POLL: Is belief in God due to a failed search for meaning in life and fear of death?

Is belief in God the result of a failed search for meaning in life and fear of death?

  • Yes

    Votes: 25 50.0%

  • No

    Votes: 25 50.0%
  • Total voters
    50
IMO no. I think belief in god is the result of the human instinct to try to find causes for things. Since we don't have any solid explanation for how to the universe came into being, various theories will be put forward and the existence of a creator is one of them that most people seem to find plausible. After all, human artifacts all have creators, everyone one of us was "created" by our parents etc, so it's easy to come up with an analogous theory for the universe itself.

People used to think wind and fire were caused by "gods" - that was the same thing, I don't think it was Stone Age existentialist angst that caused these beliefs.
 
Quote from Cutten:

IMO no. I think belief in god is the result of the human instinct to try to find causes for things. Since we don't have any solid explanation for how to the universe came into being, various theories will be put forward and the existence of a creator is one of them that most people seem to find plausible. After all, human artifacts all have creators, everyone one of us was "created" by our parents etc, so it's easy to come up with an analogous theory for the universe itself.

People used to think wind and fire were caused by "gods" - that was the same thing, I don't think it was Stone Age existentialist angst that caused these beliefs.
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I understand your view, and your rationale has some merit to a point. But how do you explain the belief in an afterlife of one kind or another, which is a feature of all of the major religions?
 
Quote from dsq:

"Faith means not wanting to know what is true." [Nietzsche]
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"People don't ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul- satisfying emotion than a dozen facts."
- Robert Keith Leavitt
 
"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities." [Voltaire]


hmmm....didnt a leader once say god spoke to him(the absurdity) and gave him the go ahead for invading iraq(the atrocity)?
 
Quote from Thunderdog:

Yeah, but if you pick the wrong one, you're screwed.
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I think of it more as a hedge.
But then again, the All Knowing would have you pegged right? So it seems a little nonsensical to me. But what do I know, I'm catholic and have broken enough commandments to go straight to hell.
 
More to do with peer pressure than anything else. You get some charismatic blowhard who needs to lead ...something and knows how to invoke guilt within the castle walls after that its Children of The Corn the rest of the way.
 
In order to assemble a rational thesis on a deity, one must first ask themself this very basic question:

Did there have to a 'beginning?'

In other words, could matter and the universe, in whatever form it may have presented itself, been present for all of time, with no beginning point.

If you answer yes, you are much more likely to believe it's possible that no deity or 'creator' exists or existed.

If one answers no, you are much more likely to believe the opposite; i.e. that a deity had to 'spark' the beginning, whether that deity stuck around to make moralistic judgments or not, or guide the evolution or process by which we have come to understand and relate to the universe and matter as we see, touch and smell it today.

All the other questions about G_d are window dressing, really. Is G_d benevolent, did G_d establish a moral code, is there a heaven or a hell...

The very nature of the essential question will drive you insane as you inevitably must get dragged into concepts of time and space, and matters having to do with physics.
 
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