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Palmer Eldritch · Jul 11, 2015, 07:35 PM

I don't think it has anything to do with intelligence as I know people on both sides of the coin who are equally intelligent and can articulate just as well as each other to there beliefs.So why do some people have faith in a higher power and others do not?

smoothy · Jul 11, 2015, 08:49 PM

That can be summed up in two words.

Free will.

Palmer Eldritch · Jul 11, 2015, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by smoothy

That can be summed up in two words.

Free will.

Free will doesn't really answer the question. You can choose to follow or practice a religion freely but you can't choose to believe in it if you don't. It's like saying you choose to believe the world is flat while knowing full well that it isn't. So why do you think some have faith and others don't weather you practice faith or not?

smoothy · Jul 11, 2015, 09:13 PM

Yes it does...

Free will. People are free to chose WHAT religion to believe and to not believe in any at all. And the different reasons for those decisions are almost as numerous as there are people. And yes you do get to choose. People do it all the time... and sometimes they change their decisions over the course of their lives, some more than once despite influences from family and peers.

Palmer Eldritch · Jul 11, 2015, 09:21 PM

No, they are free to choose which religon to follow, belief is something different, you can't make a conscious choice to believe in something if you don't.

J_9 · Jul 11, 2015, 09:24 PM

Originally Posted by Palmer Eldritch

weather you practice faith or not?

Whether, not weather. Some people need stone cold proof while others rely on faith.

Originally Posted by Palmer Eldritch

No, they are free to choose which religon to follow, belief is something different, you can't make a conscious choice to believe in something if you don't.

And that's exactly why some people don't believe.

smoothy · Jul 11, 2015, 09:28 PM

Originally Posted by Palmer Eldritch

No, they are free to choose which religon to follow, belief is something different, you can't make a conscious choice to believe in something if you don't.

Sure you can... people do it every day. Billions of them in fact.

The weak minded that are susceptible to being brainwashed into doing exactly what they are told are in the minority. The rest of us base our beliefs on a number of factors.

People don't practice a faith they don't believe in.

Palmer Eldritch · Jul 11, 2015, 09:47 PM

'People don't practice a faith they don't believe in'

I think some people do practice a faith they don't believe in, i think at least some go to church because there friends and family do, not because they have been brainwashed but because it may be a social norm.

Fr_Chuck · Jul 11, 2015, 11:20 PM

Obviously you believe you already know an answer, since you wish to file an "Inaccurate" if you do not like what is being told.

The issue of god, is that most people do believe in some level of god. Even if they do not feel it is. Man has always had a place where something was missing, they may have looked to the sun, or moon or earth to be a god, or they may look at man and his science as a god.

In the idea of religion, it is a matter of free will and if they wish to have faith. Faith is the problem, for too many, they do not believe in faith. Faith has to something, each person decides for themselves.

Palmer Eldritch · Jul 11, 2015, 11:33 PM

If I knew the answer I would not have asked the question. The truth is some times I wish I did believe in God as it seems to offer comfort to many. Some one close to me has passed and at the funeral there were religious texts read, I remember thinking that I wish I believed in it but I don't. This is why I don't see belief as a choice. This is what got me thinking as to why some do believe where as I can't.

Curlyben · Jul 12, 2015, 12:22 AM

So rather than hearing other opinions on the subject, this is more about your own inability in reconciling your own lack of faith or belief.
In the UK, as a more secular society, we are free to choose to follow any religion we please, that includes atheism.
The same cannot be said for any number of Arabic nations.

Fr_Chuck · Jul 12, 2015, 02:27 AM

So what have you done, to learn, to attempt to find God. It is a issue of finding faith. But that faith is just that, accepting something you can not see, can not feel, and can not touch.

Palmer Eldritch · Jul 12, 2015, 02:52 AM

Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

So what have you done, to learn, to attempt to find God. It is a issue of finding faith. But that faith is just that, accepting something you can not see, can not feel, and can not touch.

I have not studied mass amounts of religious texts but I understand the idea of God. To me the idea sounds pretty far fetched and I say this with no disrespect in mind. Some times I wish I did have faith such as losing someone close to me. Religious people seem to be able to mark it down as gods will, or dying for a purpose that we can not see. It's times like this that I wish I did believe in a god.

DoulaLC · Jul 12, 2015, 07:40 AM

It does seem too far fetched for many, and i think some people dont want to even consider the possibility because they think that there would be too many rules or that they would have to stop some of the behaviours that they engage in.

Everyone dies at some point. Some sooner, some later. We'd all like to write the perfect script for how WE think things should go in life, but that isn't how things work, is it?

What do you believe, and why do you believe it?

smoothy · Jul 12, 2015, 08:00 AM

Originally Posted by Palmer Eldritch

'People don't practice a faith they don't believe in'

I think some people do practice a faith they don't believe in, i think at least some go to church because there friends and family do, not because they have been brainwashed but because it may be a social norm.

You believe incorrectly then... you also don't grasp the nuances of what we've said. Particularly what being brainwashed signifies. Tagging along is far different than actually believing. And believing because you made the decision to based on what was presented to you is different than being brainwashed which someone forces you to believe and behave in ways contrary to what you wish... usually involving submission of ones will in deference to another's. And yes there is a percentage of the population predisposed to that. In others it might become a survival technique... (while I was intentionally trying to keep my answers non-denominational) where you believe or you will be killed. But for MOST people, it's a choice they make.

While to some..it appears to be far fetched...the reality is people actually know very little about everything. Example. How many High School or even college graduates believe they leave school knowing everything or almost everything there is on certain things. Now those of us who are old enough to look back to those days...knows differently. And the more educated you are...the more you understand how much there is to learn and how little you actually know. A less educated person doesn't have that perspective and thinks they know more than they do.

The vastness of what we don't know easily allows for the possibility of many things. The existence of a God being one of them.

talaniman · Jul 12, 2015, 08:40 AM

If you have to ask why others do what they do, or believe as they do, then you have not figured out why YOU do as you do and believe as YOU do.

The simple answer is they WANT to. As Smoothy said before, free will, individual choice. It's human nature to be apart of something greater than ones own self and natural for us humans to congregate with like minded human. We do it for validation, and protection. It's how we filling the blanks of what we don't know to survive the reality we find ourselves in. A coping mechanism if you will.

It's this core belief that allows us to understand, learn, and evolve. Is that why you ask about why others believe (or have FAITH if you will) so that YOU might be connected to something other than yourself? Or has your FAITH been so shaken, that now you want that connection back?

Back to you.

Catsmine · Jul 12, 2015, 09:13 AM

Palmer, what DO you place your faith in? As has been said, people put their faith in different things; some in God by whichever name, some in Science (capitalized as an object of worship), and some believe in only themselves. Or did you start this thread to try to figure that out?

joypulv · Jul 12, 2015, 11:20 AM

I gave up a lot of either/or yes/no questions decades ago.
Belief that God exists?
Faith in God, even if you aren't sure, or don't care, because it's soothing and helps you?

That latter notion turned up in an anonymous survey of hundreds of clergy. More than half of them didn't believe that God exists, but they liked the idea of God as a vehicle for Goodness in man.

Then there's all the different concepts of what or who God is.
A male figure? A spirit? A vague mystery to explain the existence of the entire universe? An electromagnetic force? The goodness that is in a creatures?

You can be an agnostic til you die, and not have to decide.
You can change as you age.

No direct answer from me!

Fr_Chuck · Jul 13, 2015, 04:10 AM

Buddhists for example, have 1000's of "gods" of various levels and degrees. Although they do not always believe they will interfere in the life of man. They believe (simple version) that each person is on their own path, to find a higher level of being (enlightenment) They will continue to return to earth in search of that higher level. For most Buddhists, it is not really a religion but a life style on how to live each day.

For some others beliefs, they seek a spirit connection with the spirits of those past, to give them guidance.

Many believe there is a "god" who created everything, but he does not do anything after that, but watch perhaps.

NeedKarma · Jul 13, 2015, 04:34 AM

I find that atheism is the default stance until we are taught otherwise. Personally I feel no need to put my faith in anything. It's a personal mater for every individual.

These are conversations where you'll never change anyone's view. Same goes for politics. Threads like this end up just looking for echo chamber responses.