do people have faith in a supreme being because they don't have faith in themselves?

[McBell]

kind of like AA, belief in a higher power will get them through one day at a time...

Seems to me that there are loads of different reasons people have faith in a supreme being.

In fact, I suspect that it is more possible that there are as many different reasons for faith as there are people with faith than to think that everyone who has faith has it simply because they lack faith in themselves.

 

[waitasec]

I'm trying to give the OP the benefit of the doubt and just assume that he doesn't actually know any theists.

i used to be a theist
and i used to have a lot less self confidence then i do now.
that's one reason why i'm askin?

wait i said that wrong, was that a freudian slip

i meant i used to have less confidence then...

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Yahn...... So just when many of the religious folks start showing some tolerance, we get attacked by an angry mob with pitchforks?

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, I suppose... or it would be, if "religious folks" were actually some sort of homogenous mass instead of a category of individual people, most of whom haven't done anything bad toward anyone personally.

All I know is I am inclined to be more tolerant when people appeal to my sense of fairness.

If I come under attack, I'm sorry but I believe I will be the victor.

If religious folks continue to be attacked either physically or verbally, it will just push your agenda back 10 years.

Why can't we all just peacefully coexist with one another?

It's a form of armed camp mentality, I suppose. My grandmother still held a grudge over the Massacre of Glencoe three centuries after it happened.

However, I've got no problem with non-theists putting up a fuss when they have to deal with crap and actual injustice (which does happen sometimes) from theists and religion-infused governments. The stuff in the OP, though - I dismiss that as an unnecessary and poorly thought out caricature.

 

[waitasec]

Seems to me that there are loads of different reasons people have faith in a supreme being.

In fact, I suspect that it is more possible that there are as many different reasons for faith as there are people with faith than to think that everyone who has faith has it simply because they lack faith in themselves.

you are right, maybe i should re-word the question?

but if a person of faith has self confidence then this question shouldn't apply and need not respond.

 

[waitasec]

I suspect those people who have faith in a higher being and in themselves would disagree.

agree to what?

do you mean those who do have faith in them selves and a higher power would answer; no.

ok.

 

[MW0082]

Do Atheists have their head in the sand, or does something need to be right in their face for them to acknowledge it?

Both statements in my opinion are inflammatory and incorrect. Are we trying to have a dialog or poke sticks at each other?

No one is obvioulsy trying to poke sticks, you're just obviously easily offended by someone questioning your beliefs...... Which is childish...

 

[waitasec]

this question really has nothing to do with religion, does it?
all we need to do is to look at the bible belt...
if anyone travels around this country through and through you will find
the most religious states have higher rates in: obesity, std's, divorce... and the lowest rates of high school grads
doesn't look like confident people to me

just recently, alabama tried to close down all foreign restaurants...
what kind of mentality is that? not one of confidence i would guess

 

[ChristineES]

what do you mean?
calling someone faith, what?

I meant from the quote, calling faith a fairytale. I left that out. I do that, I apologize for any confusion.

 

[waitasec]

I meant from the quote, calling faith a fairytale. I left that out. I do that, I apologize for any confusion.

i can see that...

this was never my intention for this thread

i didn't mean to offend, why would the believer be offended in saying they have complete faith in god because they can't trust themselves...?
i heard that all the time in church

 

[ChristineES]

i can see that...

this was never my intention for this thread

i didn't mean to offend, why would the believer be offended in saying they have complete faith in god because they can't trust themselves...?
i heard that all the time in church

I was responding to the one post that I quoted, not to the OP. And I wasn't really being all that serious.

 

[hyacinthus]

Most of the time that is the case,waitasec.

We are not immune to suffering and pain. Many people choose to believe because the world is too tough for them. A few years ago i was a devoted believer with commendable spirit and enthusiasm. My faith in my religion made me the joyful person i was. That was changed when an evil skeptic intruded into my private thought and put all these doubts. I am not the same person anymore since. my faith now lies mainly in science and facts and to tell the truth I am not as happy anymore.

 

[waitasec]

Most of the time that is the case,waitasec.

We are not immune to suffering and pain. Many people choose to believe because the world is too tough for them. A few years ago i was a devoted believer with commendable spirit and enthusiasm. My faith in my religion made me the joyful person i was. That was changed when an evil skeptic intruded into my private thought and put all these doubts. I am not the same person anymore since. my faith now lies mainly in science and facts and to tell the truth I am not as happy anymore.

as a believer i can honestly say i had a fear of dying, i would wake up in the middle of the night sweating with panic attacks. all while going to church 2 or 3 times a week i went to bible school and studied the scripture because i wanted to be in the ministry and spread the love of god through his good news. i loved god with all i was. but then real life happened. i began to not fear the doubts i had by facing them head on and the more i did that the more i realized we are all the same, how can anyone know the answer...
and now i don't have a fear of dying any more, because i realized i was afraid to live

 

[blackout]

My higher being IS mySelf.

 

[blackout]

Most of the time that is the case,waitasec.

We are not immune to suffering and pain. Many people choose to believe because the world is too tough for them. A few years ago i was a devoted believer with commendable spirit and enthusiasm. My faith in my religion made me the joyful person i was. That was changed when an evil skeptic intruded into my private thought and put all these doubts. I am not the same person anymore since. my faith now lies mainly in science and facts and to tell the truth I am not as happy anymore.

.....perhaps there is yet another option.....

 

[Tiapan]

This is precisely my line of thinking. The convenience of walking a pre-difined lined that will glorify you in death, is too similair to our own natural desires. We fear death, and we fear the thought of no after life even more.

So it has to be easier thinking at the end of this life, another life will begin. One that you never age, never get hurt, and you're surrounded by all your friends and family. Than it would be to think you're nothing after death, or that in the grand scheme of things you're not THAT important.

I have faith in myself, and know I have complete control over my life. Some people can't fathom that much responsibility.....

Rekon your right, just that when you die and turn to dust and enter that mind numbing boring nothingness for billions of years I think it is a great that we are not conscious because dust has no neurons to think with, I'd chew my dusty foot off. Even if somehow after billions of years we eventually are reassembled as part of a sentient life form the probability of a continued consciousness has got to realistically approach zero. So you might be there but you will have no consciousness of it because you are simply a block of matter in some one else's consciousness.

So I reckon make the most of this life, and don't worry about the next because as I said it is mind numbingly boring. Just appreciate the very temporary glimpse of the universe we have been gifted.

Cheers

 

[hyacinthus]

.....perhaps there is yet another option.....

What's the other option, dear Violet ?I am all ears.....

 

[blackout]

Well, you'll have to do a bit of digging first maybe?
('maybe' as in... are you Willing?)

What ABOUT your faith in your religion
made you a joyful person?

Let's just start there.

one more... What could your god do for you,
that you couldn't/can't?

 

[blackout]

Now, can you 'Real'ize, that something in you,
IS (actually) REAL, in you?
(even if it is so, only for your own sake, a Self created REAL'I'z'ation)
And also, that you are free to interpret your life,
as YOU see fit/s?

Does that make rational sense to you?

If not,
I think I can't help.

And you have to do the rest mostly anyway.

 

[Breathe]

@OP

Some people do, some don't.

I have plenty of belief (and confidence) in myself, and I believe in a higher power.

 

[blackout]

@OP

Some people do, some don't.

I have plenty of belief (and confidence) in myself, and I believe in a higher power.

And to that end,
who REALLY doesn't "believe" in themself?

You know, in the way that people usually "believe in" god.

Y'all DO know you EXIST, right? lol