God believers, read and see how much these Atheists know about you
2006-09-08 18:26:12 · 27 answers · asked by Black Atheist 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
God Believers, watch and see how much Atheists, know about you
2006-09-08 18:45:08 · update #1
Faith makes people believe in God....
2006-09-08 18:28:12 · answer #1 · answered by @bsolutely $weet 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
It gives answers that people can accept and satisfy their need to know what life is about and how they got here etc. Believing in god is easy. You don't have to know nothing of Biology, Physics or anything other than just what is written in one book.
They are taught it at an early age and the psychological effects of the threats of hell and the promises of heaven are great.
People have a sense for justice and it helps them to think that good people get rewarded and bad people get punished. Seeing the injustices in the world can be easily dealt with by them by claiming all will be made right in an afterlife.
OK wait, i just realized you are asking me to write a book here :)
Easy answer.... people are ignorant and lazy.
Also, they just believe because they want it to be true, without caring what is true or not. They even claim that they don't know it's true (the honest ones at least) That's why they call it faith.
"Faith is a cop-out. It is intellectual bankruptcy. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits." - Dan Barker (former preacher of 19 years)
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Edit... Atheist = Without theism or without god belief. If you don't believe (not knowledge) there is a god, then you are an atheist.
2006-09-09 01:46:05 · answer #2 · answered by AiW 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
God and religion are good evolutionary solutions to a brain that is curious about how things work. Evolution brings about neural programming that doesn't tell us how the world works; it tells us how to survive. This means that our minds have just enough inherent information to decipher what we are sensing to determine an immediate course of action. Once the brain began requiring more information, our human ancestors didn't have any real way of figuring out the solutions to the questions. The brain defaulted to its old genetic tricks and provided a path to gain enough information just to get by. We didn't need to know about powered flight in the stoneage because there was no immediate benefit to human survival since we couldn't build anything capable of doing it. Gravity might as well have been God pushing down on us. God was a convenience that allowed early man to go about his daily life without having to think too hard, which in the time of the hunter-gatherer is a benefit.
This is why your education, immediate motivations and background will determine your beliefs. If you are not exposed to objective studies when you are reasonably young, if you are taught to not question specific topics or if you are not encouraged to pursue paths of empirical understanding you may default to a "good enough" position for any given topic. How many drivers know how their cars work? How many say, "it works, I don't care?" How many get on a airplane and have no idea how it operates? How many people on this site have read the scientific journals about genes, evolution and the latest advances in both fields? Not many. Your genes don't care how smart you are or that you are right (particularly on philosophical matters) so long as you have enough information to stay alive.
Religion provided evolutionary benefit by allowing cooperation among non-family groups which game theory demonstrates will out perform rigid family hierarchies. Any organization that can facilitate networking will do better because they improve the probability that individuals of that organization can get a hold of the right people to get whatever they need done. Religions can also act as an equalizing force among stratified populations by espousing that "all people are equal in the eyes of God." This again increases the opportunities for networking.
Why then do people still believe in God? Because our brains aren't terribly different from early man so the answers will convince our brains just as well if we haven't another explanation that makes more sense, and time is still precious. The idea of God empowers many to think they have more control of the world than they would like to admit. People aren't keeping strict tabs on the probability of their prayers being answered, so they default to what makes them comfortable. Also, people are making lots of money off of God and religion (some getting in trouble with the law because of it) so it's too their benefit to keep up the practice. It certainly worked well for the Catholic Church and any other heirarchy that declared themselves part of the "divine right of kings."
2006-09-09 01:58:47 · answer #3 · answered by One & only bob 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm not positive if I'm Atheist or not, but over the past while I've started to learn towards it. I think people believe in a god and an afterlife of some sort is because death is scary to them. If you think from an atheist point of view, what happens after you die? My thought is that you enter this stage of total nothingness for the rest of eternity. Scares the hell out of me, so I could believe that it might scare the hell out of other people. Religion, to me, is a way for people to explain things that they don't want to believe or can't explain.
2006-09-09 01:30:05 · answer #4 · answered by Taybur 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I think one of the main things people get from religion is comfort. It gives someone comfort to think they are here for a purpose, not just because of chance. It gives them comfort to think that loved ones are somewhere better when they die, that there is a reason for death, not just nature. If gives them comfort to think that there is a higher power out there that is watching over them. It gives them comfort to think that when bad things happen there is a reason for them. If something good happens and they don't understand it gives them comfort to say it is a miracle of God. It explains the unknown and takes away the fear that many feel from the unknown. It gives them hope that they can't find anywhere else.
I disagree with people who say this makes them weak, I think only that it is a natural coping mechanism.
I do think it is silly to try to convert people to your way of thinking when it comes to religion and your beliefs on it. It is a personal thing and you are not going to convince anyone unless they want to be convinced. That is the part of religion that I don't understand, the need to have everyone believe exactly what you do.
2006-09-09 01:58:29 · answer #5 · answered by curls 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
We are genetically wired to believe in a higher power. Evidence being:
The God gene hypothesis states that some human beings bear a gene which gives them a prediposition to episodes interpreted by some as religious revelation. The idea has been postulate and promoted by geneticist Dr. Dean Hamer, the director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Hamer has written a book on the subject titled, The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes.
According to this theory, the God gene (Vmat2), is not an encoding for the belief in God itself but a physiological arrangement that produces the sensations associated, by some, with the presence of God or other mystic experiences, or more specifically spirituality as a state of mind.
Simply put, the gene is involved in monoamines, neurotransmitters that have a lot to do with emotional sensitivity. The interpretation is that the monoamines correlates with a personality trait called self-transcendence. Composed of three sub-sets, self-trancendance is composed of "self-forgetfulness" (as in the tendency to become totally absorbed in some activity, such as reading); "transpersonal identification" (a feeling of connectedness to a larger universe); and "mysticism" (an openness to believe things not literally provable, such as ESP). Put them all together, and you come as close as science can to measuring what it feels like to be spiritual. This allows us to have the kind of experience described as religious ecstasy.
What evolutionary advantage this may convey, or what advantageous effect it is a side effect of, are questions that are yet to be fully explored. However, Dr. Hamer has theorized that self-transcendence makes people more optimistic, which makes them healthier and likely to have more children.
2006-09-09 01:32:10 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
b/c they want to
b/c they just accept what most ppl around them believe
b/c they fall for intelligent design,
b/c they fell that being a slave gives one a purpose in life ((((((this one i especially dont understand)))))
b/c they feel that if they do they willl get into heaven, and if they dont, to hell
b/c its hard to believe almost everyone around them is so wrond about something so important
b/c they think that religion teaches morals
b/c they refer to the collective good in all as god
b/c they dont know what else to think
b/c they have had some experience that makes them believe
b/c they are so wrapped up in attributing every little thing to god that they could never not believe because everything around them is happening because of god
and many others
most believe for one or more of the above reasons..... i think
2006-09-09 01:35:11 · answer #7 · answered by kitty is ANGRY!™ 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think there are two main kinds of religious people: those that go to services once a week or whatever because they're supposed to, and those who genuinely believe in god.
The first kind of religious people believe in god because they think they're supposed to. Maybe their parents instilled their religions onto them in their childhood. Maybe they just like to sing songs or whatever people do in church.
Then there's the people who are certain god exits. They go to church and worship god because they actually think he/she wants them to. People who believe in god's "presence" or whatever believe this because they need some sort of stability in their lives. They probably believe in god as a way to escape actual problems. All they need to do is pray and believe and they're content. I guess people can take solace in thinking someone else is responsible for them.
2006-09-09 01:39:35 · answer #8 · answered by Brian 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Primarily fear of being alone in the universe which makes us search for a big daddy in the sky to protect us I'm not an atheist. but am agnostic, more or less. To each his or her own. No one can prove anything, certainly not just by how one feels.
2006-09-09 01:32:10 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
okay sorry not an atheist, but couldn't resist responding.
I have more respect for agnostics ( I am not one of those either) than atheists because at least they're willing to admit that they don't know whether God exists or not. An atheist is perceived as the most arrogant because they deny any possibility at all of God existing. I believe in God because I choose to. It is a conscious choice I make. I have seen God work in my life. If you haven't seen the same in yours then fine but leave me alone to live out my faith any way I choose. I am far from the sniveling, unintelligent, needy, person you think I am.
2006-09-09 01:31:52 · answer #10 · answered by mel 4 · 2⤊ 3⤋
i have witnessed miracles with my own eyes, my son was bleeding rectally when he was 6 weeks old and lost 3/4 of his blood and he had what is called a death stare where his eyes was open but he wasn't responding to anyone or anything, and after the doctors gave him 2 blood transfusions he got better and was out of the hospital in 5 days, now the doctors did nothing but give him blood, after putting tubes up his rectum and down his throat and series of other tests the doctors have no idea what was wrong with him. they called him a miracle because he was dying and yet they don't know y but he came back without them really doing anything. he is 13 yrs old today, and not a thing is wrong with him, physically or mentally.tell me if there was no God then y is he better, who or what did it. another thing, i have had hemmoroid problems for about 10 yrs, i mean they were really really bad, i had some1 to pray for me on a really bad day because iwas in soo much pain, and that was about 2 yrs ago and i no longer have problems with them. so don't try to tell me there isn't a God, maybe if u open your mind and close your mouth and pray to God he will reveal himself to u and make a believer out of u.good luck to u, and god bless
oh yeah, one other thing, i think that athiest and ppl that are just unsure about God , r really starting to rethink things because if u notice most of the ppl that r on here are athiest and if they weren't questioning themselves then y feel the need to have others give u reassurance that not believing in anything is ok think about it
2006-09-09 01:35:56 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋