We are born to believe in God

I think it's only natural to have an inherent belief in some sort of creator. Creativity, invention, creating something from nothing, are such important parts of human existence I think it's only natural to consider that someone, or some force, has created us and everything we see.

Almost everything in our modern life has been created by someone, I've never understood why some people think the concept of our creation is so ludicrous.

I am created by my dad and mom and not by any supreme being / god.
and I am not born to believe in god or supreme being.. we are all the same only our knowledge base might be higher or lower and our place on the evolutionair ladder.
I am not created by an ET / alien being which has more technological and biological knowlegde .
thats my view.

reply to post by Shadowflux


It is because god has been personified too much... I don't think of god as a person or being, my believe system has taught me that god is pure energy present in every atom that "exists", holding our universe together like a infinite big spider web.
Its just that many religious texts are misleading because of the symbolism used, lack of science too... that's why I admire the new religious movement, which unifies all religious believes and science into one.

I remember once on my knees praying to god and asking for help
Then suddenly I realized........... I was actually praying to myself!



[edit on 7-9-2009 by ModernAcademia]

reply to post by silent thunder

Even if you don't believe religion is literally "true," it should be possible to see its "usefulness" from a raw survival perspective.

Well it would seem that after quite a few thousand years of religion it would appear that it's usefulness has all but disappeared.

I would agree with Tenthtothepower "Like minded people banded together"

As far as "Born to believing in god" goes, before the xtians get all worked up wagging their magik fingers say we told you so.
The article does not stipulate which god !

Originally posted by moocowman

The article does not stipulate which god !

You'd have to prove their is a "Which God" to chose from before you can go accusing it of being guilty for not mentioning it.

I really don't think it matters does it?

Every atheist I've met, including a close friend of mine, have incredible egos. I think this speaks volumes of why they believe this way, in a sense they are their own god. I don't go to church, maybe once in awhile, and I accept the fact the bible is no longer in it's pure form. However, this did not lead me to dismiss the creator entirely. I believe in other dimensions, and that not everything exists on a physical plane of existence. Did'nt they say all physical matter is energy on a certain frequency level? Or something to that effect. I don't look down on people of faith, being a man of faith myself, but I wonder how many really know what their faith means.
I sometimes wonder if they even know what it is exactly they believe in.
I doubt the real God could be explained in words, especially as few as are in the bible and other holy texts.

Anyway, yeah I think some of us 'are born with it' so to speak.

[edit on 9-9-2009 by Centurionx]

What a load of crud. I am not religious and I find ego ridden people in all religions walks of life. None of my non-religious friends have big egos. They are all very humble and modest and care about others way before themselves. The spend time caring for the earth and the community without the notion of 'getting something' for it.

No one is born with religion ingrained in them. You inherit the beliefs that your family pass on to you. It's a kind of brainwashing in a sense. Generally - if your family is religious you have no choice and know nothing else. You do have the free-will to choose, but it is more difficult if it is a culture you have been used to since day one. THAT is not a choice.

If you born into a family that lets you make your own decisions that is TRUE free-will. I have friends who were born into non-religious families who looked into religion adults and chose that path as adults. Neither of my parents are religious but they instilled good values and morals into our lives and always told us that we were free to go to church and pursue a religion if that is what we chose to do. They never dissed religion but gave us objective information. We had compulsory religious classes in Primary School too...so I was exposed to it but made my decision not to go down that path thanks to the info I had gleaned.

I think everyone should be an open slate until they are old enough to understand exactly what religion is. No adult should force their child into a religious culture. let them choose later on.

Originally posted by swinggal
What a load of crud. I am not religious and I find ego ridden people in all religions walks of life. None of my non-religious friends have big egos. They are all very humble and modest and care about others way before themselves. The spend time caring for the earth and the community without the notion of 'getting something' for it.

No one is born with religion ingrained in them. You inherit the beliefs that your family pass on to you. It's a kind of brainwashing in a sense. Generally - if your family is religious you have no choice and know nothing else. You do have the free-will to choose, but it is more difficult if it is a culture you have been used to since day one. THAT is not a choice.

If you born into a family that lets you make your own decisions that is TRUE free-will. I have friends who were born into non-religious families who looked into religion adults and chose that path as adults. Neither of my parents are religious but they instilled good values and morals into our lives and always told us that we were free to go to church and pursue a religion if that is what we chose to do. They never dissed religion but gave us objective information. We had compulsory religious classes in Primary School too...so I was exposed to it but made my decision not to go down that path thanks to the info I had gleaned.

I think everyone should be an open slate until they are old enough to understand exactly what religion is. No adult should force their child into a religious culture. let them choose later on.

What the hell does all that ranting have to do with the OP?

What religion is God?

Originally posted by Centurionx
this speaks volumes of why they believe this way, in a sense they are their own god.

That is a really odd thing to say. Non-religious people don't BELIEVE in anything. We just live. And as for being their own 'god' - that is also a contradiction. I do good for my community, care about my friends and family, help anyone out who needs me too....that's not beleiving in something, it's just living my life in a non-selfish manner. I don't need a god to tell me to be a good person. My morals came from my family - who aren't religious ether.

If you want to use generalisations - the most selfish people I have ever met (and I'm talking world-wide as I have done a lot of travel) are so called 'good Christians' who never do a thing for anyone or are rude, racist, homo-phobic, destroy the environment and do all the things the bible says they shouldn't do. I include many people I call friends in this group too. Explain that?

Originally posted by Stylez

Originally posted by swinggal
What a load of crud. I am not religious and I find ego ridden people in all religions walks of life. None of my non-religious friends have big egos. They are all very humble and modest and care about others way before themselves. The spend time caring for the earth and the community without the notion of 'getting something' for it.

No one is born with religion ingrained in them. You inherit the beliefs that your family pass on to you. It's a kind of brainwashing in a sense. Generally - if your family is religious you have no choice and know nothing else. You do have the free-will to choose, but it is more difficult if it is a culture you have been used to since day one. THAT is not a choice.

If you born into a family that lets you make your own decisions that is TRUE free-will. I have friends who were born into non-religious families who looked into religion adults and chose that path as adults. Neither of my parents are religious but they instilled good values and morals into our lives and always told us that we were free to go to church and pursue a religion if that is what we chose to do. They never dissed religion but gave us objective information. We had compulsory religious classes in Primary School too...so I was exposed to it but made my decision not to go down that path thanks to the info I had gleaned.

I think everyone should be an open slate until they are old enough to understand exactly what religion is. No adult should force their child into a religious culture. let them choose later on.

What the hell does all that ranting have to do with the OP?

What religion is God?

The original post is about whether we are born to believe in God...this is exactly what I have talked about.

Originally posted by helen670

Originally posted by HunkaHunka

Originally posted by Praetorian Guard
Yep, Hitler was influenced by Madam Blavatsky's spiritual teaching. Fancied himself something of a Messiah. And sought out magical artifacts, such as the Spear of Destiny.

Hitler was not a disciple of Christ, but he was no atheist.


[edit on 7-9-2009 by Praetorian Guard]

Hitler was influenced by Madame Blavatsky in the same way Jesus influenced Charles Manson.

Hi/

Hitler was probably influenced by evil,hatred and dark powers(dark shadows that appeared to him in his sleep)all combined....but I can honestly say that Charles Manson was NOT in any way influenced by Jesus Christ!
There is a saying ''Guard your mind''....it's amazing what the mind can do, if let un-guarded!

ICXC NIKA
helen
Charles Manson, was

Indeed he was influenced by Jesus, but his own interpretation of it...

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
I remember once on my knees praying to god and asking for help
Then suddenly I realized........... I was actually praying to myself!

[edit on 7-9-2009 by ModernAcademia]

MA I hope you can see this, I know you got me on ignore... but this was an excellent post!



BE YOUR OWN GOD!

reply to post by HunkaHunka


I don't have you on ignore
I don't have anybody on ignore, just very few foes
although many have added me as a foe

On another note, people talking about egos in atheits is crazy
you know if many people knew how complex the human brain is and what it is capable of I swear you'd have a huge crowd of people worshipping the human brain.

at least it's tangible

there's more proof of nessie and bigfoot then god
and ALL religions to me are basically the same

it's holy books full of bedtime stories and silly fables
Star Trek makes WAY more scientific sense than the bible
hell i'll even say Star Wars

bible is full of god told this to this person, and this person told that person and that person told his person
Our legal system calls this hearsay

nobody knows who wrote these holy books
no historian spoke of Jesus
in fact the accounts of historians refute statements made in the bible

come on guys.... let's make thinking popular again!
all religions are cults and should be regarded as such
Although I LOVE religious debates, I also think it's time to move on from these pre-medieval beliefs.

Religion has never been the real cause of wars, it was only used as a tool to assist in the cause. The true purpose of all wars is Earth and water as simply puut by a character in 300. Civilizations have the expand to support growing populations, so they seek to conquer new lands and resoources. Or even if they have the right land, greed creates the desire for new luxuaries, new exotic foods, timber, oils, coal, minerals and hundreds of things. Allso the desire for more taxable land.

It is the same today, but the mmethods are differennt. Instead of forcibly annexing the new land under the same state, the state is overthrown , planted with a puppet that will allow the conquerer to introduce his big businesses into the market and outcompete the local business. Tjhe profits then end up going back to the central authority half a world away.

Religion is never the cause of wars thouugh. The Crusades was really about controlling trade routes and central cities key to international trade at the time.

[edit on 9/9/2009 by DYepes]

Originally posted by swinggal

Originally posted by Centurionx
this speaks volumes of why they believe this way, in a sense they are their own god.

That is a really odd thing to say. Non-religious people don't BELIEVE in anything. We just live. And as for being their own 'god' - that is also a contradiction. I do good for my community, care about my friends and family, help anyone out who needs me too....that's not beleiving in something, it's just living my life in a non-selfish manner. I don't need a god to tell me to be a good person. My morals came from my family - who aren't religious ether.

If you want to use generalisations - the most selfish people I have ever met (and I'm talking world-wide as I have done a lot of travel) are so called 'good Christians' who never do a thing for anyone or are rude, racist, homo-phobic, destroy the environment and do all the things the bible says they shouldn't do. I include many people I call friends in this group too. Explain that?

I obviously struck a nerve here, as you felt the need to defend your BELIEF that non religous people are generally good. Since you do not believe in anything, and just live as you say, then for you there should be no good or evil. I also noticed you went on the offensive and said christians are rude, racist, and destroy the environment. Explain what? Like I said I was talking about friends of mine, including a very close friend in particular, I did not generalise, unlike you. Caring for your friends and family does'nt make you good, nor humble. You felt the need to post to defend your ego, even though I was'nt speaking to you or all atheists in general, just the ones I have known. Then you proceed to bash christians(as if that is'nt done enough here on ATS). I did'nt say I was christian, nor did I say christians are 'good' either.

I have to take issue with the source article.

Here it is so you don't have to go back to the OP

ex]They suggest that during evolution groups of humans with religious tendencies began to benefit from their beliefs, perhaps because they tended to work together better and so stood a greater chance of survival.

What is it with evolutionary biology? It's so slack. People just make stuff up - "it evolved because..." then, "possibly evolved to [insert "evolutionary advantage" here...

The fact that people think this is science is astonishing to me.

Bruce Hood, professor of developmental psychology at Bristol University, believes the picture is more complex. “Our research shows children have a natural, intuitive way of reasoning that leads them to all kinds of supernatural beliefs about how the world works,” he said.

“As they grow up they overlay these beliefs with more rational approaches but the tendency to illogical supernatural beliefs remains as religion.”

This seems rather glib. And not nearly so antithetical to Dawkins' position as the author of the article seems to think.

Other researchers have found that even ardent atheists may balk at the idea of accepting an organ transplant from a murderer, because of a superstitious belief that an individual’s personality could be stored in their organs.

Actually, there is some evidence to suggest that the heart, certainly, can transfer aspects of its former owner's presonality to the donee. There was a fascinating documentary on BBC2 IIRC which, to take only one example, showed a guy who'd been a couch potato and then got a heart transplant from an extreme sportsman. He abruptly took up the sports the donor had enjoyed.

Of course, this is controversial. It cannot be, therefore the evidence for it has to be ignored or derided. The programme showed one doctor who'd had a transplant and had previously pooh-poohed the theory. He's a bit of a convert now, apparently.

But the fact that the author of the article says it's a "superstitious belief" betrays his own assumptions about the matter rather than any wealth of knowledge in the subject.

We don't really understand the phenomenon of consciousness at all, and this article would try and BS us with hidden assumptions.

Such work is supported by other researchers who have found evidence linking religious feelings and experience to particular regions of the brain. They suggest people are programmed to get a feeling of spirituality from what is nothing more than electrical activity in these regions.

My emphasis: the "nothing more" is a reductionist assumption that is, I think, destructive. And more assumptions follow...

Andrew Newberg, professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania, has used brain-imaging techniques to show that such feelings are invoked by activity in “belief networks” operating across the brain. This supersedes the earlier concept of a “God spot”, activated during meditation or prayer.

“The temporal lobe interacts with many other parts of the brain to provide the full range of religious and spiritual experiences,” he said.

How does he know what the full range of religious and spiritual experiences comprise of? This is, to put it mildly, a bold and sweeping claim.

This mechanistic view of religious experience is reinforced by separate research carried out by Michael Persinger of Laurentian University, Ontario, who has used powerful magnetic fields to induce visions and spiritual experiences in volunteers.

No, that just tells you that you can mess with people's heads using magnetic fields. It doesn't say anything about the validity or otherwise of religious experience. To go that far is just reaching. I say this from the POV of someone who isn't in any organised religion and is to some degree an agnostic. Scientific and religious fundamentalism both look a bit similar to me.

Not a terribly good article imo.

Originally posted by DYepes
Religion has never been the real cause of wars, it was only used as a tool to assist in the cause. The true purpose of all wars is Earth and water as simply puut by a character in 300. Civilizations have the expand to support growing populations, so they seek to conquer new lands and resoources. Or even if they have the right land, greed creates the desire for new luxuaries, new exotic foods, timber, oils, coal, minerals and hundreds of things. Allso the desire for more taxable land.

It is the same today, but the mmethods are differennt. Instead of forcibly annexing the new land under the same state, the state is overthrown , planted with a puppet that will allow the conquerer to introduce his big businesses into the market and outcompete the local business. Tjhe profits then end up going back to the central authority half a world away.

Religion is never the cause of wars thouugh. The Crusades was really about controlling trade routes and central cities key to international trade at the time.

[edit on 9/9/2009 by DYepes]

I agree wholeheartedly, WW1, WW2, Vietnam, American revolution, French revolution, they were not wars over religion. Actually to all of you who say that religion causes war, name one for me please, I honestly can't think of any. Wars are waged for the same reason they always have been, gold and power.

it's holy books full of bedtime stories and silly fables
Star Trek makes WAY more scientific sense than the bible
hell i'll even say Star Wars

Yawn...you sound like everyone else. In case you have'nt noticed, holy texts are not meant for scientific sense, rather spirtual sense. You and those like you, are what they call devoid of spirit. You are conformed to the world, tangible. What is spirit is spirit, and what is flesh is flesh. Flesh is concerned only with worldly(physical) matters, you have no understanding of holy scripture so you scoff and laugh it off. I've been lurking on ats for a long time and I see people verbally attacked constantly simply because they believe in God. I'm not a fan of organized religion either, but I don't feel the need to belittle those who enjoy attending church. I don't call them sheep, or fools because they believe in the literal truth of the bible. Who's pushing views on who here?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Atheists want the end of religion? That sounds like they want to convert people to accept their point of view, how ironic.

great thread... still taking in it all.. certain aspects i hadnt considered before.. very interesting indeed.. so far i've seen athiest bashing and christian bashing.. though there have been many great points i see that a lot of christians seem to think that they are above reproach...

now on topic.. as a kid my dad wouldnt let me and my sisters go to church
(much to my catholic grandparents dismay). as he wanted us to have our heads together and understand the difference between church docturine and true faith.. but still i would sneak into my older brothers room and read his bible.(.he lived with our grandparents).. and for a while i didnt understand why my dad did this.. as it seemed rather straight forward to me. .( was forced to go to church when i was about 11 and what a nightmare.. and i finally undersood what he was talking about.. anyway.. as a kid i had no problem with not going to church as i had the faith of a kid as only a child can. and it got me thru some super hard times.. that a kid should not have to go thru.. so yea from my own personal experiance i can see the idea of being born to believe as true.. and for a long time i had kinda lost my faith. but again dad to the rescue.. what he had been teaching me was the difference between faith in god and faith in church dogma..

reply to post by Centurionx


actually in all of these religion was used as a tool.. look back at some of the proaganda from those times.. and not just the msm.. and just as religion is being used today to destroy the constitution. case in point.. right wing conservs and mormons and fundies trying to force church docterine to become state and federal law...reguardless of others rights and beliefs

[edit on 15-9-2009 by scorand]