Dr. Michael Shermer,the editor of Skeptic magazine, in his book Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time ,refers to a poll that was done regarding why people believe in God. The people were asked why they believe in God and why they think other people believe in God.
The results are below:
Why People Believe in God
1. Arguments based on good design/natural beauty/perfection/complexity of the world or universe. (28.6%)
2. The experience of God in everyday life/a feeling that God is in us. (20.6%)
3. Belief in God is comforting, relieving, consoling, and gives meaning and purpose to life. (10.3%)
4. The Bible says so. (9.8%)
5. Just because/faith/or the need to believe in something. (8.2%)
Why People Think Other People Believe in God
1. Belief in God is comforting, relieving, consoling, and gives meaning and purpose to life. (26.3%)
2. Religious people have been raised to believe in God. (22.4%)
3. The experience of God in everyday life/a feeling that God is in us. (16.2%)
4. Just because/faith/or the need to believe in something. (13.0%)
5. People believe because they fear death and the unknown. (9.1%)
6. Arguments based on good design/natural beauty/perfection/complexity of the world or universe. (6.0%)
I think that its interesting that many people say they believe in God for intellectual reasons (because of the evidence), whereas they tend to think others believe for emotional reasons (because its comforting).
My experience is that most people believe in God because they were indoctrinated to do so by their parents and culture. Very, very few actually came to the conclusion because of any evidence. Usually, people believe, and then later when challenged, look for reasons for their belief.
That is why few people ever deconvert from belief in God no matter the evidence. They believed in the first place for non-intellecutal reasons and thus intellectual arguments are not going to have much impact on them. They have an emotional attachment to their belief that defies logic and reason.
Ken,
ReplyDeleteEveryone believes in God! We were designed for a relationship with him that would be based on love and truth. In fact, your blog is a testiment to your belief in God. I don't think many people set up blog to disprove the existence of Santa Claus and then weekly update the blog with new arguments. You know He exist too which accounts for this blog.
The only people in my experience that don't believe in God are those who have been indoctrinated at the college level. Atheism relies on the worldview of naturalism that most recognize immediately as lacking a rational means of explaining reality. A solely materialistic explaination will not suffice because everyone recognizes that our experience is spiritual.
In my experience, those who don't know the love of God are looking for a reason no matter how poor it is to walk away from the 'rules' of the Christian faith. A person who has religion rather than the love of God is what atheists are looking for... :(
God Bless...
This is for you, ZDENNY:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnbXlkNavwo
Voltron Bless...
I was raised to believe in God. It was only when I began to find massive holes in the religion that I ever actually investigated my views of God - till that point I never doubted God's existence at all.
ReplyDeleteFact is: Reason overturned emotion given time.
JDENNY wrote:
ReplyDelete> Everyone believes in God!
What total rubbish. Many people are convinced that it is extremely unlikely there is any such thing as a god.
> I don't think many people set up blog to disprove the existence of Santa Claus and then weekly update the blog with new arguments.
Because practically no adult belives in santa claus and belief in santa clause has essentially no impact on society. Thus there is no reason to disprove it.
> You know He exist too which accounts for this blog.
Or belief in god is having a seriously detrimental effect on many people's lives and on society as a whole. Thus this dangerous myth needs to be dispelled.
> The only people in my experience that don't believe in God are those who have been indoctrinated at the college level.
Then you need more experience. I went through college without my faith being challenged (it was acutally stengthened). It was after college that religion showed the illogicality of my faith.
> Atheism relies on the worldview of naturalism that most recognize immediately as lacking a rational means of explaining reality.
Or to put it another way, religious people don't see atheism as logical. Can you tell us something that isn't blindingly obvious?
> A solely materialistic explaination will not suffice because everyone recognizes that our experience is spiritual.
You're misusing everyone again. Not everyone recognizes this at all.
> In my experience, those who don't know the love of God are looking for a reason no matter how poor it is to walk away from the 'rules' of the Christian faith.
This is entirely illogical. Christianity offers total forgiveness, preferential treatment in this life and eternal bliss for eternity. The rules are minimal and may be broken repeatedly without penalty. What kind of rational person looks for reasons to walk away from these rules? People walk away because they realise the whole thing is nothing more than myth and superstition.
> A person who has religion rather than the love of God is what atheists are looking for...
Or someone with half an ounce of independent thought.