What makes you believe religion is real verses fiction?

Question

I am not trying to offend anyone. I am not looking for hostile answers. I am not looking for answers from fanatics. I simply would like to know in general what makes one believe in a religion. I did not grow up going to church so my knowledge of different religions is very basic. I am having a hard time understanding how and why one believes what seems to me is simply a collection of fictional stories. I hear people say that religion teaches one to be a good person, etc. In my opinion how you treat someone and how you should behave has nothing to with religion. You yourself decide that you are going to be a descent person, know right from wrong and treat others with respect. With so many religions believing different things why does one choose to believe any of them? Within each religion there are often different views of what things mean. What makes one believe in a higher power when there are so many different versions of the Bible that you have no idea if any of them are accurate?

Answer 1

If you write a book, based on hearsay, and NOT on eye wittiness accounts, if you translate it from one language into another, and guess half of the contents, due to lost words and their meanings, if you take parts that you like and discard the rest, and add some of your own, you will have written the Bible!

Answer 2

This is a very common misunderstanding in the age we now live, concerning the Bible. I will only address a few key point as your post is vast. The Bible has it is today has been changed many times. That is why, I use the 1599 Geneva Bible, it has been changed also, but not as much as the King James Bible. Even with all the changes mad to the Bible, the truth is still there, hidden of course but still there. Believe or not it is by design. The main reason it is by design is, Christ has to be the one who shows the way, to the true path. And Christ must be the one who lights the same true path. If Christ is not leading the way, people tend to go their own way. Which accounts for the many religions you speak of. It is true for the most part religions are mostly false. But religion is not Faith in God and Faith in God is not religion. Religion has never healed anyone, religion has never saved anyone, religion has never walked on the water, religion has never died on a cross and religion is not coming back after his church. Faith in God ( Jesus ) on the other hand has been responsible for healings of all kinds, has changed lives for the better on and on it goes.

Answer 3

First some spelling corrections:

versus (not verses)

decent (not descent)

Now on to answering your question:

The simple answer is indoctrination. Children are told that certain things are true and then that's reinforced with promises of rewards for believing and punishments for not believing.

Another answer that applies to fewer people is being distressed. This is the "no atheists in foxholes" idea, that if people have a traumatizing experience, have experienced a great loss, have experienced more change than they can cope with, etc. this can break down their thought processes and make them willing (even eager) to believe in something that promises a way out of their predicament.

Then there's the game theory explanation. If there really is a heaven and hell and my disbelief sends me to hell I lose. But if I believe and the whole "life after death" thing turns out to be a bunch of hooey it won't matter because I'll never know. So believing minimizes my losses.

But I'm with you. I really don't see why people want to mess up their lives and the world around them by chasing after fairy tales.

Answer 4

Because if you study Scripture, you will find so many answers you may be looking for - it tells you where you were before Adam and Eve, it tells ya why you are here (what happened that caused us to have to be born to flesh), and where you are going, and what it will be like there.
Theres lots more to learn from it than just to love thy neighbor.
Thats just baby Christian stuff. Find out what the real meat in those pages has to offer.
As far as accuracy goes, you can check out what a translation is by taking it back to the original language. We also have the manuscripts plus all the footnotes, so you can know whether the verse has been tampered with. It just takes study and the will to know and understand it. After you do that for awhile, you realize that you are being saturated in faith and understanding. You start to think differently and act differently. It's a very individual, personal thing - but if it is meant to, it does speak to you.

Answer 5

Honestly I know how you are feeling. My parents are christians, but they never went to church and never told me any of the Bible storys. So when my husband and I started dating and he started telling me about his church and all. I went not really knowing what to expect. But you know I guess everyone chooses their own paths in life and it's just the same in religion. I have faith that their is more to life than this. And that hardships will soon pass. Because what God brings you too he will also help you through. I know that sounds so cliche but it is what I belive. That with God all things are possible. Agian so cliche. LOL. Anyhow I guess we each have faith just because we do. And yes I know that it's blind faith and that in all honesty their is no proof that the Bible is real and no proof that God even exists. But even if He dosen't. I still don't want to belive that this is all their is. I don't want to belive that when you die that's it. I want to belive that their is a place where we all go from here. And you know beliving in God is really beliving in Love. Because that's what God is. Whether you want to think that the Bible is a work of fiction you know that's your own choice. And if you actually take a close look into the many religions out there. You will see one thing in common among most of them. That they belive in one higher power if you will. And all the diffrent versions of the Bible out there. They all say the same thing. It's just some of them have been translated into easier to read versions. You know I find it hard to read something that uses words like Thy and Thee. LOL and so do many others. So some people have taken the time to translate it into a form that uses works like you and them.

You know I really hope that this helps you out and if not I'm sorry. And I hope that you do in time find the answers that you are looking for. And just know that your not alone. There are many people out there with the same question that you just asked.

Answer 6

Religion...hmm theres lots of choices. Ever since the beginning of time, man has made up and came up with different ones. Why, because there is an empty part in your mind that tells you that there is mystery behind mankind. So in my opinion, there is a God. But who is the question for many. After studying many of the gods I know that only one God is there. The God of Christianity. The reason is because there is a lot of proof and back up material. All the stories in the Bible are not just fairy tales. They truly happened. Josephes, a Roman, recorded about Jesus in his books. Also, many miracles are still being witnessed today. My Bible teacher says that, as God is his witness, he saw the broken bones of his son's ankles straighten in front of his eyes. God truly exists, not because of miracles and other reasons alone but on the fact that He is there now, before, and forever. This is faith built on facts.

Answer 7

The best example of whether God exist is the Human Brain.

Studies, like that done by the University of Michigan, and features in the Discovery Channel program, The Amazing Life of the Human Brain, shows just how amazing the human brain is.

Every second while awake, we are absorbing 40MBs of data per second. That’s 144 gigabytes per hour and about 2 terabytes per day. That’s a lot of data even for the largest computer. When we sleep at night, and only at night or under nighttime conditions, all that data is sorted and stored through the creation of synaptic connectors and biochemical bounds. The brain has enough volume to allow for the creation of these storage connectors to last over 10,000 years.

Without the need of a creator, what evolutionary pressure could cause the need for this much volume that would take that long to fill? Clearly, man was either created by God to live that long, or if evolve, once lived that long, and has since de-evolved to what we are today. Which do you think it is?

Evolution does take place, in that animals have evolved and humans have de-evolved since the time of the creation. Many divergent species are related, such as the Meerkat/Hyena and the Lion/House cat. A house cat can breed with a lion, I wonder if the same is possible the Hyena and Meerkat?

This is why I believe in God. I use the brain he gave me, and designed for me, to determine something beyond imagining.

Answer 8

All religions are equal.
They all in the end teach respect of yourself and each other.
Every copy of every book on the planet makes a person decide for themself how much is real and how much is fiction, not just religious ones. In the end, everyone needs to believe in something.

Answer 9

The Lord preserves His Word, and though there have been many translations of the Bible, and though it has been written and re-written, and has been attacked (unsuccessfully) many times, it remains true. There are some versions that I would question the translations of, but most (the 2 I use and feel are the best are the NASB and NKJV) are okay. God, by His Spirit, inspired the Word of God into human beings who physically wrote it down.

I trust in the Word and the One behind the Word because there is spiritual evidence within my my spirit that testifies to the truth of the Word, and God's Holy Spirit within me as a result of God saving me from sin. It is by the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit that I discern that the Word is true, and not by my own mind and heart, which is subject to confusion and misleading.

Answer 10

we can believe in a higher power or the omnipotence of men
sure men have misrepresented the facts of the word of belief as much as man subverts science
reading the book we realise men can and have been wrong
but read a science text men will convince you man is all knowing
cant make life but can state life mutated from nothing
bel;ieve man or believe the omnipotant all knowing of an unseen eternal god
it seems to make no difference
but what has science replicated /prooven by its claims
it cant show you one bit of life it has in reality made but can give a theory of that some higher power has done
but man cant.