Why do people believe that they can prove the existence of God?

Question

First off I am not an Atheist. However I see so many people claiming that they can PROVE God's existence.

Religious Beliefs are based on having faith. By definition Faith is belief without proof. If you have faith that something exists and then follow it up with undeniable evidence then it is no longer faith, it is fact, and the only way to prove something is fact is to have undeniable evidence.
I am not trying to state that having faith in a religion is wrong. However, there is no way to prove the existence of God and anyone that claims to be able to has serious flaws in there logic.
Belief in God is an act of Faith. Why do people keep trying turn the existence of God from Faith into Fact?

Betty Boop - In order to "prove" there is flaws in my logic you have to do more than just say there is flaws in my logic.

Big Solly - Ok, I admit I had to look up "iconoclast". And after I did, Thank You for the semi-compliment. In no way do I simply accept things that are told to me, especially in regards to religion. However, it is not my intent to destroy it either. I simply find it odd that people try to prove what can not be proven, and vise verse. Science can not disprove the existence of God yet many still try to.

Thank you I have had a wonderful day.

Luv4Nevaeh - I think you misinterpret my intent. The concept that a person has to take a leap of Faith in order to believe in God is not a small matter. The fact that we are able to believe something based on faith, be it religion or something else, has been argued to be a part of our very humanity. The fact that people can not see, yet can still believe in something, in some ways actually hold more power than if we were to be able to see it. It is because I believe that, in some ways, faith is more powerful than proof, that I wonder why people would want to try to prove the existence of God.
As for the points of argument, I am afraid that you are running into some familiar problems. First, there are things in the bible that have been proven to be factually true, but none of those things have proven the existence of God or even that the Bible teaches “God’s” religion. People that believe in the Bible do so because they choose to for various reasons, but it is not because they...

...Bible proves the existence of God. Even if you choose to call the book prophetic, sighting the prophecies that have come true; those are still open to interpretation. And even if they were undeniable true, it still would not explain the other non-catholic books that have predicted the future, and then have been interpreted to have come true. As to your final point, I am sorry that you see faith as an illusion. Faith is a very powerful expression of ourselves, and whether we have faith in a religion, in a God, or simply in our non-catholic next door neighbor, is ultimately us as a person Choosing to go beyond what we can not see or Prove to exist.

J M - People do have their own definition of many different words in our language, not just the word “proof”. However I do not define an apple as an orange just because it fits my theory better. People are entitled to their Beliefs all they want, but if you can not agree on a very common definition then there was no point in even answering this question.

Answer 1

We know and can prove that man creates gods: we've created them thousands of times, all over the planet. However, the opposite is not knowable or provable. There's no reason to inject the supernatural into reality: but if you insist, then the proposition that God created man is pure conjecture – NOBODY knows the supernatural. Period.

The fact that man has created countless gods, from time immemorial, is very compromising to believers. They assert that the gods and religions that came before and after their own are false – but theirs is real and true. Maintaining the falsehood of those thousands of other gods and religions – while claiming the truth of your own – is patently and transparently ridiculous.

I've tried to tackle huge topics in a single answer and usually don’t succeeded well. Sometimes I raise more questions than I answer because space is limited here.

Lately, I've been waxing religious. There are a myriad of arguments for or against God. However, there's no direct evidence either way. To me, it's necessary to define what you mean by "God" to begin with. For most of us, that means a God defined by a religion.

And that's where the problems start . . . at least for the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). For the remainder of this answer, any mention of "religion" means "Abrahamic religion" for short.

Religion is born into enmity because they try to lay claim to God. This insistence on exclusivity sets up religions for contention unless or until they convert the entire world – thereby eliminating the "competition". This is why, I believe, these religions all await the end-time when God will finally do the eliminating for them.

It's a forgone conclusion that no single religion (much less, denomination!) will win the world on its own. After all, they've had between 1,400 and 3,500 years (Islam and Judaism, respectively) to do so and haven't made any real progress. Christianity, with over 2 billion adherents, leads the pack but Islam, at 1.3 billion, is coming on strong (again). Despite being many centuries older than Christianity or Islam, Judaism has only 14 million adherents. If ANY religion truly is THE right one, I don't believe the competition would have survived this long.

Given all this . . . how are we supposed to decide which religion, if any, is right? The first one? The biggest one? The most sophisticated one? The most realistic one? The competition reduces our choice to a roll of the dice. And why would we go to hell for choosing the wrong one? It's ridiculous. Can God really be so sadistic? And if so, why would you worship him?

No . . .

NO religion can be valid if God exists AND is good. Any entity who could create the universe, would not be so petty as to set up his "intelligent" beings for condemnation. Why would the Creator give us free choice, only to confuse the choice of Creator? I say that if God exists, ALL religions are heretical. If God is good, we wouldn't be killing each other in His name. In the paraphrased words of Stephen Roberts:

"I contend that we are both anti-religion. I just believe in one fewer religion than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible religions, you will understand why I dismiss yours."

Oh yes . . . and forget about "Original Sin". It's the biggest lie in the Bible and the foundation of other lies. I am no more accountable for Eve than I am for Hillary Clinton or for you.

I believe God could, or might, exist; but I'm certain that NO religion is valid.

Answer 2

So religion is based on faith and.... the big bang/evolution is based on theory (a tentative insight into the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena). Ummm yeah that would be why we all have debates on these subjects. And your so wrong cause belief in God is not I repeat NOT just about faith, there are tons of factual events in the bible, you know the bible the very same book that has yet to be disproven in any way... that book written by men inspired by God. I doubt that the hundreds of prophecies that have came true from the bible and are coming true on a consistent basis is an illusion of our faith but rather its plain fact!

Answer 3

I agree - God can not be proven with science - but for different reasons than yours.

The OT used by followers of the God of Abraham has stories of that god becoming physically visible as a means of instilling faith. Asserting that it is not necessary and in fact impossible is to invalidate the book wherein those stories appear.

Did you realize you were such an iconoclast?

Science can not prove an omnipresent god because testing for God would require comparing an unknown - where God might possibly be found - with a known - where God will NOT be found. However, since God is everywhere, the test can not be devised.

Have a nice day.

Answer 4

Some people believe the theory that man started as ape and evolved but did we just land here or did someone put us here? If you believe that we just landed here then why is it so hard to believe that God could have put us here? That would explain how man got here. Either way we landed here by some outside force (after all we can't just be here). Some people say " If God put us here then who made God?" Well, the human brain cannot fully comprehend that question (and if it could the person would either explode or have a huge headache) so we will never know the answer but there is no document explaining anything about the evolution theory. There is however one for the theory that God made man. So why make a book about God if there is no god? Anyone have an idea?

Answer 5

Faith comes first. However, faith has the unique aspect of being able to draw the divine. Once that happens, then that person has received proof. A heart that sees through the eyes of faith has all the proof it needs.
Good question.

Answer 6

God doesn't have to "prove" himself to me. I need to "prove" myself to God. Belief comes from a desire. " Wish to be". Faith comes from experience. Think about it. Try this experiemnt without even thinking about God.

A commercial comes on tv and says that beer is for sale, 2 six packs for $5.99 at the squishee mart. You want beer so you go to the squishee mart because you believe that you can buy 2 six packs for $5.99. When you arrive, you grab the 2 sixers and pay the cashier the $5.99. Now that you have experienced buying the 2 six packs at $5.99. You have faith that it will be there again at the squishee mart the next time you want beer fo the same price.

My spiritual experience has been the same. I desired to know God, I met him and now everything he has ever promised me comes true every minute of every day. I now have faith because of my constant daily affirmation of him in my life.

Answer 7

It's half the fun I get from this site. The other half are the creationists (who, incidentally, are going to run against the same problem: by finding "proof" of a designer they will destroy faith. Of course, proof is a long time coming but it is still funny).

Answer 8

I've seen faith used as a "proof" of the existence of God. It's not.

I believe God exists because the universe suggests it, but that ultimately goes back to faith, not proof.

Answer 9

We see a lot of people "claiming" to. All the claims have been false. You would think they would have figured it out. Atheists know that we can not prove there isn't a god. So we don't even try.

Answer 10

Insecurity in their belief and that gnawing feeling that you know that it all does not add up makes many make all kind of claim, more to convince them self than to convince others.
We all know that gods are imaginary but it is so hard to let go after being indoctrinated since childhood. Her is some support; http://godisimaginary.com/
Be good be nice.