What's new
By:

Why are so many people capable of believing anything?

Siromar you are a special chosen someone who broke this cycle of irrational belief. You are one of the few people smart enough to have such smartness to avoid the irrationalness that is false belief.

Here are some of the reasons why I think people believe. I won't go into my specific religion this time (miracle nature of Qur'an etc).

1) Humans are the only animals (as far as we know) that know that their time on this earth is limited and having a belief that this isn't it is comforting.

2)The chance that me and you is alive, this universe exists and continues to exist is so small that any other belief is small in comparison. Your sperm was chosen one in millions and egg one in thousands. Same can be said about each of your parents, grandparents, and other ancestors. If the dark energy constant was less by 1 part in 10^120 (more then the amount of atoms in this entire universe) then this universe wouldnt exist. Atheists claim to be skeptics but they aren't skeptical of these amazingly small chances.

3) An actual infinity does not exist anywhere in the universe including time. An infinite regress of events is not possible and at some people someone must have created something. In doing so they must have chosen to create it which indicates a will which indicates a personal god. When the Big Bang theory was first introduced there was an Atheist philosopher (I forgot his name) that denied it because he thought that accepting it would mean that there is a creator. In 1959 top scientists were surveyed if they thought the universe was eternal. 2/3 of them thought the universe was eternal. It was stated "the universe is eternal, it is a brute fact, there is no need for a god." Now a days atheists say "oops, it wasn't eternal, there is still no need for a god!"

4) Why is there something rather then nothing. The question everyone wants to know, atheists have no answer to it rather then "it just is, thats how it turned out"

5) This is one that C.S. Lewis pushed but I am not that big into: There seems to be universal idea of morality. Many atheists will even claim that killing and raping innocent babies is objectively bad and not just subjectively bad. If absolute morality can be proven then God is more likely.

6) This is the most powerful one for a lot of people like it or not. Pascal's wager.

I am too rational and skeptical to be an atheist or not believe in some sort of divine.
 
SiroMar said:
Those are good responses, but I don't feel they answer the question. Faith was brought up several times. But I still don't understand why that's something at all. I don't mean the kind of faith that have you sleep at night knowing your family won't kill you in your sleep, but the type that makes you believe in something that is clearly false. And I mean false in the way humans judge truth from falsehood, which is through applied logic based on physical experience. Everyone got that, or otherwise you wouldn't be here. You know that needles hurt because they hurt every time you got an injection. If I am to tell you the needle I use does not cause pain, you'd ask for either an explanation or a demonstration. If I told you "it's a secret that you have to take on faith", you'd laugh in my face.

So I don't understand this idea of faith that people keep bringing up. I truly don't understand how it works in your head. Most people will look at other people's faith and fully acknowledge its implausibility. People don't have faith because they examined the faith-worthiness of ideas. I don't understand the difference between faith and simply answering a question with "just because". Is it a matter of feelings? Is it just an idea that triggers too strong an emotional response to ignore? Can you describe your faith logically enough so that people who do not have it can understand?
Click to expand...

As for my own faith, I would say I have received confirmation concerning its truthfulness via an outside spiritual force.
 
Humanities ability to believe in something (any thing worthy) is one of mankinds greatest strengths in my opinion.

Beliefe in God, in Humanity..in something.
 
TBS, that seemed like a post I'd love to respond to. But since I don't read anything you post, I guess we'll never know.

Spycam1, what do you mean you received outside confirmation?
 
Stoked said:
Humanities ability to believe in something (any thing worthy) is one of mankinds greatest strengths in my opinion.

Beliefe in God, in Humanity..in something.
Click to expand...

Like I said, this is shying away from the question. If you ask me "why are you tall" I certainly would not respond with "because wouldn't the world suck if everyone was short?"

I asked why believe in something that seems very unlikely without asking or expecting evidence.
 
SiroMar said:
Like I said, this is shying away from the question. If you ask me "why are you tall" I certainly would not respond with "because wouldn't the world suck if everyone was short?"

I asked why believe in something that seems very unlikely without asking or expecting evidence.
Click to expand...

For me personally it helps me to become a better person. To have a set of morals or expectations to live up to.
 
Stoked said:
For me personally it helps me to become a better person. To have a set of morals or expectations to live up to.
Click to expand...

That only makes sense if you already believe. Why those sets of morals? How do you know these are the best way to go if you haven't examined the foundation they're built upon? These answers don't get me closer because they are responses people come up with to JUSTIFY their belief. Meaning, they have to be believers to begin with. I, as an unbeliever, cannot just wake up and go "you know, from now on, I'm Sikh. It'll probably help me be a better person". I would have to buy their story before I accept the correctness of their morals.
 
SiroMar said:
That only makes sense if you already believe. Why those sets of morals? How do you know these are the best way to go if you haven't examined the foundation they're built upon? These answers don't get me closer because they are responses people come up with to JUSTIFY their belief. Meaning, they have to be believers to begin with. I, as an unbeliever, cannot just wake up and go "you know, from now on, I'm Sikh. It'll probably help me be a better person". I would have to buy their story before I accept the correctness of their morals.
Click to expand...

Beacuse "Mormonism" works for me. As an "unbeliever" what do you believe in? There has to be something.

Who said it has to be belief in religion. What about belief in the promise of humanity? That if we would get out of our own way we could cure cancer, AIDS, eradicate starvation, ends wars, fly to Mars...
 
Stoked said:
Beacuse "Mormonism" works for me. As an "unbeliever" what do you believe in? There has to be something.

Who said it has to be belief in religion. What about belief in the promise of humanity? That if we would get out of our own way we could cure cancer, AIDS, eradicate starvation, ends wars, fly to Mars...
Click to expand...

Sure, I am actually a big fan of humanity, and I think we've accomplished much. I think the world is objectively better today in most areas than it was in the past, and I believe it will likely continue to improve barring a major catastrophe. But none of that is faith. Based on the progress we've made, and the investment in progress that continues to be made, I expect certain results. My interpretation might be wrong, and I often read books that argue as much. None of that is something outside of my experience, and none of it needs to be based on silent acceptance. However, I tried to keep it about faiths that most people would consider crazy. I knew that otherwise people would just try and justify their own faith.

So forget about your religion for a second (which I view as a cultural product, and culture is hard to break). Why do so many people believe in something that everyone else KNOWS is wrong? What makes the jump from "I believe there is a higher purpose to life" to "our reptilian overlords will accept our spirits into their techno-heaven"? How can someone behave logically in all aspects, but totally crazy in one?
 
SiroMar, my compliments on the thread. This is interesting. To speak for me personally it seems I had an experience similar to yours in that I was brought up in a certain religion I desperately wanted to believe-in during my younger years. As I got older I began to have a lot of questions with answers that did not satisfy me in a spiritual way. It was these questions and a lack of decent answers that made me decide that particular faith was not for me. Now I don't know what I consider myself spiritually. I believe in the spiritual, but don't really subscribe to any particular religion. I've had too many experiences that convince me that there is a spiritual aspect to existing, however my philosophy on religion is "to each their own". As long as something works for someone to make them a better person or to make their life better, then I am happy for them.

Not just to limit this topic to religion, but it is an interesting question you bring up, just from a public information standpoint. People trust news sources to provide them with current events, but it seems that nowadays you can't read a particular news story without getting the reporters beliefs thrown in, in a subtle manner. Every major media outlet knows that sensationalism sells and so news sources seem to constantly be trying to sensationalize everything with a particular political spin...and it is amazing to me that people will believe anything as long as it is in print without considering the source.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top