Is it conceivable that a rational thinking, reasonable, intelligent person could believe in a ''God''?

Question

This rational thinking, reasonable person would never sacrifice his intellectual and moral integrity by accepting as a fact, that which is inherently unprovable.

In order to become an educated person, two actions are required:
1.) One must study and learn all the truths one is capable of understanding.
2.) One must carefully and thoughtfully reject all information which cannot be verified as a true fact.

It is true that people are able to believe anything they choose. Those who choose to believe unfounded superstitions as if they were fact, undermine their own education and degrade their future ability to make rational decisions.

RW - Lets not delve into the realms of sillyness

RW - by the way I don't know if God does or doesn't exist. I'm not an atheist :)

Answer 1

Yep! With out God we are saying:

Nothing produces everything ...

Non life produces life ...

Randomness produces fine tuning ...

Chaos produces information ...

Unconsciousness produces consciousness ...

Non-reason produces reason ...

None of which makes sense!

Answer 2

Define what YOU mean by "God"

one person's definition, then the ansewr would be no.

a different person's definition, then a rational thinking, reasonably intelligent person could not DENY God.

half the atheist arguments I've heard, its a very specific, limited, bizzare concept of God that only some christians even belive in, that they focus on, and seem to absurdly assume that all other God concepts are the same thing.

its irrational to unilaterally assert that nothing that anyone calls "God" exists. in fact I'd say its inevitable at least some of the people are right. and they aren't *all* mutually exclusive.


edit:
>>"This rational thinking, reasonable person would never sacrifice his intellectual and moral integrity by accepting as a fact, that which is inherently unprovable."<<
remember this cuts the other way as well. the assertion that God affirmatively does NOT exist, is inherently unprovable as well.

>>"One must carefully and thoughtfully reject all information which cannot be verified as a true fact."<<
so if you were one person with vision, locked in a room with 99 people who were born blind, with no scientific equipment avaliable to you, then you would reject the idea of color or vision, because nobody else present can verify it?

is it not also un-verifiable, that everything that is true, is objectively verifiable? this may come across as a liars paradox, but really its not. more straightforwardly what I mean, is that not everything that is real and true, is objectively verifiable. (you can add "at this point in time" to that, if it helps you understand the meaning)

edit 2: lol. so you don't recognize experiencing anything thats not objectively verifiable. thats fine and reasonable. I respect that.
but my experience, and that of many others, is not the same as yours. I know that some things that are real and true are not (at this time, in a way that is within the parameters implied) objectively verifiable.

please do try to comprehend, that by your own definition, you cannot legitimately assert that God affirmatively does not exist, any more than religious view XYZ can affirmatively assert that God does exist, by those standards.

I am not saying that belief in God conforms to those standards. by those standards you can neither assert that God Does, or Does Not exist, as both assertions are within the parameters, fundamentally unprovable.
now if you narrow it down to a more specific God concept, then this could change.

I find it ironic as hell though how readily so many atheists fall into the exact same thought-behavior as the religious views they argue against.

Answer 3

Ha ha ha. . . . O' boy that's classic.

People have some pretty bizarre views of what "rational thinking" is to them personally. By your own logic I suppose you think that Isaac Newton was a drooling idiot who couldn't think for himself.

Have you ever seen the wind before? Or history?

We see the effects of the wind, but the wind is invisible. We have records of history, but it is by "faith" that we believe certain historical events happened. Television waves are invisible, but an antenna and a receiver can detect their presence. The unregenerate man likewise has a "receiver." However, the receiver (his spirit) is dead because of sin (Ephesians 2:1). He needs to be plugged into the life of God; then he will come alive and be aware of the invisible spiritual realm.

I've bolted the logic error. Everyone knows that we each contain personal knowledge which cannot be conveyed -- That's quite a basic truth about human beings. They know more than they can share.

Answer 4

a god? what god? "a" denotes that there's more than one. a rational thinking, reasonable, intelligent person could believe in pigs, in forces of nature, in anything.
The difference between a Christian, is that they've put that human-limited imperfect scientific rationality aside and said, hey, there are things in my life that I just can't do out of my own strength. I need something bigger than my human frailties to change me on the inside and give me some fulfillment and joy and peace.

Answer 5

Yes-Ignatius Loyola, Immanuel Kant, Moses Maimonides and Søren Kierkegaard are good examples of men who were reasonable, rational and educated up the ying yang yet believed in God. As a proof of God that would be argumentum ad verecundiam, but anyone who figures the before mentioned men were ignorant is ignorant. How do we know that our materialist empirical worldview isn't some form of Plato's cave?

Answer 6

Personally I believe that Jesus Christ was a rational thinking reasonable intelligent person.
You have pointed out what it takes to be an intellectual person, but you have no clue how to become a spiritual person. There are two realm in existance the natural and the spiritual. If you close your mind to the spiritual realm and then say "One must study and learn all the truths one is capable of understanding." aren't you just a first hand hypocrite.

Answer 7

Yes , Everyone in this world is going to defend what they believe...
What I find irrational is that people choose to believe fervently that we began as one mutant ape in a tree so to speak rather than two humans in a garden.

And to believe the theory of evolution despite the huge questions about it that are still unanswered - and yet atheists claim that you have to know all the answers to every last possible question about the Bible before you can believe it .and want proof of everything ...yet they cannot fill in all of their own blanks..
That's irrational...But hey , good question..knowledge is power..
And if the bible was just a myth or fairy tale it wouldn't be so full of unbecoming things or boring details like pages of genealogies..nor would it be prophetic or this long lasting..

Answer 8

This rational thinking, reasonable person would never sacrifice his intellectual and moral integrity by accepting as a fact, that which is inherently unprovable.

Can you prove that?

Answer 9

Yes, because intelligent person can not convince her/himself that all those billions of galaxies and stars and the order of universe and the circle of life come from nowhere, without a creator. Look at the order this univers acts and moves and all the laws of physics and chemistry and millions of stars getting created everyday and die everyday. EVer you had a prayer answered? EVer dream of something that happens three days from now or a week from now? Ever escaped a death or injury that your logical mind would say there was no way to escape that?

Answer 10

Of course no reasonable, rational; intelligent person can believe in God. Belief in God is not amenable to these human faculties. They cannot understand what is supernatural (above the natural). Only God can give you belief in Him.

Answer 11

First, to Steve Law, Einstein did not believe in God.

Here is what Einstein said.

"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly."

He also said

"I am a deeply religious nonbeliever" & "The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naive."

So no that we've cleared up that Christian lie, we can proceed to the question. The majority of studies show a negative correlation between intelligence and religion. here is only place for blind acceptance in religion and logic is to be left at the door.