Why do you believe in God?

[Bthoth]

Why not just use your own identification of both terms?

OK .

I believe that god will unveil and the rest of the gods will end up extinct.

I have that deep faith.

Amen.

 

[metis]

My position on the OP is this: Whatever caused this universe/multiverse I'll call "God" and pretty much just leave it at that.

 

[Tamino]

How do you do a divination for that?

Kemetic Orthodoxy does that as a standard initiation ritual.
The reasoning is: in antiquity, everyone would have had some local shrine or god of the city, or god of their craft to associate with. Today, we're almost all converts and we don't have big local communities. So with the Rite of Parent Divination you get you patron God or Goddess.
It's an adaptation to the modern situation.
If you are interested in how that works in detail, you can check the forums or ask here: House of Netjer

 

[F1fan]

I've witnessed God(s)'s influence over people and their actions.

Interesting, I never have. I’ve seen other people, dogmas, philosophy, culture influence people, but never seen a God manifest and directly influence anyone or anything.

Can you offer details to what exactly you witnessed?

 

[SalixIncendium]

Interesting, I never have. I’ve seen other people, dogmas, philosophy, culture influence people, but never seen a God manifest and directly influence anyone or anything.

Why would a god who is influencing another manifest to you? The manifestation you might witness is through the manifestation of people's behaviors and actions, not through seeing an anthropomorphic manifestation of a deity appearing before you.

Can you offer details to what exactly you witnessed?

Certainly.

I've witnessed people that revere and worship nature gods become custodians of the Earth.

I've witnessed people that pray for courage manifest the strength to fight disease and battle through life altering treatments.

I've witnessed those who suffer crippling anxiety or depression cope with it through their belief in a god.

 

[PureX]

I've never heard that particular differentiation. As a lifetime 40-something native English speaker. Not saying you're wrong, it's just not an understanding others are necessarily going to share.

When a person says, "I believe ..." what are they actually saying? They don't know, or they would say, "I know ...". They don't just presume or they would say, "I presume ...". It's not just a passing thought or they would say, "I think ...". Instead, they say they "believe"; meaning they are choosing to accept this thing as true. Right? They don't know it's true, or just presume it's true, or are thinking it might be true. (Or they would have said so.) No, they BELIEVE it's true. They are ignoring the skepticism associated with presumption and specilation and not knowing and instead they are placing this thing within the realm of 'what is'. A realm that does not mingle with skepticism, or doubt, or misunderstanding.

When we say, "I believe ..." we are saying, "I am convinced that this is what is".

Right?

So the OP question is, "Why do you believe in God?" There can really only be one answer to this question, and it's, "because I chose to". "I chose to accept my idea of God, as God. Period.

Right?

I don't believe in that god in any of the ways that matter. I'm not sure I'd say I "believe" in the gods I do worship either, but not because of the distinction PureX mentioned above. It's just a weird word to use when one's gods are are all realities and everything in them. One does not talk about "belief" in the Sun, or "belief" in the act of Learning, really. I simply identified the things around me that are worthy of worship and went from there. And the realities and everything in them more than qualify as worthy. That's not really a matter of belief or faith, however defined - it's a matter of personal choice and autonomy. I get to decide what the gods are for me, nobody else does.

 

[F1fan]

Why would a god who is influencing another manifest to you?

Because it/they exist. And am I so exceptional that I never needed influencing? I can say no.

The manifestation you might witness is through the manifestation of people's behaviors and actions, not through seeing an anthropomorphic manifestation of a deity appearing before you.

This doesn’t rule out imagining it’s a god when it’s really just the person making changes.

Certainly.

I've witnessed people that revere and worship nature gods become custodians of the Earth.

Why does that suggest it’s a god influencing the decision? Can a person not decide this via their own agency?

I've witnessed people that pray for courage manifest the strength to fight disease and battle through life altering treatments.

And couldn’t that be insecure people seeking to give themselves permission to be good to themselves, and using the idea of a god as a proxy?

I've witnessed those who suffer crippling anxiety or depression cope with it through their belief in a god.

Me too. And what I observe is people seeking a distraction rather than understanding the roots of their anxiety snd sadness. Sometimes there’s a chemical imbalance and meditation helps stabilize hormones. But it’s also habits, and finding ways to change habits can involve believing in a higher power. This doesn’t work consistently.

 

[Cosmos-intérieur]

Because god believe in my self .

 

[Regiomontanus]

Why do you believe in God?

Because of objective reality. That this is all an 'accident' is absurd (though I argued that position for decades before I woke up). The more deeply one understands physics and cosmology, the more obvious it is that there is a Creator. In my humble though expert opinion.


'Glory be to God for all things' -- John Chrysostom

 

[SalixIncendium]

Because it/they exist. And am I so exceptional that I never needed influencing? I can say no.

Was this question rhetorical? Did you already answer it yourself?

This doesn’t rule out imagining it’s a god when it’s really just the person making changes.

When a thought manifests change, is the thought imagined? Or did the thought manifest?

Why does that suggest it’s a god influencing the decision?

Because it was the god(s) that inspired the decisions that manifested actions.

Can a person not decide this via their own agency?

Which person? You or the one that did not do it via their own agency until inspired by a god(s)?

Are you suggesting that each person's actions are the result of identical inspiration?

And couldn’t that be insecure people seeking to give themselves permission to be good to themselves, and using the idea of a god as a proxy?

What does being good to oneself have anything to do with the person having the courage to battle disease?

Me too. And what I observe is people seeking a distraction rather than understanding the roots of their anxiety snd sadness. Sometimes there’s a chemical imbalance and meditation helps stabilize hormones. But it’s also habits, and finding ways to change habits can involve believing in a higher power. This doesn’t work consistently.

What do your observations have to do with what I or anyone else experience(s)?

 

[Link]

Why do you believe in God?

There are multiple reasons. I will avoid personal experience ones since I can't prove that to others.

(1) What I suggest for those who doubt God, is that God is a witness to all things, and without his witnessing vision, who we are would be an illusion, and not real. But we know morality and who we are is not build on falsehood, but the truth of it has to be be from a perfect vision which is only possible by God.

(2) I suggest seeing how the dark magic is real and seeks to blind people to the family of Mohammad (s) in Quran and separate the family of the reminder from the written reminder. There is no good reason other then what it explains to be of dark magic, for people of Arabic tongue, to decontextualize Quran to the degree they do especially with the family of the reminder (but they do for other important things as well). Magic whether good or bad needs God as the source of magic power. In the case of Iblis, he was originally an powerful Angel, but has descended into a dark being. Dark magic stems from him primarily. Also, the power from God which is truth and true sustenance from God, annuls the dark magic. Experiencing magic by seeking refuge in God and the lights in the heavenly realm is a means to certainty in God and his unseen signs. Where norms in language make something clear, but hardly anyone sees it, to me is a sign that dark magic has afflicted people and blinded them to clear signs in the Quran.

(3) The Quran being a miracle not only proves Mohammad (s) but proves God's existence.

(4) Show me where God is not, and I will show you where he is. This is just rephrasing the ontological argument. God cannot be missing and no one can be absent from him nor anything independently, since he is that big, that much of a living being. This means we can't think of God without realizing he definitely exists much like we can't think of ourselves without realizing we exist. However, in the case of God, it's even a greater thing, we can imagine ourselves in a possible scenario of not coming to existence, however, God is necessary and hence exists in all possible worlds.

 

[Vinayaka]

Why do you believe in God?

That all depends on what you mean by 'God'. I believe in Siva, Ganesha, and Murugan, but not necessarily other 'Gods'. My reason is my direct experience with them, and what works for me.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I tend to agree with you since, throughout the forty years that I believed in the biblical god, I never sensed a divine presence or experienced any kind of physical or emotional healing while or after praying to this god. I never experienced anything like other Christians I knew claimed to experience, such as answered prayers, personal communion with this god, and feeling peace and comfort in their lives. I was a passionate believer who dedicated my life to seeking this god through daily prayer, consistent Bible reading, studying the Bible and Christian theology, regularly attending church services, and being involved in several ministries. Despite my steadfast devotion as a Christian, I still came away empty-handed and depressed since my devotion never led me to experience this god as other Christians claimed. So I finally resorted to 'playing church' in the hopes of experiencing what they claimed to have by believing in God. I became cynical later in life and started to believe that these Christians were either pretending to experience this god as I was or that they were being emotionally manipulated by other Christians or church services designed to elicit emotions from the congregation. Of course, this is my opinion.

Why are you defaulting to the Biblical God, Christians, the Bible, and Christian theology?

Are you under the impression that I was speaking of only the God Christianity?

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Why are you defaulting to the Biblical God, Christians, the Bible, and Christian theology?

Are you under the impression that I was speaking of only the God Christianity?

I wasn't referring to what you said, SalixIncendium. I was responding to something @F1fan said in his post that I can personally relate to.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I wasn't referring to what you said, SalixIncendium. I was responding to something @F1fan said in his post that I can personally relate to.

His post was in reply to mine if you follow the conversation.

Why do you feel the need to attack Christianity at every turn, even when it's not the topic of conversation? One might begin to believe that you are promoting some sort of an agenda.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

His post was in reply to mine if you follow the conversation.

Why do you feel the need to attack Christianity at every turn, even when it's not the topic of conversation? One might begin to believe that you are promoting some sort of an agenda.

You can believe what you want, but I was only sharing my experiences. As I said, it is just my personal opinion.

 

[Quintessence]

When a person says, "I believe ..." what are they actually saying? They don't know, or they would say, "I know ...". They don't just presume or they would say, "I presume ...". It's not just a passing thought or they would say, "I think ...". Instead, they say they "believe"; meaning they are choosing to accept this thing as true. Right? They don't know it's true, or just presume it's true, or are thinking it might be true. (Or they would have said so.) No, they BELIEVE it's true. They are ignoring the skepticism associated with presumption and specilation and not knowing and instead they are placing this thing within the realm of 'what is'. A realm that does not mingle with skepticism, or doubt, or misunderstanding.

When we say, "I believe ..." we are saying, "I am convinced that this is what is".

Right?

Yes, that's sometimes the case. Like most words it's polysemic with multiple meanings and even more subtexts to it. When I consider the phrase "believe in" with respect to asking about the gods in particular, I approach it a bit differently than what you lay out here.

First, I recognize that because I live in a culture where folks think religion is faith-based or belief-based, colloquial speaking about acceptance of the gods is going to be framed in terms of belief or faith as a matter of habit, not necessarily because the speaker put that much thought into their choice of words. Other ways of framing the question "do you believe in the gods" are considered weird in this culture because framing it that way is simply the common parlance. In other words, you might be overanalyzing things a bit with what you say here.

In the spirit of overanalyzing, though, when asking about the gods and what it means to "believe" in them it could mean any of the following, really, and unless one asks for clarification one doesn't really now which the speaker might intend:

• ... that this god or gods is ontologically real (e.g., it exists)
• ... that this god or gods is worth putting trust in as an authority or cornerstone of truth
• ... that this god or gods is something to emulate as a paragon of virtue or conduct
• ... that this god or gods is a significant part of one's lifeways through worship and devotion
• ... and probably some others I'm just not thinking of right now

Each of those could be it's own exposition with the "why do you believe in your gods" question.

 

[Trailblazer]

Why do you believe in God?

Because of Baha'u'llah.
I never thought about God before I became a Baha'i.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I've been lurking in this thread, but I feel the need to chime in.

When a person says, "I believe ..." what are they actually saying? They don't know, or they would say, "I know ...". They don't just presume or they would say, "I presume ...". It's not just a passing thought or they would say, "I think ...". Instead, they say they "believe"; meaning they are choosing to accept this thing as true. Right? They don't know it's true, or just presume it's true, or are thinking it might be true. (Or they would have said so.) No, they BELIEVE it's true. They are ignoring the skepticism associated with presumption and specilation and not knowing and instead they are placing this thing within the realm of 'what is'. A realm that does not mingle with skepticism, or doubt, or misunderstanding.

When we say, "I believe ..." we are saying, "I am convinced that this is what is".

Right?

So the OP question is, "Why do you believe in God?" There can really only be one answer to this question, and it's, "because I chose to". "I chose to accept my idea of God, as God. Period.

Right?

Dude.

You and I both read "why do you believe in God?" in the title of this thread and thought "I don't believe in God." The difference between us:

• I said to myself "okay - this thread isn't directed at me or my way of thinking. I'll move on or read the replies quietly."
• Apparently, you said to yourself "this thread isn't directed at me or my way of thinking... so I'll threadjack it to make it about me and my way of thinking."

It was pretty rude.

 

[1213]

Why do you believe in God?

I believe because of the Bible and because things exist as told in the Bible.