What is your belief based on?

I was having a discussion with some friends in another forum, and our discussion spurred us into conducting some kind of informal survey about our discussion. You can view the original thread here.

Our discussion was originally about "humans creating god" but it turned into a discussion about why people believe what they do. There are religious people, and there are scientific minded people, then there are a mixture of the two.

My question is, in this informal survey, what do you base your beliefs on? Do you believe that things (like religion or aliens) are true until proven false? Or do you believe that things (physics, science) are false until proven true?

Please try to answer with either of the responses, and feel free to discuss, but I do want to try to conduct a bit of a survey from this, so a concrete answer would be great. Thanks a lot, hopefully I can get some thoughtful input here.

[Edited on 2-8-2004 by Faisca]

Personal experience and logic. How else would I rationalize the world about me?

Would you say that you believe things are true until proven false, or false until proven true? Or would it depend on the situation?

I too deal in logic and experience, but a lot of times people tell me that if I looked at things logically that I shouldn't believe in God. Yet I do believe in God because I have faith that God (whatever he may be) exists.

Originally posted by Faisca
Would you say that you believe things are true until proven false, or false until proven true? Or would it depend on the situation?

True until proven false always seemed to be a strange sort of rational to me. I mean, prove that I am not the reincarnation of Jesus with amnesia or that I am not controled by the invisible essence of an undetectible alien parasite. Sure most everything is possible, but if we don't consider what is probable first and formost then TRUTH becomes everything from reptilian aliens to radioactive gnomes to anything one's imagination can think of.

I see your point. But I guess for me it depends on the situation. Like, you can't literally prove that God exists, but I still believe in God.

Originally posted by Faisca
Like, you can't literally prove that God exists, but I still believe in God.

If you don't mind me asking, how did you come to this conclusion? If it is in a way other then the adherence to scripture I would honestly like to know.

I base most everything on logical thought, but I will be the first to admit that this method has the very real possibility of being incorrect from time to time.

More ice cream is sold in summer than any other time. Most violent crime tends to occur in summer. Therefor it is only logical to conclude that there is a connection between the spike in the activity of both. This is of course ridiculous, but there is a certin train of logic to it. People once thought that the Earth was flat because that is what they logically witnessed with their eyes. Again we see how this form of logic is untrue because of the falicy of the measuring device.

I actually do believe in something that I am quite hesitant to call God because of all the different interpretations of the word that different individuals conjer up. What I believe in is more of a phenomenon then an entity. This phenomenon or god-thing is something that I have come to believe through my understanding of micro-physics, various philosopies, logical thought and a personal experience. Can I prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt? I'm not that smart and I also do not have the proper measuring devices to prove it empirically. So why do I believe it? That is because it seems like the most probable explanation of existence to me.

Hope that answers your question.

Originally posted by Faisca
Would you say that you believe things are true until proven false, or false until proven true? Or would it depend on the situation?

I too deal in logic and experience, but a lot of times people tell me that if I looked at things logically that I shouldn't believe in God. Yet I do believe in God because I have faith that God (whatever he may be) exists.

I just thought I would point out that "true until proven false" is a fallacy. You cannot prove something didn't happen. The best you can do is try to prove something did happen, and then discount it due to lack of evidence.

Logically, belief in God is subject to the collection of evidence. When a person collects enough evidence to satisfy their burden of proof, they will believe. If they do not, they will continue to disbelieve.

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You make a good point, Raph, I guess I didn't phrase it correctly.

In response to Jonna, no I don't believe in God only because of the Bible. I'll point out right away that I'm as far from the "fundie Christian" that you can probably possibly get and still call yourself a Christian. I know the Bible was written by man, and that half of it is old tales, hardly anything is literal, etc. But I do honestly believe that Jesus did the things he did. I believe that because I have faith that it happened, I don't need it to be proven. Even if none of that did happen, it wouldn't break my faith in God or make me become non-religious.

I believe in God also because when I look out at the beauty in the world, I refuse to believe it all happened on accident. You can explain to me how a sunset happens, or how a volcano erupts until the cows come home, but you can't explain to my why it does, or why it is one of the most beautiful things on this earth. I see God in people, in the kindness and goodness of people, even those who don't believe in a higher being, I still see Him inside of those who are beautiful and good. I feel that I have "communicated" with God, or whatever higher being, at different points in my life through prayer (not talking to God like Georgie Bush does, but I think you get my idea) and I've felt a presence that I can't explain.

It is these things that cause me to believe in a higher power. Whether you call Him Allah, Buddha, God, or whatever I believe that one powerful entity exists that we can really not even fathom. And I believe in this through my experiences, through things I have seen, and through things I have been taught.

I hope that explained some things more clearly.

Bump! Because I think it is worth it.

Without attacking any other beliefs, why do each of you believe what you do?

I believe what I believe because I have prayed about it, and I have recieved what I believe to be an answer that it is right for me...wow, I said "believe" like 3 time, or 4 if you count the one in quotation marks...

This cannot be answer in a black and white, yes and no way... In some cases, if it seems probable something will be true, or what is stated makes sense to me and my personal experience states that yes it is likely this is true... Then i will believe untill proven false.

Onthe flip side, if something seems completely unlikely and my personal experiences and logic state that it doesnt make sense or ring true... then i will assume its wrong untill proven true...

It all depends on the situation... you cant have set guidlines to how you believe, its all relative to certain situations...

Religiously i believe what i have experienced and what makes sense to me...

Originally posted by Jonna
Bump! Because I think it is worth it.

Without attacking any other beliefs, why do each of you believe what you do?

I believe because I have seen enough evidence to satisfy my burden of proof.

After these events I was basically agnostic, and began to search for more evidence.

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