Why do some smart people still believe in God?
 

:pimp:pimp:( Mayo Yellow ) from Denver CO asked.

Because it's easier to believe in the lie.

May be they don't believe in church/bible/guy with beard, but in some almighty power...

Pretty good 8 word answer.

Because they are weak.

Because they pay attention and realize the complexity that exists on this planet didn't happen unguided, that life cannot arise from non-life, that there is literally no way to even force that to happen no matter how hard we try, and that even if life COULD arise from non-life, the math doesn't add up, because the complexity we see here even on the cellular level would take more years than there are atoms in the universe for us to be here unguided, which is a number so enormous that it makes the 14.7 billion years we believe the universe has been around look very, very small.

If life cannot arise from non-life, how did your god come to exist Donny?

Have you humanised your god, like most religious people have humanised theirs?

Would you say your god is a who, or your god is a what?

That was a Google search. :winkwink:

Um... no. I have this same, tired debate on a regular basis and study related matters quite regularly.

sorry, but you just made that up, and it doesn't even make sense.

Can the characters in a book, if alive, describe the author who wrote them into existence? Of course not, because the author exists outside the book. We humans cannot agree on our own existence, much less the existence of the Intelligent First Cause that got things going for us to be here. Newsflash: this argument is ineffective because whether one is a creationist or thinks the Big Bang happened on its own, the problem is the same: "from where did God come" on one side and "from where did the materials that spit forth from the unguided Big Bang come" on the other. Neither has an upper hand, and therefore your question is pointless.

I do believe though i don't consider myself smart

Anyway religion is hard to understand for ignorant ppl. It's too dumb to ignore existence of Higher Being (whatever u call it), while you still can live with that

Except it does. Physics deals more with probabality and statistics than biology, yet most people in this debate focus on biological discussions. Probability and complexity tell us how many years it would take for elements of life to form. Mathematical formulas have been used to follow theories to their logical conclusion and show that we'd literally need more years than there are atoms in the universe to be here unguided.

I'll be away from the board for most of the day, soon. I'm at Notre Dame University today, taking a tour before being involved in a discussion panel presented to students later this evening. Our tour begins in a little over an hour so I might be able to respond from time to time until then, depending on how quickly I can do my hair and makeup. ;)

Donny you are above my pay grade. Let me take a hit.

That's an awful, awful analogy. A book isn't a living breathing thing, whereas life as you mentioned it (obviously) is, specifically life being unable to arise out of non-life.

also: you didn't answer #2 and #3 - without those I can't put any context to your answers.

ah ok I see what you were trying to say now. So a theory has been used to 'measure' something we cannot possibly know, and that leads to a 'conclusion'. Riiiight. I can see where this is going and I don't have time to waste on a batshit conversation with someone who is the equivalent of a person high on drugs and believes his current reality is actually real.

Maybe I will another day though :thumbsup

Yes, I'm such an idiot that universities such as Yale, Purdue, the University of Montana, York University, UC Davis, the University of Pennsylvania, several univerties in Australia, many others here in the USA and (today) Notre Dame not only invite me in to speak to their students, pay my airfare and hotel expenses, but also pay an honorarium to hear me.

You wouldn't try to explain Calculus to a five year old, and I am likewise not going to attempt to speak probability and complexity with you. Not because you (or the five year old) are not intelligent, but because I seriously doubt you've laid the foundation work upon which such a discussion would have to be built.

Because when you reach a certain age you look back at your life and you suddenly discover how lucky you are. I look back at my life and holy shit have I been lucky...

I didn't say you were an idiot, in fact I think you come over as highly intelligent. A highly intelligent person high on drugs is still out of touch with reality though, and firmly believes that reality he is in to be 'real'.

You wouldn't try and have a real conversation with someone out of their head on crack, no matter how intelligent that person may be. I'm also guessing these universities don't label your talks as 'why there is a god, and he takes the form of the one in the christian religion', and tout them as factual.

Do I believe there is *nothing* that could be termed as a 'higher intelligence' - nope. To think that that intelligence/force/formula within it's own right/etc is a being that makes decisions based on whether a person has repented, and whether a person worships a humanised lifeform, is something I can't wrap my head around though.

'prayers' are answered whether you're a serial rapist, or whether you give all your money to the homeless. To say they'll only be answered if you are a repenter/worshipper is taking away that free will you bang on about that is supposedly given to us by your god.

Still

the best answer for the laymen.

none of these places would give two shits about you if not for your past in porn. you have a good 'story' so you get this attention. had you been a good little son of a preacher man, you'd be just another religious nobody working in a field who's popularity is constantly shrinking.

I believe in my toaster. It makes me yummy toast.

Why? Because they're just smart...

Because not all of us fall for the bullshit you've been fed.

Go play some multiplayer online game and tell all the other participants that there was no god or any gods that had a hand in crafting your game environment.

Then imagine being fully immersed in that game environment to the point that no one was allowed to escape by logging out.

Imagine having children in that game environment. They have children. And so forth for many generations until your descendants are left only with their speculations about how that environment manifested.

Then imagine someone in an internet forum tosses out the notion that people aren't smart for believing that the environment was created by "something" typically given the generic title of god.

God is real. Science is fake.

I thought the good lord made the universe about 6000 years ago ?

'Smart people' don't.

Why dont you try me Donny ?

Or am I too stupid as well ?

Some smart people just act like they believe in God so that 'people with less brain' (that trust the smart people) will follow the 'rules' in the big black book. That could be an explanation.

God spoke to the prophet Mohammad, making it clear that Jesus was just another prophet, not the son of God, was never crucified and never rose from the dead and will return to earth only as the Anticrist. As Donny likes to say... This is the word of God, definitely the most recent update and being the word of God, is unassailable and an undeniable truth and therefore, the fundamental tenants of Christianity are completely wrong.

"It's all so complex, therefore... Aliens!"

Because people need things in terms they can relate to. The average person can't concieve of a force that builds, detsroys and rebirths, so it's easier to imagine that force as a human being like entity.

When people ask if I believe in God, I usually say "not your God". I have a different visions of what my "God" is and does. A "God" doesn't really have to be a physical presence. Nor is there a definitely answer. Really, isn't God just smeone's interpretation of that inner voice that guides as well as the force that creates something like a tree? While the definitions may differ, isn't it all really the same thing?

at last, a sensible answer :thumbsup

Fear of death.

Because if you don't the REALLY REALLY stupid people will burn your house down?

Because Mankind fears his temporary status as a "thing" in the universe... and some Gods promise eternal life?

Because that's what they were taught all their life?

There are MANY reasons people believe in Gods and such...

The most common excuse I have heard all my life is... " Well, I'd rather believe and be wrong than NOT believe and be wrong"

Its kinda like a spiritual insurance policy to them...

:winkwink:

И это обнадеживает.

I love when someone says THERE IS GOD, or THERE IS NO GOD

wHo are you to prove, just believe what you want

Because they can count to potato!

why not ?

There is no way for us to know one way or another at this point. It's foolish for atheists to ridicule deists, or for deists to ridicule atheists. 100 years ago discussion of the existence of the Higgs Boson would have been termed silly and nonsensical by the best minds. In 100 years from now, who knows what we will find? In the end the joke may end up being on the atheists.... (or the deists for that matter), but at this point I would submit that we still don't know for sure one way or another, so everyone should stop acting so high and mighty about their own opinions.




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Why do smart people believe in god? Because the vast majority of religious people have taken on their religion because they have been raised in it as children (or certainly the basic tenets). It's a fact that the religion of your parents is the single biggest predictor of whether and what religion you are, so smart or stupid, the vast majority of religious people's views are simply something that was implanted in their psyche when young and bypassed any critical thinking.

That of course does not explain the tiny remainder of principled people who in the spirit of seeking knowledge actually asked themselves the tough questions and came to the conclusion that they believed in whatever brand of religion they found.

I suppose there are a few other categories, like the stupid people that came to religion late in life, etcetera but we're not talking about that.

Still. It would be fair to say that most smart people who happen to be religious are religious because the human animal is predisposed to accept unconditionally the things we are taught as children.

While this may be true in some cases, in a lot of cases it is completely wrong.

For example, if one makes claims that do not logically hang together, or claims that contradict each other, then I am on firm ground when I say, the god that you specify cannot exist.

They're kidding themselves.

Why not?
There is no evidence for or against a creator.

But more importantly, why care about what other people "believe" in, especially if you don't have the same beliefs. Do you, fagget.

Atheists who believe that life appeared from nothing are the delusional ones.