Why do people find the idea of an Intelligent Mind behind the workings of the Universe to be so distasteful?

Question

Is it the idea of a Higher Power that is the problem?
Is there anyone who thinks they are responsible for their own existence?
Why do you see such harm in allowing our children the right to believe in a Creator? How does this belief harm anyone?
Sorry, I just don't get it.....

Answer 1

There's nothing wrong with the abstract concept of a "Supreme Being." Nature DOES seem (to the human intellect) to suggest an "intelligence" behind its productions, although it's obviously pointless to theorize any further. But the whole question has been completely overshadowed by the particular association of the idea of "God" with the Christian fundamentalist, "literalist" interpretation of the bible, which insists that the universe is 6,000 years old, evolution is a lie, scientists are agents of Satan, etc etc. Relatively normal people have a hard time accepting ridiculous claims that run counter to the consensus of opinion of every expert in the world qualified to make the judgement, just because they're features of a certain tradition that refuses to process new facts.

Answer 2

No. It is simple. You can't explain the origin of complexity with a greater prior complexity. This should be obvious to any rational person. Apparently the religious like to answer a question with a greater question and then put their head in the sand and pretend it isn't there.

The fact is we mathematicians understand how complex systems come about and it ultimately is always through selection processes operating on variance, not on magical creators which only hypothesize a greater complexity and a greater problem to solve.

When a creationist can explain satisfactorily why their infinitely complex god just exists with no possible cause, let me know. However I realize no such explaination is possible.

Now to answer your questions:

Is it the idea of a Higher Power that is the problem?
----- No the sun is a higher power at least in the daytime. I have no problem with it.

Is there anyone who thinks they are responsible for their own existence? ---- of course not that would be foolish. That is what is called a strawman argument.

Why do you see such harm in allowing our children the right to believe in a Creator? How does this belief harm anyone?
---- Just look at 9/11, Jim Jones, David Koresh, Witch burnings, etc. Unfortunately way too many theists seem to feel the need to destroy those who believe differently. Teaching people falsehoods does no one any service.

Sorry, I just don't get it.....
----- Just think about it with an open mind.

Answer 3

Well, just because someone reinvents the wheel doesn't make them God or the right to claim it for all time. " God " may simply mean; "All Things, All Energy, All Knowledge and All Time." Some may equate God with the Universe and all it's knowledge and power. Call it whatever you like, it doesn't necessarily mean there has been an actual being doing it since the supposed beginning of the universe. I am not against the idea that someone could eventually understand the Universe and even time travel thru it. With knowledge all things can eventually be possible, even a deity that would have a Godly status.

Answer 4

Question #
1. It has nothing to do with the specifics of the claim of religions. It's just that Falsity being passed off for Factuality is always distasteful to someone who is only interested in reality.

2. When someone actually proves a 'higher power' exists then I'll consider it.

3. My parents having sex is responsible for my existence.

4 & 5 Because God belief has proved to be a major reason for wars, other senseless killing, discrimination, superiority complex, irrational guilt, and even a few mental disorders. All of which are almost completely ignored or dismissed by those who believe in a given god.

Wake up. Religion and god belief are destroying us.

Answer 5

It's not distasteful to many, but silly. Many people believe that if something can be explained through science, then a supernatural "god" becomes unnecessary. They feel that this "god" is no more than a fairy-tale, like the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, and that as it is unseemly for an adult to believe in these, so it is to believe in a God. As an adult, if you have children, you don't (If you are a reasonable person), allow your children to continue believing in the tooth fairy into adulthood, and you don't feed their fantasies. Such is the case with Atheists and with God.

As far as who and what one is allowed to believe, why should Christians be permitted to allow their children to believe in a fairy tale? (Assuming that's what it is)

In the end, it's not what we're taught to believe that counts, but what we DO believe. We can teach our children, but in the end, they need to choose. If you are a Christian, you ought to know that many children of Christians fall away or choose other paths, just as there are many converts to Christianity later in life. You can't bring up a Christian; at some point they need to choose for themselves. All that you can do is to be a good model. Likewise, later in life, if you are a good model, then your friends and co-workers and the like will see that.

You can't 'make' anyone believe anything, children or otherwise.

Schools need to teach facts and reliable theory. Churches need to instruct in matters of the spirit. Not teaching Christianity in a school isn't a bad thing.

Answer 6

That's a lot of questions.
1. It's not a question of "distasteful." It just doesn't hang together - empirically or logically. It also ignores obvious aspects of human culture and psychology which point to why we create myths in the first place.
2. There is no relation between people being "responsible for their own existence" and supernatural forces. In other words, even if they are NOT responsible for it, how does that imply ANY non-natural causation?
3. You make it sound like religious people go around educating their children in terms of the religious choices they might make. That's not even close to what happens. They aren't given a right by their parents, they are coerced and bullied, via various carrot & stick tactics, to follow the exact religious path of their elders. How is this "allowing" a "right to believe?"
4. This isn't hard to "get."

And by the way, the "anthropic" principle doesn nothing for creationism - and neither does bad application of statistics.
Can we stop recycling deflated stale arguments?

Answer 7

To say that a 'creator' exists is one thing.

To say that creator is really a Yankees fan ONLY, and that all other baseball teams will be eliminated in the end is hardly the work of anyone remotely intelligent.

It is not the 'creator' that people have a problem with, it is all the 'affirmative' condemning nods of its followers (chanting as they plod 'we are right, we walk in light') that makes people turn away.

Perhaps a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, but alot of people can prove otherwise.

Answer 8

Actually, its atheism that is illogical. When you look at the fact that the universe and our world is obviously designed for life, the only logical choice is that there must be a designer. Its called the Anthropic Principle. The earth spins at just the perfect speed, it circles the sun at the perfect speed, it is the perfect distance from the sun, etc, etc, etc. It any of these, and many other constants, were different, there would be no life, not a different kind of life, but no life.

Now, to answer your question; people do not want to believe in a Higher Power because that might mean they would have to change the way they are living. If there is a God, and He is active in our lives, there may be consequences for our behavior. This was original sin in the Garden of Eden, Pride. Adam and Eve wanted to be like God.

Answer 9

It makes no sense. The description in the West of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, & omnipresent being who allows so much suffering is nonsense. You and I have higher morals than this make-believe God has.

Plus there are the events that nature puts into place, from Katrina, to the Indonesian Tsunami, to colon cancer, to vestigial organs. There is much more evidence that the universe simply governs itself.

What's more we take much more responsibility for our lives when not believing in a higher power than when we do believe in a higher power.

And if you don't get it, that's okay. Just don't be critical to those of us who DO get it.

^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^

Answer 10

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom & discipline....Proverbs 1:7.......
1 Corinthians 3:14-16........the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgements about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgement: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.........I hope this sheds some light on your question.............IN Christ <>< <><