Why do most non-believers "assume" that believers gave up rationality and reason to believe a Creator exists?

Question

A creator who designed the universe, and life, used supreme reason and rationality to do so. He did so because this was His passion, His love. Thus, reason, rationality, love are great virtues for believers. People that are illogical, unreasonable, hateful, and people of blind faith are not the best of humanity.

I'll bet that most believers went thru a lot a reasoning and struggle to reach their faith. As an ex-atheist, my atheism was so hard to give up in the face of evidence. But as I used my mind, reasoned out the facts, I came close enough to faith to take that small step to believe.

I truly wish that the non-believers would realize believers do not give up reason when they decide that a creator exists.

To Manny,

Scientists still cannot find out where and what causes gravity, yet we accept it and should. Scientists cannot find how genetic code could have been naturally created, yet many people do believe.

Answer 1

I have said the same thing. I can certainly understand how anyone could question the existence of a supreme being, it is illogical. Despite no evidence, I think that there is a God. That does not mean that I buy into the religious crap. Maybe that is why they question our sanity. There are a lot of us who accept the possibility of a God without accepting the religious doctrines, rules, prejudices, and predictions.

Answer 2

I do think believers suspend rationality and reason. They have never seen talking animals, 900 year old men, zombies climbing out of their graves, people getting swallowed by whales and surviving for three days etc. Yet when an ancient goat herder they never met claims they did, they suspend any knowledge they have gained of the physical world to accept it unquestioningly. Perhaps you do not believe in all this superstitious nonsense. But still, How did your god come to be. Did he evolve? Where? Was he created? By whom. If you really used reason you would ask yourself these questions. Instead you just put your head in the ground and say "He Just Is" Ours is not to question why. If you were walking along and found a watch, you would not say it just is. But when faced with your supposedly infinitely more complex god you do. I personally think the idea of a creator of everything is nonsense and just leads to infinite regression. But then I do use reason and just don't hide my head in the ground for any questions that I might prefer would go away.

Answer 3

I certainly thought I had done all that as Christian. But in reality I had never applied my critical thinking skills to the claims of the faith, but only to attacks on it. I taught apologetics seminars in church for years without every critically assessing the material I was apologizing for. I was countering the objections but I was not objective about how I had arrived at my own beliefs or the very light skepticism I had applied to my religion's claims.

You may come to realize over time that you have been conditioned since infancy to the tale of a creator god, and in lieu of a more compelling explanation you are predisposed to assent to the one your culture has inculcated and supported since your infancy. You may come to understand the creator god myth as not merely an extension of man's desire for a simple explanation for the complex, but also as man's inability to separate from a need for parenting and security.

But in the end, reason balks at the anthropomorphic notions of Mideastern monotheism for their sheer enormity in positing not simply a creative power, but one who wants human blood when offended and would consider tormenting its wayward creation for eternity for having offended it. This is simply projecting humanity's worst traits onto a very small and vicious notion of a power which could create a universe 40 billion lights years across and expanding. So I'm not so inflamed by the notion of a creating force, even though we are still left with not having an origin explanation for God. But I really get in a twist when people posit a deity with all that power that has the character and emotional maturity of a pet mutilator. At that point, I'm sorry to have to inform believers that they have seriously taken leave of their senses.

Answer 4

ok so lemme get this straight...you think its "logical" and "reasonable" for you to believe that some dude with superpowers just snapped his fingers and created everything from hydrogen atoms to Belgian waffles? think about that, man. not only is that illogical...ITS IMPOSSIBLE !!!! you also mentioned evidence....hello? there isnt a shread of evidence that supports the creation theory. you may think there is, but there isnt. the creator is an imaginary friend who gets credit for all the good things in the world but he never gets blamed for the bad stuff. people then just make excuses for god by saying " well, he works in mysterious ways". well he just sat there and let 3000 people die on 9/11. if that aint mysterious, then i dont know what is. wake up dude. good luck

Answer 5

I think the assumption is that you have to. The automatic assumption of those who told strictly to scientific orthodoxy is that, if it cannot be explained by natural law, then it could not happen. Therefore, anything of a supernatural nature, like God, cannot be considered. There are good reasons to believe in the existence of God. I would submit to you that Christianity is a very reasonable and thought out religion supported by logic and empirical evidence. After all, the Bible calls upon us to love God with all our minds. How can we do that if we are not using them?

Answer 6

In a way you are right. To become a believer you have to "give up". It is easy to become a sheep. It is easy to let go of thought and be spoonfed from a pulpit. It is easy to become one of the majority. Believers have given up so much, but primarily their personal power and freedom of thought. I don't know a single believer that went through any struggle to reach their faith. It was either spoonfed to them from birth, or they gave in to the mass hysteria known as religion because it is easier to deal. It is a crutch, unfortunately your crutch could kill the rest of us.

Answer 7

I've met 2 people in my life that reasoned out the facts to become a believer. Both of those people are probably atheists now. I haven't seen them in several years. You did not possibly reason out the facts if you say you are a creationist. It's not possible, because the facts deny the existence of a creator.

You simply looked at the wrong "facts". Sorry, that's just the way it is. The truth is obvious. Some people just choose to remain ignorant of the facts, or deny them, because they don't like the picture of reality that they paint.

Answer 8

Because most believers cannot reason their way out of a wet paper bag.

I know christians who believe that Genesis is symbolic of the truth, "God created," that Noah's Ark was a symbolic story of the truth, "No matter how bad things get, God will carry you through if you put faith in him," etc. They understand that much of it to be true symbolically. Them I don't have much of a problem with. It's logical to understand these things in symbolic form.

Now, if they believe in creationism despite all the evidence for big bang/inflation, and in creationism despite all the evidence for evolution, then they cannot follow a logical trail of evidence and have thus, by any meaningful definition of 'rationality and reason', abandoned it completely.

Answer 9

Because in order to believe in an almighty invisible force govenoring everything on earth, you'd pretty much have to have lost all reason and logic.


"Scientists still cannot find out where and what causes gravity, yet we accept it and should. Scientists cannot find how genetic code could have been naturally created, yet many people do believe."

They "accept" gravity because it's effects can be seen, calculated, and predicted. Genetic code can be observed, is decipherable, and can be manipulated. How it got there isn't important.

Answer 10

I wouldn't say most believe that. It's just a great way to get them all riled up and aren't believers funny when they're all riled up?

It's just like when believers say non-believers are just afraid of having to live a decent life. It's all BS.