Why do you or why don't you believe in god?

Question

This question is for everyone who makes their decision logically instead just following on whatever said. If you believe in god please tell what make you believe in god? and if not tell us what is the reasoning behind it.
May be we all can benefit from each other's understanding of god and religion.

Answer 1

No evidence for something is an important criteria for not believing in something. If you look at the ignorant and selfish way religion acts in this world, that should be proof that it is not divinely guided. The whole thing appears to be a superstition, and we should reject it and believe in the truth to set us free.

Answer 2

Holy crap people love to cut and paste. and they are accusing christians of blind belief? they do not even have their own thoughts written down.. they are using someone elses thoughts. Free thinkers? i think not

I KNOW there is a God because, Looking at the Universe as scientific as possible, there has to be a designer. The laws the interaction of planets and stars. Space and time ..these things could not just happen by accident. The Universe according to scientists had a beginning. Only something very powerful with a purpose and design couldve created it. In nature there are no accidents or randomness. If it did there would be somethings in nature that had no purpose, There is nothing in Nature that has no purpose

Answer 3

I was raised in a household where both parents (although they were made to go to church when they were younger) were not religious. I didn't even really learn about religion until grade school. and evolution makes sense to me. it's the only religion that gives me solid evidence. I have trouble believing in god when there are people out there who are diseased from birth. how can I believe when my best friend's sister is stuck being carried around, pushed in a wheel-chair, or stuck sitting around watching TV all the time? she can't even speak full sentances. how can I believe when I feel pain everytime I walk? if god is mercifull, why are people killing each other? why are children dying of AIDS in Africa? why are some babies born hooked on drugs because their parents were stupid?
that's my reasoning, but I have nothing against the people who believe in god. I just hate the religious people who wont accept other religions

Answer 4

I do or don't believe in god based on facts, scientific evidence, and philosophical considerations about what might have created the universe.

The fact that I don't know the answer to something does not automatically imply god, but may be the end result of a well thought out philosophy, extrapolating what I do know.

Answer 5

I do because I wish too. No one can prove to me that there is no God. God is not a null set. God is an entity.

If you have a set of { R, Y, B} and you said to me is there an O, I would say no there is not an O. But in the entire realm of possibilities there is {A, B, C,......}. You cannot tell me that there is not an O, since there are infinite possibilities in our "set".

God is NOT A NOTHING.

When you make God a nothing, you have already made an assumption. Flawed logic....

Answer 6

.I know that no one likes to be beat over the head with religion and doctrine, that's something we have to seek on our own and come to our on conclusion. I believe that we believe what we do for a reason. It can be that an experience has shaped our beliefs, or society, our culture, our environment, whatever. So the question is, why do you or don't you believe in God?
You can believe in Buddu (?), Allah, Yahweh, but just tell why you believe or don't, and what has influenced your belief in the deity.

I'll start...I believe in the Jesus Christ. I believe He is God in the flesh, and a member of the Trinity. Perhaps I believe because this is the only God I've known since I was a young child, so my environment did play a role in my believing. As I got older, I searched for something else, I turned to Islam, but I found that when I prayed to Allah, nothing happened, and I still felt empty. I turned back to Christianity because something in me just agrees with it as being true. Now don't get me wrong, there are things about the Bible and God that I don't understand, but that's okay with me. For I would not want to serve a God that I understood because that would mean that He and I are equal, and since I know His/Her ways, I ma as well be my own God since we're equal in knowledge(that make sense?).I believe everything I wrote there, even about my own faith. Then again I don’t. whether god is real or but our own invention, I choose to believe anyway. The truth is I need FAITH in my life. I feel that anyone with out a god is hope less. Don’t confuse me I do not mean that they do not have a future. But that they are simply with out hope, they have nothing to put their faith in, to believe that all will be fine. To me that is no way to live, I need something bigger than myself to believe in, whether it is true or not.
I guess religion gives people a sense of security and meaning. All religions speak of life after death. So I guess people feel more comfortable about dieing if they believe that they are not going to just disappear for ever.

Religion is a personal choice. No one should be forced to believe something they don’t want to. Everyone has the right to believe what they want.

I know anyone of any faith looks like an irrational individual to anyone believing in something different than what that individual holds to be true, but that's where faith comes in for all religions.

I have alot more to say, but that's all for now.

Answer 7

No proof behind god, thats why I dont. You can say he's there and you can give me a outdated book that shows stories made by people, not god him/herself.

But science is proof, everything science exsplains is backed up with overwhelming proof, and if they say they dont understand something, they say "this is the best theory we got right now", not when religious people dont understand something they say "its a miracle."

Science is concrete, its staggering proof, and overall I like it better.

Answer 8

I don't believe in God in a traditional sense.

Other than that I just don't know, and it would be very hard to convince me otherwise.

Answer 9

I don't because there's no credible evidence.
If there was proof I'd be a believer.

Answer 10

PROVING THE EXISTENCE OF ALLAH (SWT)TO AN ATHEIST by Dr. Zakir Naik
CONGRATULATING AN ATHEIST
Normally, when I meet an atheist, the first thing I like to do is to congratulate him and say, " My special congratulations to you", because most of the people who believe in God are doing blind belief - he is a Christian, because his father is a Christian; he is a Hindu, because his father is a Hindu; the majority of the people in the world are blindly following the religion of their fathers. An atheist, on the other hand, even though he may belong to a religious family, uses his intellect to deny the existence of God; what ever concept or qualities of God he may have learnt in his religion may not seem to be logical to him.
My Muslim brothers may question me, "Zakir, why are you congratulating an atheist?" The reason that I am congratulating an atheist is because he agrees with the first part of the Shahada i.e. the Islamic Creed, ‘La ilaaha’ - meaning ‘there is no God’. So half my job is already done; now the only part left is ‘il lallah’ i.e. ‘BUT ALLAH’ which I shall do Insha Allah. With others (who are not atheists) I have to first remove from their minds the wrong concept of God they may have and then put the correct concept of one true God.
LOGICAL CONCEPT OF GOD
My first question to the atheist will be: "What is the definition of God?" For a person to say there is no God, he should know what is the meaning of God. If I hold a book and say that ‘this is a pen’, for the opposite person to say, ‘it is not a pen’, he should know what is the definition of a pen, even if he does not know nor is able to recognise or identify the object I am holding in my hand. For him to say this is not a pen, he should at least know what a pen means. Similarly for an atheist to say ‘there is no God’, he should at least know the concept of God. His concept of God would be derived from the surroundings in which he lives. The god that a large number of people worship has got human qualities - therefore he does not believe in such a god. Similarly a Muslim too does not and should not believe in such false gods.
If a non-Muslim believes that Islam is a merciless religion with something to do with terrorism; a religion which does not give rights to women; a religion which contradicts science; in his limited sense that non-Muslim is correct to reject such Islam. The problem is he has a wrong picture of Islam. Even I reject such a false picture of Islam, but at the same time, it becomes my duty as a Muslim to present the correct picture of Islam to that non-Muslim i.e. Islam is a merciful religion, it gives equal rights to the women, it is not incompatible with logic, reason and science; if I present the correct facts about Islam, that non-Muslim may Inshallah accept Islam.
Similarly the atheist rejects the false gods and the duty of every Muslim is to present the correct concept of God which he shall Insha Allah not refuse.

(You may refer to my article, ‘Concept of God in Islam’, for more details)
QUR’AN AND MODERN SCIENCE
The methods of proving the existence of God with usage of the material provided in the ‘Concept of God in Islam’ to an atheist may satisfy some but not all.
Many atheists demand a scientific proof for the existence of God. I agree that today is the age of science and technology. Let us use scientific knowledge to kill two birds with one stone, i.e. to prove the existence of God and simultaneously prove that the Qur’an is a revelation of God.
If a new object or a machine, which no one in the world has ever seen or heard of before, is shown to an atheist or any person and then a question is asked, " Who is the first person who will be able to provide details of the mechanism of this unknown object? After little bit of thinking, he will reply, ‘the creator of that object.’ Some may say ‘the producer’ while others may say ‘the manufacturer.’ What ever answer the person gives, keep it in your mind, the answer will always be either the creator, the producer, the manufacturer or some what of the same meaning, i.e. the person who has made it or created it. Don’t grapple with words, whatever answer he gives, the meaning will be same, therefore accept it.
SCIENTIFIC FACTS MENTIONED IN THE QUR’AN: for details on this subject please refer to my book, ‘THE QUR’AN AND MODERN SCIENCE – COMPATIBLE OR INCOMPATIBLE?
THEORY OF PROBABILITY
In mathematics there is a theory known as ‘Theory of Probability’. If you have two options, out of which one is right, and one is wrong, the chances that you will chose the right one is half, i.e. one out of the two will be correct. You have 50% chances of being correct. Similarly if you toss a coin the chances that your guess will be correct is 50% (1 out of 2) i.e. 1/2. If you toss a coin the second time, the chances that you will be correct in the second toss is again 50% i.e. half. But the chances that you will be correct in both the tosses is half multiplied by half (1/2 x 1/2) which is equal to 1/4 i.e. 50% of 50% which is equal to 25%. If you toss a coin the third time, chances that you will be correct all three times is (1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2) that is 1/8 or 50% of 50% of 50% that is 12½%.
A dice has got six sides. If you throw a dice and guess any number between 1 to 6, the chances that your guess will be correct is 1/6. If you throw the dice the second time, the chances that your guess will be correct in both the throws is (1/6 x 1/6) which is equal to 1/36. If you throw the dice the third time, the chances that all your three guesses are correct is (1/6 x 1/6 x 1/6) is equal to 1/216 that is less than 0.5 %.
Let us apply this theory of probability to the Qur’an, and assume that a person has guessed all the information that is mentioned in the Qur’an which was unknown at that time. Let us discuss the probability of all the guesses being simultaneously correct. At the time when the Qur’an was revealed, people thought the world was flat, there are several other options for the shape of the earth. It could be triangular, it could be quadrangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal, octagonal, spherical, etc. Lets assume there are about 30 different options for the shape of the earth. The Qur’an rightly says it is spherical, if it was a guess the chances of the guess being correct is 1/30.
The light of the moon can be its own light or a reflected light. The Qur’an rightly says it is a reflected light. If it is a guess, the chances that it will be correct is 1/2 and the probability that both the guesses i.e the earth is spherical and the light of the moon is reflected light is 1/30 x 1/2 = 1/60.
Further, the Qur’an also mentions every living thing is made of water. Every living thing can be made up of either wood, stone, copper, aluminum, steel, silver, gold, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, oil, water, cement, concrete, etc. The options are say about 10,000. The Qur’an rightly says that everything is made up of water. If it is a guess, the chances that it will be correct is 1/10,000 and the probability of all the three guesses i.e. the earth is spherical, light of moon is reflected light and everything is created from water being correct is 1/30 x 1/2 x 1/10,000 = 1/60,000 which is equal to about .0017%.
The Qur’an speaks about hundreds of things that were not known to men at the time of its revelation. Only in three options the result is .0017%. I leave it upto you, to work out the probability if all the hundreds of the unknown facts were guesses, the chances of all of them being correct guesses simultaneously and there being not a single wrong guess. It is beyond human capacity to make all correct guesses without a single mistake, which itself is sufficient to prove to a logical person that the origin of the Qur’an is Divine.
CREATOR IS THE AUTHOR OF THE QUR’AN
The only logical answer to the question as to who could have mentioned all these scientific facts 1400 years ago before they were discovered, is exactly the same answer initially given by the atheist or any person, to the question who will be the first person who will be able to tell the mechanism of the unknown object. It is the ‘CREATOR’, the producer, the Manufacturer of the whole universe and its contents. In the English language He is ‘God’, or more appropriate in the Arabic language, ‘ALLAH’.
QUR’AN IS A BOOK OF SIGNS AND NOT SCIENCE
Let me remind you that the Qur’an is not a book of Science, ‘S-C-I-E-N-C-E’ but a book of Signs ‘S-I-G-N-S’ i.e. a book of ayaats. The Qur’an contains more than 6,000 ayaats, i.e. ‘signs’, out of which more than a thousand speak about Science. I am not trying to prove that the Qur’an is the word of God using scientific knowledge as a yard stick because any yardstick is supposed to be more superior than what is being checked or verified. For us Muslims the Qur’an is the Furqan i.e. criteria to judge right from wrong and the ultimate yardstick which is more superior to scientific knowledge.
But for an educated man who is an atheist, scientific knowledge is the ultimate test which he believes in. We do know that science many a times takes ‘U’ turns, therefore I have restricted the examples only to scientific facts which have sufficient proof and evidence and not scientific theories based on assumptions. Using the ultimate yardstick of the atheist, I am trying to prove to him that the Qur’an is the word of God and it contains the scientific knowledge which is his yardstick which was discovered recently, while the Qur’an was revealed 1400 year ago. At the end of the discussion, we both come to the same conclusion that God though superior to science, is not incompatible with it.
SCIENCE IS ELIMINATING MODELS OF GOD BUT NOT GOD
Francis Bacon, the famous philosopher, has rightly said that a little knowledge of science makes man an atheist, but an in-depth study of science makes him a believer in God. Scientists today are eliminating models of God, but they are not eliminating God. If you translate this into Arabic, it is La illaha illal la, There is no god, (god with a small ‘g’ that is fake god) but God (with a capital ‘G’).Surah Fussilat: "Soon We will show them our signs in the (farthest) regions (of the earth), and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that thy Lord doth witness all things?" [Al-Quran 41:53]