Every human society throughout history and around the world has a belief in God, even though their understanding of God may differ.Our innate desire to experience the transcendent, to have value and meaning even after death, can only be accounted for if there is a God who implanted these beliefs and desires in us.The early Christian church father Augustine, said, "Our hearts are restless until they find their meaning in God." Don't YOU feel that emptyness that longing to fill that missing part?
2006-10-23 06:01:59 · 24 answers · asked by I-C-U 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
*chuckle* Are you just... laying out ideas that can easily be shot down? You're actually HELPING atheists by giving them such easy fodder.
2006-10-23 06:05:33 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
When Dr. Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie) was asked if he was disappointed by his belief that there was no afterlife, his response was, "No. I prefer to believe that all of this is not just a dress rehearsal."
Let's face it. Up until just a very few years ago, human life was harsh and short. Everyone alive had a reason to wish for something better and nobody had any means to investigate whether or not there was. It's no wonder people hoped for an afterlife (which belief goes hand-in-hand with a belief in a higher power. If there's a heaven, somebody has to run it, right?), given how lousy life was.
On a personal level, I don't feel any emptiness or longing for meaning or anything of the sort. I intend to make the most of the time I have. I posit that life is more precious to me because I know it's quite literally all I have, and I get one shot to make the most of it.
2006-10-23 06:14:21 · answer #2 · answered by nwsayer 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
First, your logic is terrible -- that historically *most* (NOT all as you claim) societies have had some kind of belief in god does not lead to the conclusion that god put those feelings there. It just means that most societies have had gods, that's all. You can't draw such a conclusion from the premise.
Second, what humans have a longing for is understanding, not necessarily a belief in god. For some, they accept religious belief (and a supreme god) as the answer to their questions about how they came to be. For others, looking for the natural mechanisms that brought us here fills the same need.
I do feel a longing to understand the world and the universe, and I try to learn something about it every day. That's not from an "emptiness," but from a desire to know how things work, how we came to be here. What I don't feel is the need to have some abstract faith in a supreme being for which there is no proof, just to appease a fear of dying or of having no meaning in my life. My life has whatever meaning I choose to give it, I don't depend on mthological figures to give it meaning. There is such wonder and beauty in NATURAL explanations for how the universe works, that logic, reason, and intellect can provide -- why give up finding out how things really are just to toss it all on the shoulders of a mythological supreme being? Makes no sense to me.
2006-10-23 06:11:19 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is a nice thought to think there is someone watching over us and someone who will take care of us after death, however it is just a thought!
People should stop relying on a being that is not there to find cures for cancer, AIDS, etc. Humans are the ones who have performed miracles on each other....not god! You shouldn't live your life based on the belief someone is watching you.
Many Christians have asked me, "If you don't believe in God, what's the point of life?" If that's the only reason you find life worth living, that is kind of sad. That emptyness is fear or aniexty of not knowing the unknown.
For example: Imagine how people viewed the moon in the early centuries of Human existence. They probaly thought it was an eye watching them...it just goes to show you how the more we learn about our world and universe, the less depended Humans are for searching for God.
2006-10-23 07:10:59 · answer #4 · answered by JoNaThAn 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
First of all we as human beings don't have a belief in God en grained in us as you suggest or we would ALL be believers not just some of us. The belief in God comes from human beings trying to explain how we got here and where we will go when we die. Most of this comes from fear of the unknown. And secondly no I don't feel any "longing or missing part". How can you feel a missing part when that part is completely invisible and intangible and has absolutely zero effect on what you do? People who say they have found God and he is in their life are making things up. What have they found? They now believe, that's all. Nothing more.
2006-10-23 06:14:35 · answer #5 · answered by advgman52 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Gods and goddesses are fictional characters created by the human imagination. People have invented thousands of different deities throughout history - It's a common flaw in human nature, rather like the way we see optical illusions.
Science has shown us that all biological life - including the human species - is the product of unthinking, undirected natural processes. As part of our evolutionary 'toolkit' of survival strategies, we have a highly developed awareness of other entities in our environment - We often notice human faces in carpet patterns, rabbit-shaped clouds and so on. There is more survival value in seeing what really *is* there, and also seeing some things that *aren't* really there, than in missing things that really are there and going hungry, or worse, ending up as someone else's lunch.
The consequence of this undeniably true aspect of human nature is that we have a natural tendency to imagine entities behind natural phenomena and events in our own lives that aren't really there - i.e. gods and goddesses, demons, angels, spirits - a whole menagerie of supernatural characters. Society and culture binds up these characters with our wishes and fears, our desires for dominance and submission and shared identity, and we end up with religious belief and ritual and dogma, in thousands of different flavours, with the vast majority of people broadly following the religion of their upbringing.
What you describe as an 'emptiness' is mere wishful thinking. Once you accept that the world is the way we know it is - i.e. that we are mortal non-created creatures - then that in itself is sufficient. We gain satisfaction from the things we know are true about life, rather than fantasies.
2006-10-23 06:11:06 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
"Our innate desire to experience the transcendent, to have value and meaning even after death, can only be accounted for if there is a God who implanted these beliefs and desires in us"
no it can't, it can also be be accounted for by creating a god to fill that need for "value and meaning even after death", both are equally legitimate explanations
2006-10-23 06:10:26 · answer #7 · answered by Nick F 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, of course not. A desire to experience the transcendent says nothing about whether there is a transcendent or whether it is possible to experience it. (I'd like to have a petting session with Karin Taylor, but that doesn't mean such a happening is within the realm of possibliities.) As for meaning: the Universe has no meaning except insofar as our neuronic minds impose a meaning on it.
Now, tell us: don't YOU feel that taking refuge in superstition is not only foolish but moral cowardice?
2006-10-23 06:07:13 · answer #8 · answered by Dick Eney 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Using your logic, I would suppose we should all still be believing in the ancient gods...or witches or many of the other superstitions.
Long ago Humans did not have the capability to understand much of the natural world, they lived in a constant state of fear...fear of being killed and eaten by large predators.
Additionally, young animals are taught to listen to their elders without question, again because often times if they don't they will die. Evolution selected for those offspring that would listen without question. The fact that bad information was past along with good from generation to generation does not mean that the selection for this characteristic was bad, it just left open the ability for religion to creep into the human mind.
2006-10-23 06:04:42 · answer #9 · answered by trouthunter 4 · 3⤊ 1⤋
See, now you're walking a fine line. I am a Taoist, which if you want to get to the heart of it is just my definition of God. But, I am also an atheist, because I don't believe in deities per se but only as metaphors for various aspects of the Tao, which is not a deity but an energy.
So no I don't feel empty because I believe in something very wonderful, but I am still an atheist.
2006-10-23 06:07:29 · answer #10 · answered by KC 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Not every society has had a belief in god -- most of them have had a belief in gods, who weren't really gods at all, but characters that were more or less powerful humans (Yahweh, e.g.). The more helpless a person feels, the more he clings to a belief that someone besides himself can save him.
2006-10-23 06:11:53 · answer #11 · answered by Sweetchild Danielle 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋