Why Do People Believe in God/Religion (NO FLAMING!!)

Originally posted by jon1
This is what i mean by not knowing what is going on. When i say "what God is doing in thier lives" you then assume that i am talking about every day things that could have happened to anyone. i'm sorry but you are way out of the ballpark when it comes to knowlege about God.
So, it's either all things can be explained away as normal and/or christians are hysterical and see things that are not there.

Until proven otherwise, yup

Instead of hiding behind your mystery-bubble of metaphysical knowledge why don't you talk to us about what god is doing then? Or are you going to tell me I need to believe first?

Originally posted by DarkSide

Originally posted by jon1
This is what i mean by not knowing what is going on. When i say "what God is doing in thier lives" you then assume that i am talking about every day things that could have happened to anyone. i'm sorry but you are way out of the ballpark when it comes to knowlege about God.
So, it's either all things can be explained away as normal and/or christians are hysterical and see things that are not there.

Until proven otherwise, yup

Instead of hiding behind your mystery-bubble of metaphysical knowledge why don't you talk to us about what god is doing then? Or are you going to tell me I need to believe first?

Because I'm not going to provide you with something that you would just class as entertainment. This "where is your proof" argument has been going on for many, many years and i doubt anything I say would make you look for the truth. When your heart is ready you will find it. It's between you and God at the end of the day.

Originally posted by jon1
i doubt anything I say would make you look for the truth.

Oh, I'm looking for the truth each day of my life. Finding it is the hard part

I wasn't even looking when i found God. In fact i was over forty and the only time i went to church was when someone died or got married.
Just be open minded about all things and it will be easier to find out the truth.

My belief in God comes not from some forced indoctrination as a child, I was raised agnostic.

Personal experiance is what lead me to my current belief in a higher being. It was a bad time in my life, and something that I choose to associate with God got me through it.

Whether or not anyone shares my belief is of absolutely no concern to me. You asked, and I answered...have fun.

All right people let's not start arguing here. I wanted to hear people's opinions on why they believe in god and we have had lots of responses. I will share my personal feelings on this.

I was raised in a christian household, but do not believe in god or religion. I am an athiest, and have no need for god in my life. I find most people need god because they are needing acceptance in their life (we are social beings after all). My logic stands against the concept of a higher being, therefore I can not believe in a god for 'convenience'. Thos are my thoughts, not yours.

Keep 'Em Comin'

If you were refering to me, I do apologize. Just woke up, and all the brain cells haven't quite kicked in yet. Mostly the ones that control my politeness. I was a little terse there.

I do, however, get more than a little tired of people attempting to mock what they don't understand or beliefs they don't share. I don't mock their beliefs in aliens from outer space, it's only fair they return the favor...MHO.

Again, apologies for the terseness.

Darkside, what is the point in quoting paragraphs upon paragraphs of someone else's response and then mocking it with your witty banter? Nobody appreciates it, stop.


As for why I believe in God, two words. Holy Spirit. The power to speak in tongues and have a direct link to God. And despite the fact that my church only has about 2000 members in America and 4000 in the rest of the world, countless miracles occur. Medical miracles, resurrections, cobras bursting into flames, all that good stuff. Furthermore, visions and "out of body" experiences.


My reasons outside of church are extra-biblical studies. Studying the lives and deaths of the 12 disciples. Studying Jesus Christ's resurrection. And a few personal experiences I've had with the big man upstairs, God.

Originally posted by TheB1ueSoldier
Darkside, what is the point in quoting paragraphs upon paragraphs of someone else's response and then mocking it with your witty banter? Nobody appreciates it, stop.

I was merely questionning the reality of these so called "miracles" ( you know burning cobras and resurrections and stuff). If jon1 felt insulted by it I apologise.

The usual answer to this is a "better than you" stance, launching bible quotes at me and saying "If you don't believe, you can't see the miracles happening".

[edit on 8-8-2007 by DarkSide]

because people need to know that there's something controlling everything. It's a necessity. Almost to the point of being a crutch. If there's a creator, then there's a reason for everything. Gotta be re-assured. Pschologically, I don't know how well most would do being left to their own devices...

Darkside.
No problems here, I don't feel insulted at all. The more this subject is talked about, the more we will both understand.
I am interested many other subjects also, take ufo's for instance. I have never seen one or had any experience with the subject so i don't dismiss it, i just sit on the fence and await my own evidence and or experience.
I don't think anyone will convince me they are real by telling me of thier own sightings or other goings on. Likewise i know that i won't convert an athiest with my experiences. All's that i ask is that we all remain open minded because at the end of the day this subject of God has been done to death. It is good to know of others experiences though.

Originally posted by acegotflows
because people need to know that there's something controlling everything. It's a necessity. Almost to the point of being a crutch. If there's a creator, then there's a reason for everything. Gotta be re-assured. Pschologically, I don't know how well most would do being left to their own devices...

acegotflows. Interesting slant on the subject. But i think that if you had a few conversations with christians on why they believe, you would come to a different conclusion. Many people have sacrificed thier lives for thier beliefs so that alone says that there is a little more to it than that.
My wife used to be in a wheelchair and she could not turn her head because of a desease in her spine. Now she could shop for Great Britain if she had the money. I won't go into details but she is now a minister in the church of England. Yes, i surpose God could be a crutch in her case because she can now walk again with no pain.
Christianity is such a vast subject that we learn new things all the time, certainly about people and attitudes. Well i do anyway. There are Christians and people who think they are christians. Talk to the right ones for any answers you may need.

If there is a supreme being, it can neither be found nor discussed within a framework such as logic because that would by its very definition make logic the new god and the concept of a supreme being subordinate to that logic (ie, we would have an obvious contradiction in terms: how can anything be logically identified as supreme if it can be well contained by logic which itself is admittedly less than supreme?).

Logic is spiritual money: you can buy anything with it these days, even unbelief.

Believing in God is really not the question: everyone believes there is a God. The question is, what do we do with this God that we believe in?

The answer, buy him out using money.

Buy him out using logic, science, academia, appeal to religious abuse statistics or history's religious bad breath and turn a blind eye to man's inhumanity to man outside of religious circles.

Buy him out! He'll go away. Just ask Judas!

[edit on 9-8-2007 by thisnamenotinuse]

acegotflows. Interesting slant on the subject. But i think that if you had a few conversations with christians on why they believe, you would come to a different conclusion. Many people have sacrificed thier lives for thier beliefs so that alone says that there is a little more to it than that.
My wife used to be in a wheelchair and she could not turn her head because of a desease in her spine. Now she could shop for Great Britain if she had the money. I won't go into details but she is now a minister in the church of England. Yes, i surpose God could be a crutch in her case because she can now walk again with no pain.
Christianity is such a vast subject that we learn new things all the time, certainly about people and attitudes. Well i do anyway. There are Christians and people who think they are christians. Talk to the right ones for any answers you may need.

Your wife experienced a miracle, and that's cool, but I think it's more of the power of belief . I went to church 6 days a week from 8 years old to 17. Most times 7. I've witnessed it as a crutch. Because somebody gets healed isn't really something to put on religion, it's more of a if you believe it, it'll happen. I've witnessed people talking in tongues, getting healed, all of that. Didn't stop them from sinning in a few hours. When you have no control, you'll let whatever be in charge. But it's not just crhistianity. I'm sure that muslims have been healed also. Buddists, Jews, etc. They're all some form of a crutch, structured rules and all. One's expeirence is just that, specific to them.

It is a crutch, not to everyone, because some people truly believe, and that's cool. But it is, just listen to GWB when he gives his speeches. All christianity bunk. Jesse Ventura could have been president of the US, but he made the same statement I did. Too bad, b/c in a lot of cases it's true. Just like the whole heaven/ hell thing. We won't know until whatever happens does.

You're right, maybe I just need to speak to the right people. I mean my grandmother was just a elder who was on her deathbed quoting the bible. And her best friend is a minister who gives a real good message.

My opinion is just that, but it's one from many days spent face deep in the bible, and years spent in chuch almost everyday...



[edit on 8/10/2007 by acegotflows]

all that being said, I still believe there's a Divine one...

Originally posted by acegotflows
all that being said, I still believe there's a Divine one...

Good. The hard bit is understanding God. I do know though that it is he who heals. maybe we can heal ourselves from minor aches and pains but instant healing like being able to see again or getting out of wheelchairs i find hard to believe. We prayed for a 6 or 7 year old boy once who fell off his bike in front of us. He snapped his arm bone in two and it was awful to see, and as expected, he was screeming in pain. My wife and i prayed for Jesus to take away the pain and suffering and he never uttered a sound for the next 35 mins untill the ambulance arrived. Yes, I know you could probbley find a reason for that if you look hard enough but eventually even the hardest sceptic will admit that something is going on that is out of the ordinary.
Last week i was told that i have cancer and yes i will recieve prayer for it. I have 100% faith that God can heal, but will he heal me? I don't know.
I am realistic with healing prayer and i know that not everyone is healed but if he heals one in ten people that i pray for it is better than none.
I am just thankfull that when all other options fail i have someone else to turn to.
When you say, one's expeirence is just that, specific to them. You must remember that these events are whitnessed by the people who do the praying and also anyone else who may be there at the time. these events are anything but personal. I have been instructing a prayer ministry team on healing prayer. my friend Jim needed a hip operation and only that morning he had gone for therapy on it but his hip was locked, so to speak. No movement whatsoever. After ten mins of prayer from three of us he could lift his knee to chest hight. these are real physical healings, not made up aches and pains that can be explained away. there were about twelve of us there that day.
I won't even touch upon words of knowlege or things that go bump in the night. even physical manifestations.
I just ask that you don't write me off as some sort of crackpot. these things are very real. No, we cannot understand the if's and why's all the time and i don't think we ever will. When we don't quite understand what is happening we tend to make up our own reasons why it is happening so that we feel comfortable with. It doesn't make it the truth though.
Well, i must stop now as i could go on all day on this subject.
Cheers
John.


[edit on 11-8-2007 by jon1]

Text I think that i have always believed. but contrary to what someone said earlier, I never believed in God, because I was scared not to. I was scared to commit sin when I was a child; because the Baptists scared me with 'hell-fire,' but I just had a natural in-born knowledge that God existed.
I know that you atheists are going to argue that it was not in-born, that it was taught by my parents. You would be wrong. my parents could have cared less if they taught us how to tie our shoes. My dad claimed to be a Baptist because he thought it was pleasing to the white man. (He was cherokee indian).
Somehow through all the misinformation and the cruelty of the world, I just knew that God was real. And He was there for me. There isn't enough space here to tell you of the numerous reasons why. I am satisfied knowing that He is. I wasn't even saved and born-again until I was 28 years old. But I knew. There is a great joy and peace in believing that. And maybe that's what non-believer's are seeing on Christian faces, instead of what they're taking to be a smirk.

Guess I better add something before I get called on it. I said earlier that the Baptists scared me with, "hell-fire" teachings" as a child. So someone is going to pop up and say, "That's where you learned about God!" No! That's where I took my leave of organized religion. It was the only church anywhere near our home. And that was 2 miles walking distance. But I wanted to go. But after a few sessions of that man jumping up and down, and screming at everyone that they were going to Hell, that cured me for a long, long time. I didn't turn from God, but I wanted nothing to do with His gathering places. I was pretty scared of that black book the man kept threatening us with too.

I'll say one more thing and hush. REALLY! I truly hope that no one is basing there faith on the presence of miracles. Because Satan can also perform miracles. And as it was pointed out by a non-believer, there are miracles in many religions. We are warned there will be signs and wonders in the heavens in the latter days. Some will follow the anti-christ because of his ability to perform miracles.
Sadly there are many televangeleists performing hoax miracles to seperate decent people from there money. Remember Jesus' warnings: "For many will come in My Name. Don't go after them." That's the condensed version, but you get the picture.

Originally posted by janasstar
I'll say one more thing and hush. REALLY! I truly hope that no one is basing there faith on the presence of miracles. Because Satan can also perform miracles. And as it was pointed out by a non-believer, there are miracles in many religions. We are warned there will be signs and wonders in the heavens in the latter days. Some will follow the anti-christ because of his ability to perform miracles.
Sadly there are many televangeleists performing hoax miracles to seperate decent people from there money. Remember Jesus' warnings: "For many will come in My Name. Don't go after them." That's the condensed version, but you get the picture.

I assume you are commenting on my last post. I don't think satan would be performing healing miricles to often because that would mean he is turning more people towards God. Not a smart move if you ask me. I have had this same discission about women being called into the ministry. People saying it is Satan doing the calling. Yep, another intelligent move on his part, bringing more people into Gods kingdom and they in turn preach the gospel and that brings even more people to faith. Assume all things are from God first and then let the holy spirit guide you through descernment if it is from God or not. If satan wants to heal people, well, thats OK with me.
Telly evangelists, well some of them (Benny Hinn) are frauds and anyone that knows anything about the ministry knows that God does not work like he would have us believe.
Just my 2 cents worth.
john
Just a thought, but surely people who would follow the anti christ would follow him because they don't want to follow christ anyway.