If you never ever heard or taught about god would you still believe?

Tell me this:

If you have never heard about a god in any way whatsoever, through teachings of parents, bible, church or anything that preaches religion at all. Would you still believe in a god even though you have never heard the word?

Religious conspiracy.

[edit on 4-7-2004 by I See You]

It depends, I suppose. If I am given enough about science or individual reasoning, probably not.

How do you suppose so? I would like to know how. I am not putting you down in any way, I'm just curious to posters why and how it would be possible to still believe.

Put it like this;
If I had not learnt or heard anything about the Bible/The Christian God, and had gone to school, etc, learnt about science, there would be no way I would believe in any of that.
My personal belief is that there is someone who created the universe, but other than that, did nothing. I really dont see why anyone should give a damn about a little planet in a universe that is so large we cant even comprehend it.
We are just one of perhaps billions, trillions, of other intelligent lifeforms out there (Not that I am saying I believe in UFOs, I just dont think it is even possible the universe could be this big without other lifeforms in it.)

I posted a link that answered this question elsewhere.

Basically it states that human psychology would create a god as a foil to explain the unexplainable. From this starting point and delved into deeper, it becomes logical to some that there is a god.

I believe that if you look deep enough you can find that there are only two truths. The first is that you exist. The second is that something created you.

and do you have any proof that there is something that created US in specific?
I am not disagreeing that there is something, but not that it created us. I think this is increadibly ego-centric of humans. If/when we discover an alien race, we will see for ourselves that we were not God's only creation, if that is what you believe in, and that the bible is fundamentally flawed in that respect.

Are you saying that our human psycology created the god from the bible in which most believe in? I have no belief at all the someone created me.

I personally believe that the Bible was the creation of some men trying to explain the being of the universe. It then went from that into some people creating something to create a legacy for themselves (How long will the names of St Peter, St John, etc, last in our memory for..)... After all, all anyone wants to be, is more than a little speck in our history. Everyone wants to be remembered, it is our only way to be significant, and immortal.

Originally posted by I See You
Are you saying that our human psycology created the god from the bible in which most believe in? I have no belief at all the someone created me.

I find that offensive. Who is this "most" you speak of? There are thousands of other beliefs on this tiny planet, don't forget it.

Yes, but Christianity is the majority religion, and parts of the Koran (I believe) are based upon the Bible, and the Old Testament is a large part, if not all, of the Jewish book of worship. I realize I See You probably didnt intend it like this, but that statement does cover most of the large religions.

Your're right....I chose the wrong word. Was not my intentions to offend you. Lets replace "most" with "many"

Originally posted by browha
Yes, but Christianity is the majority religion, and parts of the Koran (I believe) are based upon the Bible, and the Old Testament is a large part, if not all, of the Jewish book of worship. I realize I See You probably didnt intend it like this, but that statement does cover most of the large religions.

I don't particularly wish to argue this, but let me throw out the numbers:

Christianity: 2 billion

Islam: 1.3 billion

Hinduism: 900 million

Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 850 million

Buddhism: 360 million

Chinese traditional religion: 225 million

primal-indigenous: 150 million

African Traditional & Diasporic: 95 million

Sikhism: 23 million

Juche: 19 million

Spiritism: 14 million

Judaism: 14 million

Baha'i: 6 million

Jainism: 4 million

Shinto: 4 million

Cao Dai: 3 million

Tenrikyo: 2.4 million

Neo-Paganism: 1 million

Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand

Rastafarianism: 700 thousand

Scientology: 600 thousand

Zoroastrianism: 150 thousand

So as you can see, despite the branches of the Bible, Christianity is not the majority religion.

I think homage to a higher order is a natural part of your pyscological evolution. I remember as a child glaring at the clouds of hours end, making our faces, shapes, objects, it all seemed as if a more powerfull being was listening to me, creating whatever object I could conjur in my mind. Now immagine primitive man 30000 years ago........

Deep

Agreed, it was people's imaginations manifesting themselves too far, in the search of a logical explanation of being without sound and strong scientific foundations.. If you now apply Ockham's razor, you'll see that God is actually quite an implausibility (poor choice of word, I know, but lack of anything else) in terms of what probably caused Earth and human beings. I still, however, admit that the universe was created by something we have no comprehension of.

Originally posted by browha
I still, however, admit that the universe was created by something we have no comprehension of.

I agree. Humanity still is an infant in the eyes of the universe. We know so little and yet we think we know so much.

Originally posted by I See You
I have no belief at all the someone created me.

I See You,

I'm curious.. please explain to me how we humans came to inhabit this tiny particle of sand that we call Earth. In this vast universe we live in Earth is such a tiny tiny blot. Hardly worthy of a Real God right? Why would a Real God create us humans? Maybe God was bored and needed something along the lines of a circus side show? Are we lab rat experiments?

I'm open minded.. always willing to weigh new options if given something solid to believe in.

Maybe it's really just an illusion..

AngelIC

Originally posted by angelIC

Originally posted by I See You
I have no belief at all the someone created me.

I See You,

I'm curious.. please explain to me how we humans came to inhabit this tiny particle of sand that we call Earth. In this vast universe we live in Earth is such a tiny tiny blot. Hardly worthy of a Real God right? Why would a Real God create us humans? Maybe God was bored and needed something along the lines of a circus side show? Are we lab rat experiments?

I'm open minded.. always willing to weigh new options if given something solid to believe in.

Maybe it's really just an illusion..

AngelIC

How can I give an explanation to your question? That answer is one that nobody knows and I mean nobody. So why is it that I should have a belief that someone created me other than my parents through science(which is all we know for a fact).? There is absolutley no reason I should believe in any other.

[Edited on 4-7-2004 by I See You]

Well, if you've never ever heard about or being taught about God... Then how would you know there is one to believe in, if you catch my drift

Originally posted by I See You
There is absolutley no reason I should believe in any other.

I respect your belief. I just thought by reading your original post that you had a particular belief about where we came from. Believing in the God of the Holy Bible requires faith, which is something I lack sometimes myself.

Many things have happened in my life that make me believe more than disbelieve. Even if I'd never heard about God through teachings, through my parents, the bible or through the media, I know that I'd still be able to believe there is "Someone" out there. I'd be able to believe that I didn't just happen to exist because of some science theory.

Many people do not believe in miracles... I've seen them with my own eyes. Therefore, I have to believe in miracles. Many people do not believe in angelIC intervention... I do. And there are many more reasons why I believe than I have time to list right now.

So I guess in other words... seeing is believing. Although I have never seen God, I have seen enough to still believe.

AngelIC

I think God exist because he or it created us with a purpose.

If you noticed, we are the only life form which can "think". We are born naked, so we have to think fast to protect our skin. Animals don't think, so they are already "equiped" and they have also a purpose. Their purpose is to teach us how to live. If you can see, we use alot of reference that animals use too, such as: how to work in comunities (ants, bees, ...); how we attack and defend our selves for survival (lions, bulls,...); how we can fly and swim (birds, fish)... and many more.

After these references, we lived happily until people started to "mess up", so God choses the few (phrophets, who have clear thinking) to teach us more...( that there are good and evil, and we should follow good).

So the answer for the question: why we are here?
Because we are testing ourselves to make it to the heaven. To do that we have to knowing the difference between good and evil... and of course do good.


Life is like a trip, now we are in the airport (life) waiting for the plane (death), and it will take us to the destination (heaven or hell).

Simple as that...