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Holly3278
Guest
Hey everyone. What are some reasons to believe in God that I can tell an Atheist/Agnostic/Secular Humanist? 
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Windfish
Guest
I am going to send you a PM. This forum already went through several similar threads, so we’re all probably exhausted!
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FightingFat
Guest
Everyone knows that we are drawn to communion…We are drawn to each other, to live in communities and to exchange ideas, friendship and love. We feel most comfortable in communities where that is best expressed. That draw to communion is an expression of the desire for God.Hey everyone. What are some reasons to believe in God that I can tell an Atheist/Agnostic/Secular Humanist?
Morality is a good way to approach this too. Think about what is universally true “Thou shalt not murder the innocent” for example. Where do we get universal morals from?
Another approach is about being the best that we can be. Living a life truly God centred makes us happy. The more we come to know God, the more we align ourselves with the divine will, the happier we are in ourselves, the better able to cope with adversity.
Life begins and moves inexorably to an end. On this journey we build our connections and knowledge…And then what? It all ends there? At the height of our understanding? Does that make any evolutionary/ scientific sense?
Atheism is clearly poor thinking because it makes a priori assumptions about the nature of being. Those assumptions deny what we know about human existence (i.e. that it certainly does have a spiritual dimension to it). Agnosticism is a much more honest position.
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inocente
Guest
A reason from a Muslim for belief by any tradition.
Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf: Lose your ego, find your compassion (video, 16 minutes)
Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf: Lose your ego, find your compassion (video, 16 minutes)
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tbcrawford
Guest
Hi Holly may I direct you to a thread from January this year by Watchful Pilgrim in the Apologetics forum called ’ I need to talk about my loss of faith.’
Many people including myself helped Watchful with her return to faith.Check it out i hope it helps you too.God bless
One of my posts was
[Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.
If you depend only on what your eyes can see and nothing else, you are prone to error as well. Your eyes may tell you the sun rises and sets, but your reason (and your human faith in what astronomers, mathematicians, and physicists tell us) makes your realize the truth–the Earth moves around the sun.
There are many things, including spiritual things, that exist whether you have seen them or not. A person who declines to accept their existence is not working on the basis of sound reason, but on “blind faith,” and someone who insists nothing exists beyond what his senses can detect–particularly someone who rejects out of hand the supernatural–might be called out of sync with reality.
I recommend you read Frank Sheed’s best book, Theology and Sanity. Despite the title, Theology and Sanity has nothing to do with psychiatry. Sheed said a man who rejects the supernatural is like a physician who rejects bacteria. You begin to think he isn’t all there. A physician who says bacteria aren’t real operates from prejudice, not science, and someone who says the supernatural isn’t real operates the same way
Ever wondered how Christians have come to believe in Heaven, Hell, Angels and the Devil through scripture? Ever doubted that you could come to a rational belief of those concepts using logic, through combining philosophy and theology? Rejoice becuase Mr. Sheed reconciles both of those for you, beautifully and clearly.
In an age where philosophy, academia, and society hold religious belief as subrational, Frank Sheed shines as a beacon for those who desire to begin the grave and joyous journey of reconciling faith with reason. His explainations of Catholic theology and the metaphysical realities it upholds prove to be some of the clearest of our time. His explaination of how those realities are translated into practical application,(morality), prove equally lucid. His embarkation into the mystery of the Holy Trinity leaves one with much to meditate upon. This book is for anyone seeking to understand their Catholic faith]
Many people including myself helped Watchful with her return to faith.Check it out i hope it helps you too.God bless
One of my posts was
[Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.
- Saint Aurelius Augustine (Augustine of Hippo)
If you depend only on what your eyes can see and nothing else, you are prone to error as well. Your eyes may tell you the sun rises and sets, but your reason (and your human faith in what astronomers, mathematicians, and physicists tell us) makes your realize the truth–the Earth moves around the sun.
There are many things, including spiritual things, that exist whether you have seen them or not. A person who declines to accept their existence is not working on the basis of sound reason, but on “blind faith,” and someone who insists nothing exists beyond what his senses can detect–particularly someone who rejects out of hand the supernatural–might be called out of sync with reality.
I recommend you read Frank Sheed’s best book, Theology and Sanity. Despite the title, Theology and Sanity has nothing to do with psychiatry. Sheed said a man who rejects the supernatural is like a physician who rejects bacteria. You begin to think he isn’t all there. A physician who says bacteria aren’t real operates from prejudice, not science, and someone who says the supernatural isn’t real operates the same way
Ever wondered how Christians have come to believe in Heaven, Hell, Angels and the Devil through scripture? Ever doubted that you could come to a rational belief of those concepts using logic, through combining philosophy and theology? Rejoice becuase Mr. Sheed reconciles both of those for you, beautifully and clearly.
In an age where philosophy, academia, and society hold religious belief as subrational, Frank Sheed shines as a beacon for those who desire to begin the grave and joyous journey of reconciling faith with reason. His explainations of Catholic theology and the metaphysical realities it upholds prove to be some of the clearest of our time. His explaination of how those realities are translated into practical application,(morality), prove equally lucid. His embarkation into the mystery of the Holy Trinity leaves one with much to meditate upon. This book is for anyone seeking to understand their Catholic faith]
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JohnDamian
Guest
Better and fuller and more truthful existence both on earth and after our deaths.
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MindOverMatter2
Guest
People often argue that the fact of evolution destroys teleology. My argument does not deny that a form which proceeds to a definite purpose can arise according to a process or series of secondary events that are not themselves “intentional”. I am in complete agreement with the theory of evolution in so far as it pertains to physical events. I disagree, however, with the idea that the physical reality thus accounts for all the purposeful appearances of organisms.
What my argument identifies is that there are two kinds of events involved in the formation of an organism and that there is a distinct difference involved between the form of a particular organism and the parts or matter that makes up that particular form. I.e you can meaningfully identify arms and legs in terms of the function they perform in respect of the “whole” organism. But a leg that has been torn off can no-longer be defined as a leg, because its definition is derived from the act of the whole organism. Thus the function of a leg cannot simply be reduced to the matter involved; but rather it is “information based”. Matter cannot act to multiple different purposeful ends without pre-existent information ordered to those ends.
The reality of my leg is a leg in respect of the information that matter requires in-order to perform as my leg. An example; I can command that my arm moves, and it moves because its function is for the purpose of moving according to my command or desire in so far as I am a particular form of matter. That we identify evolutionary processes is irrelevant to the fact that the information we find in a particular form exists irrespective of the matter involved. What I mean to say here is that there is a transcendent objective and meaningful language that makes my arms movement meaningful in regards to my commanding it; and in-order for my body to understand it, there has to be a predefined objective language that recognizes and presupposes the purposeful intentions of a personal mind, and exists regardless of evolutionary or physical changes. There has to be a plan or map of sorts that already has purposeful commands as apart of its language. The matter itself has no knowledge of my command that it should by chance act according to my commanding it. Neither can objective meaning evolve, since its meaning is objective and not chance related.
What my argument identifies is that there are two kinds of events involved in the formation of an organism and that there is a distinct difference involved between the form of a particular organism and the parts or matter that makes up that particular form. I.e you can meaningfully identify arms and legs in terms of the function they perform in respect of the “whole” organism. But a leg that has been torn off can no-longer be defined as a leg, because its definition is derived from the act of the whole organism. Thus the function of a leg cannot simply be reduced to the matter involved; but rather it is “information based”. Matter cannot act to multiple different purposeful ends without pre-existent information ordered to those ends.
The reality of my leg is a leg in respect of the information that matter requires in-order to perform as my leg. An example; I can command that my arm moves, and it moves because its function is for the purpose of moving according to my command or desire in so far as I am a particular form of matter. That we identify evolutionary processes is irrelevant to the fact that the information we find in a particular form exists irrespective of the matter involved. What I mean to say here is that there is a transcendent objective and meaningful language that makes my arms movement meaningful in regards to my commanding it; and in-order for my body to understand it, there has to be a predefined objective language that recognizes and presupposes the purposeful intentions of a personal mind, and exists regardless of evolutionary or physical changes. There has to be a plan or map of sorts that already has purposeful commands as apart of its language. The matter itself has no knowledge of my command that it should by chance act according to my commanding it. Neither can objective meaning evolve, since its meaning is objective and not chance related.
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FightingFat
Guest
Short, sweet and to the point!Better and fuller and more truthful existence both on earth and after our deaths.
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scottm
Guest
Buddha believed in gods and another world. They’re all over the Pali canon. See Long Discourses sutta 23 in particular, where his disciple convincingly knocks down eight arguments for atheism and annihilation.
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_Locke
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Peter Kreeft’s Twenty Arguments For The Existence of God is pretty good.
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wanstronian
Guest
This is the only valid reason you give. However, whether it’s a good reason is purely subjective. Your last sentence is too general though: there are many different types of community, which all give the same rewards of friendship, love, solidarity etc. Only a subset of them are religious. It is wrong to think of community as a result of a desire for God.
We don’t - there’s no such thing.
This makes an erroneous assumption that being irreligious leads to unhappiness and/or nihilism.
Yes. Absolutely it does.
Another error - the assumption that atheism and agnosticism are mutually exclusive. Also, the tu quoque fallacy regarding a priori assumptions; not to mention the implied assertion that the invented assumptions of the atheist (about whom you clearly know very little) deny what is apparent!
I hope the OP doesn’t submit these reasons to his/her acquaintances, he/she’ll get shot down.
There isn’t really any reason to believe in God, unless your nature dictates that you need to feel that someone is out there looking after you. In this case, a belief in God, however irrational it may be objectively, can provide comfort and solace in hard times. That such comfort is (almost certainly) false may be irrelevant to the believer.
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