can anyone explain to me why i should have faith in any god?

Question

Why should I not do the things I enjoy doing now simply on the off chance there is a god of some sort? It would be like choosing not learning to drive in case I have a crash somewhere down the line.
And I am looking for reasoned arguement not lots of quotations or the 'because you should' or 'because else you will go to hell' brigade. Lets try to have sensible and reasonable discussion. My mind is open.

Answer 1

Nope...there is no answer for faith...you either choose to believe or choose not to believe

however, it you want a totally different point of view....
consider the words of Pascal...[mathematician]

-note- this is after he had worked on gaming theory, probability, combinations and permutations....

he posed much the same question...but he answered it mathematically--to paraphrase:

there are basically only 4 choices

God exists and you act accordingly....................you win!
God exists and you do not act accordingly.........you LOSE!!!!
God does not exist but you act as if he did... .....who cares???
God does not exist but you act as if he did not...who cares???

There is only a one in four chance that you will lose,
a three in four chance that you will win or "tie"

For Pascal, the question became...is a one in four chance-
are odds of 3 to 1 really that good ????

See???? no biblical quotes, hellfire , damnation or anything else like that...good enough?

a quote from Nietzsche...after he said..."god is dead and we have killed him" and "what? there are gods...and I am not one?".
The belief in some sort of god helps the [mentally] weak get through the dark of night.....
[again, I am paraphrasing, for all of you Nietzsche scholars out there]

Answer 2

If you don't feel any need to place faith in god/gods then don't. Personally, there are just too many questions and I enjoy the thought that maybe, just maybe, there are gods/goddesses out there. I like the idea that there is something out there much greater than us. But that's what works for me and it might not work for anyone else.

I just enjoy reading about all the different belief systems around the world. I don't believe for a promise of "heaven" or a threat of some "hell". I also don't think there is a right way with spirituality or a wrong way. I think that too many people take this stuff way too seriously and then they start to judge and condemn others.

I think everyone should have the freedom to believe in whatever they want and we should all be more accepting of others.

I don't recommend having faith based on fear (fear of hell, dying before repenting, etc) I do recommend studying how and why others worship the way they do. Just because I think it's cool to know and it helps us all understand each other a little more.

Answer 3

Seems to me that if you want sensible and reasonable discussion, your question should be sensible and reasonable as well. Your question is not reasonable or sensible.
The reasonable facts are without the words of Christ, there is no truth. Because , Jesus is Truth.
Regarding Faith, every human has Faith, even you have Faith. When you drive your car down the road, and go to stop, you are fulfilling the words of Jesus, by putting your foot on the brake, and you believing (Faith ) and pushing the brake ( works ) the car will stop. You have just combined Faith with works, creating the desired action, stopping the car. Faith may be misplaced, used wrong or in the wrong way, people may believe (Faith ) in no God, or gods of wood or stone etc... . But everyone has Faith,in some degree, even Faith in nothing is Faith in something. We all use Faith everyday to live.

Answer 4

There are three old questions that all men had to seek the answers for themselves; otherwise they could not live decently as a rational being. Lower animals don't need to answer these questions, because they are not endowed with rational sense.These questions are:
Where does man come from; what is his purpose here; and where will he go?
Quite a large number of non believers say that man comes from dust, to pursuit happiness, then returns to dust.
A larger number of believers are taught by the Messengers of the One True God that God creates man out of His divine love, his purpose is to bear all harship to worship God with a pure heart, then returns to Him in purity.
But mankind are not dividing into two communities to live happily and to prove the truth of these two philosophies.
Especially today, taking a journey through various fora on the Internet, we may see that 6 billion people are living in 60 billion blind ways!
Now who has found the truth and has sufficient prestige to tell mankind the way to it? This is still a question that each individual among men should humbly, peacefully, independently seek the answer for himself. Since truth is eternally one; those who find it will become one happiest community. In the beginning, it is very weak and small, but it will grow bigger and bigger till the time all mankind become one, because truth is one.
Yes, the divine philosophy from God had shown ways to various communities of Buddhists, Christians, Muslims..., now it will show the only glorious way to all mankind. This divine philosophy has been and are continuously taught in various Holy Books which are easily accessible to anyone who want to read. So will man concentrate on learning this divine philosophy in the Sacred Scriptures, or will they keep on quarelling while waiting for the invention of a more convincing 60.000.000.001rst philosophy?

Answer 5

Believing in God or any religion is a choice. I was trying to think back in when I first became a christian in why I should have faith in God to explain it to you and other's. Here is what I remember Why People Not just you should have faith in God.

1) So that way you do not have to rely completly on your self and that you have someone to rely on for help, guidance, direction, wisdom, and understanding.
2) Because he brought His son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. And with out his son Jesus there is no other way to heaven accept thru him.
3) Because he is always their for you and he will never let you down. He is the same Yesterday, today and forever. No Matter what you are going through.

Here are my top reason's why I think that you and other's should have faith in God. They may seem simple but staying a christian isn't always easy. Though Becoming a christian may be easy. Staying a christian may not always be the easiest.

Answer 6

Okay, this is where your problem is when it comes to believing in god. You think ,because of what society has pounded into your head all of your life about having to be a christian in order to believe in god, that you have to be saved and follow a certain set of rules to be a believer. I struggled with that for a long time too and because I didn't want to live the christain lifestyle I gave up believing alltogether. Then one day I realized that I just needed to think outside of the box. I do not follow any specific religion, I simply believe in god, try my best to be a good person (I don't follow any specific set of rules, I just do whatever I believe is good) and enjoy the beauty of life and thank god everyday for what I have. I've never been happier.

Answer 7

Many people have the need to believe in something greater than themselves. The world seems too capricious, too random, too unpredictable. Belief in a higher being gives us something to point to when things happen. "It was God's will". An easy way to accept the unacceptable like the death of a child, a horrible car accident. Faith is that calm acceptance that the world is really in someone's hands. Should you have that? Who can say for certain.

Answer 8

You should have faith in God because IT'S EASY. If you believe in God, and follow all the things that the Bible or the Koran or L. Ron Hubbard or whatever crap it happens to be -- well, then you won't have to THINK FOR YOURSELF. You won't have to use REASON, which taxes the brain. Just believe what you're told, ignore all the complexities and gray areas that exist in the world, and life will be simpler. You can walk around knowing that you'll go to heaven, everyone else will go to hell, and life's peachy-keen! Believe in God because ignorance is bliss -- don't you want bliss?

Answer 9

Well, put it this way. If the Bible is real, and God actually is coming back here to judge the earth, I'd sure want to be on the good side of Him, and have a good, clean conscience, knowing I've tried hard to live a decent, respectable life. It's really a matter of what if.

Answer 10

That's the best way to start, I am always open, keep that in mind and you'll be knowledgeable, especially with God teaching you.

We all are gifted in some way, usually to do God's will, sometimes it may take half a life time to figure out what that gift is, in GOD'S time when your ready God will release it so you'll know what God wants you to do, and in what way you'll be doing his will. It takes time, if your open to God and build your faith, God would work with you teach you in life experiences, God's the potter your the clad, be open let God be your foundation, let him build you to what he has in store for you.
Basically you can be you, you don't have to change all in one night to know God.... it takes time, be patient with God and with yourself. One of life's frustrations is that God's timetable is rarely the same as ours.We are often in a hurry when God isn't. You may feel frustrated with the seemingly slow progress you're making in life. Remember that God is never in a hurry but he is always on time. He will use your entire lifetime to prepare you for your role in eternity.
The Bible is filled with examples of how God uses a long process to develop character, especially in leaders. He took eighty years to prepare Moses, including forty in the wildness. For 14,600 days Moses kept waiting and wondering, "Is it time yet?" But God kept saying, "Not yet."