Do you believe in God?

Question

Some people are taught to believe in God,some think its innate to believe in God, and others dont believe. How about you?

Answer 1

Yes, I do. In addition to the moral codes that I was born with as one evidence for the existence of a Higher Moral Authority, I find that these arguments are logically coherent for my beliefs:

Premise: Every event has a cause
Premise: The universe has a beginning
Premise: All beginnings involve an event

Inference: This implies that the beginning of the universe involved an event
Inference: Therefore the beginning of the universe had a cause
Conclusion: The universe had a cause

For something to have caused the universe it must have existed outside of the universe and time. That First Cause could only have been an omnipotent supernatural agent, God.

Another argument is one from design:

1. The universe began to exist
2. The universe has complexity, order and fine-tuning
3. Complexity, order and fine-tuning imply design
4. Design that began to exist implies a designer
5. Therefore, the universe has a designer

Premise 1: See Big Bang theorem (Hawking, Penrose) All matter and time itself began at this moment
Premise 2: Universe has complex designs, e.g, cellular DNA, Laws of Physics, fine-tuning for life on earth, etc.
Premise 3: Nothing ordered can come from chaos, an orderer is required. Laws of Nature are often cited as counterexamples, yet these very Laws are themselves ordered.

Premise 4: Self evident. If something did not begin to exist, there is no beginner or designer

Thus, the universe has a designer, God.

Yet another:

1. If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist.
2. Evil exists.
3. Therefore, objective values exist. (Some things are really evil.)
4. Therefore, God exists.

Another way to prove the existence of God is from the impossibility of the contrary. The transcendental proof for God's existence is that without Him it is impossible to prove anything.

The non-believer world view is irrational and cannot consistently provide the preconditions of intelligible experience, science, logic, or morality. The non-believer world view cannot allow for laws of logic, the uniformity of nature, the ability for the mind to understand the world, and moral absolutes. This is because in the non-believer’s world you cannot justify or account for laws in general: the laws of thought in particular, laws of nature, cannot account for human life, from the fact that it's more than electrochemical complexes in depth, and the fact that it's more than an accident. In other words, in the non-believer’s conception of the world, there's really no reason to debate; because in the end, all these laws are conventional. All these laws are not really law-like in their nature, they're just, if you're a non-believer and materialist, something that happens inside the brain.

Thus once I conclude logically that a designer, first cause, or higher moral authority exists, I must then look to evidence of this designer's will. After investigating, the bible appears to me to be the most reliable revelation of this Supreme Being. You can review the two links below for discussion about the reliability of the bible.

Accuracy of bible:
http://www.carm.org/questions/trustbible.htm
http://www.carm.org/demo2/bible/reliable.htm

While all of my questions will never be definitively answered, I find that rationally my belief is on solid ground. There are many things in the world we do not fully understand, yet we have no problems in believing them. For example, solar physics is not fully known, yet we all objectively accept, using faith and scientific discourse, the "fact" that the sun will rise tomorrow.

Why is it we can believe in many things using rational analysis, even when what we believe is only partially known, yet when it comes to matters like a supreme being, we suddenly want the "show me beyond a shadow of doubt" proof?

Persons that seek absolute proof of something are inconsistently applying logic and rationality, for they do not seek this absoluteness in all things. Hence, their epistemologies are not fully formed; they speak without proper understanding of the nature of knowledge.

As Aristotle once stated,
"It is the mark of an instructed mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits, and not to seek exactness when only an approximation of the truth is possible."

These persons who want to debate the existence of a Supreme Being must first take the time and formal study to answer the question: "What is the justification for the presuppositions informing your epistemology and ethical system?"

I have also taken the time to spend years in universities studying theology as well as science, so I could more fully understand what I have staked my eternal soul upon. I don't advocate everyone do this before making a decision one way or the other, but I do suggest folks go beyond some of the rhetoric in these forums, the media, and elsewhere, so they can be more grounded in their beliefs.

These and more are the reasons I believe in God.

Answer 2

This is tough for me to answer. I believe that a God exists, yes. Do I believe IN God? As in, His plans, and His agenda, and things like that... well... hard to say. I'm not inclined to believe 100, or even 70% of the Bible. Which... would probably have devout Bible followers condemning my name. XP
But I do believe that a higher power exists. I'd like to put all my faith and trust into a Holy Being, but... with the God in the Bible... there are just too many contradicting statements made about Him, that I'm unsure of His actual... character. :\ Does that make sense?

Answer 3

I believe in God.

I was taught to.

I do however think it's innate. My parents reared me to believe in God, but gave me a choice as to whether or not I would. I chose to do so after understanding the Bible more fully.

Answer 4

Depends on how you define "God".

I'm not a Christian, but I do believe in deity, represented by a number of Gods and Goddesses. I did a great deal of searching before coming to my own faith, and don't think it is necessarily innate. For me, it was a journey.

Answer 5

God is love and I know He loves me because He has become my Father. I'm an adopted child of God thru Jesus Christ His Son. My fleshly mom and dad haved died and that leaves me an orphan according to the flesh. But I need never believe that I'm parentless or orphaned because my Father in Heaven has taken me under His wing and protects me from bad men and evil spirits. I'm a part of His family so I know I am not alone.

Answer 6

I believe in God.

Answer 7

Yes, I believe in GOD.

Answer 8

I was not taught to believe in God. I know that He is real and that He loves me. How do I know? Simple. He proved himself to me. Again and again and again.
I am a person that has to experience something to believe it.

Answer 9

Umm properly i think at nighttime God and Goddess, they dont somewhat care if I make blunders....as long as I dont reason harm to nature, which i wouldn't in any respect do because of the fact i'm vegetarian and that i like the Earth =)

Answer 10

I have never encountered a reason to believe in any sort of god. Neither has anyone else, not that that has stopped them from doing so. For reasons behind this, see: