Believers why do you stop being rational about the existence of God?

Question

Dont you think that you are very very strange people thinking rationally at some time and become totally illogical when it comes to nonexistent things?

Answer 1

They totally are!

Answer 2

Imagine this:

You are five years old. Once in a while, you get a mysterious check from a person whom you have no idea who from. Your mom cashes the check, and then gives you the money. One day, your mom tells you that it's your dad sending the checks, because he is making a living exploring the world.

Do you doubt that it is your dad, simply because you have never seen him? Do you probe you mom, insulting her at every opportunity, because she has seen your dad, and she has letters from him, and you have not? Or do you take the time to learn about him, and find out that one day he will return?

She is perfectly rational... but she has knowledge and experiences which you do not have. Is your dad non-existant? Perhaps in your life; perhaps in a child-like egocentric world... but your mom knows otherwise. Is she illogical for continuing to love him, yet you have not known him a day of your life? No.

Just because you have no knowledge of something, does not make belief in it illogical.

Consider 19th c. scientists. They heard rumors of an animal with an otter's body, a duck's bill and feet, a beaver's tail, and the venom of a serpent. They called it illogical and nonsense... a myth... a folktale... that is, until they saw it with their own eyes, then proclaimed it a miracle of evolution. Consider 20th c. scientists. They heard rumors of a hideous fish, one that looked like it was straight out the pages of a dinosaur book... again, they thought "a living dinosaur" to be nonsense... until one of them caught a Caelocanth. Once again, a miracle of evolution.

Science is not always right. There are a multitude of things out there that science calls illogical. Yet they are constantly being the illogical ones, doubting and mocking anything they've never experienced, even when the proof is out there, but they refuse to look at it, until it's handed to them on a silver platter.

So, what is more logical? Doubt at all costs? Or go, and look for yourself, and see whether what is said is true or false?

Answer 3

Most people are irrational about quite a few of their beliefs. This isn't only about religious belief.

Let's be very very clear: there is nothing particularly wrong about religious belief. It's just another set of false beliefs among many. The fact that someone has religious beliefs does not make that person insane, or stupid, or mentally ill, or anything like that. That person is simply wrong about those beliefs. We all suffer that problem with respect to some of our beliefs.

I don't think there's any chance of us moving beyond religious belief if we can't first acknowledge that a sane, rational, intelligent person can nonetheless hold false religious beliefs.

Answer 4

Maybe it’s this ability of the human mind to vacillate between the rational and irrational that provides a balance to our existence. A purely rational world would be one devoid of art, music and love. A purely impulsive world is one where any idea, no matter how farfetched, would be given credence. It’s the careful juggling of critical thinking and emotive inclinations that makes us human. If belief in God imparts meaning to people’s lives, and engenders the best in them, which in many cases it does, it is a belief that should be fostered. I also believe, however, we need to temper this leap of faith, by assessing the merits of the moral system that stems from this belief in a supreme being, on the basis of rational criteria. This way even religion benefits from the synergy of logic and emotion.

Answer 5

I don't think I'm strange but I can understand why others might think so. For someone who has not be saved by the grace of God, understanding what us Christians experience is just about impossible. But from the day we let God into our lives, we feel Him in the form of the Holy Spirit inside of us. Personally, I feel Him everyday guiding me and this feeling is pretty much indescribable. To me, that's logical. I can't deny that feeling. But for someone who doesn't know it, it may seem illogical.

I'm very well aware that Christians are viewed in all sorts of negative ways. But knowing what I know, we Christians do what we do out of the goodness of our hearts. We want to spread the Word because we wish everyone could know that feeling we have - it's just that amazing.

Answer 6

People who don't believe curiously dismiss those who do as being illogical because unbelievers do not comprehend the things of God. I find this a little baffling. Do you then dismiss everything you don't agree with or comprehend as illogical?

Answer 7

Nonexistent things? What things?

Can you prove that God does not exist or that he does?

This sounds like an irrational question.

Believers simply believe in God based on faith.

Do you have faith that Sun will come up tomorrow or do you believe it will? How do you know it will? It's the same thing with God. You have to believe and have faith, period.

Answer 8

God exists.
You'll find that out sooner or later.
Maybe you're the 1 who isn't rational by NOT believing.

Answer 9

I'm not a believer, but I think that fear of the unknown takes away rationality.

Answer 10

What is so irrational about the existence of God? St. Thomas Aquinas using logic offers five arguments:

First Way: The Argument From Motion
St. Thomas Aquinas, studying the works of the Greek philsopher Aristotle, concluded from common observation that an object that is in motion (e.g. the planets, a rolling stone) is put in motion by some other object or force. From this, Aquinas believes that ultimately there must have been an UNMOVED MOVER (GOD) who first put things in motion. Follow the agrument this way:
1) Nothing can move itself.
2) If every object in motion had a mover, then the first object in motion needed a mover.
3) This first mover is the Unmoved Mover, called God.

Second Way: Causation Of Existence
This Way deals with the issue of existence. Aquinas concluded that common sense observation tells us that no object creates itself. In other words, some previous object had to create it. Aquinas believed that ultimately there must have been an UNCAUSED FIRST CAUSE (GOD) who began the chain of existence for all things. Follow the agrument this way:
1) There exists things that are caused (created) by other things.
2) Nothing can be the cause of itself (nothing can create itself.)
3) There can not be an endless string of objects causing other objects to exist.
4) Therefore, ther must be an uncaused first cause called God.

Third Way: Contingent and Neccessary Objects
This Way defines two types of objects in the universe: contingent beings and necessary beings. A contingent being is an object that can not exist without a necessary being causing its existence. Aquinas believed that the existence of contingent beings would ultimately neccesitate a being which must exist for all of the contingent beings to exist. This being, called a necessary being, is what we call God. Follow the argument this way:
1) Contingent beings are caused.
2) Not every being can be contingent.
3) There must exist a being which is necessary to cause contingent beings.
4) This necessary being is God.

Fourth Way: The Agrument From Degrees And Perfection
St. Thomas formulated this Way from a very interesting observation about the qualities of things. For example one may say that of two marble scultures one is more beautiful than the other. So for these two objects, one has a greater degree of beauty than the next. This is referred to as degrees or gradation of a quality. From this fact Aquinas concluded that for any given quality (e.g. goodness, beauty, knowledge) there must be an perfect standard by which all such qualities are measured. These perfections are contained in God.

Fifth Way: The Agrument From Intelligent Design
The final Way that St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of has to do with the observable universe and the order of nature. Aquinas states that common sense tells us that the universe works in such a way, that one can conclude that is was designed by an intelligent designer, God. In other words, all physical laws and the order of nature and life were designed and ordered by God, the intellgent designer.
A more complete explanation of St. Thomas' Fifth Way about God as Intelligent Designer can be seen on my web page dedicated to Paley's Teleological Argument.