What makes you Believe or Not?

I'm just curious with so many different beliefs and non beliefs out there, what makes you have yours? Is it proof? Lack of proof? Was it the way you were raised? What is it?

Obviously for me I believe certain things because I've dealt and seen those things, that some have not. I believe what I believe because there is proof for me, or someone has given me enough to go on to believe in certain things. There really isn't a whole lot out there that I doubt. I am skeptical, but there is always a piece of me that holds on to any doubt, until further knowledge or proof..

So what about you guys? And this is pertaining to everything that you believe or don't.
Magestica

Wow great question.

I guess for me its a combination of:
a) personal expiriences in my life
b) the way I was raised
c) research .... lots and lots of research.

I consider myself a pretty skeptical person. I dont believe something unless I check it out for myself. I think I developed my way of thinking from my dad. He always encouraged me to read since I was a child.

I got interested in the Paranormal after a couple of strange experiences I had in my life. Some that continue to happen to this day. As for Conspiracies... I got into them after I saw the movie JFK for the first time. So I guess you could say tha JFK assasination was the first conspiracy I researched. As for UFO's well I got interested since I was about 11-12 years old. I started reading a lot of books on the subject and it became a hobby of mine. I also investigate sightings and reports from my area.

Well I guess that about does it for me, I hope I answered your question correctly mag.

then I have seen just about everything. For the most part my personal beliefs are always tested...lost...regained. I understand that to be the way it is, its just natural stages of life. As I mentioned, seeing for me is believing. I have seen potentially fatal accidents turn out to be non threating. I have even seen the most religious become anti-faith and the most hardcore non believer convert. I was the hardcore non believer, but I still have skepticism. For me believing is based on truth, and I refuse to believe unless I KNOW for a fact and without a doubt the details.

I maintain the same mottos my ancestors set before me:

"The Truth Against The World"

"Truth in our hearts
Strength in our arms
Fulfilment in our tongues."

As is seen, the truth is important, and that I believe.

i guess i get my beleifs from the same sources as ocelot writer...
ive been a dedicated cristian, got the t-shirt, the alblum...and scars....i guess if god does exsist he doesnt care that im gay and the bible lies...still no change and all that praying and fasting and other spiritual...things....i also add common sense into what i believe....

A lot of beliefs of mine tend to be revised, refined, or sometimes trashed.

I grew up 'Christian' but thought church was boring and I didn't feel anything. I always had an interest in the paranormal and messed around with PSI but I have abandoned such practices. I never really took conspiracy theory seriously until recently and I now see it as a major issue. I was slightly anti-conservative Christianity due to media bias and my New Age interests. I was also embracing the goth, punk, and gamer scene but I had bad anxiety, was depressed, and I didn't really interact with reality.
I read some newsletters from a pastor and I kind of turned around and became a true Christian. I stopped cursing, whining, obnoxious, and my anxiety and depression went away. So much for 'religion' damaging people's psyche.
I guess I'm a believer that we are in the End Times, mainly due to how I see how our 'religious' society has allowed itself to roll in 'filth' that it seems that there's no hope in bringing it back. I still tend to keep my beliefs to myself, though I feel I should speak out. I already know that the feedback won't be too friendly.
I don't feel I'm 'intolerent' to other's beliefs since I have friends who are Jews, Hindus, probably Atheists, and Witches. I don't talk about Jesus much to them because I'm still not very bold and I'm afraid of offending anyone. No wonder I hate debate.
I'll just offend people online then.

I to am skeptical but alway resound in the back of my head is the timeless quote of one Willi Wonka "never disbelieve what nobody can prove".

I think of myself as a type of Mystic, searching for answers through various expressions with the guidence of my higher being. If you want a deeper answer.

I went to Catholic school, got my T-shirt and sold it for no profit. I had my hey day with spiritualism, the Occult, mesmerism, witchcraft- u name it. I also had some near death encounters due to those invovements and in one instance, if not calling on Jesus, I surely would be the catatonic this day.
It is a constant struggle to follow the Lord. You are going to be persecuted. But, death and the pit are not alternatives in my thinking.

I came about my beliefs when I turned the other cheek to God and just stopped believing in anything but good bud, drinking and causing trouble. A few books I came upon one day turned my thinking around. A path was laid before me, I just chose to walk it.

Given a view of how things are and seeing it my own way going on mostly feeling, is what made me believe in something else...

I was raised with a Christian background, however too many questions could not be answered for me.

I have had to completely re-evaluate my beliefs in the past year due to personal experiences and truths being revealed to me.

Letting go of some of the beliefs I grew up with was NOT easy. But it was necessary.

So I believe what I believe based on personal experience, research, and spirit.

Phimes

Originally posted by magestica
I'm just curious with so many different beliefs and non beliefs out there, what makes you have yours? Is it proof? Lack of proof? Was it the way you were raised? What is it?

Actually, the empirical evidence. Psychology has good explainations for how spells and rituals work and how to make them effective. People of all faiths do this stuff under many different guises (including saying the rosary) and there are some clinical studies showing that the proper use of spells/rituals/incantations/prayers work.

And there is good evidence from Near Death Experiences that almost all people go to heaven, no matter which deity they believe in (or even if they believe in none.)

Hence, Wicca is a comfortable fit for me. To run around scaring people with lies about only certain people being worthy of the afterlife in other to coerce them to believe is just cruel. I don't believe in deities that require sacrifices (this does contradict the evidence) or who are exclusivists.

I was raised christian, realised christianity only 2,000, which left people alone and going to hell for about 30,000, and found the pebble people theory. The theory me and JamesG came up with is created pebble people, invisable, all powerful creatures. Just like god can't prove they exist, but can't prove they don't. So for all anyone knows someone years ago did the same, wrote it up, died, and people looking for a way to control the masses(at first catholic church in europe, today catholic church in America) took up the idea and used it to use people.

Make an all powerful invisable person, say you represent the person, and that if you don't follow your words, they will go somewhere bad. Of course, I think pebble people sent you to Mexico and made it so you could only drink water, if you know what I mean.

Anyways, what makes me not believe is no proof, and two idiots came up with pebble people, which could exist, you can't prove they don't, just like you can't prove god exists.

But all in all, believe something made everything, but wasn't god, or goddess, just was. No body, but everything is it. Everything made by atoms, atoms made by protons and electron, those made up by quarks, held together by gluon, but what make up gluon? What makes up what makes up gluon? The IT, thee IT, it is it, it is what made/makes everything. It didn't make anything in it's image, just created to create, to entertain. Like dinosaurs, but after awhile, got bored with them, took them out, and so forth.

What it was suppose to be about was, for instance:

#I believe in aliens and some do not and I would like to know why?
#I believe there is illuminati and some do not, why?
#I believe in reincarnation and some do not, why?
#I think freemasonry is a conspiracy, some don't, why?
These are just some examples of where I was trying to go with this thread and yes, God could definately be included, but that's not what I meant soley..

*Great replies though* Thanks you all..
Magestica

So let's try again~Why do you believe things that others do not? And why do you NOT believe what others believe?

I used to be a detail-minded factaholic like a few scientific-engineering types here.

I have decent research skills (I ought to) but I'm less interested now in doing primary research and more interested in analysing quality secondary data.

One of the troubles with internet 'publishing' is you can no longer do the quality tests on print information that you used to be able to do. There is just too much crap which is capable of being cross-referenced with too much other crap which can make it appear valid when it is in fact a festering pile of crap.

So, in a nutshell, having spent umpteen years making decisions based on an overly large accumulation of facts, I've "regressed" to 90% intuition when I'm judging people or information. I am far too judgmental to boot.

I don't believe in "aliens". I do believe in more intelligent life than what exists on this planet. They don't believe in "aliens" either. Aliens is an alien (strange, foreign) concept to them. What is, is.

I believe it's necessary to believe in Illuminati but I don't believe in a well-organised exclusive society with universal principles going by that name.

I believe in life after death but not reincarnation. I have seen ectoplasm and I know what the life force in a body looks and feels like as it leaves the body. There are many many tens of thousands of people that have experienced this but not all have the mental or spiritual constructs to deal with it. I don't think I have either.

I believe freemasonry is not a conspiracy. It's an archaic society with people from all walks of life and belief systems, with rituals and secrets, but at a global level it's not up to much. I haven't been involved with any Lodges at the Vatican or the Whitehouse.