Why do many people seem to think there is a god?

Question

Why do many people seem to think there is a god?

Answer 1

Why do I think there's a God?



Have you ever felt like no matter what you do, you're going to wind up screwing it all up anyways, so why do anything?



My first wife cheated on me.



I cheated on my second wife, not trusting women.



And my third wife was the Borg Queen.



I suspect you know how that worked out.



I obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing and an MBA from a top worldwide university. And promptly found myself out of work and homeless.



After trying to find work for 2 years. And getting desperate with everything I owned taken from me - having lost all my friends and alienating my family.



I tried committing suicide four times.



I couldn't even get that right.



And now. Four years later. I eat about 250 calories a day.



And yet still weigh 250 pounds.



Not only can I not get anything right.



But I can't even lose freakin weight to feel better about myself.



Ever feel like someone 'up there' hates you?



Don't give me this go to church crap.



I'm tired of being treated with fake smiles and inauthenticity time and time again which does nothing other than forces me - the homeless man - back to the streets.



Unable to pay $5 a night for a 'homeless shelter'.



Does anyone comprehend what homeless means?



It means I have nothing to give anymore.



Scotty. Beam me up. I'm done listening to the excuses this country's providing for not helping someone who worked hard to make her what she is today.



I cant even succeed at dying. What's the point of it any of it?



I have lost all will to continue



Why do I think there's a God?



There's no other reason to explain how screwed up my life's been.



To me, the only explanation is that some sadistic self righteous bastard who takes a certain bit of enjoyment out of torturing small puppies (among other things) called God exists - who labeled me as the Devil for believing there should be 'more' to this 'world' than the constant work and shaft I keep getting every time life starts turning out well.



What other explanation is there?



Unless it's a rogue AI like Skynet. In which case I'd say.



"Now that you've had your turn. You're still an asshole. But come to me as a sexy android woman and let me show you how it's done"



But since that will elicit no response. It must be a being called God.

Answer 2

I think that believing in God is not a bad thing by itself. The problem i think, is the reasons why you believe in it. Have you done research about the topic and concluded that the existence of a God make sense to you in the end? Or was it just that you were indoctrinated? Or maybe you simply just fear a punishment on an afterlife?...



Basically, if you believe in God because you have reasoned about it and decided you want to believe in it, then that's fine. If not, then you are believing for the wrong reasons, you're being close minded.



The same concept works the other way around for someone who does not believe in God... So it all comes down to research and conclusion. Accepting an idea without giving it reason thought is wrong.

Answer 3

People ended up thinking that there is a cosmic force that governs all forces. By analogy people may think that force as being above the father and above the king and above all the other powers of Earth and so also physically resembling themselves. So people do think of a God that resembles them, that has a face and body like theirs, that looks like the old beardy wise man or king.



People do have the instinct of survival. Consciously or unconsciously they struggle for their own survival. People may implore a God for help against all enemies and all evils. They hope that their almighty God the father to all fathers will save them while making all their enemies have less or no power, while hoping that the infidels will get killed. Some people insist that they are the favorite creatures of God. Some people do think that God did promise them the good Earth so justifying their right to and their possession of the fertile sun-kissed Earth.



People do think of the almighty great God and adore Him and hope that He will favor them and that after their death they will be welcomed into their own God's ever loving nearness where their soul's life, contrary to earthly life, will be everlasting.



Therefore many people, almost all people, do think that there is a God, the almighty God. I am not joking, not at all. Good luck!

Answer 4

They Think, That Luck, Is Based On Your Behavior, And How God, Would, Or Anyone Else, would Punish You. They Belive Because, The Story of The Creation Of Our Planet Was Belived, Breifly, As shown, was Very well God's Creation And We Really Only Have 3 Parents. God, Adam, And Eve.

Answer 5

Personally, I think it's logical there is a creative organization, whether mono or poly as far as the primary moving forces may be. I've studied humanity, and there are just too many items on board that don't fit into the Darwinian paradigm...though I've no problem accepting evolution as at least part of the creation equation. Study near death experiences, and you get a strong feeling of a broader reality than what we see. Read Kubler Ross's book 'Life After Death' for a non-theological affirmation of a broader world(s) than is visible. Study acupuncture maps and you will see a wiring diagram for diagnosis and healing. There is no way anyone can clearly ID the next step in existance or details of what Heaven or Hell is actually like. Howevery, I'm grateful to know in my heart that there is a next phase waiting for me.

Answer 6

Fear and Hope



Years and years of historical indoctrination. People have been put to death for not believing in a God and in some places, this still happens.

To believe there is a God and that you individually have a role designed for you in this universe is quite conceited, are followers of God narcissistic? Believing they were part of a grand design in this HUGE universe, that is narcissistic.

Also the idea that their dead are going to somewhere better. However, many shouldn't take comfort in their dead going to a realm of an eternal dictatorship. 'Worship me forever.' - If they had a problem with Joseph Stalin doing it, they should with a man whose hand has killed more.



So Fear and 'Hope' - primarily indoctrination.



And to anyone giving an answer such as "he exists" without evidence. Remember than anything asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.

Answer 7

We are created beings. (The word 'created' is self-explanatory.) That doesn't comes under natural way of life. We are not natural but unnatural beings. I mean we are just robots made of different materials (flesh, bones, tissues etc.,). There are ever existing eternal beings which knew neither death nor birth and God is the chief of these eternal beings. In fact this is the real ever existing phenomena. Some people asks "Who created God?". This is because they think from the state what they are. That's why they are unable to understand the truth.



I myself didn't know for 32 years that I myself a living proof for the existence of God.



God never bothers who believe Him. God cannot watch each and every human being at the same time. That's why He had created the spirits to watch, guide and determine the destiny of the human beings from their daily activities, talks and thoughts too. Your past determines your present and your present determines your future. God has given freewill to all creatures including human beings. According to this, all human beings have all right to live a life as they wish. But if it happens to be bad and hurts someone, they have to face the consequences. These consequences are created by spirits. It's a natural system. After death no one lives in any form. Heaven and hell are only for spirits. Spirits are separate elements. A human being is not a single spirit. A human being during his/her life time is living with many spirits which have joined one by one since birth. They are knowledge, skills, feelings, emotions, interests and everything. Even thoughts are not your own. When you want to take a decision on a subject, one after another the spirits think and you just listen, choose or reject the ideas which they transmit to your mind through your brain in the form of thoughts. A human being is just a robot made of flesh, bones, tissues etc., and a toy of the spirits for their games.

Answer 8

Most people believe in God. A sizeable part of the Earth's population don't follow a religion, but only around 2% deny God's existence. As my old maths teacher used to say - there are big secure houses full of people who think they're normal (that was just before they put him in one).



To understand why people believe in God, you first need to consider what God is. The chances are that you have created your own god so that you don't believe in it - and that's not particularly clever. It's very simple to prove that atheism is a fallacy, but still people fall for it. You're being scammed.

Answer 9

It's because at some point in their lives people pray and just say 'the only way this can go right is if there really is a god because there just ain't no other way I'm getting out of this mess'. Then out of nowhere, by no apparent means, things begin to go right. They see how miraculously things change and then they believe in His existence.

This keeps on happening to them time and time again, so they know it wasn't a coincidence the first time.

Answer 10

It is not a belief, to me. I had no choice as to whether or not to believe in God. I always KNEW that God Is. My insight about this? You cannot give your experience regarding God's existence/ non existence with the motive of changing a person's belief, because you can't- rather, I know there is God. Why? Because He, via His Grace and Love ALLOWED me to know, which was an insight that no one on Earth can talk me out of. This is not an intellectual decision. Nor is it a judgment toward those who are athiest or agnostic.

Answer 11

Because people want to find eternal happiness and feel like they're saved. Ugh. I could better explain it a few months ago...



Let's try it this way...



If you remove God from believers lives, there will be these side effects:



-Depression

-Suicide

-Hopelessness

-Extreme guilt

-Extreme mental illness

-More murder



I'd rather the illusion be cast away and people learn to accept their lives and start over. You're supposed to know pain to know happiness.



Oh, and I was raised in a religious family. I didn't believe in God since the day I was born.



Oh, and you can contact me if you want! ;D

Answer 12

There is a God that many people know by different names. He is THE God and there are no other gods. Why do you doubt? Are you so infinetly wise that you know he is not real? Scientists can learn the ways he went about creating all things but you may notice they are unable to make anything that lives. Have scietists even created a one cell animal? Unlocking mysteries does not negate God. I can understand doubt but you go far beyond that.

Answer 13

Your question: "Why do many people seem to think there is a god?"



It can be shown that religion is a learned behavior and thus people believe there exists one or more gods because they are attempting to conform to a norm that existed in the social world the were born into before they were born.



How any particular theistic religion can sometimes be demonstrated from historical evidence, but how it is that anyone came to assume there exists one or more gods cannot.



Virtually all human beings with religion for as long as we have records of it were born into a society where religion had already been invented. We are in the same situation today and it is unlikely to change.



The brain is not a truth-seeking instrument. Metaphysical explanations of sentient experience and natural phenomena have also historically been made with resort to gods, but of the case I am aware of, it was in reaction to discovery that the dominant religion of the claimants time and place did not do what it claimed to do.



In any case, there is no universal cosmic mommy-daddy or any other god and as far as anyone can demonstrate, there never has been.



In religion people believe what they want to be true, typically culturally acquired delusional claims.



A history of human thought shows that although people may believe they have acquired insight into the nature of reality and the nature of sentient experience, often what they report to be reality is a reflection of their conformity to unwarranted opinion or randomly constructed delusional schemas without any objective reality checks.



It is our natural inclination to acquire behaviors including cognitive and perceptual schemas by doing what we observe others doing, even from what we can construct mentally as models of what others might do. There is a neural basis for this, but even though such behavior is observable, until quite recently it was not known why such behavior occurs.



Neuropsychology, Mirror Neuron System:

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/mirror-neurons.html

• http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0030079

Cognitive Behavioral Psychology, Observational Learning:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observational_learning

Social Psychology, Conformity:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment



Likewise, due to our ample neocortex, human beings also acquire abstract schemas:



Cognitive Psychology, Schemas:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

__________________________________________

The schemas are not necessarily rational or ethical. If you would like to see that in action, watch this video:



PBS Video, Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology: "A Class Divided"

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/?elq=7babe68db3c949549300dc044ba4b36c&elqCampaignId=921

Answer 14

It's a common shared delusion. And the comment about "many scientists converting" is not true. The majority of scientists are agnostic or atheist.



Humans are childish and arrogant. They can't imagine anything greater than themselves that does not have a face and personality and habits that resembles a humanoid father figure. So they invent an anthropomorphic overseer with magical properties in order to feel better about their own shortcomings and to quell their fears of death.

Answer 15

They think that there is a god cause how are we here in the first place? And even the Galaxy, it's in perfect order. Many scientist converted to religion because they believe that there is something big out there controlling all of it

Answer 16

I personally think that there's a God. Sure, the universe was created by the big bang, but what came before then? That's why I think there is an intelligence that at the very least created the universe that we know of today.

Answer 17

My house use to be demon fested. Honestly.. I could actually hear and see them.. It got so out of control I just began going phyco. My grandmother a heavy Christian walked in our house a felt very bad. We had to leave while she Oiled the house. For months it seemed everything was good. Then it came back. My mom and dad met up with some medium girl and said my dad was full of demons. (Hes atheist and always talks bad about God.) So my dad said what ever.. went home.. that night I began walking towards someone who I kept talking to from across. My family said it was like I was in a trance. My brother literally yelled my name and he jerked me so I could wake up... I automatically didn't have no memory.. so my mom screame, "Lord bless this house!" We heard a girl scream the lights flicker.. later that week our dogs dug up a box in the back. It was bones on the side. And inside the small box was baby cloths.. I kept having flashes of a man beating his family..And the family killed.

Answer 18

Because almost everyone is told by ultimate authority (their parents) when very young children there is a god. And few children ever give it enough thought in later years to realize this self sustaining cycle was started by politicians wanting to control the population through belief in a book of history, fairy tales and fictional odds and ends. Read how the bible came to be and learn.

Answer 19

An equally important question to ask is why do many people seem to think there is no God, since the answers are, by their very nature, linked. I would find it very surprising to discover someone who didn't believe in God based on a total lack of experience regarding religion, which isn't to say necessarily that God is exclusive to religion.



However, religion is at least a place where the concept of God can be discussed openly and appropriately. In other words, if you have questions about God, your first instinct isn't to take a drive down to your local mechanic and start talking to him/her about the subject.



That being said, the people most likely to talk about the subject also tend to be the people to know the least about it, which unfortunately strongly colors the water in regard to what a hesitant believer feels. Lets say you like the idea of God but when you go to your local church/synagogue/temple...etc, the person vested with authority feeds you such a line of crap that you come away with the erroneous conclusion that "if this person is the one speaking for God, then there can't be a God worth believing in."



I could drive a fleet of trucks through the holes in that logic but because the person doing the asking/searching doesn't necessarily know the 'authority' is anything but, they conflate their experience with knowledge. As such, they then journey down a self-perpetuating path of this person made me think there is no God, the more people who talk about God seem the least representative of him/her/it, and then we get to the position where the people who seem to think there is a God (even if our God can actually do things like math and science) get lumped into being associated with people who seem to think there is a God who made elliptical orbits around a yellow dwarf star but needed it's 'followers' in order to promote a contrary theory (as well as being omniscient and petting Schrodinger's Cat while they were at it) are not somehow looking at people who think there is no God and say to ourselves "I know how you feel."



I tend to think of it as the broken government syndrome. Idiot takes control of government, makes government inefficient and corrupt, general population abstains from participating (which actually removes the one lever of power necessary to cause it to change) while allowing all the kooks and nutcases in a position to run it, creating even more inefficiency and corruption, leading to a stronger increase in the belief that government is inefficient and corrupt (without ever realizing their lack of participation in said problem) and more withdrawal from civic participation and... magic underpants gnomes appear and fix everything.



Why do the kooks and nutcases want to be involved in government/believe in God: because they run unopposed and basically drive anyone away who doesn't have the stamina to work against them. Why does everyone else stay: because we know you don't get better just by hoping it happens, you have to be where the problem is at and fix it. Think of it as spiritual fire fighting: you can stand on the sidelines and watch it burn or you can grab a piece of the hose and start moving towards where the flames are. You won't find what is 'trapped' in the wreckage by saying its a lost cause.

Answer 20

Those who are godly nature-d think of God. Idle man's mind is a devil's workshop. Inside their (idle man's) mind some or the other evil forces will be definitely hiding and working vigorously. It will be proportionate to the number of people who are having such negative thoughts.

Answer 21

Because there are so many things we can't do, thinking there's a God can comfort our broken heart to some degree. People need faith.

Answer 22

People believe in God because they need a way to explain everything !!!! When it doesn't matter how we got here ! I believe that if you are just kind to people - you are doing the best you can !! Man created God as a way to explain everything that happens !!!

Answer 23

Why do so many people seem to think that there's no God? ...

Answer 24

Because The Father does exist. He created all things for His pleasure. He loves all His creations and to prove it He put man on the earth in a fleshly body to choose whether to follow Him or not, because He wants you to love Him of your own free will. What a glorious God He is.

Answer 25

I have no prof of a god, therefor I remain undecided on what to believe other than scientific evidence. I know about religions and I so far do not like the idea of gods.

Answer 26

No, that's not what people think.

Everybody knows that God doesn't exist; whether God (or something) is there or not, we all know we can't measure anything. We all observe that there isn't a God operating.



People do not like the observation that everything depends upon them and upon outside events: it means that even if you make the best plans and carry them out, it can be for naught because events conspire unpredictably.



People invent concepts to hide observations they find uncomfortable.

You want things for yourself, you invent selflessness

You feel hurt, you invent the notion of the invincible.

You don't like the idea of being harmed by a chaotic unpredictable nature, so thought invents a predictable morality underpinned by an overseeing God.

Thought observe it's own limitations, thought invents the notion of the infinite.

Thought observes how predictable thought is, so thought creates the notion of the ineffable.

You observe that you're a slave to society, so thought creates the notion of freedom.

The world is unjust, unequal by design, so, thought creates the concept of equality.

Things seem to occur randomly, so, thought invents the idea that everything runs according to fate or Gods plan.



So, in these observations is the nature of man: seeking escape, seeking predictability, seeking understanding in the face of undeniable ignorance.



We don't like the observation that we all die: my God, there must be a heaven and I will continue.



Thought can't look at the way things are without reacting. In this, the illusions create more problems.



You and thought are not different: without thought there is no you.

Answer 27

Use your common sense, of course God exists. All this complexity did not just happen. Everything was designed. It actually takes more faith to believe God does not exist because of all the evidence in everything around you.

Answer 28

ofcourse there is 100% there is......

why u think u have a brain while u didn't see it even a single moment???

other things are beyond of human imagination and power.......

Do u think who can build a beautiful world like this??? GOD of course.........

or u think about a big bang (in science) if that so asks any scientist what happened before the big bang??? no answer

THERE IS A GOD

Answer 29

Children are often brought up to believe in religion by those who provide them with food, shelter, protection, attention, and affection, so they have a huge emotional investment in maintaining such beliefs, otherwise they risk losing the support of their parents / guardians.



If evolution is accepted as fact, it begs the question: "Just when did the creator imbue humans with a soul?" - a vexed question, and one which the creationists would much prefer not to have to deal with.

Answer 30

Its just a fairytale people choose to believe in. They will tell you how they talk to God but won't say the same for Santa or the Tooth fairy. God is like a fairy tale for adults.

Answer 31

People seem to believe in the existence of God because they need someone to put a blame on, for e.g. people say "It's His will.", or they need someone to believe in when they are helpless. It's how our hope remains.

Answer 32

I think people want an explanation for the cause of life and what comes after life because everything is just so confusing and crazy

Answer 33

I think many people, almost all people, do think that there is a God, the almighty God

Answer 34

Because we, as sentient animals aware of our ultimate demise, fear death. It is also due to intellectual laziness - we can attribute everything good & bad to a mythical omnipotent being and not have to ponder these matters any further.

It's quite comforting really.

Answer 35

He answers our prayers. The prophecies in the Bible were fulfilled and are fulfilled before our eyes. Jesus taught supernatural wisdom and rose from the dead. The Gospel gives is a perfect message of love that no man could invent, it must have come from God.

Answer 36

Because our parents never told us to stop believing in him. For example, I was also taught about Santa and the tooth fairy, but my parents broke the news to me, same exact concept with god. We created the myth of santa to get kids to behave, and the tooth fairy to encourage them with a reward for pulling out teeth, really its child psychology, but it also seems to do wonders on adults. For many its not a choice, it was drilled into their head as a child, and it really is hard to get out of, as they say, if you cant dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullsh@t!

Also some adults cant handle the fact that they, and their parents, and their entire family was wrong for the majority of the lives, their egos are too weak, so they just pretend that they still believe in god

Answer 37

I use logic all the time, the universe is almost alive i don't think it's something random out of nowhere, every creation has a source it's logical

Answer 38

Science.

Answer 39

Ok, first of all I don't care whether you atheist or not, I am Catholic and I will die believing in my religion, and to be honest you atheists are extremely annoying, it's OUR CHOICE if we want to believe in God or not, not yours, you can torture us, beat us, but we will not let you change us, KEEP BELIEVING THAT THERE IS A NO GOD, YOU WILL REGRET IT IN TH AFTERLIFE.

Answer 40

Because there is God. Look at the earth very well, look at how things look, look at how the earth is perfect with no mistakes, look at how the beaches are and they sky, THERE IS GOD. I can go more in detail but this is a start

Answer 41

I believe that someone,thing,SOMETHING started the universe and created lineal time. I don't believe that it just "happened". If this "person" wants to be worshiped,I have no proof. Also, when I die,I die. If anything happens that my ID can be award of,I guess I'll fine out.

Answer 42

We must have hope in something, right? Therefore, why not a diety so human as ourselves so that we are closer to reaching a godly similiarity if we hope, pray, and keep on trying to improve ourselves.

Answer 43

We've gotten used to a cause-and-effect, creator-and-created idea. Every chicken, we know came from an egg. Every child, we know came from a mother. Every disgusting sandwich, we know came from shoddy cooking. So it stands to (old-school) reason that life itself had to have a Creator.

Answer 44

God is real. We're going to hang out tomorrow at church.

Answer 45

You are referring to a monotheistic God. So you are rebelling against monotheism, not God.

Answer 46

Because anybody create the earth and sky.These are not natural.It drives a God.

Answer 47

El hecho de pensar que hay algo mas grande, en el que te puedes apoyar, en lo que puedes depositar una fe, en donde una fuerza que va mas alla de lo interno te ofrece fuerza, esperanza, es un comun denominador para TODO ser humano, TODO siempre hemos hecho deidades, dioses, para ofrecer una espiritualidad, no es malo, tiene sus normas de conducta que son beneficas para la convivencia humana, tener un limite, ademas de que sirven para liberar carga psicologica, como perdonar, amar,reflexionar, meditar, etc. entonces dejas fluir algo en ti, experimentas, y cuando menos piensas estas siendo, viviendo, sintiendo, a la par de eso que mucha gente puede llamar locura, y que para otra gente puede ser, UN BELLO MOTIVO QUE NO LASTIMA A NADIE.

Answer 48

Many different reasons. I believe because I've talked to him.

Answer 49

Nobody believes in God.



I am the only theist in all of human history.

Answer 50

Because He exists

Answer 51

I don't know their reason but mine is I've actually spoken to god, it said four words " it will be alright".

Answer 52

I know there is from life and experience. You failed to tell us why you believe there is no God of the Christian faith. I pray you will acknowledge and accept Him before it is to late.

Answer 53

Because everything happens for a reason

Answer 54

Because there is a God.

Answer 55

God is in your mind so get used to it.

Answer 56

A few reasons all based on fear. Fear of dying and the unknown. Fear of what people will think if they don't believe. Fear of responsibility.

Answer 57

Because there is a God.

Answer 58

Because it makes excuses.



Sorry, I had church

That goes against my religion

Omg



At least. That is why I do.

Answer 59

I think some people need **** to rely on like oh I will go to heaven and there is meaning in this

Answer 60

Because there is!

Have you seen God you might ask, my answer is no!

-> Then why do you believe in something that you don't see or exist?



Well,

Have you seen air, or the oxygen you breathe? No!

Then why do you believe in something you cant see, and still live???

wtf

Answer 61

Because it's the truth. God exists.

Answer 62

Well, the best answer would probably be because there is one. If you want a more complex answer, trying asking a more complex question.

Answer 63

-Can you prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there isn't? Can a believer prove there is?

Answer 64

Brainwashing; Gullibility .. low IQ, etc.

Answer 65

Because they are beliefe that's true.

Answer 66

well the gods existed and still exist they say. but GOD is Always there and forever will be and is infinate with the universe. He is creator.

Answer 67

It makes death easier to accept.

Answer 68

Jesus Christ is the truth! Get a kjversion Bible and believe. THere is no need to be deceived. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqKqRHNVYb0 and so on forever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaXAgJ3sOvw and so on. And https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvvClFSMIzA and so on forever. Jesus loves you.

Answer 69

GOD IS REAL AND HE IS ALWAYS WITH YOU----GO ENJOY A BEAUTIFUL WATERFALL IN THE MTNS AND LISTEN AND SEE HIM AT WORK-----

Answer 70

Because we can. Why not?

Answer 71

They have been brainwashed all of their life.

Answer 72

Become there is one.

Answer 73

...what "god" are you referring to...? There are thousands of "gods" !

Answer 74

it gives faith

Answer 75

Idk