Why do you or do you not believe in God?

Question

Please don't turn this into a war "OMGZ U DUN BELIEVE IN GAWD U GUN GO TO HELL !!!!!111ELEVENTYONE."

No. I want straight-foward, honest answers in what you believe in.

If you do believe in God, why? And don't tell me because of your religion. Tell me what you've read, why you're that religion, why you honestly believe in God.
Same with if you don't.

I don't believe in God, but I'm just curious. :x Plus, this is for debate club. Haha.

Definition of God in this case - the god you believe in. This could be God himself, Jesus Christ, Buddha, etc. WHOEVER you believe in.

Answer 1

I don't believe in god because there is no such thing.
God is imaginary.
There isn't a single solitary shred of credible evidence to support the existence of this, or any other, magic sky-pixie.
The next person who provides this evidence will be the first in history to do so.

Answer 2

I don't believe any described God exists, and I'm happy with my reasons, as follows:

First, you have to define the term "God." The problem with most theists is that this term is a moving target.

In addition, because there is no evidence either for or against the existence of God, you cannot use deductive logic (a+b=c; therefore c-b=a). You can only reach a conclusion by inductive reasoning using the balance of evidence (90% of A is also B; C is B, so the chances are 90% that C is also A).

I will assert (although others may shoot this down) that the only RELEVANT definition of God states that he intervenes to circumvent natural laws.

If God circumvents natural laws, then it is impossible to understand natural laws. All scientific findings would have to include the stipulation, "it is also possible that these results are an act of God, a miracle, thereby making our research meaningless."

However, since we have been able to expand our knowledge of natural laws (evidenced by every appliance in your kitchen), the scientific method works in this discovery. And the likely conclusion is that God, at least the intervening kind, does not exist.

Additionally, if God is defined as all loving, all powerful, and all knowing, then it is impossible to explain suffering. Either God is not all loving (he acts sadistically), not all powerful (he cannot prevent suffering), or not all knowing (he created suffering by mistake because he didn't know the consequences of his actions).

If God is less than these and/or does not intervene in our existence, then he is either non-existent or irrelevant. The classic argument is that I cannot prove that a china teapot is orbiting the sun directly across from the earth's orbit. But while I cannot prove this is not true, the evidence against it is compelling.

The evidence against God is equally compelling, and while it is not possible to prove beyond any doubt, it makes more sense to live your life as if there were not God.

It is more compelling to me that humans have invented God to reflect the thoughts of the ruling powers in a particular time. Because humans are always looking for reasons, when none are found, it was the natural inclination to declare the cause to be "God" (or gods). As the faith grew, miracles and laws have been ascribed to this Divinity, and an orthodoxy grows up around it.

Successful religions over the long run also are accompanied by some level of economic well-being to the populace. Unsuccessful ones are seen as false because they don't lead to improved lives.

Now it seems unhelpful to believe in such superstition. The only matters that aid in our ongoing well being are work, location, health, sustenance, and pure, blind luck.

So that's why I don't believe God exists. And you know what? It's okay if you do believe God exists.

Answer 3

I believe in God. When I was young I was sent to a Catholic school, plus church every Sunday and my parents were religious. First of all I thought it was brainwashing that made me believe, as they drum it into you so much, using scare tactics etc.

Now that I am older (and don't go to church or have anything to do with religion), I still believe in God. There has to be someone out there that is looking out for us, there has to be a reason we are living on this earth, there has to be a reason for miracles that happen. If there was no God, there would be a lot that didn't make sense. Why give us a brain so intense if all we needed to do was be born, live a life and die at the end of it.

You can call it God, Allah, higher being, spirit - either way, I believe that someone made us what we are. There is no way we just appeared from nowhere to be surviving as we are now. Besides, believing in God is harmless and can make you feel good about things, give you a reason to be alive and do nice things while you are alive.

Not sure if that is the answer you want, but that is my viewpoint. Good question by the way.

Answer 4

I think my spiritual quest started last February or so. At that time I had been an alcoholic for nearly a year and a half, and had been depressed/suicidal for over five. (I was 15.) I don't remember exactly how it started, but there was one point when my friend and I (she was in the same situation, only minus the addictions) were listening to George Harrison. He kept singing about Krishna, and how by chanting the names of the Lord you'll be free, etc. Then we were exposed to the Maha Mantra via "My Sweet Lord". We looked it up online one day a few minutes before going to an art programme. We downloaded some random versons of the Maha Mantra, and listened to it in the darkroom. After a few minutes, we realized we were happier than we had been in a long time, and I was even dancing, forgetting all of the bad that I had seen.

So we continued to look up the philosophy of the Vaishnavas (Hare Krishnas) online at Krishna.com. We read about their views on life, and basically how sadness only exists because we are attached to the material life and Maya (delusion). I realized this was true; I was attached to feelings of sadness via alcoholism and other various addictions. I was striving only to temporarly lift my spirits, even if it meant I wouldn't be able to see the world as it is. Obviously, this had not worked, seeing as I was still depressed, so I decided that maybe adopting this Krishna conciousness would make me feel better and become a better person. After all, I was already a vegetarian, so all I had to do was detox myself.

I went to temple, even though there is none that is extremely close to where I live. I read the Bhavagad-Gita, and some other books. I really wanted to have good, intelectual questions, but I really knew that I was convinced. I saw a play at temple, in which the point was that "everything that happens, happens for good."

Everything bad I went through only led me straight to Krishna. And since I started living this way, I have been repulsed at returing to my unenlightened state, even if I was just there 6 months ago.

That is why I believe in God. I also believe that God is non-different from His name, and also that all religions are a pathway to Him. Thank you for your insightful question. Hare Krishna!!

Answer 5

The problem we all have in understanding existence is that we observe an "apparently" complex universe around us. We want to understand why the universe is as it is and why it is not otherwise, or indeed why it exists at all.

Theists come up with the first answer ( A more complex being created reality ) they think of and then stop thinking about the question. When asked why their more complex being exists. ( Admittedly a much bigger problem than they had to begin with ) they throw up their hands, bury their head in the sand and shout "The Creator always existed", as if that answers the bigger question.

A person who honestly tries to understand the issue does not stop at the first potential answer. Nor, do they avoid obvious flaws in their first answer.

First one needs to understand the question. One needs to research what Algorithmic Complexity also called Kolmogorov Complexity means.

Then one needs to understand under what conditions apparent algorithmic complexity comes about.

When one does this one understands that this is an issue in mathematical systems. That if a closed system call it "G" creates a unique system "U" then the Creator system needs to be at least as complex as the system it creates. This means that you don't explain complexity via a creator, you just make a bigger problem.

Mathematics tells us you can produce local complexity from simplicity via selection and variance. Indeed that is the only way we have ever observed local complex systems formed. So how does that explain reality. Well we have a huge selection effect: "Our Own Existence". How does the the variance come about. Potentially from Mathematics itself. Is this the only possible answer. No, but it explains apparent complexity from simplicity which gods do not.

Read the following article:

And if you haven't understood any of this. I don't believe in gods. Gods cannot explain complex reality without hypothesizing a greater complexity and a much much bigger problem than existed in the first place.

Answer 6

Before I answer, please understand that the vast majority of people who have ever lived believed in a higher power we call God. Also, many today who believe in God have not committed intellectual suicide---many are doctors, scientists, physicists, and genuises. You cannot generalize in a sterio-typed sense when speaking of billions of people. That is nonsense!

I believe in God because it makes sense to me that neither we nor the universe exists by pure blind chance. Design comes from a Designer. Cause and effect.

I believe in God because without the sense of a Creator and Higher Power, there is no morality, only social norms and forms that change with the whims of the populace.

I believe in God because if there is not God then there is no ultimate purpose for life. There is no difference between sanity and insanity, if there is no ultimate purpose. Whatever is, is. No right. No wrong. No sense to it all. Without God, we can only validate our existence in a temporal way, and it does not matter how we do it...if there is no God. We may have to pay the price with society...but that doesn't matter either.

Case in point: Say...I'm driving down the road on a cold, rainy night and I see someone hitchhiking. I can validate my existence in one of three ways:

1. I can ignore him...
2. I can give him a ride...
3. I can run over him...

Ultimately it doesn't matter, if there is no God. Survival of the fittest comes into play. If there is a famine and we're all starving, I can kill you and eat meat...if there is no God. Get the point?

And, now, we are reaping in society what we've been taught in the schools. Nothing is wrong with cheating on tests. Nothing is wrong with mass-murder. Nothing is wrong with rape, incest, or thievery... if there is no God and and society divorces itself from Him.

Believing is God is the best answer. For me, it is the only answer.

Answer 7

In order to answer this question properly and in sufficient depth I would need much more space than that allotted to me. So I will just make a few comments and hope I can come back another day to add a few more things. First, you would have to define what kind of God are you talking about. If by God you mean simply a superior being, then I would have to agree that probably there are many many of them since in the billions and billions of galaxies in the universe there must be an immense number of planets supporting life and it would be extremely arrogant of us to believe we are superior to all of the inhabitants therein. I'll be back!

Answer 8

i dont believe in god. i dont think there is a higher power. god didnt put people on this earth we evolved from primates (scientifically we are classified as primates) what evidence do we have that there really is a god. science has an answer for almost everything. in my opinion the bible is a book that someone that had way to much spare time created. there was a great flood mentioned in the bible but there wasnt an iceage mentioned. if there is a god im going strait to hell for some of the things ive done.

Answer 9

My God is unconditionally loving and would never consider judging or punishing anyone for any reason.

I see religion as a lie about God.

For a long time I did not believe that there was a God then this happened to me.

Several years ago I had an unusual experience concerning an uncle, a distant relative who lived over a thousand miles away.

While driving my car I suddenly felt the unmistakable presence of this relative that I hardly even knew. He was more like someone I had heard about than someone I knew. It was very strange; it felt as though I was momentarily lifted right out of my physical body. I seemed to be suspended somehow beyond space and time, bathed in a love so intense It felt like I could have just disappear into it at any moment if It would have let me. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed to last forever at the same time. I realize how crazy this must sound. The experience was so strong that at first I was afraid I was loosing my grip on reality. I finally managed to chalk it up to an over active imagination.

Three days later I got a call from my aunt telling me that this uncle we are talking about had gone into a coma and died the day I had the experience. It felt like ice water had been poured down my back when she told me this. I had lost any real ideas of God or faith and had become somewhat of an atheist. Needless to say this experience caused me to rethink some of the conclusions I had come to.

I feel blessed to now understand that even in our darkest confusion something loves us so much that it went out of its way to assist me and bring me back to a state of absolute certainty about Gods love for us.
During the experience it seemed like there was a vast amount of information that I was somehow allowed access to. One thing that I came away from this experience understanding beyond any shadow of a doubt was that any Idea that God is unhappy with us or would judge or allow us to be punished for any reason is simply impossible.

I can’t explain the love I felt with words. They simply don’t make words big enough or complete enough to do this. The only way I can begin to convey this love to you is to say that there was simply nothing else there. Nothing but love. No hint of judgment, no displeasure of any sort. It is as though God sees us as being as perfect as we were the day we were created. It is only in our confused idea of ourselves that we seem to have changed.

I hope this is of some help to you. Good luck. Love and blessings.

Your brother don

Answer 10

Yeah I believe in God. He is a major influence in my life. I have had a rough life as a teenager and adult. I found strength and hope and know that he will get me through anything. Just look at all the beauty in the world and you will believe in the possibility of a God. God created everything!

Answer 11

“According to the Bible when the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years, God fed them by making food fall regularly from the sky (Ex 16:4). During the 1980's, several million Ethiopian Christians died slowly and painfully from starvation due to a prolonged drought. God had then the opportunity to make food fall from the sky, as the Bible claims he did in the past, in order to prove his existence, his power and his love. Buddhists would say that God did not manifest his presence because he does not exist.”