Why do people believe in god? (And other things)

[Immoren]

Egg came first.

Nope their ancestor did.

I wasn't talking about any ordinary egg.

"One egg's lower half transformed
And became the earth below,
And its upper half transmuted
And became the sky above;
From the yolk the sun was made,
Light of day to shine upon us;
From the white the moon was formed,
Light of night to gleam above us;
All the colored brighter bits
Rose to be the stars of heaven
And the darker crumbs changed into
Clouds and cloudlets in the sky."

[Arcturus Novus]

Because they are stupid studies have shown that countries with an higer average iq have a higher % of atheists in the country.

Mods! I need a band-aid! I cut myself on that edge.

All joking aside, I think religion was developed as a way of explaining the unexplainable. Why do bad things happen? Gods are angry. What happens when we die? We go into an afterlife. Where did we come from? Gods made us. Y'know, simple existential stuff.

[Sociobiology]

And here we have an example of the problem it is impossible to tell whether this is a troll or honest belief, because people who justify belief through faith can believe anything with conviction. Poe's law is a glaring neon sign of the problems faith causes, because faith ignores evidence and ignorance. If one accepts faith as evidence there is no argument that can be made against such arguments from ignorance.

While I don't agree with most points of the quoted post, education, after the end of classical times, has at first always been provided by the church, same with funding for or conducting scientific research.

because if you were not funded and supported by the church you were put to death, you don't get to take credit for something if you kill anyone else that tries to do it.

[Sociobiology]

except it doesn't because faith is sensory, just not reliable. Just as hunger is not a reliable predictor of solar radiation levels.

Faith isn't sensory. I cannot observe faith, nor touch it, hear it, or in any other way tangibly perceive it. Faith is, by definition, not covered by empiricism.

was hunger too subtle of a comparison for you?
faith is part of the brain, it is empirically demonstrable experience. Justifying by it is not empirical, no more than putting a parka on in the summer in Mexico is justifiable because you are hungry.

[Sociobiology]

People who have a better understanding of logic and reason are less likely to be theistic.

Because those people are likely better educated, not because they're more intelligent per se. Plato, Socrates, Copernicus, Galileo, and many other logical, scientific minds were religious.

Note most of those people were alive in a time and place were they tended to kill people who were not.

[Caninope]

Faith isn't sensory. I cannot observe faith, nor touch it, hear it, or in any other way tangibly perceive it. Faith is, by definition, not covered by empiricism.

was hunger too subtle of a comparison for you?
faith is part of the brain, it is empirically demonstrable experience. Justifying by it is not empirical, no more than putting a parka on in the summer in Mexico is justifiable because you are hungry.

Do not confuse sensory experience with materialism.

The two are not the same.

[The Nexus of Man]

was hunger too subtle of a comparison for you?
faith is part of the brain, it is empirically demonstrable experience. Justifying by it is not empirical, no more than putting a parka on in the summer in Mexico is justifiable because you are hungry.

Do not confuse sensory experience with materialism.

The two are not the same.

uh yea it is

you like the sight of something

related

[Sociobiology]

which has little to do with science, so whats your point?
empiricism in science works off the idea that there infinitely more more complex explanations for any set of observations, so we must work from the simplest and only add complexity if it results in increased accuracy of predictions. Otherwise there is no known non-random way to move towards more accurate predictions of the future.
although empiricism incorporates both inductive and deductive reasoning it is founded on neither.
As soon as nonsensory data can more accurately predict future events we will start using it.

This is the strangest definition of empiricism I've ever seen. Its also contradictory - would you care to point towards deduction in regards to actual empirical observation? It can't actually, because you need certainty of knowledge - something which the scientific method precludes.

if you would like an example I would point you to F=MA
all math is deductive.
another example is uniformitarianism.
But you are right that science does not claim certainty merely probability.
Empiricism uses its own mix of the two forms of logic as I described.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empiricism

and you linked me a wiki article why?

[Sociobiology]

I believe because of everything I've seen. There is no possible or logical way that God isn't real.

I suggest looking into the maximally lazy god thought experiment.

[Sociobiology]

was hunger too subtle of a comparison for you?
faith is part of the brain, it is empirically demonstrable experience. Justifying by it is not empirical, no more than putting a parka on in the summer in Mexico is justifiable because you are hungry.

Do not confuse sensory experience with materialism.

do you have any idea how many senses there are?
also we use other senses to observe faith, just as we use them to observe gravity.

[The New Sea Territory]

People who have a better understanding of logic and reason are less likely to be theistic.

Because those people are likely better educated, not because they're more intelligent per se. Plato, Socrates, Copernicus, Galileo, and many other logical, scientific minds were religious.

I'm talking about the modern day.

[Ostroeuropa]

Because we're a species that creates shit and is hierarchical.

So we're bopping around doing our thing and suddenly a plague happens.

Who created this plague?
Fuck, which one of you assholes was it?!
*burns someone*

Dum de du- the plague is stil here. Hm. I guess it wasn't that guy. I'm scared. What ... What if theres... a dude somewhere, creating plagues to kil-HOLY SHIT VOLCANO!
The dude in the volcano sure is angry with us today.

Eventually, all these various dudes and dudettes were merged into one "Dude who creates the things for which there is no creator."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVbnciQYMiM

This basically

[The Sons of Adam]

I believe in God because the alternate would be atheism, and it seems like an open floodgates to folly, laymens arguments, and moral depravity.

[The Sons of Adam]

I believe because of everything I've seen. There is no possible or logical way that God isn't real.

I suggest looking into the maximally lazy god thought experiment.

Like the Cogito ergo sum argument? Those arguments make you more self-aware.

[Iroquois tribes]

I don't think anyone that doesn't believe in God has a right to try and guess at it unless they are very nice about it, but as a believer, I feel that this is really quite close:

A desire for comfort, either in their current lives, or after they die, a moral compass, and fear of the unknown (sort of goes with #1.)

Also, it is really only about faith and ethics. The religion part, with churches and everything, is just what a bunch of people did to try to make a life from it.

[The Sons of Adam]

Because we're a species that creates shit and is hierarchical.

So we're bopping around doing our thing and suddenly a plague happens.

Who created this plague?
Fuck, which one of you assholes was it?!
*burns someone*

Dum de du- the plague is stil here. Hm. I guess it wasn't that guy. I'm scared. What ... What if theres... a dude somewhere, creating plagues to kil-HOLY SHIT VOLCANO!
The dude in the volcano sure is angry with us today.

Eventually, all these various dudes and dudettes were merged into one "Dude who creates the things for which there is no creator."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVbnciQYMiM

This basically

Religion isn't superstition. Superstition must be eliminated from religion and replaced with reason, hierarchy, and dogma.

[Sociobiology]

I suppose I should first ask if you believe in coincidence. I've prayed for very, very, very specific signs (extremely specific so as to erase variables and keep things as solid as possible) and they happen exactly as I ask.

I can do that too, "I pray to Joe Pesci the sun rises tomorrow."

I've seen him move on people, feel them with the spirit to where they can't control it. I've had people tell me things about me and others that there is no possible way they could have known.

ah so you didn't pray for very falsifiable things, if having someone say they didn't do something is your evidence. Hell I can get people to do all kinds of things without them knowing it, I can even make them do things against their will. People are even worse about knowing what someone else can actually know.

I've seen the impossible, I've felt his presence.

I suggest you try for the Randi challenge if you actually believe that.
he first thing you have to do is describe what you can do, under what circumstances, and with what reliability.

[Immoren]

I believe in God because the alternate would be atheism, and it seems like an open floodgates to folly, laymens arguments, and moral depravity.

Those aren't only options tho.

[Mavorpen]

I believe in God because the alternate would be atheism, and it seems like an open floodgates to folly, laymens arguments, and moral depravity.

It's nice you decided to put the word "seems" in there, otherwise I might have been unnecessarily baffled at the stupidity of this claim.

[The Sons of Adam]

I don't think anyone that doesn't believe in God has a right to try and guess at it unless they are very nice about it, but as a believer, I feel that this is really quite close:

A desire for comfort, either in their current lives, or after they die, a moral compass, and fear of the unknown (sort of goes with #1.)

Also, it is really only about faith and ethics. The religion part, with churches and everything, is just what a bunch of people did to try to make a life from it.

Ehhh, no. The religion part stems from God himself apparently, especially since it is hard to find the roots of monotheism without looking into it.

[Sociobiology]

I believe in God because the alternate would be atheism, and it seems like an open floodgates to folly, laymens arguments, and moral depravity.

atheists are on average better behaved than theists.
Atheists make up a smaller percentage of the prison population than the general population, even though they experience lower levels of trust by the population.

also what does atheism have to do with layman's arguments?

[Sociobiology]

Because we're a species that creates shit and is hierarchical.

So we're bopping around doing our thing and suddenly a plague happens.

Who created this plague?
Fuck, which one of you assholes was it?!
*burns someone*

Dum de du- the plague is stil here. Hm. I guess it wasn't that guy. I'm scared. What ... What if theres... a dude somewhere, creating plagues to kil-HOLY SHIT VOLCANO!
The dude in the volcano sure is angry with us today.

Eventually, all these various dudes and dudettes were merged into one "Dude who creates the things for which there is no creator."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVbnciQYMiM

This basically

it is even simpler we tend to ascribe agency to things that do not have it, like the weather, volcanoes, or cars. once you start thinking the volcano is mad and other people don't think you are crazy, you have gods

[The Sons of Adam]

I believe in God because the alternate would be atheism, and it seems like an open floodgates to folly, laymens arguments, and moral depravity.

atheists are on average better behaved than theists.
Atheists make up a smaller percentage of the prison population than the general population, even though they experience lower levels of trust by the population.

also what does atheism have to do with layman's arguments?

Have you seen the internet? http://www.pravmir.com/top-10-common-at ... ents-fail/
Answer me this. If atheists were truly linked to the belief in evolution, how would they be pro-abortion/gay? Atheists seem more like hard-core leftists screaming FUCK (christian/islamic/maybe jewish) RELIGION! The last time I ever had an argument with an atheist, they only used these arguments.

[Welskerland]

Nope their ancestor did.

I wasn't talking about any ordinary egg.

"One egg's lower half transformed
And became the earth below,
And its upper half transmuted
And became the sky above;
From the yolk the sun was made,
Light of day to shine upon us;
From the white the moon was formed,
Light of night to gleam above us;
All the colored brighter bits
Rose to be the stars of heaven
And the darker crumbs changed into
Clouds and cloudlets in the sky."

Wait, is that a poem?

[Mavorpen]

Answer me this. If atheists were truly linked to the belief in evolution, how would they be pro-abortion/gay?

Because they aren't related.

Atheists seem more like hard-core leftists screaming FUCK (christian/islamic/maybe jewish) RELIGION! The last time I ever had an argument with an atheist, they only used these arguments.

Your problem is that you've been arguing with imaginary people.