Ten reasons to believe in God

1. Are you sure God doesn't exist? You are willing to contend, aren't you, that there is a tiny chance that God does exist? If you don't believe in him, and he DOES exist, you're screwed. You HAVE A CHOICE. When the day comes to choose who enters Heaven, it is highly doubtful you will be chosen, if you don't believe. Isn't it safer just to believe?

2. So you have moral dilemmas? They're annoying, aren't they? What is right and what is wrong? Who knows? The law? Crap, you cross the street at a red light. God knows what is right and what is wrong. Believe, and all your moral problems are solved. If you are ever stuck again with a moral dilemma, just ask your local priest, rabbi or equivalent. He'll explain it all to you.

3. You have sinned, you know. And you DO know it. Even if you don't call it sin. So you call it "a mistake". But you can't forgive yourself. God knows you've tried. You can't forgive yourself. Well, if God can forgive you, you'll be able to forgive yourself too. All the major religions have methods of forgiveness. For example:
   • Christianity : confession,
   • Islam : Ramadan,
   • Judaism : Yom Kippur.

4. Can you explain infinity? I can't. I'm talking about two dimensions of infinity. Spacial and temporal. Talk quantum mechanics, and dimension folding all you like, the human mind can never grasp it. I don't think anyone can comprehend infinity. If you believe in God, no problem.

5. You can't possibly believe that evolution theory completely. Oh, I'll agree, natural selection exists. Of course it does. Creation theory does not conflict with the belief in natural selection, don't make any mistakes. Of course, many people believe it does, but that's mostly because they are misinformed. Natural selection hardly explains Man. And where is that missing link? You can't possibly believe that Man (a conscious being) originated from the monkey, which is so far below him?

6. What happens when we die? Scary, isn't it? Don't you have a soul? Of course you do. You can't possibly, deep in your heart believe that we just die and disintegrate? There has to be an afterlife.

7. The bible contains predictions of the future. Many predictions have already happened, so if you are a disbeliever, you can see for yourself. No other book in the world has so many prophetic words and codes interwoven into it as the bible. Many experiments have shown this. Coincidence?

8. The world today is full of pornography and gore and is low on moral fiber. You know it's wrong. And you sure as heck don't want your children to grow up in such a society. The return to morals is the only solution, and the only way to do that is through BELIEF.

9. Most of the world does, in fact, believe in God. How could this be, if God didn't exist? If you've strayed off the path, you must return to it. Everyone was born capable of believing in God. Some haven't found Him yet, others have lost Him. He WILL take you back.

10. Look deep inside your heart. God is there.

The first argument was also postulated by Pascal: Pascal's wager

I don't recall many predictions of the future in the bible. I recall that it specifically states that no man but god knows the future. I also seem to recall that the most prophetic of the bibles books are really secret communications in well known code between the Apostle John and his congregation in Corinth.

2: Moral dilemmas: Those are my responsibility to solve, not God's. Does God want a bunch of sycophantic yes-men running around? That doesn't sound very cool. Wouldn't God want me to be able to solve ethical problems on my own anyway? That sounds more reasonable.

3: Sin: If a sin is something for which I haven't forgiven myself, then I have not sinned. If it's something for which I simply can't forgive myself, then I really doubt there's even such a thing as sin. And that's from deep down in my heart, Footprints.

5: Monkey business: I can believe in the evolutionary theory. Monkeys are ugly and stupid, but they're not lesser. They're not superior, and they're not equal, either. They're different, and they're uncomparable. I really don't care if I'm related to them or not. There are lots of humans I'd like to not be related to!

6: Death: Deep in my heart, I believe that we just die and disintegrate. Big deal. The idea of an afterlife is for cowards.

8: Apocalyptic Sentiments: What's so bad about pornography? Are you operating under the silly belief that pornography was invented in the twentieth century? And it's never, ever been proven that gory special effects in entertainment desensitise children or erodes moral fibres or any of that nonsense. The problems with society have a different source. The "return to morals" is what got us into trouble in the first place as a culture, bub. Ever heard of a little thing called "Victorian hypocrisy?"

9: Around the World: "Most of the world believes in God?" Is that supposed to make me want to believe, too? "Everyone else is doing it, it must be cool." Isn't that the sort of argument we teach children to resist, Footprints?

I can't believe in a God who would ask me to make a leap of faith. I can't believe in a God who would ask me to compromise myself like that. That kind of God would be no friend of mine.

Preface: I consider myself an agnostic, but I have no beef with believers. I just don't think you can prove the existence of God. It's an act of faith, isn't it? Otherwise, it'd be pretty easy to believe in God wouldn't it?

Rebuttal:

1. See: Flaws with Pascal's Wager
2. God may know what is right and wrong, but the Church has a pretty shoddy track record (e.g., the Inquisition, the Crusades, the fighting in Northern Ireland, the (past) support of slavery, the fighting in Israel).
3. Forgiveness certainly does not require the existence of God. And you really don't have to worry about sin if you don't believe in God (as God is really the one that defines sin, right?).
4. Can you explain the Standard Model or the Kreb's Cycle or my dad's weird behavior? I can't, but that doesn't necessarily make me believe in God.
5. Yes you can. And evolution does not teach that "Man originated from the monkey".
6. I don't know. No one knows. There does not have to be an afterlife just because you might want one.
7. Vaguely-worded predictions are bound to come true.
8. Yes, by all means, let's return to the morals of our witch-burning, native american-slaughtering forefathers...
9. At one point in time, most of the world believed that the world was flat and that the Sun rotated around the Earth. These beliefs did not alter the reality of the situation.
10. Maybe.

1. While there is no proof for the existence of God, there is also no proof for the non existence of God. This leaves the possibility that God does exist. However, this says nothing about the religion that that God promotes nor the duties required by that God. Hinduism is just as likely to be true as Christianity. The cycle of reincarnation and Nirvana are just as likely has Heaven. Pascal's wager does nothing to say which god to believe in, or the outcome of that belief. The safest thing to do is keep an open mind to all possibilities, not just those of Christianity.

2. Moral dilemmas are different for different societies. The question is where do we get our morals from? Even within the branches of Christianity, there are divisions in morality. Abortion and birth control are paticularly strong dividing lines. Roman Catholics believe both of these are morally wrong in the eyes of God, while many Protestants do not see any moral problem with either of them. Can they both be correct?

3. What is a sin? Different religions define sin in different ways. In ancient Greece, hubris was the major sin that was taught against. Killing a person was perfectly acceptable, and accepting the deities of different cultures was nothing odd. This differs quite significantly from that of the teachings of the 10 commandments. In Islam, it is a sin to make an image of God, and since people are created in the image of God, creating a sculpture or painting of a human is a sin. Homosexuality is considered a sin in the more orthodox religions while it is perfectly accepted in others. Can they all be right?

4. Please, do not do the infinity implies god. Infinity is a mathematical construct. If you wish a deity to be a mathematical construct, thats fine. Spinoza did this, and has a very thought out view of God. Its not the most useful one, but its very thought out.

5. Bah. Creationists. How does evolution not explain man? Missing links are very small populations. I would rather not have to copy the entire node that exists elsewhere. It is very good reading and pointless to replicate all that data here. Monkeys are also conscious beings, and not all that far below us at all. Personally, I'd much rather be evolved from a dolphin or a whale who seem to have far less cares in the world.

6. No, there doesn't have to be an afterlife. Its nice to think that there will be something to go on to, but its not necessary. It is a carrot that is held out there as incentive for being good in this life.

7. There are many works in the past that have perdictions about the future, the Bible is hardly alone. Many of these predictions have come true - there will always be earthquakes, wars and volcanoes. Comets will always be in the sky, and planetary alignments will happen. So what? Given a large enough block of data, and a function it is always possible to find the data that you're looking for. But why not the Koran? Or the works of Buddhists? These also contain predictions about the future that are just as true.

8. Moral codes have very little to do with belief. Plato proposed a very good system for life in his works that do not require belief. There are as many possible utopias as there are people. Some of these hinge upon the foundation of a higher power, others don't. I would even go so far as to say that Objectivism can provide just as much as a solution as any religious one can. While it is true that I'd rather have any potential children grow up in a different society than the one that exists now, it requires respect and open mindedness rather than strict religious belief.

9. Most of the world believes in a higher power. The higher powers are not all the same. There are also multitudes of past religions that are no longer in existance today. The religion of the ancient Greeks is just as viable as any religion today, so is that of the ancient Egyptians. There is Gaiaism, Buddhism, Shintoism, the beliefs of the Native Americans, the dreamland of the Australian aborigines.

10. This statement is just as true for a person who has grown up deep in the Amazon rain forests, never seeing or hearing of a person who believes in anything other than the tribal spirits as it does to a bishop. It is just as true for a person who lived in ancient Egypt and saw Ra, Osiris and Set as a person who lived in ancient Scandinavia and saw Odin, Thor, and Loki. It is also true of the atheist who sees only himself.

An atheist has a belief that there is no higher power. It is just as much a religion as any other. If you believe in 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 then you are not an atheist, and most likely to be Christian. The Islamic, Judaism, Christian family of monotheism is not the only viable religion.

2 - Everyone has moral dilemmas. It's the fact of living in a world of uncertainties, of differing opinions, ideas, and lifestyles. You can't get out of them. "If you are ever stuck again with a moral dilemma, just ask your local priest, rabbi or equivalent. He'll explain it all to you." What, I can believe and therefore give up thinking? I can let someone else do it all for me? No thank you.

3 - "You have sinned, you know." No I haven't. Never. Not a single sin in my life, assuming you define sin to have something to do with wronging some diety. Have I done things that are wrong? Yes, everyone has. Have I felt guilty about it? Sure. But instead of sitting and asking some non-corporeal entity that may or may not exist for forgiveness, and walking around feeling fine while the person I wronged is still upset, I go and try to repair things with them. I'd rather have their forgiveness then that of some so-called god.

4 - How does belief in god explain infinity? It sounds more like "God exists, therefore I won't think about infinity" to me.

5 - Some versions of creation theory do contradict evolution - ask many believers in creationism. Besides, evolution does make a lot of sense when you sit down and look at it and examine it, and is quite the amazing thing.

6 - "There has to be an afterlife." Um, you can't make there be an afterlife just because you can't conceive of there not being one. I can't conceive of what kind of mindset can make someone hate due to racism, but look, there it is. Asserting something doesn't make it true.

7 - Bible predictions and prophecy are always touchy topics. Many so-called predictions are poor fits and require faith just to believe one implies the other. There's also the fact that some prophecies, once known, can be created to come true. (I predict I'll eat leftover nachos for dinner. And I will, cause I get to choose what I have).

And the Bible Codes? They've done the same thing with all sorts of other books, and shown that with a large enough document, all sorts of odd patterns can be seen. Heck, analysis of pi shows patterns and the like in it, also. Randomness does not imply total lack of patterns.

8 - What things in life are "wrong" are different to different people. I consider the hate out there to be much more destructive than pornography or violent video games. Oddly, a lot of that hate seems to come from religious types. Seems like belief doesn't do a thing for that.

Besides, I'm sure I'd disagree with you on what is moral and immoral - there are likely some things you want to eliminate that I think it would be immoral to do; and likely the reverse also.

9 - "Everyone was born capable of believing in God." Everyone is born an atheist. They have no inherent belief in God. Parents just tell them over and over to believe in one, and presto, it occurs. "He WILL take you back." This sounds like a threat to me.

10 - Funny, I thought there was blood and muscle in my heart. Must have been taught lies by those damn atheist scientists. So if I kill another person and eat their heart, have I just eaten God? Maybe I'll made a God Casserole, or some Fried God.

Thanks to anomie for his/her excellent documentation of logical fallacies

1. Something out there, is the Most Powerful Wossname: Let's get down to brass tacks. Just going on a power scale, there is a definite hierarchy. In some places it loops, but I think that whatever is The Most Powerful Wossname is effectively GOD... until something more powerful or clever takes it's place. In a beehive, the queen bee is God, until she is replaced.
2. Even if a "God" didn't exist, it would be neccesary to create it: Again, let's just be perfectly blunt here... Most people are too simple-minded to find their ass with both hands and a flashlight. They need someone to tell them what to do so that they will be productive and generally contribute something of worth. That is where the "priestly class" comes in.
   
   Let us compare how a conversation could go two different ways.
   
   PRIEST: "Oh, hallo there, you shouldn't do that anymore."
   SIMPLE: "Wot? Having sex with all these people each night? Why not, then?"
   PRIEST: "Because you will contract diseases and spread diseases. You should look for something more stable."
   SIMPLE: "Wot's a disease?"
   PRIEST: "It's...where you...ummm... you get sick."
   SIMPLE: "It never made me sick before..."
   PRIEST: "Well there are these little germs and..."
   SIMPLE: "A germ? What's a germ."
   PRIEST: "It's this little invisible creature that makes you sick."
   SIMPLE: "Right."
   PRIEST: "errr..."
   (silence for a few moments)
   PRIEST: "You're not buying this, are you?"
   SIMPLE: "No, squire, not a bit."
   PRIEST: "Right... Good morning."
   SIMPLE: "Bugger off now, yer nutter."
   
   Now let's throw God in the picture.
   PRIEST: "HEATHEN! YOU MUST CEASE YOUR UNGODLY WAYS!"
   SIMPLE: "What?!?! What'd I do, then?"
   PRIEST: "THOU HAST OFFENDED THE LORD IN THY LUSTFUL WAYS!"
   SIMPLE: "Oh, shit!"
   PRIEST: "BLASPHEMOR! UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!"
   SIMPLE: "Oi!... right you are, squire, what should I do?"
   (about this time the Priest gets a really big shit-eating grin and tells Mr. Simple exactly what he should do to get back in good with this "Lord"...
   
   
3. We are Gods ourselves to other Wossnames: This one always gets some people the wrong way. What I mean is this, to an Amoeba, we are a God. We are infinitely larger than one. We are capable of freezing one, bringing it back to life, splicing it with other things, altering it's DNA, and generally messing with it's world to the extent that we have Godlike Powers over it. The Amoeba, in turn has no concept of what we are... no idea what we look like... no idea who just poked it with a sharp pointy thing and suddenly it has turned blue... all it knows is... well... whatever it is that Amoebas know... The Amoebas, in turn, are gods to the tiny little bacteria that it feeds upon. The bacteria do not "see" an amoeba coming and know they should leave, or stay. They have no concept of amoeba. They do not learn to flee because they simply cannot comprehend the amoeba... all they know is that they are adsorbed...
   
   Let's move up the scale rather than down... it seems reasonable to think that we are definitely not exactly the pinnacle of life in this universe. We might have some concept of this guy in flowing robes and a "pull my finger" look on his face, but in reality, perhaps our "God" is just so much larger, and so differently shaped, we have no idea what it actually is...
   
   ...this would, of course, mean that "God" in turn, has a "God".... and so on...
   
   
4. There's a LOT of Universe out there: I mean a WHOLE lot of Universe. I won't go into arguements on this, I'll just leave it at a quote from Jack Burton (Big Trouble in Little China.
   "Now I'm not saying I've been everywhere, or done everything, but a man'd have to be some kinda fool to think we were alone in this Universe."
   
   
5. No one ever proved that "God" cares: Going from Number One, earlier, it is entirely possible that the "God" at the time neither knows about us, cares about us, or even wants us. For a more detailed arguement, I recommend reading Anselm's Ontological Argument, but from the opposite perspective of Anselm. We are, in theory, the most intelligent species on the planet, and yet the abominations we visit upon our children regularly exceed even the cruelest acts of nature. Why should something even more powerful and more intelligent than us be required to give a damn about us? Because we think He/She/It should? BWAHAHAhahahAHAHahahaAHA!!!
   
   
6. Midgets and Dwarves: They have shown us that there is something more powerful than us out there and that It has a sense of humor. Please note that I never gave claim or denial as to whether or not "God" has a "Good" sense of humor.
   
   
7. Because the son of a bitch that left me a goddamn Jack Chick pamplet instead of a tip when I was a waitor, made me believe: Actually he didn't make me believe, but I'm sure his self-righteous skinflint ass would love to think so... In point of fact he made me go on a lifelong crusade against those stupid bits of pulp, and now whenever I see one, I snatch it up and throw it away as quickly as possible or save it to burn. But I'm not bitter or anything.
   
   
8. Because if I was a God, I'd do the same thing as...er..."God Wossname": See, if I was God, I gotta be totally honest with you. I'd be a total prick. In fact, I can't wait until I get a better machine so I can run Black & White to simulate being a God that is a total prick. After all, God has pretty much been a total prick to me my entire life, seems to have a really good time laughing it up, and enjoys to do this regularly, and she never once has to worry about retribution because she's...well...GOD...
   ...yeah it'd be good to be The King...
   
   
9. Did I mention that bastard that left me the Jack Chick propaganda instead of a tip? Yeah, I used to be a waitor back in the day. Christians just LOVED to come to my table... and instead of a tip they'd leave those lame-ass pulp propaganda0 KomiK booKs or one of those cards that looks like a twenty dollar bill till you pick it up, and there's a stupid poem about what money can't buy you...
   
   To the people that do that, you make me hate your God. Me and every other waitor that got stiffed by your cheap ass, you made us believe--YOU MADE US BELIEVE WE HATE YOUR GOD! Because in OUR world, we still have to EAT... Our God Gives Good Tips, not reading material
   
   ...but I'm not bitter about it or anything...
   
   
10. Some things you just can't explain: Despite it all, there are times when things happen you just can't explain. Times when you get a certain feeling. I usually attribute these to gas. But occasionally I'm pretty sure there's something out there, just from watching a cloudscape, or maybe even the way the wind tosses a bit of paper around an empty parking lot...

1. A race as divisive, violent and downright sadistic as mankind could surely not be related to the gentle, sensitive mountain gorilla or the noble orangutan. The human race could only have originated in a special, separate act of creation.

2. Think back to the most tragic events of your life. These events could not have simply been unfortunate coincidences: you could not unaided have dug so many holes for yourself or placed so many barriers in your own way. There is a guiding presence at work in your life, tripping you up and stamping on you every step of the way.

3. Take a look at all the horror and misery in the world around you. A world as terrible as this one could not have arisen by random chance alone; unrelenting suffering and pain on such a devastating scale could only have been achieved by careful, calculated planning.

4. It might be comforting to think that you and all the people you hate will someday pass away and that you'll finally be able to rest your weary mind in oblivion, but to entertain such a hope is, of course, unrealistically optimistic. You may as well resign yourself to having to face the mind-numbing eternity of the afterlife as well.

5. As a human being you are weak, servile, pathetic and insignificant. You need to vicariously live through the achievements of an all-powerful deity in order to derive any kind of satisfaction from your worthless existence.

6. No one here on Earth likes you, so why not invent an imaginary friend who talks to you in your head, loves you, and is omnipotent? Why not call him Jesus?

7. Approximately 95% of the world are religious in some way. So many rational, intelligent, freethinking human beings could not all be deluding themselves.

8. Next time you walk down a street, take a look around you. Observe that about fifty percent of the people are on the opposite side to you. That's not just coincidence; it's because they're avoiding you. This has nothing to do with God. This is because you smell funny. But God can fix that.