There is no hard evidence that there is “God”, so why do we believe in it?
All the Yes points:
All the No points:
- This is why we believe in God: –
- Religion gives people a reason to live
- There is evidence that god exists.
religion is not necessary
Yes because…
there is no scientific evidence to either say that there is a god or that there isnt a god? what i do believe though through personal experience is that there is something that explains it all but religion is not the way for us to find out . i had a near death experience that proved to me that an afterlife exists but to get there has nothing to do with religion of any denomination? these religions are giving people teachings that were man made to control people and to scare them, all they exist for is financial gain full stop. following catholic, church of england and other christian religions will get us knowhere the bible was fabricated by king constantine the great in 325 ad, he along with others saw an opportunity to control his subjects by inventing stories to make a bible? at the time hardly anyone could read or write so the stories were passed down by word of mouth. jesus did exist but his life has been totally exagerrated to hype up the strength of the man made bible. there is no proof whatsoever that it is the word of jesus or god. we do not need religion ? all we have to do in this life is to be honest, kind and have love for our fellow people, if we are compassionate also we will go on to live again. when we see the pope drinking out of gold jewel encrusted chalices we should tell him to give it to the poor along with all the vaticans other wealth, all the religions are doing is milking the gullible people out of their hard earned cash? the churches have billions of pounds stashed away in bank accounts that they have taken from the people, they make me sick with all their brainwashing. religion isnt necessary at all and the world would be a better place without it, at least there would be world peace. think of a religion that doesnt take money from us, and then you will find a true one-one that doesnt exist.
No because…
This is why we believe in God: –
No because…
In answer to the question at the top of the page:
a) There is no scientific evidence that there is NOT a God (and it would be ridiculous to expect there to be any anyway).
b) Because of religious people’s own personal experiences, the word of holy books such as the Bible, and observation of the beneficial effects that religious belief has on believers.
c) Because it makes religious believers better people.
d) Religion is not something that can be completely supported by fact. Believers in God and religion rely more on faith, such that there is a greater being and that our actions have consequences after our death.
e) I don’t like the motion for referring to God as an ‘it’
f) Why do people believe-in/postulate/opine/assume/suppose/support/side-with anything? Because there isn’t sufficient proof that there exists a tautology on either side/facet of any dispute; all opinions on all disputes/arguments/debates/ideas/discussions become equally objective/valid when there is no way to prove-without-doubt any one side’s assertion. Whilst the existence of God cannot be proved, the non-existence of a deity cannot be proved; also.
Ideas can be fabricated while believers try to twist scientific fact to their approval; atheists attempt the same turning known ‘deists’ into Christians/Muslims/atheists(in the common no creator sense not in the true sense of not being theists)
Yes because…
a) There is no scientific evidence that there is a God (why believe in something that might not exist?). There is no need for scientific evidence that god doesn’t exist only that he does.
b) We don’t need to have ‘religious’ people to get advice from…anyone can have their own personal experiences and give advice to anyone. It is also completly subjective and is a total lack of proof
c) This is not necessarily true. Many religious believers have fallen deeply into religious believes that they actually donated hospital bills that was saved for onee of their family members. What I can definately promise is that not only religious believers are ‘better’ or ‘good’ people. Everyone in this world could be ‘better’ or ‘good’. They are only better if you:
1) assume the existance of a god
2) take what you think he, or a proxy, ‘says’ to be the definition of good
3) do it
And there you have yourself a fully circular argument
Religion gives people a reason to live
No because…
Religion is not just a set of rules in an old book it’s a way of life and it merges into people’s culture and their everyday routine. If religion were not there many people just wouldn’t know what to do with their lives….there are so many cultures who look to holy books as inspiration for their day to day activities if you took that away from them they would be lost.
Suicidal people discover religion as something to worl towards in their lives and people who have suffered abuse find comfort in the words of something omnipotent who might somehow take away their problems.
Religion gives people hope and a meaning or purpose to their lives so you cannot for one second think that we would be able to funciton without it. Sure many people are able to, hence atheists, but not all, the majority of people depend on a higher being to give them hope and who are we to deprive them of this.
Yes because…
We dont need religion as a way of life. There are too many denominations arguing and opposing one and other. Without religion we would care for each other more by making more use of the money we would of donated to each church, the money these churches have should be taken from them by law and put back into the communities of each country thats poor? What is the good of hoarding all the wealth that they have? helping the deprived people of the world and buying hospital machinery to save lives etc. is far better than leaving it in a bank account. Why do the churches ask for money in the first place? Doesnt this prove that religion is purely money orientated? If they cared about people the churches would of distributed their wealth long before now. They simply do not follow the teachings quoted by Christ and are nothing but hypocrits the lot of them. Many children have to go to church from a very early age allowing the church to brainwash them into their way of life, its the same with every church – forcing their doctrines upon us uninvited purely for control. Talk about satan and us going to hell is simply to scare everyone there is no hell and no satan, God was too perfect to make such a mistake as to create an angel that would rebel against him, to say he did would mean he was imperfect and God is perfect. If he could create the universe then he wouldnt of made a silly mistake like satan. we are given a free will by the creator and if we do wrong then we are to blame not some devil if we do good in our lives its because we have made the right decision not because God has helped us.
If people want to talk to god it should be done in privacy, rather than going to a church to pay ones way to heaven. the kingdom of God is within us all if we live right and be good to each other, it wont be found inside a church or in any religion. Thus many athiest people are better citizens that church goers. For those that want to learn about God or Jesus then all they have to do is listen to their conciences and do the thing that is right in life not support religions that stop 25% of their wages, and filling collection plates with money when more desperate needs are awaiting that money.
There is evidence that god exists.
No because…
I would disagree with your assumed point and say that there is eviddence of the existance of god. There is the mere fact that we exist. When you consider the millions or billions or possibly more things that have occured throughout the history of the universe without which life as we know it could never have evolved. If the planet was much smaller it could not retian it’s atmosphere. Our planet just happens to have a natural magnetic field to shield us from the suns gamma and x-rays. We happen to be in exactly the right place between the sun and jupiter so that the world neither cooks nor melts. Sentient life managed to evolve on this planet with billions of years left until our sun dies. No asteroids large enough to cause and apocolypse have hit the planet since we evolved. No supervolcanoes have erupted since we evolved. We have the ozone layer to filter out leathal amounts of UV radiation. The list goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. How could all that have possibly happened by coincindence???
Yes because…
Organized religions are not necessary because they created religions as institutions where God is worshiped through praising and pleasing practices and expecting God will forgive our sins. God by definition does not need any praise and appeasement. Sins can never be cleared by God alone. Sins can only be forgiven by person whom you caused damage in any capacity. This kind of worship simply takes human being away from their moral responsibility toward fellow human beings. Excessive praising and pleasing God give us a pleasure which is more a kind of immediate gratification but does not give us a long lasting satisfaction. Organized religions are based on emotional attachment/feeling to God, even cruelty to human being is justified in the the name of God. Organized religion makes us more self-centered people.
Personal religion is relationship between individual human being(no need of organized religion) and God and is based on individual human being commitment to other human being on moral ground. True worship of God is implementing moral values and is personal rather than institutional. We are used to see God only connected to organized religion. When we see immorality by organized religions then we automatically turn to believing nonexistence of God. We typically do not associate practicing moral values as part of worship of God but rather something human can do on his own without need of existence of God. Why God is needed to be existent in personal religion?. God is kind power to which we feel humble to and seek courage in our struggle while implementing moral values toward other human beings. Implementing moral values does not give us any pleasure of immediate gratification in nature but it requires struggle and painstaking process followed by long lasting satisfaction. Personal religion is based on empathy I.e. we feel others’ pain and suffering. Life is the most beautiful thing when we human beings feel others’ pain and suffering. When it comes to respect of human life, personal religion is the religion of logic/rational and reasons.
In nutshell, God is present, there is no need of organized religion, there is personal relationship or religion between God and human being where God is considered existent as a symbol of humbleness during our struggle while implementing moral value to others.
religion is help full but when we see the negative part the disgust for another community and when someone create for one person and attach to religion then the whole community he think will be like that and that create hate.
not all develop a critical thinking and that why they totally relay on religion but one point will come when whole world will have one religion and that humanity hate will be confined to only one person and compassion,love,happiness throw out the world will be
But the actual comment I wanted to make was in reference to religious people are generally good &/or better people than those who are not. This may be true to a certain extent, depending on who/what we’re talking about.
You see, people were ‘very religious’ when they worshipped separately in their communities. There were priests present at lynchings reading from the Bible w/members of their congregation. POINT being, religious people can be downright BAD and have NO CLUE they are bad, hence their beliefs, stemming from religion. KKK members claim to be Christian, and in their minds, they are.
Your beliefs don’t determine your character, your behavior does. People worshipped by day, and lynched by night, . .in the name of God, no doubt.
I say this discussion of whether there’s a God or not can go either way. Since our very existence is pursuant to the earth being habitable thru circumstances we can’t/don’t control; and the argument that the circumstances under which we exist are more than likely NOT coincidental.
And I agree with the argument of the ‘church’ being all about ‘money’.
And lastly, I want to say we are all products of our environment. Meaning, those who are born across the water in another land, are told, from youth, “You’re a Christian, or you’re a Catholic, or Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Baptist, Jehovah’s Witness or WHATEVER. The point is that for the most part, when it comes to religion, we follow a path of what we’ve been taught &/or led to believe.
The longer you live, there may come a time where one must think for their self.
Thanks for reading.
Just a comment.Thank you for publishing this. I have searched half of my life for people who believe that a personal religion based on reason does not mean one is an atheist . There is no name on the writing of a person who says :God by definition does not need praise and appeasement:. I am grateful for this person and would like to thank him or her for letting me know I am not alone in my personal commitment to our God.
We would love to hear what you think – please leave a comment!
Of course there is not a God.
But it’s an interesting question why religions are so successful.
I think it is because people are ignorant of the proven science these days, for example they don’t really understand evolution.
The other reason for believing in a God is that people want some reason why they are here and also don’t like the idea that soon they’ll be dead.
Society does not need the God myth to make people behave in a decent matter. People have an in built sense of right and wrong, and this gets reinforced by good parenting.
I don’t expect a religious person to even think about these points : “You can’t reason with a religious person, if you could then they wouldn’t be religious in the first place”.
I believe that God is with me all the time. I know it without religion. I would like to be a part of a religion because I like to sing to God along with my fellow humans, but I can’t believe all that they teach. I simply believe that God loves us all. God does not make bad things happen, we do that to each other. Even sickness is the result of misuse of Gods gifts. God does not have our weaknesses such as anger or pride. God is always waiting for us to turn to Him or Her but God is spirit so what does that matter. Our bodies will die but our spirits will always be joined to God. Steve you believe that we have a built in sense of right and wrong. You already believe in God.If you believe in goodness, kindness, fairness and love you do believe in God.
Seriously, people are too ignorant. Adam lived 101? years? What a joke. God created Adam on the 6th day and animals a few day before that. Where did dinosaurs go? Are you still so ignorant to say that, ‘Dinosaurs are fake. They are made up.’ How about I say, ‘Christianity is fake.’ Is your God going to punish me? No, he won’t. He said he loves all men. But only those who believe could go to Heaven and the rest shall go to Hell. Is sending people to Hell an act of love? People who are so ignorant to believe in religions could always find some reasons that don’t even make a tiny bit of sense to repel. How geocentrism? Forgot that bit? It is introduced by the Church. You said you knew it without with religion. You know god because there is religion. Religion is just an idea to control people’s minds. Therefore it is designed to be flawless. History has proven this correct. Yet you still want to be controlled. It is your problem.