Do atheists believe in God?

[joeybaggz]

I am a critical thinker by nature, so you can imagine I don’t accept much just because someone told me about something or because tradition says so.

Your above statement brought a chuckle to my lips. You see, I would probably be considered by many to be a very Catholic, religious, believing man. I am. And it is because I am a critical thinker by nature who doesn’t accept something because some one or some tradition tells me it is so, that I make that claim.

There is one massive difference between you and me. It is something that is recorded that Jesus said. He said, “unless you have the faith of a little child, you shall not see God; for it is for these little ones that the kingdom of God is made.” In that statement, I find my truth.

What Christ is saying, indirectly, is that it is only with the faith of a small child, that you will come to peace, understanding, and love and joy in life. (this and the next). Christ is saying that one needs to be child like, NOT childish, in one’s faith and understanding, because our finite minds cannot figure it out. The finite cannot find or explain the infinite.

Christmas is coming; listen to a four or five year old tell you about Santa Claus and the reindeer and presents, and Jesus, and see the total belief and trust in mommy and daddy, why, because that child will tell you that mommy and daddy would never deceive them. It is that pure faith, trust, hope, and love that Christ says we need to hold on to. To be HUMBLE.

I don’t know is a good mantra. But, QGirl, how far can it take you? I don’t know how electricity works, but I know when I flip the switch the light comes on. I have faith in that. You can’t bring me a box of wind to put under a microscope, but I know the wind exists when I see the leaves on the tree move and feel the breeze on my skin. It’s call intuitive knowledge, knowing something exists, not because I can see, feel, or understand it, but because I see that things effects. It is the same for me with God. I can’t see Him, touch Him, or understand him in any empirical sense, any empirical knowledge, but I know (believe) He exists when I see this magnificent world that I know man, us, could not have created.

The difference between me and so many of the more “knowledgeable” people is that I am willing to accept something I have come to believe to be true, even though I can’t prove a thing about it, other than others have handed down to me, that which allows me to make sense of something I can’t empirically understand or prove.

 

[Lee1]

I’m offline in a mo Joey but I just want to say that how you describe your faith is exactly how I feel too. I accept God like a child.

 

[joeybaggz]

I’m offline in a mo Joey but I just want to say that how you describe your faith is exactly how I feel too. I accept God like a child.

It is that saying of Jesus’ that is the key to living well in this life and the next. The humble faith, trust, love, and belief of a small child. We adults try to complicate things too much.

 

[Lee1]

Totally. I often read some stuff and want to implore people to keep it simple. The basic message can be understood by almost anyone, two basic things, love God with all your being and love your neighbour as yourself, care for them as you would your own kin. How, why, what, where, when? The complications are horrific and kill it stone dead.

Night joey, really nice to talk.

 

[QwertyGirl]

The difference between me and so many of the more “knowledgeable” people is that I am willing to accept something I have come to believe to be true, even though I can’t prove a thing about it, other than others have handed down to me, that which allows me to make sense of something I can’t empirically understand or prove.

But why do you believe it is true? I believe that if there is a higher power, he made us exactly the way he wanted us. We are here, right? He wants us questioning, doubting, ambivalent. It serves a purpose, I believe. I don’t know all the reasons why or what the purpose of it is. I don’t need to know. I am OK with it. Sort of the childlike-ness you wrote about. I do all of the things we are designed with human nature to do, and yet I am willing to accept that there is something bigger than you, me and the rest of the world. It doesn’t begin and end with me. It isn’t all on me. And that is a comfort, a peace, and a joy. The evidence tells me this. I am here. I am not by myself. Things work to well to be a coincidence. There has to be something pretty powerful at play that I can’t see or touch in the physical. So I do have faith. Strong faith that I have worked hard to develop. Me. Not some higher power bestowing it on me as a gift becuase why? If we have faith it comes from th inside out. What we do with it is what matters.

It is impossible for me to believe we weren’t created exactly as we were meant to be. In other words, in our imperfection, we are perfect. Exaclty as we are supposed to be. And I go from there. That is why I am not able to subscribe to religions with man-made rules and beliefs of original sin. And if you don’t beleive in that, the rest of it goes by the wayside.

I love not knowing. I think it is the way things were designed, assuming there is a higher power. We aren’t meant to know everything and understand everything at this time.

I do have faith, it is just not in organized religion. But it is in everything that is good and real and whole.

 

[FiveLinden]

It all depends what you mean by ‘believe’. On the basis of what I have seen and thought I do not think that a person like the Christian God exists. I have also seen nothing to make me think that one of the thousands of other Gods people believe in exist.

What I do think is that the idea of god/s is so common among people that it must arise from the way our brain is wired, just as our brains predispose us to see optical illusions such as faces in clouds.

So just as I believe in the reality of optical illusions, I believe god/s is/are real. I think it is likely, but by no means established as fact, that after we developed high levels of consciousness belief in god/s became an evolutionary advantage. Those whose brains were predisposed to believe in god/s found comfort from the reality of realising they would die, hope in difficult situations and inspiration to overcome obstacles. So they had more descendants that those whose brains were wired in other ways. This would also explain the tendency of people to belief things not only that cannot be proved (god/s, creation, transubstantiation etc) but things that can actually be disproved (incorruptible saints, homeopathy, astrology etc.)

So as someone who does not believe in god/s and others would call ‘atheist’ yes, I do believe in god/s!

 

[joeybaggz]

But why do you believe it is true?

Maybe the better question might be, “why would I believe it is not true?” Christian belief is that we are not made as intended. God made man in his image and likeness. And that image and likeness in not imperfection.
Somewhere along the line, ,man’s nature as envisioned by that “higher power” was corrupted. How, why, we don’t really know. We have a story - its exactness is up for debate. What we do know (or believe may be the better word) is that our purpose is to return to that state and that uncorrupted relationship with the “higher power.”
I do have to agree with your idea of faith coming from within. If it were from without, well we have a word for that condition, instinct. Something man, at least once he has reached the age of reason and understands he must live by volitional consciousness, does not have.

That is why I am not able to subscribe to religions with man-made rules and beliefs of original sin. And if you don’t believe in that, the rest of it goes by the wayside.

Actually, this is a Catholic website. You must understand, (or at least concede) that the tenets of Catholicism are what are in play in such discussions. The man made rules were made by the Son of Man and His Father. It is us frail and fallible men who interpret them, not make them. And some of the interpretations I must admit, seem somewhat questionable if not downright lame. And many are spot on. It must be remembered that those rules were made in and for a society that is vastly different than today’s. But they are valid within the sphere of Catholic thinking.

As to not having faith in organized religion. I would imagine that many, if not all, faithful Catholics at one time or another, question our “organized” religion. But then, we don’t consider ourselves greater than He who guides the Roman Catholic Church in all righteousness.

Shalom

 

[HerCrazierHalf]

surely they must believe in God because they believe in something in the afterlife soul-like so…?

Why can’t one’s beliefs be a la carte? Perhaps for some God didn’t make sense but ghost do.

I personally disbelieve nearly all things spiritual but could envision “ghosts” as a poor understanding of the universe. Something we have no clue as to what it is or if it is.

 

[Roseeurekacross]

It’s a very interesting condition, that in my world, my atheist or agnostic friends believe in evil and get terrified by the idea of hell.

 

[Lee1]

I love not knowing. I think it is the way things were designed, assuming there is a higher power. We aren’t meant to know everything and understand everything at this time.

I do have faith, it is just not in organized religion. But it is in everything that is good and real and whole.

Quite a few of my posts begin with ‘I’ this that or the other but excuse me because I don’t know any other way of saying what I want to say.

So, I struggled with the logic and detail of belief in God for roughly sixty years, sixty years! Got me nowhere but I still couldn’t rid myself of the pull towards faith. I got really ill and I thought I’d die and I needed to seek forgiveness before I died so I made enquiries about becoming a Catholic. Only becoming a Catholic would satisfy my spiritual need I felt.

Now to the point. Ever since I was around four years old I’d prayed to God and He seemed distant, maybe so far away that He couldn’t hear me. I felt nothing, heard nothing, but I persisted most nights all those years. Looking into Catholicism I read a lot about mystics and saints and there were common experiences to a lot of people, a lot of people!
So I suspended disbelief, joined the Church and began praying as though there was someone there listening. And I prayed to Our Lady to help increase my faith daily. And things started to change, gradually but definitely. Father solanus Casey relied on the promise “ask and it shall be given…” and so I asked too, and it was given, not gold or silver or a new house, better than those things, faith and the ability to love others. Both those things are enough on their own, faith in the existence of God! Can you imagine what that’s like? And the consequences of this, eternal and life and the promise of co-existence with God who is SO ALIVE. To be able to feel love for strangers!

All this by suspending disbelief. Praying with sincerity for others and for things of the spirit. Faith grew slowly for me in one way but looking back it was only perhaps a year or so, and it’s not finished yet, which is great!

Someone said that they’d seen and heard things that showed them there is no God, some people have seen and heard things too but do believe in God. I’ve seen and heard things, experienced things and I can’t explain the reasons behind them either but I still believe just as I believe I have a right arm. Life isn’t a game, it hurts sometimes really badly, belief in God isn’t a game either. In other words belief in God does not answer all questions, there will always be questions without answers and that’s fine too, mysteries are wonderful.