How much are your (religious) beliefs based on your desire?

Question

I often hear that Christians are are just wishful thinking or atheists don't want to be responsible for their sins and this is why we believe / don't believe.

Personally, I would prefer that there was a God, but I still dont believe there is.

Do your beliefs coincide with what you desire to be true?

Answer 1

Yes and no. If I did everything according to my base desires I would continue to get myself in trouble. That is why I am a recovering alcoholic/addict. Giving in to my carnal desires may have felt good at times, but the consequences were too great and almost cost me my life. As I have humbled myself and searched deeper I have found more of my spiritual desires once again. And it has made all the difference in what I want and what truly makes me happy.

Answer 2

I guess I'm a bit of an odd-ball, because my desires are based on what is tangible. Sure, I could say I wish there were gods that intervened on my behalf to make everything alright, but I'm satisfied with the reality I live in.

I understand that everything is dependent on something else, and the key to getting what I want is the proper manipulation of the things that affect what I want (i.e. if I want a new car, I have to negotiate with the car dealers that have the cars that I want after talking with my wife and making sure she won't think I'm spending frivolously, maybe even negotiating a loan if I don't want to pay in cash). If there were gods that did things for me, all I'd have to do is ask them and whatever I asked for, believing it would come true, would happen.

That's a lot easier than the way I do things now, but it isn't reality. Some may say a god has a hand in all of the negotiations, but the same thing would take place in the same way without godly intervention.

Answer 3

If my religious beliefs were based on desire I would believe that Heaven is a place where all men look like Joaquin Phoenix and in order to get there you have to eat as much chocolate cake as you can in a lifetime.

So, no, my religious beliefs aren't really based on wishful thinking.

EDIT: being serious for a minute, this "argument" really annoys me, whether it's leveled at Christians, atheists, Pagans, or anyone else. I can only speak from a Christian mindset, because that's where I fall, but think about all the problems with Christianity, and all the questions that arise just on this site, and further into real life, about God's omnipotence, benevolence, etc. It's not like we just picked the easiest thing to believe. Anyone who thinks that Christianity is idealism really needs to get their definitions straight. I believe what I believe because I happen to personally think it's true.

I also get crap similar to that leveled at atheists for being a non-fundamentalist/legalistic Christian. I'm told that I believe the way I do because I want to justify my lifestyle. These claims are usually made my people who have no desire to actually understand where you're coming from, but would rather just validate their own position.

Answer 4

Physical science has actually quanitifed that there is an energy force that they will label 'God'. Who's God, which God--that's up to you.

What one believes in Christianity is supposed to be based on 'free will' (look it up, it's in the Bible). That means you decide. There are scientific facts based on what has been unearthed in the Middle East to establish as fact some of what is in the Bible, but the Bible is considered an act of faith (the belief in as well as the writing) since it was written hundreds of years after the facts in it.

Atheists are saying that there is no God and prefer to rely on their own will and the right behavior of others to direct their lives. The success or failure of this will be up to them also--more 'free will' ('free will' is the only way one can be evaluated as an individual, one's intent, rather than as a collective.)

In either case (Atheist or Christian), one's beliefs must coincide with one's desires to the extent that one carries them out unhindered by others ('free will' again). If one cannot act on 'right action' (now that is Buddhist), one cannot be held responsible for the outcome if one has taken all the steps that one can to accomplish the right outcome (in Christianity, 'absolved' says the Catholic).

Does one desire to believe in God? Do it. There's no harm in it. It's downright fashionable in the Bush Administration and will probably continue to be so. In Maslow's hierarchy (psychology), accepting the belief of a religious entity/practicing religion is a sign of higher intelligence.

Religious beliefs based on one's desires?? What do you desire to do? This is an important question that will determine the outcome (or what you decide--what religion, or any).

Answer 5

This is a very good question. In the end I would have to say no. The reason being is because my "desire" rarely coincides with my faith until I've had time to think and pray and submit my will to Gods. Until I do those things...I have no understanding of why God asks what He asks of each of us and His Church as a whole. At one time in my life I only knew that a higher power existed...don't ask...I just knew. From that...it has grown and grown into what my faith is today. Building line upon line precept upon precept...me struggling every step of the way. But once I put my own desires aside and seek Gods desires for me...life tends to gets easier. Most because I'm no longer fighting the one who knows what is best for me I guess.

Answer 6

No, I get a kick out of fundies who say I'm an atheist because I want to live my sinful life or some such nonsense. I would love to think my mom lived on after her death in some way and that I'd see her later. I'd like to think that I had more time to exist, although maybe not forever as immortality I think would not be nice. I'd also in a way like to believe in things like faeries and ghosts because it makes the world seem intriguing, mysterious, and somehow more cool. Although I have found the natural world and explanations are pretty cool in themselves once you start learning about them. I am an atheist because I see no meaningful evidence for a deity and because I investigated the history and authorship of the Bible and found lots of room to be skeptical of its veracity. I also found the same in other belief systems. My life is pretty normal, no wild parties, orgies, or other debauchery. I work hard, am faithfully married, recycle, volunteer, etc... Just a normal gal.

Answer 7

Unfortunatly/fortunatly, no. There is ALOT in the bible that I wish WASN'T true. Life would be more fun, but the consequences would be more difficult.
That is one of the reasons I believe it to be an honest representation of the "users guide" for life. It provides a standard that can't be kept, and that's one of the reasons I know it is true. It doesn't worry about sugar coating "right and wrong". It just lays it out there.
Many things are true that I wish were not. For example, I wish it was possible to fly, or rob a bank without consequences. But I know that it's not "right or true". Being a Christian is simple, but it's not easy... big difference.

Answer 8

Actually, I try to set my desires based on my religious beliefs. If I honestly believe that God exists, that I'm a sinner, and that the only way to be forgiven of my sin is to accept Jesus as my sacrifice for sin, then doing so I should attempt to model myself after Him. If my beliefs were solely, nay in any part, based on what I WANT, where then would be the benefit of that??! I'm like any human being and I want to be self-justified. I WANT to believe that I'm good enough as I am without the need of some sacrifice for so-called sin. I WANT to be able to make amends for the things I do wrong and then have it all be ok. But, unfortunately, I know in my heart that I cannot make sin right. I know this because of the difficulty I have forgiving those who sin against me. If I don't truly forget about these sins against me, have I truly forgiven the person? If not, why should I expect them to forgive me for my sins against them? I can't. Where, then, is true forgiveness to be found? Only in Jesus.

Answer 9

I think that for some people being an atheist is about realizing that what you want to be true is not true. I am one of the atheists that wanted to be a believer. I wanted there to be a Heaven, ya know? I wanted there to be a supreme protector in the sky. There's not, though, and I'm not going to live my life going LALALALALALA with my fingers in my ears every time somebody says God isn't real.

However, there are probably some atheists who don't like the concept of a god, and that might have originally been what caused them to investigate atheism.

And of course there are believers who believe because they think life "without hope" is meaningless. I have at least one very good friend that I can think of who will readily admit that he believes in God because he wants to.

Answer 10

I have many desires and no religious belief, so I guess not at all.

Linz, there is also another category. Those that were raised in the church, learned all the stories, read the bible, etc., but never actually believed any of it, even at the earliest age.