Why do you believe(or not believe)?

Post Reply New Topic

I just want to know, for the religious, why you believe in your particular deity. Also, I would like to know, for the non-religious, why you do not believe. I do not wish for any insults or name-calling. I just want to hear your story because religion is something I have always been interested in.

I "grew up" (I'm still a teenager) Christian, but a year or two ago I started questioning why I believe and couldn't come up with a whole lot and now am unsure between Christianity and atheism and deism. I plan to go through the Bible and evaluate it's credibility and some other major religious texts and then some stuff like The God Delusion and make up my mind.

I'm not sure how much of a story you're looking for, but it's probably fair to say that a good number of atheists have experienced religion first-hand in a variety of forms and with a variety of extremism. My personal experience was far less extremist, and yet I still saw the usual problems of indoctrination, blind trust in authority figures (parents, priests, teachers) and not a great deal of critical thinking. I was chastised and even mocked on occasion by my peers, simply for asking questions. Note: I am not 'angry at god', nor do I equate religion or faith with the bad behaviour of its practitioners towards me personally within the scope of such experiences.

I would still accept the existence of a deity if sufficient evidence could be provided to convince me. After many years of asking questions, such evidence has proven itself non-existent. There are literally no pro-faith arguments with so much as a scrap of evidence, of justification for belief. The holy books portray 'God' as a morally bankrupt being, and any individual or group who advocates belief in such characters, let alone worships them, is guilty by association.

I wasn't brought up in any particular faith but because I live in the western world Christianity is the only religion I've had any exposure to. I choose not to believe because as a child the idea of Jesus was only given to me at Easter and Christmas, along with the Easter bunny and Santa. So after learning they didn't exist I just assumed Jesus and god didn't exist either.

I struggled a lot with my faith in Jesus, and still do most of the time. My thoughts and emotions constantly conflict, and it drives me nuts.

My main area of personal evidence came about almost 12 years ago, when the woman I love dumped me for the second time. I'd tried so hard to be a "good Christian", but I wasn't fully committed to God in my heart. My loyalty kept wavering between Him and my ex-girlfriend Michelle, who at the time didn't share my convictions. I didn't want to lose either one, but in the end, I couldn't turn away from God completely. It felt like every step I made towards her was one away from Him, and vice versa.

Anyway, in January of 2002, we broke up, and I hit rock bottom very fast. I grabbed a knife from the dishwasher while no one was home, aiming to slash my arm because I didn't want to live anymore. I completely believed that I'd be better off dead, because I longed for the peace only Heaven could bring. As I pressed the blade to my arm, I hear a voice in my mind say, "put it down". It was soft and gentle, yet persistent. I knew it was God, so I raged towards Him.

"You don't understand - I've lost everything!", I said. "I have nothing left! I've tried like crazy to honor You, but my heart always gets in the way!" Again, He said simply, "put it down". I refused once more, desperate to be free of the chaos in my soul. Finally, He said it a third time..."put it down". I asked why, and then experienced what I can honestly describe as a vision. It was like a movie playing in my head, yet from an outside perspective.

I saw my own funeral. It was in a wooded area, but no one was around. The only things there were my headstone, and Michelle crying at its base. She kept saying multiple times, "Why did you do this? Was it because of me?" I don;t know how long it lasted, but in that moment, I realized I loved her far too much, and put the knife down. I've thought of picking it back up several times over the years, but never have. We're still apart, after trying to make it work, and it angers me that God would use an image of her to save me when we can't be together.

The one thing I learned from that experience is that suicide's for cowards and the supremely selfish, because I fit that description back then. I don't know what my destiny is, but when the end comes for me, I've already decided it won't be by my own hand. God's big enough to handle all our fears and crushed emotions, even when it seems like they'll tear us apart.

I believe in data.

However I won't force my belief upon anyone, nor force anyone from their faith, nor chide anyone for choosing faith. I can peacefully co-exist with my choice, so long as everyone is free from any shackles which may accompany another's choice in faith. (I.e., I'm usually keen to leap into equality debates.)

Be sure to check out The Dawkins Delusion while you're at it. One of the biggest failures of science as used to disqualify the existence of God is that the capacity of science to explain ITSELF requires its own explanation--basically, it's fallacious circular reasoning if you apply the same principle of explaining God as question-begging to explaining something like science. One questioning the existence of God could just as easily question the existence of Richard Dawkins. Or how about this: Is Richard Dawkins actually certain that Richard Dawkins exists? Does he even know?

There are a whole host of problems with The God Delusion, but, as always, it's up to you to decide for yourself.

I'm quite agnostic about a deity existing (although I think it is unlikely.)

I outright refute the possibility of a benevolent entity existing. I believe God must necessarily be evil if God exists.

The reason for this belief is because I don't agree with any of the answers given by theologians to try and resolve the problem of suffering. I can't be bothered getting detailed, but none of them satisfy me.

I'll check it out, thanks for the suggestion.

Suffering is what our CNS is capable of experiencing. It is an experience. Of course humans loathe suffering but it seems like humans are the only creatures who seem bothered by someone else's suffering. Take a cat, for example, it will torture a mouse or other creature for it's own amusement, totally oblivious about how much the small creature suffers in the process. The same cat will take tender care of her kittens or cubs if it is a bigger cat, like a lion, their cries will greatly distress her. Mammals and perhaps birds, seem the only ones capable of noticing when something outside their own bodies is suffering.

Monitor lizards raised in captivity are fed frozen pinky mice, already dead, because it's more humane and recommended. In the wild, the monitor would catch it's prey and it would not be pretty how it is consumed. The lizard seems to not understand it's prey is experiencing suffering. Reptiles hatch their young from eggs and do not stick around to raise them. They seem the least empathetic of all.

But definitely, beyond a doubt, humans seem to be the most obsessed of all with suffering, more than any other living creature, even Chimps. It seems to be a uniquely human concept and preoccupation. It seems like God can alleviate but not prevent because to be a human means to experience this level of existence, to be painfully conscious. Ironically, this could, perhaps, be the greatest form of suffering, just being able to know. Awareness could be a form of suffering because it seems like humans never halt it completely, even when they try. They just put small dents in it but there's always much more and what does not exist physically just gets replaced with psychological pain.

I have often asked myself why are humans so excruciatingly aware of concepts that will only amplify their discomfort while other species seem oblivious, perhaps due to Darwinisn ? Our closest genetic neighbors cannot even experience this yet humans can. It really makes you wonder if there is a God. Humans are God's children, no other species is, and I am not talking about a Biblical God. I am talking about conscience inflicting God.

It is nice to hear people's opinion on this. Personally, I do believe in God, but there are many things that I still have trouble reconciling with what is in the Bible, some of which has been mentioned above. I somewhat consider myself to be an agnostic theist. I believe in God, but I am still trying to figure out exactly who he is and what he wants from us. I do go to church, but I feel like the church that I go to seems to encourage deeper study into the Bible and what it actually means. I enjoy learning about other religions, and I sometimes think about beliefs other than my own and wonder "what if they are right and I am wrong?" Or maybe every god of every religion ever has existed, and there is some kind of battle going on somewhere between all of them.

I do not reject any science as far as evolution or the big bang theory. I do sometimes question certain things such as how the first organisms developed. I have also wondered when and why species started having both a male and a female. Maybe some people on here know something about those things.

I believe that people believe what they need to believe to grow as people. I also believe that that changes throughout their lifetimes.

Personally I believe in God very abstractly and without the aid of organized religion. I think that God is probably inherently impossible for humans to understand, just as the universe is impossible for the universe to understand.

Why should it anger you?
Seems to me God was showing you the suffering and guilt you would be causing Michelle if you killed yourself over her and knew that if you Loved her that you would save her the pain your vision showed by not killing yourself, seemed to have worked, God saved your life and he saved the suffering of another.

AS for the OPs question.
There is a Scripture that states, "God is not far off from each one of us, if we grope for him and really search for him, he will let himself be found by us"

Its a good test to separate the "Sheep from the Goats", those that dont like even the idea of there being a God will hardly try and find him, they would rather be told he never even existed.
Those that like the notion of God, even though they might not believe in him, they search and then he reveals himself to them.

I used to believe in Evolution and all that atheist stuff, but I loved the idea of God and a King Like Jesus, so I searched and searched with a desire he might be true, not a desire to prove to yourself he doesnt exist, then one day he rewarded me by filling me with Holy Spirit, I was just sitting there, bored but determined to read the boring Bible book of Numbers, then it felt as if somebody had injected Heroin of something powerfull but nice into me.

What angers me is not knowing why God would use my love for Michelle to save me, and then keep us apart every time we tried to make things work. Every time I think back on that experience, its a conflict between gratefulness in being alive, and a painful reminder of someone who it seems I'll never have. I sometimes think to myself, "Why her, if You knew it would turn out like this? Wasn't there some other image You could've used, that didn't result in this emptiness I still feel?"

I really try my best to keep this anger in check, but I still feel it very deeply. No matter how much I pray about it, or scream while alone to let it out, it doesn't go away.

That is totally not true. People can't help what they suffer from and if the suffering is so great, that does not mean he/she is being a coward by ending up committing suicide.

I am glad you fought your way through and ended up not hurting yourself (you were not a coward for thinking it), but take care not to put down those who've experienced their loved ones commit suicide by claiming their loved ones were coward or extremely selfish.

I hope to not get too far from the original topic, but I think there are times when suicide could be selfish. I would say that most people who commit suicide have such deep emotional issues or in such torment that they are not in their right mind when they commit suicide. However, I have heard stories of people who had money issues who committed suicide just so they would not have to deal with it, and I do feel like it could be selfish in situations like that.

I have suffered through depression in the past and had a lot of problems. The things that kept me from committing suicide were, first of all, although I did not have many friends I did have family who I knew still loved me, and also I knew that the problems I had I could do something about or find help for.