A Post About You
One of the first rules of polite conversation is that you never bring up religion. Let’s break the rule. I have about 50-50 ratio of atheists to theists that read Reason and Capitalism, and I’m equally eager to hear both sides in the comments below.
Unfortunately, the “split” between the religious and non-religious tends to destroy the ability to discuss and communicate like human beings, with the discussions often ending up in a brawl. Let’s combat the destructive behavior, and be unpolite by talking publicly about religion. It’s my goal to have more of these posts in the future for the sake of discussion rather than isolation.
What are the top 5 reasons you believe what you believe regarding God and/or religion? What would it take for you to change your mind?
Hmm, my reasons for disbelief are simple. I just don’t see any reason to believe in an invisible man in the sky. Religion is just a way for people to excercise control over others without any good reason, hence “faith”.
My reasons why I lack belief are that I find the idea of God both unnecessary and unlikely. Like Thomas, I need some evidence.
As with most things, I struggle to understand why another rational, intelligent human being can look at the same evidence and come up with a different conclusion. Apparently some people don’t like Marmite, either.
“I have said that faith and force are corollaries, and that mysticism will always lead to the rule of brutality. The cause of it is contained in the very nature of mysticism. Reason is the only objective means of communication and of understanding among men: when men deal with one another by means of reason, reality is their objective standard and frame of reference. But when men claim to possess supernatural means of knowledge, no persuasion, communication or understanding are possible.” — Ayn Rand in Philosophy: Who Needs It.
This really isn’t in order of importance, but rather in order of logical flow
1) The logical and scientific necessity of the supernatural.
Three of the most basic scientific law point to the fact that creation could not be created naturally:
-Law of mass conservation
-First Law of Thermodynamics (Law of Energy Conservation)
-Second Law of Thermodynamics (Law of Entropy)
Because there has to be some kind of cause for the effect that we now see of the universe, there must be some supernatural force.
2) My experience of the supernatural.
Through my walk with the Lord, I’ve felt his hand in my life and I’ve experienced his inspiration. One an existentialist told me that he believed that there is nothing beyond your senses, and he couldn’t believe in something that he couldn’t feel with his senses. Well, my senses have informed me of a God who wants my life.
3) The truth of the Bible
If there is a God, it would make little sense that he doesn’t care about us at all, so he must have sent some kind of message. All other claimed “messages” from God either are not specifically canonized, (meaning that it’s based upon the kinetic tradition rather than the steadfast word) or are just written by one guy (aka: they’re unverifiable). The Bible, on the other hand, was written by over 40 guys, over a period of more than a thousand years, and on multiple continents, yet it is completely consistent with itself. This makes it the most trustworthy revelation of deity that I know of.
4) The deity of Christ
Christ’s resurrection and his fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies make him the God that I can put my faith on. (see 1 Cor. 15)
To make me reject the existence of God, atheists would have to convince me that science can contradict itself. To make me reject Christianity, they’d have to disprove the validity of the Bible, and specifically Christ’s resurrection.
>Brian
So my top five reasons would go like this:
1. Neither the problem of pain nor the complexity of science can ever eradicate the reality of God but are instead used to further impress His greatness upon humans…I have no reason to believe that either pain (feeling) or science (reason) contradict the existence of an omniscient God. Instead, both of those draw me closer to the reality that there must be a God to redeem those in pain and to create such a marvelous, beautiful, and complex scientific system.
2. The only source of true fulfillment any human can ever hope to find does lie in God.
3. Hundreds of thousands of people in the past have believed in a God. Even people in a world without drugs. This is not ad populum, but merely a look at darker, harder times when people still believed.
4. The fact that I possess logic and reason speaks volumes for the rational world I live in and leads me to the conclusion that there must be a force behind creation other than random, oblivious chance.
5. Faith lends solidarity to life that would not (rather, could not) come from mere fantasy.
I do not know what it would take to change my mind. It would have to be huge, though.