Why do so many of my people believe in God?

Page 1 of 5 [ 76 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  Next

Seraphi_Grigori
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

Joined: 12 Aug 2015
Posts: 26
Location: 38464

12 Aug 2015, 4:04 pm

Sorry, im new to this site and im not trying to offend any one. I dont define myself by my race, religion (obviously), region, country, or anything like that. I might be a white male in my mid 20s but im sure i have more in commen with a 50 year old black female aspie than any normal white males my age. So because of this, aspies are the only group that i consider myself a part of. And i have pride in us, and i the only time i ever feel offended in any way is when i hear of an aspie being mistreated or looked down upon like a psycopath or a cripple. We are one of the few groups of people that actually have a valid right to feel pride. We might be lesser in some ways but we are greater in many other ways that i would argue are more important.

So my question is this. Why is it that with our superior minds and above average logic, so many of my fellow aspies believe in a higher power? Im just trying to understand why they would reject logic so extemely in this one circumstance, when reality is so much clearer to us. I am seriously curious. Not trying to offend any one though, sorry if i did.



Nambo
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 31 Aug 2007
Age: 65
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,882
Location: Prussia

12 Aug 2015, 6:12 pm

I would say the primitive mind believes in God, then the superior mind learns all the things others tell it to believe and so it no longer believes in God and feels superior than the primitive mind that believes without thinking.
Next comes the very superior mind that can think for itself and can contemplate and consider the claimed logic of others, this mind tends to believe in God again.
Thats why there are so many here, Aspies are intelligent who don't just absorb somebody elses intellect but prefer to use their own.



The_Walrus
Forum Moderator
Forum Moderator

User avatar

Joined: 27 Jan 2010
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,808
Location: London

12 Aug 2015, 6:22 pm

Seraphi_Grigori wrote:
Why is it that with our superior minds and above average logic,

Let me just stop you there - our minds are not superior, and even if the average autistic person is more logical than the average person, that doesn't mean all autistic people are logical.

Plenty of intelligent people believe in God. Although there may be a correlation between intelligence/education and atheist, it's not cast-iron.
Nambo wrote:
I would say the primitive mind believes in God, then the superior mind learns all the things others tell it to believe and so it no longer believes in God and feels superior than the primitive mind that believes without thinking.
Next comes the very superior mind that can think for itself and can contemplate and consider the claimed logic of others, this mind tends to believe in God again.
Thats why there are so many here, Aspies are intelligent who don't just absorb somebody elses intellect but prefer to use their own.

This is not based on fact.



Fnord
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 May 2008
Age: 67
Gender: Male
Posts: 59,818
Location: Stendec

12 Aug 2015, 6:27 pm

Why do people believe in God?

1) Because we can.

2) Because there is no legal penalty for believing in God.

3) Because we have someone to talk to when no one else will listen.

4) Because "God did it" fills in the gaps that have not yet been explained by Bill Nye, the Science Guy.

5) Because believing that there is a meta-natural being who has a purpose for every seemingly useless person gives us rejected people a measure of comfort not found in social constructs.

6) Because believing that the only reason we're still alive is that no one has yet decided to kill us is depressing.

7) Because God.



Feyokien
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Dec 2014
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,303
Location: The Northern Waste

12 Aug 2015, 6:51 pm

Because it's way more comforting than the current idea of everything thing just spontaneously began from absolutely nothing. It also gives someone a cultural and religious identity. I remember when mine got taken away from me when my family switched from going to a Methodist church to one of those super lax singing churches when I was like 11. There's actually a very large chunk of the population out there that aren't strong believers but just attend church or at least stay connected to a particular church because it's a traditional thing. Especially in Europe, I believe it's Sweden that has a majority of nonbelievers but many are still connected to a family church.



Campin_Cat
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 May 2014
Age: 62
Gender: Female
Posts: 25,953
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

12 Aug 2015, 7:20 pm

Cuz I've never heard of a reason NOT to!












_________________
White female; age 59; diagnosed Aspie.
I use caps for emphasis----I'm NOT angry or shouting. I use caps like others use italics, underline, or bold.
"What we know is a drop; what we don't know, is an ocean." (Sir Isaac Newton)


GreenPandaLord
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

User avatar

Joined: 19 Jun 2015
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 83
Location: Iowa

12 Aug 2015, 7:40 pm

From my experience I have believed for many years and I have come the point where it is pure logic. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said that first you eliminate the improbable than what ever remains however improbable must be the truth. Science does not aim to prove but to disprove that something exists. An example of this is gravity. We have yet to disprove it's existence. The same goes for God he is yet to be scientifically disproven. In my particular set of beliefs God uses science to acomplish his means. Such as the big bang or evolution. The first line in Genesis is God created the heavens and the earth. The word create was translated from the Hebrew word meaning to organize like a ship builder organizes material to build a ship. This is my belief though others do not share this view, I would say pray and ask. If he is not real what have you lost. If he is the possibility is endless. This is my logic.


_________________
"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
Arthur Conan Doyle


The_Walrus
Forum Moderator
Forum Moderator

User avatar

Joined: 27 Jan 2010
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,808
Location: London

13 Aug 2015, 3:45 am

GreenPandaLord wrote:
Science does not aim to prove but to disprove that something exists. An example of this is gravity. We have yet to disprove it's existence. The same goes for God he is yet to be scientifically disproven.

This is a misrepresentation of how science works.

You must make statements which are falsifiable, meaning they could be disproven, but you need evidence that something exists before you can accept that it is real or set out to disprove it.

Gravity, evolution, and the Big Bang were once not scientifically accepted because nobody had pieced together the evidence for them, but now they are.

You are right that the existence of a deity is yet to be scientifically disproven (although I'd argue the existence of God with a capital g has), but equally, there isn't any evidence for it. Look up Russell's teapot, Flew's gardener, or Sagan's dragon.



MarketAndChurch
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 3 Apr 2011
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,022
Location: The Peoples Republic Of Portland

13 Aug 2015, 5:18 am

Seraphi_Grigori wrote:
So my question is this. Why is it that with our superior minds and above average logic, so many of my fellow aspies believe in a higher power? Im just trying to understand why they would reject logic so extemely in this one circumstance, when reality is so much clearer to us. I am seriously curious. Not trying to offend any one though, sorry if i did.


I've long felt that there is a good logical case for the existence of a God. But what we all do is pick a worldview and reason from that starting point, and that doesn't necessarily mean that logic itself leads to those logical conclusions.

But my belief in God is only partially my logic and reason, pushing me in that direction. I also fully admit that it's a yearning, for a God to exist. In other words, I wish that God does exist, and in this short span of existence we occupy, the little solace it brings is worth it. And this wish, for the existence of a God, does not come at the expense of logic. In other words, I don't drop reason in pursuit of this wanting for a God to exist(one doesn't necessarily negate the other), so I don't think that belief in a God should be a barometer of your rationality.

By the way, there's a lot of dumb illogical atheists, and likewise, a lot of dumb illogical theists... I don't see any correlation between intelligence and logic, and the belief or disbelief in a God.


_________________
It is not up to you to finish the task, nor are you free to desist from trying.


Grebels
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 5 Mar 2012
Age: 84
Gender: Male
Posts: 545

13 Aug 2015, 6:07 am

I am struggling to understand this need for logic in everything. I grant you it is necessary, but there are other ways which offer so much. To be inspired from wherever does not mean logic has to go.



glebel
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Jul 2015
Age: 61
Posts: 1,665
Location: Mountains of Southern California

13 Aug 2015, 11:01 am

Because it gives us hope, a thing I have found in short supply in my life.And as far as there being a correlation between education and atheism, I have found that what they try to pass off as education is more like indoctrination.


_________________
When everyone is losing their heads except you, maybe you don't understand the situation.


GreenPandaLord
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

User avatar

Joined: 19 Jun 2015
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 83
Location: Iowa

13 Aug 2015, 11:05 am

I think ultimately what it boils down to is that people are individuals with seperate experiences that make up a part of that person's belief system. This is why I believe there is a God. Now ebveryone has different beliefs on who this God is, and who we are in relation to God. A lot of different religions and creeds believe in deity. I think this is fascinating. I don't understand it myself and I wonder at times where these beliefs came from such as Nordic religion's who worship Odin All Father. I have met one, and I wondered why does he believe what he believes what led him to hus current situation. I think that to understand this is to understand the man which is very wise. This is what you are doing. You are not arguing, but seeking to understand what makes people tick. This is the great gift and curse of being Autistic. We want to understand the why.


_________________
"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
Arthur Conan Doyle


GreenPandaLord
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

User avatar

Joined: 19 Jun 2015
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 83
Location: Iowa

13 Aug 2015, 11:16 am

In shorter words. "We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, and what they may." The Articles of Faith of The Church if Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Anyway this is my view and beliefs which I have adopted. I hope this helps your understanding a bit of why people have a belief in God or gods the seems to defy logical approaches. :wink:


_________________
"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
Arthur Conan Doyle


AspieOtaku
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Feb 2012
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 13,051
Location: San Jose

13 Aug 2015, 7:05 pm

Here is a link that explains why, http://atheism.about.com/od/theismtheis ... eInGod.htm .


_________________
Your Aspie score is 193 of 200
Your neurotypical score is 40 of 200
You are very likely an aspie
No matter where I go I will always be a Gaijin even at home. Like Anime? https://kissanime.to/AnimeList


techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,182
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

13 Aug 2015, 9:48 pm

Seraphi_Grigori wrote:
So my question is this. Why is it that with our superior minds and above average logic, so many of my fellow aspies believe in a higher power? Im just trying to understand why they would reject logic so extemely in this one circumstance, when reality is so much clearer to us. I am seriously curious. Not trying to offend any one though, sorry if i did.

To get much father on that one you'd have to tell us something about 'the logic' as you see it. Reasons for atheism as well as reasons for believing that science has clinched reductive materialism as the inescapable conclusion tend to vary from person to person. Better for us to talk about what you see as so self-evident rather than chasing charicatures or our best guesses as to what you mean.


_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin


diminished57
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

User avatar

Joined: 28 Feb 2015
Posts: 45
Location: PA

14 Aug 2015, 10:21 pm

Even though some have be forced to think rationally, the concept of "life after death" and "grand designer" comforts them. It's worse than an NT believing in nonsense and fairy tails.