Is it in Man's nature to believe in God?

Question

I personally do not believe this for a bit, being that I'm an Atheist that was raised in a secular home and was only introduced to religion at a Christian school.
Before enrolling I didn't really believe in a higher power at all.
What do you think? Is it something naturally in man that makes him want to believe or seek God?
A man on TBN made this statement tonight by the way. I can't take credit for it.

Foxy - logist: That is not true. As I said, I did not naturally seek God as a child.

Actually the man on TBN was emphatic in his belief that man naturally believed God.

Answer 1

Yes - I think it is in our nature to believe in a god, it is a defence system developed when we were not top of the food chain.

Lets face it, your world is changing, there are animals bigger, faster and with lots more teeth out there, and for an early insecure man, the idea of some divine help must have been a useful tool to calm down the tribe.

Its not just god, we also have the same pointless hope in lottery tickets, even though we know that we have more chance of being hit by a car in the road than of winning more than £10 in a year, we put our faith in a set of numbers that have symbolic meaning. our date of birth, house number and the telephone number of the girl you would like to know biblically....

If we can't have a god, then we put our faith in a set of 12 predictions printed in the daily paper, which we know that 8% percent of the worlds population is not going to have problems with electrical goods today just because they were born when the constellation of Leo was rising (on the horizon of our planet, as the window of stars moves at dust in our elliptical orbit around the sun). But knowing this, if the toaster burns out on the way to work, we say, god the horoscope was right today, and keep away from other electrical objects? Horoscopes pre-date the idea of God in the Biblical sense, and have no connection to him, but we drop his name in casual conversation, its a comfortable phrase to use.


"Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,

And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough,

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And reolving at nine thousand miles an hour.
It's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
'Round the sun that is the source of all our power.
Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at fourteen thousand miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred million stars;
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side;
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.
We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point,
We go 'round every two hundred million years;
And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.



Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, that's the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!"

Answer 2

Of course you can...but you aren't an "Atheist" if you do! Heck darlin', I'm atheist toward man made gods...I simply believe that the biblical God is not man made. If you believe "nature" is the true God, then you aren't an Atheist. Incidentally, I'm not sure what that belief would make you...certainly not agnostic since you've clearly narrowed down the options to a single deity. I even know some Christian who view nature as the perfect representation of God. Most likely a "primitive" religion...many religions throughout history viewed nature (or specific aspects of it such as the sun) as a god.

Answer 3

In a limited way, yes.

It does seem to be natural to ascribe agency to natural phenomena. Children have imaginary friends, are scared of the bogeyman, etc. Early gods were personifications of thunder, fire, rain, etc. (YHWH sure acts like a sky/storm god at the beginning there). So the seeds for believing in a unseen all-powerful being are there already.

The evolutionary advantage to such an idea is that mistaking a rustle in the leaves for a predator wastes a couple of seconds, but mistaking a predator for a rustle of leaves takes you out of the gene pool. Assuming that anything you can't explain is caused by a sentient being likely kept our ancestors alive (if slightly paranoid).

Answer 4

In almost every society around the world since the beginning of society there has been a belief in a higher power so I do believe it is a fair statement to say that it is mans nature to believe in a God or a higher power to explain why we exist and why things happen.

Answer 5

I think it is human nature to believe in a supernatural higher power. Afterall, 90% of people do.

I'm an agnostic, so I belong to the remaining 10%. I'm comfortable admitting that I don't know how or why the universe was created. Most humans are not comfortable not "knowing". Therefore countless religions exist - each explaining existence in it's own unique way.

Answer 6

Of course it is in man's nature to believe in God. Look at all the aboriginal tribes in the back woods of Africa that have no dealings with outsiders and you will see that they worship a god. Take a look at the American Indians before any religion was spread in North America, and you will see that they also believed in a Great Spirit, even though they were not influenced by outsiders. Nature itself tells us there is a God. If one fails to notice this he is purposely closing his eyes to the light. You can no more look at all of the universe and it's many wonders and say there is no God than you can walk outside on a perfectly clear day and deny there is a sun.

Answer 7

Of course it is! It is as common as knowing that we are alive. That we have hands and feet.

If a man walks through a forest and sees a cabin, does he say "Oh look! Trees fell down and cut themselves just right so that a cabin was formed!" No, he knows that a man was there to build that cabin. It is the same way with God. In seeing other people, in seeing the world, it is blatantly obvious that all this didn't occur by magic or coincidence. A higher force HAD to have been there to create it all.

Find the most obsolete tribe in the middle of nowhere. They all believe in a god of some sort. They all have legends about a higher power. This is a God-given knowledge.

Atheists simply chose to ignore it because of their pride. They don't want to have to answer to a God for what they do that is wrong so they say they don't believe in one. It's like saying, "I don't have feet. Those are just a figment of my imagination."

Answer 8

I believe its in mans nature to solve problems and find answers. An external god (watching over us) seems a real good method to answer questions. I can also see how the concept of an afterlife came first kind of opening the door for the rest.

Answer 9

Humans naturally seek anything that comforts them; that is simply our nature.

However, what comforts each of us varies greatly - many find the concept of God to be irrational, terrifying, and dangerous. Those individuals will not find comfort in it and are certainly unlikely to be seeking out any form of God.

Others find hope in God; good for them. Hope is important. Ultimately, however, it is a decision made due to the necessity of an aphrodisiac.

Answer 10

I don't think so. I was raised in a Christian home, going to church every Sunday and participating in Bible classes and Sunday School. When I became an adult and started really looking at religious beliefs, it occurred to me that I had never really believed it at all. "Praying" was when you bowed your head and waited for the guy to finish talking. Sunday School was for coloring pictures avoiding bullies, just like real school. I liked the stories, but to me they were no different than my picture books. Just stories.

I think the man on TBN must mean it's human nature to look for a way to explain things. For a lot of people, that means believing in a higher power.