Why do humans think there is a god?

Answer 1

Opinions on why people believe in God

• As a young adult, I was trapped by the logical fallacy of a false dilemma, caught between the cold hard oblivion of Atheism and the the contradictory, wrathful and counter natural scriptures of Christianity. I had an epiphany, possibly even from on high, that no matter the number of conceptions of God (and Her nature) that humankind has forged, there are a vastly greater number of possibilities that remain unimagined. It is significantly more likely the truth of God is in the latter category than the former.
• There is a higher purpose in life. I don't know what that purpose is...But many things we know and experience indicate that something of "higher essence" is part of our existence - that we are partly made of something more than dust...Science may never understand why we come to tears when we listen to an old favorite song, why we laugh, why we may love someone so much that we may give our life to save theirs. Understanding how the human brain works will not answer the big question "why it works that way"...

• [To me, the following biblical passage inspires belief in God:] Genesis 2:5,6,7 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

• Let's make a distinction here between God and a creator. There is an entity referred to in The Bible as God. This is simply a fictitious character to whom all things great and wonderful are ascribed. This God in the Bible can walk on water and part seas. This fable God never did anything except fire up the imaginations of gullible people. While there is, in my opinion, a creator, this does, in no way, resemble the man made fairy tale in the Bible.

• God is real because He is and always has been! That's hard for us to comprehend in our limited minds, but He is real and made everything, including us! The only way to overcome that is to choose to believe that God is God and that He loves us and sent His son, Jesus, to come and die on a cross a long time ago to take away the bad things we as humans chose (our sin)! If we accept Jesus and believe in Him we can be right with God and He can help us be good. Someday when our bodies die we get to be in perfect heaven with Him!

• Everywhere you look you see God's handiwork. God created everything in the universe. Man is not his own god. Nor does he actually control things that are beyond his own comprehension. Real isn't just want you see it's also what you know. Even common sense tells you that something or someone created the universe with a grand design. You cannot prove feelings exist because feelings are not tangible. Feelings come from the human soul. Unlike your body, your soul is hidden from view, but it is just as real. It is the effects of God we see as real. Everything that has life in it comes from a life giving God. Can you create a human being from the dirt of the ground and breathe life into it and call it a living soul? You are the greatest proof that God exists. Study the human body and then come and tell me that it all just "happened" in the most perfect and complicated way without intelligent design.

• Considering the sheer size of our universe, we represent within it a smaller factor than what would be to the Earth, a specific patch of Spanish moss under the bark of a given Sequoia just northeast of Bodega Bay, California. It would be extremely anthropocentric to imagine the human race, or even the planet Earth is somehow significant to a grand purpose of the universe, let alone to assign relevance to each of the six-billion-plus individuals that reside here. Richard Dawkins (father of the meme) borrowed the term "Tooth Fairy Agnostic" or "Teapot Agnostic" (from Bertrand Russell's Teapot thought experiment) to better recognize those of us who cannot rule out the Christian god, but comprehend the severe improbability of His existence.

• I think God is real because [many of those who, in dire times, call to God for aid, receive it. Cancers go into remission. Lost children are found. Natural disasters are survived.] When I was bitten by a dog I called to God [and escaped peril]. When I have nightmares [God comforts me.] This why I believe God watches over us all.

• Why do people believe that God is real? Loneliness, a need to make sense out of what we cannot explain or understand, and a fear of death, I personally believe that the idea of God was created by powerful people to keep people under control and obedient, to strike fear into them to establish order and social control.

• People need to believe in something, or we go crazy from the horrors of modern life. But he doesn't exist, at least not as a conscious entity that controls the cosmos.

• All big philosophical questions cannot be answered via science, in the context of physical laws affecting matter. Great philosophers have tried to answer them but with no success. There are many logical arguments in favor of the existence of God (e.g. the teleological argument, the First Cause argument etc - see other related questions in WikiAnswers for arguments for/against God's existence), as well as against the existence of God. The bottom line is that we cannot prove or disprove God only with the scientific tools we have today. That is why a leap of faith is finally required to believe in the existence of God, or to believe in the non-existence of God.

• It amazes me the degree to which some of us extrapolate recklessly from a given indication that God exists. Sophisticated eye? Yahweh. Finely tuned universe? Yahweh. The standard model requires a theoretical boson that remains undetected? Yahweh. [We should] apply the principle of Occam's Razor: if there was a watchmaker, if we are designed by intelligence, would it not make more sense that the designer was a natural thing, rather than supernatural? If we were engineered, would it not be more prudent to seek out our engineer within the universe we live than without? We are far more likely to have been designed by three-legged invertebrate alien vampires who traverse space-time in spinning flying saucers than an omnipotent being that exists beyond the eleventh dimension. And this is still on the dubious presumption that we were designed at all.

• The world is so amazing and complex that people tend to assume a mastermind, or masterminds, must have designed it. People then figure that maybe, if they ask God, or the gods for help or favors, their [petitions might be heard and acknowledged].

• The need to search for and to be like God is embedded in each super-conscious mind along with the plan for completing that goal. [The super-conscious being a hypothetical spiritual counterpart to the conscious, unconscious and subconscious components of the psychological model of the mind. It is potentially the cradle of the collective conscious.] This drive is in everyone, though some may only just be able to sense it while to others it is an irresistible compulsion. Those in this latter group are typically not satisfied by provincial religious or academic teachings and have to venture abroad to discover their own epiphany. For me, I knew there was more [than what was readily apparent in my original walks], and I was driven to seek out and learn my truth.

• This question is actually two questions.

  Q1: Why are humans driven to believe in [an abstract] God?

  A: God as a notion emerges from the questions that arose from humans since the dawn of sapience: Who am I? From whence did I come? What is the purpose behind my existence? Even though science looks for "how" the world works, it does not look for the "why".

  Notional God can be defined as the first cause from which the universe spawned, on the presumption that the past is finite. A point of beginning has made some sense since science took to the Big Bang theory, solidified by Georges Lemaître, a Roman Catholic priest. The universe is expanding, hence it was once smaller, perhaps infinitely so. His full concept was a "primeval atom" from which the universe spawned. A big bang at the beginning of the universe implies a start. The start of the universe implies a first cause, ergo: God.

  Furthermore, we are social creatures, and are hence driven to seek a niche that defines how we participate in society, and this instinct translates easily to existence at large: what is my role in nature? What is my ultimate purpose? Our inherent desire to be part of a greater whole (civilization) has the side effect of creating a desire for absolute inclusion (divine purpose). Maybe that sense of purpose means that a purpose actally exists - that sounds logical to many people. Maybe that 'purpose' is something we want to exist, but does not.

  This philosophical belief, called teleology (Greek 'telos' = end / purpose), is a very attractive proposition; we would rather imagine we are princes of the universe than incidental to its nature, and this drives us to make presumptions about God that are not evidenced by observations of nature, such as:

• God is sentient and aware.
• God is all powerful.
• We are God's intentional creations.
• We are modeled after God.
• God has a specific plan for each of us, and for humankind.
• God is benevolent, and wishes us health and happiness.
• God watches each of us, and intervenes on our behalf, especially when we find ourselves in dire straits.

And thus, we have the foundations of the archetypal human concepts of God.

A ii: Whether such a 'divine creator' exists cannot be proved or disproved via hard scientific evidence. Scientists axiomatically believe that the world consists of particles and physical laws governing their behaviour. Taking that for a starting point, it is logical that no hard evidence can be found for the existence of anything spiritual in the cosmos. Any indications (like the ones mentioned above: First Cause, Teleology) are more a matter of philosophical debate rather than something LHC will answer... Q2: Why do humans believe in [a given] God (In this case, specifically Jesus or Yahweh?)

A: The most common reason people believe in the Biblical god is because they were dictated Him in their childhood. As Homo Sapiens is extremely adaptable to clime and circumstance, one of the mechanisms that improves our survival is the open-architecture nature of our minds. We are born with very few instincts, and hence must be taught much by our nurturers (usually, our parents) about how to survive in the specific environment in which we live. Much of Christian dogma is framed in the context of survival: those who toe the line of the Christian faith gain immortality and salvation, where those who do not face the eternal wrath of a vengeful deity. So hereditary religious faith can be explained as a side effect of one of our principal survival mechanisms: our inclination to learn non-critically when we are children. (But note the afterthought, below.)

Humans are also inclined to stay faithful to the religion of their upbringing. In psychology, this is due to a psychological phenomenon called attitude polarization; once humans establish for themselves a specific belief, they seek out and strongly regard new data that confirms this belief, and avoid and disregard new data that is contrary to it. We actually get a mild endorphin rush from hearing someone agree with us, or express an opinion that supports what we already believe. We can see the consequences of this in the wedge partisanship that has run rampant in US politics throughout the Bush administration.

There's a Jesuit saying (either from St. Ignatius of Loyola or St. Francis Xavier) "Give me a child for for his first seven years and I'll give you the man." It usually takes a significant amount of effort and thought or an identity crisis (such as one's sexual orientation being condemned by one's ministry, or a personal betrayal that is not acknowledged by the religious community) to propel a human to change their hereditary belief system at a root level. This is why missionary efforts even to this day seek out children, the downtrodden and the desperate to mine for new converts.

• [Asking why humans believe in God is] like asking how we breathe. God is as real as you can feel the wind in your face. God can be felt; He is spirit. If you try to find explanations, good luck to you. But the ones that believe, do so by faith and not by what we see. [Faith is, in my opinion, a stronger foundation of belief than the observation of natural events.]

• I think believers are pressured by society, their surrounding family and community into recognizing a provincial faith. Also, the promise of Heaven, a pleasurable afterlife, brings home and comfort to those whose lives are rife with misery and suffering. Why have humans always believed in gods, be they patrons of volcanoes, the sea, the sun or indeed the redeemer that is the Christ. Undoubtedly, Yahweh, Jesus, Allah and the prophet Muhammad will, in the passage of time, go by the same way as Minerva, Bilquis and Nabu in favor of newer deities.

• [Biblical passages that inspire me to believe in the biblical god include:] Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be FRUITFUL, and MULTIPLY, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. # 1. And God said unto them, Be FRUITFUL, and MULTIPLY, YES OR NO. Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. # 2. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. did we obey God commanded YES OR NO Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. # 3.For the life of the flesh is in the blood YES OR NO YOUR SOUL WILL NEVER DIE (WHY ARE THEY tormented day and night for ever and ever. Revelation 20:10.. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. IT SHOW YOU THAT YOUR SOUL DON"T DIE BECAUSE YOU WAS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD who will never die YES OR NO Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

• Because it is obvious [to me] that there is a Creator. There is no excuse not to believe: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse" Romans 1:20 (KJV) Don't miss the last part of the verse... so that they are without excuse. Biblically, there is no such thing as an atheist. In the early stages of a child's life, they recognize that there must be a God, a Divine Creator. It is public school brainwashing, with the lies of Evolution, that blind children to the truth. Children must be taught Evolution or they would never believe such nonsense. A child who sees, hears, feels, touches, and tastes God's creation doesn't need to be taught that there's a Divine Creator. It is obvious knowledge! Evolution must be taught, because nothing in nature supports it's claims, i.e., it doesn't come natural."The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God." Psalms 98:2-3 (KJV) "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" Titus 2:11-12 (KJV) You don't have to teach a kid that God exists.

• Because [as I see it,] he is.

• I am a creation; creations require an origin (a creator). Thus, I accept the existence of a creator. A=B B=C then C=A.

• I believe in God because I know He is there and I feel His presence even if I don't see Him

• Someone must have caused that tiny particle to explode causing the universe. And if there is chance, what causes the chance to happen?

• Jesus and God are real, Look around you, look outside what do you see? Plants, Trees, The sky, Birds, Fish. What I mean is could YOU have created all of this? Could you have the Divine power and strength to create this all? Would you be smart enough to make it all? There is no way that people could have done this. Nobody could, except God. Not only this but science is being disproved year after year after year - there is no possible way for "POOF" or "BANG" ,its just there except for God. He is and infinite being so powerful that he created the earth and the stars, and that it is so great it is hard for those who don't believe to ever believe.

Answer 2

Most people who believe that God exists do so because they grew up in households where this was taken for granted, and were taught to believe this to be a fact from their earliest years. By the time they are old enough to think for themselves, belief in God is so much part of their own personal identity that it take a real effort of will to accept that God is not real. On the other hand, belief in God involves no particular effort, especially since most Christians do not even attend church on a regular basis.

Theist Answer:

I for one, do not rely on what I was taught growing up. I look at nature all around me and know no human could create it. Evidence is all around in nature of an intelligent designer that created the earth and space. That is my clearest evidence of God.

Answer 3

I think that Humans think their is a god because it is from a story that has been told for thousands of years... there is also nothing to prove that their isn't a god. It is a question that may never be answered..

Answer 4

People think God doesn't exist for the same reasons as Santa. There IS NO physical evidence of his existence. Other than a book people claim he wrote. Of course one can say that he can exist, but in my opinion all religion is wrong. One can systematically disprove any and all religions.

"Religion is the opium of the people" as stated by Carl Marx.

That was likely said as to state how those who do not want to try just give in to peer pressure, like drugs. A lot of people in this world don't try to contest common held beliefs of that region; Those who do are generally crushed by someone in the community (generally the leader or a pope like character, generating more fear against standing up against the Shaman (I forget if there is a better word for this)

Answer #2

Some people choose not to believe in God because they do not want to be responsible for all of the things they have done. If there is a God then God has a set of rules. If there is a set of rules then there are consequences for breaking those rules. If I choose not to believe in God, I think I can do what I want without worrying about the consequence.

+++ Answer 3.

Sorry but that second answer is not logical and many atheists or agnostics may find it offensive. It is incumbent on everyone to take responsibility for his or her own actions, attitudes to others, etc, irrespective of personal religious belief. A lack of belief in some (invented) deity does not axiomatically make one any more or less free to be amoral than those who do believe. Indeed, a quick look around the world shows the ready excuse religions and even their sects provide for very deliberate wrongs against others, from family to state level, in the name of supposedly-God's Laws. The original question asks why some (actually it's many) do not believe in god. I use the lower-case deliberately because humanity has devised all manner of gods and religions since time immemorial. No single religion has any more or less truth to it than any other, it is "true", or more accurately an article of faith, only to its own believers. The sheer variety alone of faiths shows this. It would be more useful to ask why people do believe, and here we raise the fundamental notion that humanity as a whole has always needed some ineffable supernatural "driving force" or being to give at least some context to the existence of Life, Death, The Universe and Everything. This gives some idea why almost all historically-known religions have had a powerful bereavement-counselling aspect expressed in some form of assumed after-life. This "after-life" has, like the supposed existence of the deity itself, also been used as a weapon of control throughout history - the "heaven and hell" and similar myths. This abuse is not a function of the faith itself, but a useful way to keep the followers following the faith's very human, very fallible, leadership. It's important to understand this context for existence itself. It does NOT seek to explain "how" and "when" natural events and processes happen. That's the role of science, not theology. Instead it asks "why" - and for whose benefit, but if you pursue that to its limit as a believer in a universal, supernatural, creator, you invoke an uncomfortably fatalist suspicion that everything from the cosmos to us mere humans, exists merely to suit that deity's whims and pleasure.

Answer 5

Well there is the story of Adam and Eve and how God created them, so that is why i beleive God did exist...

Answer 2

• Teleological Argument: The universe has definite design, order, and arrangement which cannot be sufficiently explained outside a theistic worldview. (This is how Abraham, without benefit of teachers, came to reject the chaotic world-view of idolatry and the possibility of Atheism). For example, theoretical physicist and popular science writer Paul Davies (whose early writings were not especially sympathetic to theism) states concerning the fundamental structure of the universe, "the impression of design is overwhelming" (Davies, 1988, p. 203). From the complexities of the human eye to the order and arrangement of cosmology, the voice of God is heard. God's existence is the best explanation for such design. God is the designer.

• Anthropic Principle: The laws of the universe seem to have been set in such a way that stars, planets and life can exist. Many constants of nature appear to be finely tuned for this, and the odds against this happening by chance are astronomical. Professor Russel Stannard (a particle physicist) states: "The universe has been bent over backwards in order that intelligent life should exist...must have known we were coming."
• The glaring lack of transitional fossils has been noted by the evolutionists themselves, such as this statement from the famous paleontologist and evolutionist George G. Simpson; quote: "The regular lack of transitional fossils is not confined to primates alone, but is an almost universal phenomenon."
  "To the unprejudiced, the fossil record of plants is in favor of special creation" (Corner, E.J.H., Contemporary Botanical Thought).
  
• "Nine-tenths of the talk of evolutionists is sheer nonsense, not founded on observation and wholly unsupported by facts. This museum is full of proofs of the utter falsity of their views. In all this great museum, there is not a particle of evidence of the transmutation of species" (Dr. Etheridge, Paleontologist of the British Museum).
  "To postulate that the development and survival of the fittest is entirely a consequence of chance mutations seems to me a hypothesis based on no evidence and irreconcilable with the facts. It amazes me that this is swallowed so uncritically and readily, and for such a long time, by so many scientists without murmur of protest" (Sir Ernest Chain, Nobel Prize winner).
  
• The fact that you need DNA to make DNA. No genetic code can be demonstrated to have arisen by chance, together with the ability to read that code and carry out its instructions. Information does not arise spontaneously; and there is an incredible amount of information in even the tiniest cell.
  "A living cell is so awesomely complex that its interdependent components stagger the imagination and defy evolutionary explanations" (Michael Denton, author).
  "The astounding structural complexity of a cell" (U.S. National Library of Medicine).
  Concerning a single structure within a cell: "Without the motor protein, the microtubules don't slide and the cilium simply stands rigid. Without nexin, the tubules will slide against each other until they completely move past each other and the cilium disintegrates. Without the tubulin, there are no microtubules and no motion. The cilium is irreducibly complex. Like a mousetrap, it has all the properties of design and none of the properties of natural selection" (Michael Behe, prof. of biophysics).

Answer 6

People have seen miracles which have saved their lives and these people have spread the message that a miraculous power have saved them which they call GOD.Hence people say that GOD exists and helps them at every part of their life.

According to Richard Dawkins in his book, "The God Delusion", religious belief may have started out as a by-product of some ancient behavior that had survival value. Religion itself has no survival value, as is witnessed by suicide bombers who blow themselves up in the name of God, but whatever practice or behavior that religion may have been a by-product of did have survival value, but religion is like a vestigial organ that no longer serves any useful purpose. Professor Dawkins also believes that religion and belief in God most likely is maintained through memetic transmission. A meme is an idea or a practice that is passed from mind to mind, like a virus that spreads from person to person, or like genes that are preserved in a gene pool.

Answer 7

There are tens of proofs for God's existence. These have been recorded for centuries and are easy to look up. However, this subject ultimately becomes one of personal belief, since our possession of free-will mandates that it be possible to put forth arguments (fallacious or not) against every one of the proofs.Link: Is there evidence against Evolution

• 1) Teleological Argument: The universe has definite design, order, and arrangement which cannot be sufficiently explained outside a theistic worldview. (This is how Abraham, without benefit of teachers, came to reject the chaotic world-view of idolatry and the possibility of atheism). For example, theoretical physicist and popular science writer Paul Davies (whose early writings were not especially sympathetic to theism) states concerning the fundamental structure of the universe, "the impression of design is overwhelming" (Davies, 1988, p. 203). From the complexities of the human eye to the order and arrangement of cosmology, the voice of God is heard. God's existence is the best explanation for such design. God is the designer.

Link: God's wisdom seen in His creations

• 2) Anthropic Principle: The laws of the universe seem to have been set in such a way that stars, planets and life can exist. Many constants of nature appear to be finely tuned for this, and the odds against this happening by chance are astronomical. Professor Russel Stannard (a particle physicist) states: "The universe has been bent over backwards in order that intelligent life should exist...must have known we were coming."
  

• 3) Sensus divinitatus: The innate sense of the divine exists within all people. People and cultures of all time have, by instinct, sensed a need to believe in and worship something greater than themselves. No ancient society ever existed that did not believe in a supernatural power.
  

Link: Ancient belief

• 4) Tradition: There are historical events which cannot be explained without God. Many people have had personal experiences that turn them toward theism, but there are also events such as the Giving of the Torah to over two million people at Mount Sinai, which are underpinnings for the belief in God.
  

Link: Archaeology

• 5) Pascal's Wager: Belief in God is the most rational choice due to the consequences of being wrong. If one were to believe in God and be wrong, there would be no consequences. However, if one were to deny God and be wrong, the consequences are eternally tragic. Therefore, the most rational choice is not agnosticism or atheism, but belief in God.
  

• 6) Logic. Why is there reality rather than nothing? Aside from God's creating it, there are only five options:
  

a) The universe is eternal and everything has always existed.
- Even atheists have abandoned this possibility, especially because it would violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

b) Nothing exists and all is an illusion. There is no reality; there is only nothing.
- This possibility, it should be obvious, is completely self-defeating. In order to even make such a proposition, the subject has to exist in some sense. If all is an illusion, where did the illusion come from? Even the solipsist, who does not believe in the existence of other minds, has to explain the genesis of his own mind.

c) The universe created itself. This is the idea that the universe and all that is in it did not have its origin in something outside itself, but from within.
- Like with the previous two, this makes a logical absurdity. It would be like creating a square triangle. It's impossible. A triangle by definition cannot be square. So creation cannot create itself as it would have to pre-date itself in order to create.

d) Chance created the universe. The odds of winning the lottery are not very good; but given eons of time, everyone will win. While the odds of the universe spontaneously appearing are minuscule, could it happen, given enough time?

- This option is a dishonest sleight of hand that, like "survival of the fittest," amounts to nothing, because it implies that "chance" itself has quantitative causal power.
The word "chance" refers to possibilities. It does not have the power to cause those possibilities. It is nonsense to speak of chance being an agent of creation, since chance is not a force. "What are the odds of the universe being created by chance? Impossible. Chance is no thing. It is not an entity. It has no being, no power, no force. It can effect nothing because it has no causal power within it. It is a word which describes mathematical possibilities which, by a curious flip of the fallacy of ambiguity, slips into the discussion as if it were a entity with real power, the power of creativity." (R.C. Sproul, Not a Chance. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999.)

e) The universe is created by nothing. Simply put, nothing created the universe.
- The problem here is that it is either a repetition of option "a" (the universe is eternal) or fails due to the irrationality of "d." In our current universe, the law of cause and effect cannot be denied by sane people. While we often don't know what the cause of some effect is, this does not mean that there was no cause. When we go to the doctor looking for an explanation for the cause of our neck pain, we don't accept the answer "There is no cause. It came from nothing."

Now, the other side of the Question: why might people notbelieve in God?

1) Peer influence. In high school, for example, the one or two religious believers in a class may be subject to ridicule.

2) Convenience; desires. No one wants "bothersome" rules, or limitations to their personal pleasure. We see how lack of self-discipline has led to epidemic obesity, drunkenness, divorce rates, violence etc.

3) Lack of proper information. People have inaccurate notions about God, religion and belief. They've picked up tidbits, jokes, and "sound-bites," and on such solid authority they dismiss the entire topic.

4) Unfortunate experiences. Many have had personal hardships, or a harsh religious upbringing or education, and as a consequence may retain an unhappy feeling towards belief, without realizing that emotions and proofs are two different things.

5) Many think that science, and specifically Evolution, have proved that there is no God. They don't comprehend that even if Evolution was an unquestionable fact, it would not automatically follow that God isn't there. They also seem unaware that there are a significant number of highly-qualified scientists who do not believe in Evolution.

6) Intellectual laziness. Many people have simply never delved into the subject, to see if God's existence can be convincingly demonstrated.

7) Stereotyping. People call us "religious nuts," "Bible-thumpers," etc.; so the average layperson may get a negative feeling toward all belief, not realizing that he/she should first look into the existence of God in principle, before necessarily looking into religion.

Answer 8

Most people who believe God to be real do so because they were taught as young children that this was the case. They were also allowed to believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy, but these beliefs were not indoctrinated and in the fullness of time fell away. Because years of indoctrination, along with the appearance that adults really do believe in God, are hard to eliminate, a child has to be, at the very least, approaching his or her teens before doubts begin to emerge.

An entire industry has been set up to maintain belief that God is real - churches, synagogues, mosques, religious schools, publishing houses, chaplains in schools and in the armed forces, and so on. From cradle to grave, people are exposed to a message that God is real, whatever the evidence.

Several philosophical arguments have been developed over the centuries, to 'prove' that God exists. The fact that new arguments were developed to replace or support old ones, and the fact that new ways of explaining the old arguments, really only proves that these arguments are not proof at all.

Blaise Pascal recognised the impossibility of proving God exists, so he devised 'Pascal's Wager'. He said that belief in God is the most rational choice due to the consequences of being wrong. This is not proof that God exists, but acknowledgement that he may not exist. Indeed, the argument can be reversed in some cases and used to argue for non-belief.

Answer 9

There are tens of proofs for God's existence. These have been recorded for centuries and are easy to look up. However, this subject ultimately becomes one of personal belief, since our possession of free-will mandates that it be possible to put forth arguments (fallacious or not) against every one of the proofs.Link: Is there evidence against Evolution

• 1) Teleological Argument: The universe has definite design, order, and arrangement which cannot be sufficiently explained outside a theistic worldview. (This is how Abraham, without benefit of teachers, came to reject the chaotic world-view of idolatry and the possibility of atheism). For example, theoretical physicist and popular science writer Paul Davies (whose early writings were not especially sympathetic to theism) states concerning the fundamental structure of the universe, "the impression of design is overwhelming" (Davies, 1988, p. 203). From the complexities of the human eye to the order and arrangement of cosmology, the voice of God is heard. God's existence is the best explanation for such design. God is the designer.

Link: God's wisdom seen in His creations

• 2) Anthropic Principle: The laws of the universe seem to have been set in such a way that stars, planets and life can exist. Many constants of nature appear to be finely tuned for this, and the odds against this happening by chance are astronomical. Professor Russel Stannard (a particle physicist) states: "The universe has been bent over backwards in order that intelligent life should exist...must have known we were coming."
  

• 3) Sensus divinitatus: The innate sense of the divine exists within all people. People and cultures of all time have, by instinct, sensed a need to believe in and worship something greater than themselves. No ancient society ever existed that did not believe in a supernatural power.
  

Link: Ancient belief

• 4) Tradition: There are historical events which cannot be explained without God. Many people have had personal experiences that turn them toward theism, but there are also events such as the Giving of the Torah to over two million people at Mount Sinai, which are underpinnings for the belief in God.
  

Link: Archaeology

• 5) Pascal's Wager: Belief in God is the most rational choice due to the consequences of being wrong. If one were to believe in God and be wrong, there would be no consequences. However, if one were to deny God and be wrong, the consequences are eternally tragic. Therefore, the most rational choice is not agnosticism or atheism, but belief in God.
  

• 6) Logic. Why is there reality rather than nothing? Aside from God's creating it, there are only five options:
  

a) The universe is eternal and everything has always existed.
- Even atheists have abandoned this possibility, especially because it would violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

b) Nothing exists and all is an illusion. There is no reality; there is only nothing.
- This possibility, it should be obvious, is completely self-defeating. In order to even make such a proposition, the subject has to exist in some sense. If all is an illusion, where did the illusion come from? Even the solipsist, who does not believe in the existence of other minds, has to explain the genesis of his own mind.

c) The universe created itself. This is the idea that the universe and all that is in it did not have its origin in something outside itself, but from within.
- Like with the previous two, this makes a logical absurdity. It would be like creating a square triangle. It's impossible. A triangle by definition cannot be square. So creation cannot create itself as it would have to pre-date itself in order to create.

d) Chance created the universe. The odds of winning the lottery are not very good; but given eons of time, everyone will win. While the odds of the universe spontaneously appearing are minuscule, could it happen, given enough time?

- This option is a dishonest sleight of hand that, like "survival of the fittest," amounts to nothing, because it implies that "chance" itself has quantitative causal power.
The word "chance" refers to possibilities. It does not have the power to cause those possibilities. It is nonsense to speak of chance being an agent of creation, since chance is not a force. "What are the odds of the universe being created by chance? Impossible. Chance is no thing. It is not an entity. It has no being, no power, no force. It can effect nothing because it has no causal power within it. It is a word which describes mathematical possibilities which, by a curious flip of the fallacy of ambiguity, slips into the discussion as if it were a entity with real power, the power of creativity." (R.C. Sproul, Not a Chance. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999.)

e) The universe is created by nothing. Simply put, nothing created the universe.
- The problem here is that it is either a repetition of option "a" (the universe is eternal) or fails due to the irrationality of "d." In our current universe, the law of cause and effect cannot be denied by sane people. While we often don't know what the cause of some effect is, this does not mean that there was no cause. When we go to the doctor looking for an explanation for the cause of our neck pain, we don't accept the answer "There is no cause. It came from nothing."

Link: Hebrew prophecies fulfilled

Answer 10

they believe there is no God because they havent seen God. and they probably think that seeing is believeing, which is sorta dumb if you ask me.