Why is it so hard for people to believe in God?

Question

ANSWERS TO ALL YOUR OBJECTIONS-http://www.rationalchristianity.net/apol_index.html

Answer 1

There are several reasons. One is that if one admits there is a GOD, they have to also recognize that they are not their own "boss" and that there is someone we will all answer to, thus they chose not to believe. It would be like someone being stopped by a plain cloths police officer and us telling that police officer that we do not believe they are a cop. It does not matter, we can still be arrested even if we do not believe it.

One reason many may believe God exist but they do not have salvation is that often we think if something is easy to get, it is not worth having. Since salvation is a free GIFT...many make it harder then it is by adding works to the plan. If we add works to God's plan of salvation, we are not trusting that the payment JESUS made is sufficient so we will not have salvation. Salvation is obtained by grace alone. We will want to do good works because we are saved but we can never do them to get saved.

Answer 2

There is no proof that he exists, sure we have the bible and whatnot, but there is NO solid proof whatsoever, the bible and most religions were formed hundreds to thousands of years ago, which is the time when people used to believe that the world was flat and would kill you if you didn't believe that the moon was made out of cheese, they would behead people who acted strange, accusing them of witchcraft and black magic, also logic and science is aganist the idea of a "God" and calls it impossible, the idea of a god doesn't fit into reality at all either.

There are millions of kids in under developed countries starving, dying due to disease and war, if there was indeed a God, a supernatural being like that, all loving and forgiving and powerful, why is there such ruthless brutality and hatred in the world? He should've done something by now, or is he just having a kick out of watching us kill each other and being sadistic like that? There is such an incredible amount of pain and suffering in the world, its hard to believe that a supernatural all loving entity could just watch on without doing anything.

If we aren't worthy for his healing and attention, why did he create us in the first place? He should've known it would've happened, being omniscient and all.
People can have as much "Faith" as they want, the fact that millions believed and had the faith that the world was flat and the planets revolved around the Earth didn't make it so, people set out to see for themselves and found the truth, having "faith" is a very,very foolish thing if you think about history and all the time mankind has screwed up, only when we SEE shall we believe, and I've yet to see any proof so far, its just healthy skepticism.

Answer 3

Read the bible and tell me why I should believe a word it says. Use your logical mind instead of your fear. There's a man born of a mother through immaculate conception, who turns water into wine, walks on water, and returns from the dead. There's a man who built an ark to fit two of all the creatures of the world on it to live through a great flood (considering there are trillions of species on the planet, I'd love to know how he managed that). There's a man that turned a stick into a snake.

Seriously... think about the completely illogical and foolish crap that bible says. And even worse, that some people actually believe this crap when it was written 2000 years ago by mankind (mankind is fallible remember) during a time when we still believed in dragons.

Now tell me why I should believe something that's so obviously been created specifically to try to convert people terrified of the (at the time) current powers.

Answer 4

That there is more to life than what we know, is not hard to believe. The rules and prejudices in the Bible, Koran, etc sound man made and are full of contradictions and fallacies if you read with a mind to history and critical thinking. Religions are bureaucracies and so often are about power and control instead of simple spirituality. It's not hard to understand why most who weren't born into a certain indoctrination find it hard to believe. It's also not hard to understand why many who were grow to question and look at the world from a more learned perspective and stop taking words in a book or spoken by an authority figure at face value.

Answer 5

Believers do not think their prayers have any statistical affect on their lives. Believers will bet against their prayers being answered because they normally don't receive what they ask for.
Believers have medical insurance because they have no belief that God will protect them.

By God's response to prayer and the state of the world, God's behavior is random or complex beyond human understanding in which case belief in God has no more effect on one's life than no belief in God.

As your website points out, God created suffering to teach us lessons, but if that's the case and the lesson we learn is knownable only to God then believers and non-believers are in the same boat. Either perspective teaches us the same lesson "you have to figure out the meaning of these events yourself."

Brutal acts are committed against "his creation" with no response.
People commit brutal acts against "his creation" in his name.
God is the cause of war and suffering for the majority of human history. Religion doesn't dissuade people from committing horrific acts. In fact it provides them a convenient excuse.

Religions will continually schism and divide even though they are using the same "holy word."

Words given by God are interpreted thousands of different ways, in many cases to support opposing views, which shouldn't happen if the God who designed the brain also wrote the book.

There is no physical evidence of God, just as there is no physical evidence of leperchauns. Do leperchauns exist?

Proofs of God are self-referential.

Belief in God is enforced by a theoretical, no-win result which is also unprovable. The no-win result has historically been used to make religious leaders powerful and rich.

Religions cherry-pick who they say is speaking for God -everyone else is just crazy.

Answer 6

It's not
It's the easiest thing in the world. You just switch off your critical faculties and believe what people tell you without making the effort to examine their motives or the intellectual basis of their theories.
This is why religious people like to ensnare children before their minds are developed.
I am sure we've all seen those pictures of children in madrassas in Pakistan mindlessly chanting from the Koran in unison while rocking backwards and forwards.
It's pure brainwashing.

Answer 7

Well it is obviously not hard to believe in god. So many people do. It is much harder to escape the indoctrination, break out of the box, face reality all on your own, accept responsibility and open your mind. Those things are hard, but the freedom is worth it.

Answer 8

For the same reason why it is so hard for someone who does believe in God to stop believing. Faith is personal; no one "chooses" to believe or not believe. I never woke up and decided that I didn't want to believe in God, it just doesn't seem natural to begin with! Likewise, most believers don't wake up and choose to have faith in God, they feel as if they have no other alternative! You either believe or you don't.

It would be hard for me to believe in God simply because I DON'T believe in God. It would be a lie - to myself and to others - to pretend that I did. I mean, I could as easily ask you "Why is it so hard for people to believe in unicorns?" Just because I (hypothetically) believe very strongly that unicorns exist doesn't mean that anyone else would...

Answer 9

Most people believe in a god and yet you ask why it's so hard... odd. For those of us that don't, we just don't and aren't going to...you're just gonna have to live with that fact.

P.S. Little words from a book prove nothing.

Answer 10

Hi - Fair question. Many of the people who don't believe aren't stupid (despite advertising to the contrary). I for one would be delighted to accept the Truth (with a capital "T") if only there was reasonable proof for it. And in all my studies of religion I can't find a single bit of evidence that moves me.

You may not agree with my analysis but I hope you can respect my sincerity.

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