Is There a Purpose to Believing in God
@Chiang_Mai_boy (3882)
Thailand
October 10, 2007 11:10am CST
To determine if there is a purpose in believing in God we have two first determine what is God. It seems that some form of God h has been with us since the dawn of our time on this planet. What purpose has God served? I guess we need to assign God a pronoun at this point so for the sake of being different let's use her. One common definition of God is the God of the gaps. She was invented to fill the holes when we did not understand the world around us. Where did we come from? How did life originate? Most importantly, what happens to us after we die? If we use this as the reason for believing in God science is closing the gaps. If we think of a group of Bronze Age tribesmen clustered around their fire at night. They had a lot more gaps to fill with God than we do now. Granted, there are still gaps in our knowledge but they are getting small. Using these gaps as our reason for believing in God is a rather weak . Science is doing a rather good job of filling the gaps.
The one question science is still not providing a very good answer for is what happens to us when we die. Is this a purpose for believing in God? It is almost impossible for anyone to imagine a world in which they don't exist. People can't quite get their head around the idea that their existence just stops. Close your eyes for a minute and think about a state of not being. It is far easier to believe that there is a God waiting for us with open arms, to welcome us to heaven when we die. Is this kind of easy answers a reason for believing or is it just wishful thinking? Is the purpose of believing in God that we just don't like the alternatives if he isn't there? Is this really a good reason?
"I believe in God because he gives meaning to life." What is this meaning? What are we really saying here? "I am not happy with this life. I want more. This can't be all I have. I want something after I die." I'm a little confused by this meaning of life. Why measure happiness in life by what happens after life is finished? Is it not better to make the most of this one life we have? Is it not our responsibility to give meaning to our own life?
There is another possible purpose for believing in God. How about Pascal’s wager? "Is it not better to believe in God and find we are wrong when we die than to not believe and find that there is a God?" There are a lot of flaws in this argument. The first and most obvious is who's God or what God. What if when you die, you find that God is a tree spirit and he is very unhappy with you for not offering her the proper sacrifices? What kind of God would be happy with you if you believed in her just to hedge your bets? This is a pretty weak reason for believing in God.
Is there a purpose for believing in God? The only answer, anyone can give is that. I believe in God, because I want to. The only evidence for God's existence can be found only in our own minds. We must create him in our own image.
2 people like this
6 responses
@luzamper (1357)
• Philippines
11 Oct 07
I do not believe in God because I like to. But I crave for my creator and I found him and he is the one we call God. I learned that God molded Adam from soil and God breathe his spirit into the one which he molded and that became alive. I learned that that spirit which God breathe into Adam will go back to God when I die; that means that it is that spirit which made me alive and that's true with all human beings. Then I learned further so many things written in the Holy Bible which answers the questions I was asking myself. I learned that God gives knowledge for us to discover what is good for us. This knowledge is sometimes used to abuse and they evolution theory evolved but the evolution theory only deals with the evolution of man. How about trees, fishes, elephants, etc? Where did everything come from? The evolution theory could not rightly answer anything. I believe in God because He is real and He lacks nothing.
@Gordano (795)
• United States
21 Oct 07
we believe in God and That God is Exist Because :
" Take a look around you from where you sit. You will notice that everything in the room is “made”: the walls, the upholstery, the ceiling, the chair where you sit, the booklet you hold in your hand, the glass on the table and countless other details. None of them happen to exist in your room of their own accord. Even the simple loops of the carpet were made by someone: they did not appear spontaneously or by
chance. "
The Quote Above was taken from that Book " THE EXISTENCE OF GOD "
You can get Your copy Of the book for free Here:
http://www.harunyahya.com/Existence_of_God.php
The Link to all author 's Free Library :
http://www.harunyahya.com/html/m_book_index.htm
with regards
@onedollar (781)
• Belgium
10 Oct 07
Your last sentence says it all, we create a God in our own image.
I also believe people need a God so they can feel more important, because if one realises the utter meaningless of the existence of our race in the timespan of our universe one has to feel humble & insignificant.
On the other hand by believing we were created in God's image and we await heaven when we die we make ourself more important and less insignificant. It makes life easier to live I guess.
@mustafabadri (178)
• India
20 Oct 07
the purpose to believe in god is to gain his heven!god is not something materialistic which can be prooven scientificaly or in the imagin of human being because he is the creator of both materialistic things and imaginary things he is above every and any imaginations he cannot be captured in the sence of neither the human being nor the angels -- all we can think and imagin about is the angels,and not the god but to accept that there is a god who is the create of al the seen and unseen things.
the reasons for beliving in the god or not is not because of the lack of evidance that prove god but because there are so many evidance that we dont believe that the god is so great and he has created so many and big and huge things.
if someone leaves the room keeping the things in their places and he finds things are not in there place when he/she returns -- it is impossible to imagin that the things moved by there own!! so how can a person think that the univerce is moving by its own??without a mover?
we dont have any option in not believing in god, where ever we go and see things we'll ask ourselves "who created this?" and you have to say the creator and that creatr is what we know as god or allah.
if we dont believe in him we would be worst then the beast because they follow natures rule and we would not.so every one do believe in god in different names agree it or not -- and ofcorse what scientist says "the nature" is noting but agreeing of god.the natureis nothing but the name of god.
@Autumnfalls (8)
• United States
10 Oct 07
I think that science and God are not incompatible, nor are they mutually exclusive. If anything, the more we learn and prove scientifically, the more we realize how little we truly know and understand.
Having started out this life as an atheist in an atheist society, I've learned that atheism,too is a religion; only the names are changed. God becomes Party and religion is replaced by science. Thus, faith and religion seem to be a necessary construct. Thing is, that in a Godless society, morality and ethics become devalued. Hedonism becomes a way of life, and paradoxically, the quality of life and of the society, is decreased.
Science actually proves the existance of God as far as I am concerned; for it would be a statistical impossibility for the Universe and all creation within it to have happened by an endless series of coincidences. It's this belief, that stretches all limits of credulity in my opinion.
@quiethorse (337)
• United States
10 Oct 07
Believing in God gives you something to look forward to after life
