Why do people believe in God?

Sorry, I don't have any articles or videos. But, it's been in the back of my mind forever now, and I can't stand it. I'm also pretty scared to look for the answer, I am very afraid of what it might be. I don't have any intelligent articles or famous conspiracy theorist quotes or anything, and I'm sorry if what I'm saying doesn't sound quite intelligent or clear enough to understand fully. I'm a 19 year old with no real education except what I've picked up on my own, so you'll have to work with me.

I do believe in God.

But, lately, speaking as a "generalist" looking objectively to the world, as I always try to do, I can't help but notice something about humanity.

In all human societies, there is always some driving passion, some idolized thing that people have chosen to be their leaders, be it some kind of special person, a statue, a government, or the sun... in ancient societies, and in current day, people always seem to have some built in need to worship something, to be lead by something.

Every ancient society has a God, or many Gods. Every nation has a government, to whom they're expected to follow. Every majority has a religion, to which they're committed. And you know something? All of the people living under these oppressions prefer the lifestyle. All of them want to be ruled, told what is right and wrong, and to worship.

Perhaps this human need is built into us because there really is a God, and we know we need to worship him.

But I can't escape my doubts.

What if people are geared this way from the start by some unknown force? Sounds crazy, but who's to say? Societies have been manipulated, lied to, and used by their masters since... forever. The human mind is perhaps the greatest tool that anyone could ever hope for, especially if you have a longing for world domination. If you understand what is in a person's head that makes them tick. If you understand how people are wired, and how to manipulate it to obtain your desired result and reaction. The thought of that terrifies me, because I'm on the bottom of the food chain... I'm a part of ordinary society. Whatever the truth may be, I am living it. God knows what it is.

It almost seems like all people are incomplete, like they're born just to fill the void in themselves, and they have to cling to something in life. They have to cling to God, to their relationship partner, to their career, or whatever... and I understand being loving and passionate, but it's deeper than that.

It seems like human kind was engineered just to be lead by someone else.

The way our minds work, we're all desperate to be told what to do rather than figure it out ourselves, to follow rules instead of create them, to swallow everything without a question instead of digging deep and fighting tyranny.

Before I'd ever learned a single conspiracy in my life, and before my family fell apart and became extremely dysfunctional, I was an open book. My mind was ready to absorb anything around me, and I was a happy, loving, sensitive little girl. I was carefree, happy as could be, and I watched cartoons, played outside, wrote stories and colored, and never worried about anything beyond that. I loved to be simple. I adored it.

Now, when I see pictures of myself from back then, I can't recognize myself. I am not that kid now.

Everything is exactly opposite now. I trust nothing. I can't watch television or read a book without thinking "How is this affecting me? It's affecting me in subtle psychological ways I can't even comprehend, it's going to manipulate my thoughts, influence my decisions..." Everything is a question mark. Everything is a potential enemy. Simple, open-book people are tools, for whatever's around them, for whoever feels like manipulating them, and they don't even know it. I really feel for them. The thought of being controlled like that, the thought of some other being or force molding me into something desirable to them like a mold of clay, both terrifies and infuriates me.

I try everything to only be influenced by myself, and nothing around me. Not to let other people's views affect mine, not to let the news affect my opinion of current events, not to be lead by anything or anyone but myself.

Though sometimes, it seems like a lost cause, because I am always influenced by something other than myself. All people are. Why is that?

What is built into us that makes us incomplete? Always looking for leadership and completion from somewhere else? Is it because we are supposed to be completed by God's love?

Or are we genetically wired to constantly want, drive, and need? Were we simply born that way, or did someone genetically engineer the human race early on so we'd all be a great slave race for someone higher?

Am I imagining this?

Does anyone understand this?

We all want to be loved and for some God can fill that hole, but let your God be a personal God do not let anyone tell you how to think and work out your own faith.
I believe in God but my God is not to do with any man made religion but thats my views on it .
Just be a decent human being and I'am sure you will be fine .
You are the center of your universe, a single point of conscious thought and with our thoughts we make the world.
You have posted some of the biggest questions Mankind has every asked him/herself and I guess that is part of life, trying to figure them out.
Good thread dude and keep asking those big questions.

The word God is used to replace the word 'unknown'.

Anything we don't comprehend or cannot explain is put into the category of God and then because we don't have the answers and the unknown exists and marvels our little brains, we then worship it as a deity.

Being rather linear thinkers I guess it's some peoples way of putting an end to a beginning and a beginning to an end? I dont know I'm not Alice Cooper....

I believe in something higher because I don't believe it's possible for a universe / plane of existence / whatever based on causality to be self-contained and be the only thing that exists, so something not constrained by causality must exist. (And before anyone replies with the inevitable "Where did that come from?" note that I said not constrained by causality, so arguing that it violates causality doesn't make a whole lot of sense.)

I do not however subscribe to the religious notion that there is some being out there who must be worshiped or grovelled to, that is a primitive backward idea that is just a reflection of man's desire to receive such things. If such a being does exist, he's done a fantastic job of convincing the world he doesn't. Whatever that being/existence/thing/whatever is, it's clear we're not going to find out any meaningful details about it/him while we're alive here.

Originally posted by Thurisaz
The word God is used to replace the word 'unknown'.

Anything we don't comprehend or cannot explain is put into the category of God and then because we don't have the answers and the unknown exists and marvels our little brains, we then worship it as a deity.

I think it would be more appropriate to replace the word "God" with the word "Nature".

For me, it's a logical deduction god exists. And by god I mean something, could even be us though not in our current form, that is responsible, knowingly or not, for us and everything else being here.

Defining the above something, responsible, and knowingly or not is left for speculation, but it can't be any other way.

Could you believe that I could answer that question in one line? Well I can, at least in my opinion.

The fear of death, enough said.

ETA: I guess a little of this too:

Originally posted by Thurisaz
The word God is used to replace the word 'unknown'.

Anything we don't comprehend or cannot explain is put into the category of God and then because we don't have the answers and the unknown exists and marvels our little brains, we then worship it as a deity.

reply to post by XxNightAngelusxX


If you really are 19 and are having doubts with regards to your faith then my advice is stop visiting this website.

ATS is very much anti-God (anti-Christian)

This is THE most dangerous place for you to be right now.

reply to post by XxNightAngelusxX

I know how you feel, Once you have an understanding of how the mind works, Alpha Beta Delta Gamma brainwaves. and understand the different states of consciousness, you realise just how vulnerable we are. and how easily controllable we are.

I was raised a christian but never really truted the Bible. I believe in some kind of source of creation and I believe that our consciousness is infinte.a truth I believe has been hidden from us. (can you control people, who realise there souls are infiinate? i think not) we are coming to the end of the age of Pisces and we all have a choice to make. Do we surrender to the Evil powers trying to take over complete control of our lives. Or do westand up for what is right, and allow our spirits to ascend? knowing full well that this decision will lead to total condemnation, but thats the point isn't it?

everybody id being tested on some level. Some are waking, others are lost. I believe the New World Order will come but I also feel that it will be short lived.

My Blog

Originally posted by HIWATT
reply to post by XxNightAngelusxX

 

If you really are 19 and are having doubts with regards to your faith then my advice is stop visiting this website.

ATS is very much anti-God (anti-Christian)

This is THE most dangerous place for you to be right now.

They are only words. If this person decides that the argument made "against" god or Christianity (which are not the same thing as you infer) is better than that made for it, then that is their decision. Perhaps the reason they could have been swayed is due to the fact that the humanists/atheists made a better argument. If god/Christianity was correct, then the believers should be able to "win" the debate and convince the person in question.

reply to post by HIWATT


Why? because we question man made religion?
Isn't it better to ask questions than to blindly follow what someone else made up? and decide for yourself. That is what the op is trying to do.

Originally posted by Renegade2283
The fear of death, enough said.

That may be why people believe in religion, especially the more primitive ones that use fear to tie a person's afterlife to their subservience, but I think it's unfair to categorically say that all believers in God are fearful. I have no fear of death, and I lean in favor of God existing, purely out of philosophical reasoning.

That was very well written. I have thoughts like that often but could never put them to words as well as you just did.

I like to say that I believe in the idea of god. I don't believe that any religions are correct, or at least not fully correct. I also don't believe that god = religion. With that said, I think god is very abstract and so perhaps some may find their version or idea of god in religion. That probably seems like a contradiction but I don't know how better to explain it except that one person's truth is not going to be everyone's truth.

I do feel like most people are hardwired to believe in a higher power. I don't think that can be called proof in god though. I think more than anything that's proof of how powerful deeply ingrained belief systems can spread from parent to child, tribe to tribe, community to community and so on.

I do feel that we are incomplete. Personally, I think that stems from the unknown. There are so many things we will never have concrete answers to. Sometimes the lack of an answer is so glaring that we make up our own answers so that we can go on.

reply to post by XxNightAngelusxX


Because I choose to.

Originally posted by SilentKoala
I have no fear of death, and I lean in favor of God existing,

Well, that is what I am saying. Of course you have no fear of death, you believe in god, it makes perfect sense. I am not saying that this is the case for all, but most. Many never develop any fear of death because they have been conditioned their whole life to believe in god and an afterlife. Also, I have no intent to present this as fact, rather a personal opinion.

I believe that death isn't necessarily the end, there are possibilities that don't involve god, but that is another debate altogether.

Humans believe in God because there is no such thing as true free will for the individual. Those who have discovered this have been unable to find out why so they made up an explanation. The real God is the universe itself.

reply to post by smithjustinb

Humans believe in God because there is no such thing as true free will for the individual.

Please explain why free will doesnt exist.

Originally posted by Renegade2283

Originally posted by SilentKoala
I have no fear of death, and I lean in favor of God existing,

Well, that is what I am saying. Of course you have no fear of death, you believe in god, it makes perfect sense. I am not saying that this is the case for all, but most. Many never develop any fear of death because they have been conditioned their whole life to believe in god and an afterlife. Also, I have no intent to present this as fact, rather a personal opinion.

I don't think it makes much of a difference, though. Both religion and atheism have conditioned people to fear death. Atheism, because the person loses the only life they have. Religion, because they are then at the mercy of another being who will either torture them forever, or grant them entry to a "paradise" where they can do the bidding of that person forever, not quite as bad as the torture, and only if they lived a certain way on earth.

This begs the question, why has mankind been so thoroughly conditioned to be afraid of death? The only explanation that makes sense to me is control; in reality, if you think about it, the ONLY power any authoritative entity (government, religious structure, whatever) has comes from the fear of death and that alone. The power to issue a fine, for example, comes from the power to imprison is said fine is not paid, and that power just comes from the power to kill a resistor to imprisonment, and that power is only effective as a control mechanism if people think of death as a thing to be afraid of. Remove the fear of death, and mankind is utterly free to do as they please.

Originally posted by Renegade2283

Originally posted by HIWATT
reply to post by XxNightAngelusxX

 

If you really are 19 and are having doubts with regards to your faith then my advice is stop visiting this website.

ATS is very much anti-God (anti-Christian)

This is THE most dangerous place for you to be right now.

They are only words. If this person decides that the argument made "against" god or Christianity (which are not the same thing as you infer) is better than that made for it, then that is their decision. Perhaps the reason they could have been swayed is due to the fact that the humanists/atheists made a better argument. If god/Christianity was correct, then the believers should be able to "win" the debate and convince the person in question.

OP please refer to this person's response to me because it perfectly illustrates what I was trying to say to you.

If you are a person of faith, then that is not something "up for debate" as Renegade2283 just stated.

Leave. now. Don't lose yourself in this cesspool of anti-wisdom.

You've been warned.