains can't let go of the C&E effect we've observed for so long.

Answer 4

I beleive that God exists but Regardless of my own feelings...

People beleive in a omniscient creator for many reasons. They want an explanation to the world around them and why it is and how it came into existence. Men create great works everyday in art, architecture, science, medicine....it can be an easy leap to beleive that one (or more depending on theology) created the world and all with in it.

People want to beleive that there is more to life than what is here on earth and that a beleif in god not only allows them to beleive in more but gives them a chance at a life in heaven, nirvana, rebirth, another cycle on the wheel of life depending on the theology.

There is also literary evidences as well that would suggest that the root of the belief in god ( or gods) is truly founded. If you have ever studied theology, mythology, or any of the religous doctrines wether on your own or through school one may notice the subtle nuances in the literature. Just as greek and roman mythology is linked..... so it many others. The story of the biblical flood comes to mind. Not only is the evidence of a great flood been uncovered by science( ...think remains of creatures, Pandora, possible evidence of the ship itself), but there is an ancient sumerian text I believe that tells the story of Gilgamesh. This story details a great flood and one family that have divine intervention to survive. I am not certain but the native american stories also detail a flooding of the earth.

Answer 5

Science has shown us that all biological life - including the human species - is the product of unthinking, undirected natural processes. As part of our evolutionary 'toolkit' of survival strategies, we have a highly developed awareness of other entities in our environment - We often notice human faces in carpet patterns, rabbit-shaped clouds and so on. There is more survival value in seeing what really *is* there, and also seeing some things that *aren't* really there, than in missing things that really are there and going hungry, or worse, ending up as someone else's lunch.

The consequence of this undeniably true aspect of human nature is that we have a natural tendency to imagine entities behind natural phenomena and events in our own lives that aren't really there - i.e. gods and goddesses, demons, angels, spirits - a whole menagerie of supernatural characters. Society and culture binds up these characters with our wishes and fears, our desires for dominance and submission and shared identity, and we end up with religious belief and ritual and dogma, in thousands of different flavours, with the vast majority of people broadly following the religion of their upbringing.

Religion is a biological phenomenon, not a supernatural one.

Answer 6

Fear of the unknown, primarily the fear of death.

All animals fear the unknown, humans invent Gods to explain the unknown, I'm not sure how lesser animals deal with it.


Creationists seem to overlook the fact that their "theory" does not include an explanation for who or what created their "creator." And, no credible evidence has ever been provided to support the claim their "creator" exists, much less created anything.

Answer 7

Mostly because so much of the world is beyond human control and we want to believe that it isn't just random. That has typically meant that some intelligence doe shave it under control-hence omniscience and omnipotence. Now we know it isn't random-there are regular laws of science, but that it isn't dictated by an intelligence either.

Answer 8

because even now, the idea that we are just born and somehow can look out through our eyes and this place full of stuff and others like us and have to live a life full of uncertainties, not really even understanding what it means that we are sentient beings kinda sucks sometimes. oh, right and then we die. The God you mention makes it easier to understand and deal with. by the way -- not all cultures have or have had that. there's lots of ways to try to make living easier.

Answer 9

Because things like this keep happening to people.

Several years ago I had an unusual experience concerning an uncle, a distant relative who lived over a thousand miles away.

While driving my car I suddenly felt the unmistakable presence of this relative that I hardly even knew. He was more like someone I had heard about than someone I knew. It was very strange; it felt as though I was momentarily lifted right out of my physical body. I seemed to be suspended somehow beyond space and time, bathed in a love so intense It felt like I could have just disappear into it at any moment if It would have let me. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed to last forever at the same time. I realize how crazy this must sound. The experience was so strong that at first I was afraid I was loosing my grip on reality. I finally managed to chalk it up to an over active imagination.

Three days later I got a call from my aunt telling me that this uncle we are talking about had gone into a coma and died the day I had the experience. It felt like ice water had been poured down my back when she told me this. I had lost any real ideas of God or faith and had become somewhat of an atheist. Needless to say this experience caused me to rethink some of the conclusions I had come to.

I feel blessed to now understand that even in our darkest confusion something loves us so much that it went out of its way to assist me and bring me back to a state of absolute certainty about Gods love for us.
During the experience it seemed like there was a vast amount of information that I was somehow allowed access to. One thing that I came away from this experience understanding beyond any shadow of a doubt was that any Idea that God is unhappy with us or would judge or allow us to be punished for any reason is simply impossible.

I can’t explain the love I felt with words. They simply don’t make words big enough or complete enough to do this. The only way I can begin to convey this love to you is to say that there was simply nothing else there. Nothing but love. No hint of judgment, no displeasure of any sort. It is as though God sees us as being as perfect as we were the day we were created. It is only in our confused idea of ourselves that we seem to have changed.

I hope this is of some help to you. Good luck. Love and blessings.

Your brother don

Answer 10

Because its not superstitious.

Creationism is the only theory that can logically explain the beginning of all matter and energy. Don't believe me? Name one other! No other theory can do that. Therefore, it is the only logical conclusion.

Creation proves God, so believing in God is not superstition.

Answer 11

Because human beings want to preserve thier lives even after death and the promise of a creator seems to give hope to those who want a life after death.