why is it that all the great philosophers belived in god??

Question

but isnt it interestng that most of them never beleived in an organized religeon??

The most influential philosophers of the past were among the strongest believers in God's existence. Geniuses like Kant, Hegel, Descartes, Fichte, Leibniz, Rousseau, Kiekergaard, Maritain, Wittgenstein, Weil etc. had absolute certainty in God's existence, deep reverence for His creative powers, and a total acceptance of His sovereignty.

Answer 1

It's not the case that all the great philosophers believed in God. Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, David Hume, Diogenes, and many, many other great philosophers did NOT believe in God......
EDIT:What you added is a list of SOME of the greats, NOT ALL.....And some would dispute that some of those named believed in God with certainty.....

Answer 2

"...all the great philosophers..." Did they now? And in what college do they teach that little tidbit of information? I'll have to take that course. In the educational institutions I've attended they forgot to mention that little fact.
Oh and you forgot to include in your list;
Alfred Ayer
Mikhail Bakunin
Bruno Bauer
Andrew Bernstein
Harry Binswanger
Egon Bondy
Albert Camus
Noam Chomsky
André Comte-Sponville
Marquis de Condorcet
Benedetto Croce
Simone de Beauvoir
Daniel Dennett
Denis Diderot
Joseph Dietzgen
Paul Edwards
Friedrich Engels
Allan Gotthelf
Claude Adrien Helvétius
Baron d'Holbach
David Hume
José Ingenieros
Eino Kaila
Peter J. King
Paul Kurtz
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
J. L. Mackie
Sylvain Maréchal
Michael Martin (philosopher)
karl Marx
Colin McGinn
Jean Meslier
George Edward Moore
Kai Nielsen
Friedrich Nietzsche
Ilkka Niiniluoto
Piergiorgio Odifreddi
Revilo P. Oliver
Michel Onfray
Leonard Peikoff
Ayn Rand
Ragnar Redbeard
Jean-Paul Sartre
Henry Sidgwick
Peter Singer
George H. Smith
Quentin Smith
Tara Smith
Max Stirner
William Thompson
Raimo Tuomela
Aleksandr Zinovyev

Oh wait, they're atheist, never mind.

Answer 3

The modern ones don't necessarily believe in a God (term is used loosely of course). I think there were a lot of problems with organized religion even a few decades ago, which will in turn make philosophers try to seek other forms of truth in life. Face it, in a world where "witches" were burned by these religious radicals, etc.., I'm sure many of the more logical population sought truth elsewhere. Hence, while not completely denying their religious faith, they didn't participate in organized religious events (church, possibly holidays, public hangings of infidels) because they probably understood that this is not the religion that many of us seek.

I'm not religious myself, but history has told a very sad story about the terrible things religion has done in the past. These stories are probably what have turned most great philosophers away from these organized crimes and seek a God or life that was a little more fulfilling and pure.

Answer 4

The same reason 80% of the earth's population has as distorted worldview.

There's a scientific reason for the belief in god or the 'religious presence.' Neuroscientists can now artificially trigger the 'religious presence' by probing certain areas of the limbic system of our brains. This is where our innermost beliefs reside, hate, anger, religious beliefs, etc.. The development of this mechanism (for lack of a better word) was a defensive or survival mechanism evolved over eons by our primitive ancestors.

Consider the Jesus freaks, evangelicals and other deeply religious folks, all have reverted to that primitive limbic systems of our brains, the place where our deepest emotions reside. The 'born-again' Christian phenomena has a scientific basis. When people are in deep despair, near death, nearly starved, or other highly emotional states, the 'religious experience' is triggered. Hormones, dopamine receptors and other chemical reactions take place...all good for the body. They help to fight diseases, etc. It was a survival mechanism, like i said above, our bodies have developed since the days of our primitive ancestors

The cerebral cortex is a more recent development, say within the last 100,000 years. This is the rational and logical thinking part of our brains. Philosophers did not have access to the latest neuroscience, but did have that last remnant from our reptillian past which provided a distorted world view even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

Answer 5

What do you have to support this statement? Not all great philosophers believed in God, Some (like Thomas Paine) thought that God was a farce, used to control the masses.

Answer 6

There was a study conducted by the Germans to disprove the Pope in a publicity stunt which never occured. Their theory was that man created gods when their low self esteem created the hope of someone being able to have power over them and alter their world.

Answer 7

Because through their reasoning and deep thought they could percieve an energy that flows through all things that all creation is a part of the whole that some people call God. ( not all philosophers upheld this knowledge, though)

Answer 8

They all believed in a God or many of them as the ancient greek and roman philosophers did. Philosophers from the ancient times believed in the pagan deities and the philosophers from the gaelic tribes believed in the gods of the earth.

Answer 9

I would argue your premise. To my thinking, all the best philosohpers were ancient Greeks, pre-christian, at that. So it may be valid to say that they were beleivers, but they were generally polytheists, and most were highly invovled in the organized religions of the day.

Answer 10

Smart people realize that humans are not likely to be the most advanced intelligence in the universe.