Let's try this again, shall we?

Question

Here's the question:
What are the top three reasons you believe or disbelieve in god(s)?

Please avoid circular reasoning. That gets us nowhere in the discussion.

Don't say for example:
"all gods are false"
or
"He was the creator"

(notice that I'm picking on one atheist and one theist to be fair to both sides)

Those are CONCLUSIONS or part of your beliefs.
I'm not disrespecting those beliefs, but just saying that it's circular reasoning to say that you:
'Don't believe in god because gods are false'
'Believe in god because god is a creator.'


I'm looking for the BASIS of your beliefs.

***What makes you believe what you believe?***




NOTICE: this is hard. Part of the difficulty is in getting yourself to discriminate between your: (a) Beliefs and (b) basis FOR those beliefs.

I'm not saying that it's easy. But give it a shot.

Again, 3 things, and BE CONCISE. (unlike my question!)

PLEASE feel free to re-post if you actually did this the first time.

Answer 1

#1- Lack of his involvement in the worlds big problems, whe he is supposed to be all knowing and all powerful.
#2- Many personal experiments with trying to anger him into action or subtley get him to tell me he is real in ways he did in the bible, all concludeing with "No answer" and no actions.
#3- Lack of evidence that he ever existed and more evidence for evolution with possible help from aliens, maybe.

Answer 2

1. I believe that religion was created kind of like a fairy tale, to help scared people sleep at night. It gives a reason to the indescribable and a reassurance of false hope. "She's in heaven now . . ." phrases such as these cause me to think that it's just a way to make people feel better about the world.

2. I was raised by a catholic mother and an atheist father (I know, what a combination). Both of my parents urged me to decide my own religion. And when I began to, most of the other religious people in my life seemed so much more hostile and judgmental than I was raised. This helped my decision.

3. I think people use religion for a reason to be good people. Which actually, I think is great. . . as long as it keeps them good people. But I was raised to be nice and abide by the law . . not because of any supreme being, but because it's just the right thing to do.

Answer 3

REPOSTING...

Don't "believe"

1) The Bible as a source for the belief system - The bible is a social commentary of the time when the individual book was written. That is why there are so many contradictory items.

2) Man's desire to explain the unexplainable - Whenever man doesn't understand something, they tend to attribute it to a god (e.g. the sun rising and setting) once science prove how it happens, the myth disappears (except for some hard core believers)

3) Observations - In my almost 40 years of life, I have not see physical proof of a divine deity

Answer 4

Well I don't believe in God. I guess it's for a combination of these three reasons:
1) The concept seems illogical to me
2) There is no proof (that I know of, obviously) that there is a God
3) Atheism seems to have caused far fewer wars and stuff than theism.

Points 1 and 2 are very much related. It's because the concept seems illogical to me that I require proof. In addition to saying that atheism may prevent war, point 3 is also, I think, evidence that God doesn't exist.

Answer 5

i do not believe in God for the following reason. science makes a lot more sense than religion ever did. it seems so illogical to believe in something from a book that there is no valid proof that the things there did happen (im talking about the bible) whereas science shows us in a very rational way how the world and people came about...and there is a scientific explanation for everything that happens. i do not need to give you three reasons when there is one that makes the foundation

Answer 6

What are the top three reasons you believe or disbelieve in god(s)?

Not that you defined what you mean by the term "God(s)", but I believe in "God", in one defination of the term. I'll use the quotations around the word "God" to denote that I am not sure exactly what your defination is and that I am using the defination of my own beliefs here and to also be as clear as possible that other people's defination of the same word will definately vary from my own.

The three reasons I believe in "God" are:

1) In both my waking state and even in deep meditative states I have experienced "God". Experience, not mere faith, is the basis of my belief.

2) The universe is said to be "God" in my religion and the universe itself exists....atleast as far as my senses are aware of it, it exists. Therefore if the universe exists and is "God" and "God" also is beyond the universe as unmanifested reality at the same time, while I can prove that the universe exists and therefore say that "God" is real in this sense, only the experience of the unmanifested reality "God" can make me say that it is real in that sense, although I cannot prove my experiences.

3) I believe in "God" because I have states of consciousness, which are said to be the source of the soul, the very essence of the universe....i.e. "God".

Now, do I feel that it is necessary for others to believe in "God"? No. Experiencing "God" is like a dream. If you have a dream and experience that dream and then come to me and tell me about it and then I say "no you didn't", who am I to say that? I didn't experience it, so how can I know what you experienced. And for me experience is the key for every person. Whether they would define certain experiences as aspects of the divine...of "God"....or not is left to each individual to decide. I can only relate to my own experiences and understandings and interpretations of those experiences. Belief or disbelief in God is irrelevant. Whether you call it "God", "Gods", "Goddess", "Supreme Person", "Supreme Soul", "Ultimate Reality", "Cosmic Consciousness", "Infinite It", "Void", "Nothingness", "The Singularity Before the Big Bang" or any other terminology within the semantics of language, all of us come to our own experiences and I respect that and the religion I practice makes the point that in the end, regardless of the name or words or how we describe it or from what perspective we describe our experiences, we're all talking about the exact same thing.....we're just experiencing and perceiving it from lots of different angles.

Answer 7

1) The only time I ever cried out to god in desperation, nothing happened.
2) I have noted similar experiences in others.
3) This leads me to believe there either is no god, or he's a cosmic jerk. I prefer the former.

Answer 8

1. When I was in an abusive relationship and being strangled by my X's violent control, a warm, comforting presence showed up and showed me what to do...

2. I started knowing the future and how I should react to certain events in order to be safe....I never heard any voice, thank God, but I would just suddenly know certain information....Sometimes I would have to use a dictionary to look up certain words as some of the words were not in my vocabulary.

3. I knew that when I got through that time in my life that I would be married to my soul-mate and have a baby girl....I have been married to Buddy (a perfect spiritual/ physical/intellectual match) for 14 years and Leah is 13 years old.....I am happier than I have ever been.

Answer 9

1. I have never seen evidence to suggest that any god exists. However, I know that things I cannot see may exist, so I withhold judgment.
2. I have not yet fond a religion that I can agree with, that gives me that feeling that "this is the Truth," that I can comfortably belong to.
3. Humans are small, fallible creatures. We don't know everything, and I don't believe we ever will.

Answer 10

Basis: science informs me of the true nature of the universe. Since that info is subject to empirical methods I can beliieve in it.

Thus, I resort to science to explain phenomena. I have an alternative to superstitious explanations and thus no need for gods.

Is that better on point? or could say that I was stoned one day and played Iron Butterfly backwords and saw god vanish in a puff of smoke.