Is the belief in God part of our collective unconscious...?

Question

Or is it what brings us to the belief in God that is part of our collective unconscious?

What do you think brings us to the belief in God? What is it about the mind that creates the belief in God? How do we come to believe?

Answer 1

I don't think there is a "collective unconscious" -- there's no evidence of it :)

What brings people to a belief in god is fear and ignorance. Fear of dying, ignorance of how the world & universe (and their own bodies) really work, fear of "bad things" happening to them, etc. Hey, it's *comforting" to think there's some wise, super-intelligent, all-powerful being who cares about us and looks after us. It can be comforting to think that after you die you'll go to this wonderful place where you'll see all your relatives that have died, and you'll all live happily ever after.
None of that has any basis in fact, but it is comforting. I can understand why people need to believe.
Trouble is, it flies in the face of reality. There's no evidence for any of it, and the religious institutions built up around belief in god are greedy, power-hungry, controlling entities that have caused more wars, death, and misery than any other single cause in the history of mankind. That's *not* so comforting.

Answer 2

• IGNORANCE IS WHAT MAKES US BELIVE.
--------- (but not in an insulting way...) ----------

Jesus, Krishna, Allah, Shang Ti, Jah, etc... are just names of 'gods' we've come up with during the last few thousand years.

Whether or not they existed as humans or in any other material form; they are all, nontheless characters that have been elevated to a divine status by us, but nothing more.

Archeology has found evidence of much evidence of ancient relics of 'gods' prior to those we know of today. Where are they now? How did people who knew nothing of Yahweh prior to Abraham ever get saved?

Imagine living in Egypt when there wasn't the slightest notion of what Buddhism was; how can any of them reach enlightenment? or experience Nirvana? (not that many of them really and honestly do so today, -not to mention the different Buddhist practices that have branched-out over the years...)

Thousands of years from now, other 'gods' will appear, and some of the popular ones we know of today will disappear.

In the mean time, religion will keep doing good for some and will bring death to others repeating history over and over again.

* Think of how many lives would've been saved if Hitler didn't have any religious basis for carrying out the holocaust...

* How many lives during the Christian crusades?

* Can we blame religions and gods for September 11?

We sure can.

I believe in no god, but support religion as it brings important moral values that would other wise be lost. It is the frantic fanaticism that I'm against, and that should be controlled.

Answer 3

I think our belief in God is based around our belief that if God does exist then God can only be the all mighty one and capable of everything the Bible says. Most people are afraid to not believe just incase God does exist because they fear they will be punished for it later on. And to them there is no harm in believing in something that may not exist because in the end what will it matter. On the otherhand, if you don't believe and God does exist then you're up the river so to speak. So it's better off believing I guess. If you are wrong who will laugh at you when you're dead? The aliens who planted life on our planet?

Answer 4

I think what brings us to God or the belief in an all powerful being is our natural disposition towards our linear understanding of time. As we mentally go farther and farther back in history, or forward for that matter, we cannot grasp that our existence is all there is and that the universe simple happened and we randomly found ourselves here.

Answer 5

We're born knowing that there is more going on here than meets the senses. Many many cultures in the world and virtually all ( possibly all- I am not aware of an exception but some may exist) have or had this awareness. This is part of being created in His image.

Answer 6

Currently in the U.S., I'd say that the majority of people who believe in God do so because of their upbringing. Basically, because someone told them to.

And yet. Let's say no one ever talked about religion / spirituality / God to us until we brought it up first. So, we have to come up with the idea of something greater than ourselves on our own, based on our knowledge and experiences. I do feel there is a part of humanity that has this "feeling of something greater" in our subconscious. This feeling could be about God, or that we're all connected and part of a larger whole, or simply love for one another.

Good question. Very very good question. :)

Answer 7

The nature of logical mind is to separate things. While doing so, it reaches a dead end when unable to comprehend some unifying factor perceivable as an experience, but too subtle to catch hold, or isolate with sense organs or its master -- the logical mind !
It is this inconclusive thought that reaches a sort of dead end within and resigns to end up with a not-so-full-convinced-belief !
A few who persist, with patience, open-mindedness, sharp alertness, happen to deepen their perceptions beyond sense organs, and then everything happens by itself !

Answer 8

We are god, so how could you forget that, no matter how many times we come back. It's collective alright but not unconscious, it is the veil we choose not ot lift, not ot see, for we think we are own our creators. We are one. There are only two words and one absolute........... and that is { GOD IS }
I AM. S

Answer 9

Neither. It is our fear of death and nothingness that brings us to this belief. At least, that's the origins. Then it's handed down to us by parents and society. Life is so short and death so long.
So long.

Answer 10

I am a Buddhist and have many Devas but no god, so we haven't got any such collective association!