Why Believe in God...?

  • Thread starter Thread starter St_Aloysius
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

St_Aloysius

Guest
This is a question primarily for those who accept the facts of evolution and subscribe to the theory of its mechanisms.

Why, if not out of necessity (since Darwinism has proven itself more than capable of explaining the origins of life naturalistically), do you believe in God?

I have my reasons, and can pretty well articulate them, but I’m interested in hearing others.
 
For starters there’s no way around the 1st Cause, nor can evolution explain it. 😃
 
St_Aloysius said:
This is a question primarily for those who accept the facts of evolution and subscribe to the theory of its mechanisms.

Why, if not out of necessity (since Darwinism has proven itself more than capable of explaining the origins of life naturalistically), do you believe in God?

I have my reasons, and can pretty well articulate them, but I’m interested in hearing others.
Click to expand...
This is a non-starter for many Catholics who have a different concept of evolution than does Darwin. My belief in God has nothing at all to do with evolutionary theory, or evidence for evolution at all.
 
Because God is not just God of the gaps - He is not just a construct we made up to fill in that which we didn’t understand until the mid 19th century.

Because I believe in explanatory pluralism, as should any person who doesn’t throw out biology when they can explain the same thing chemically, or throw out engineering when they can explain something physically.

Darwinism will probably explain the origin of the first atom of living material someday, but it may never heal society, nor will it give us anything in the life to come.
 
Darwinism will probably explain the origin of the first atom of living material someday, but it may never heal society, nor will it give us anything in the life to come.
Click to expand...
Beautiful… Thanks for this. Something to think about.
 
My personal thought is that people believe in God because faith in God is the answer to what science cannot explain. Assuming that any theory put forth by science is true, it probably does not explain how the beginning of that theory began.:confused: Believing in God puts an end to those questions.
 
God is still the only logical, straightforward explanation of:
Miracles
Answered prayers
Fulfilled prophecies
The beginning of moral consciousness, when it overrides individual and tribal survival drives
The beginning of consciousness of any kind
The beginning of life itself
The relative efficiency of development of species
fine-tuning
the beginning, period.
 
St_Aloysius said:
This is a question primarily for those who accept the facts of evolution and subscribe to the theory of its mechanisms.

Why, if not out of necessity (since Darwinism has proven itself more than capable of explaining the origins of life naturalistically), do you believe in God?

I have my reasons, and can pretty well articulate them, but I’m interested in hearing others.
Click to expand...
Kay, now explain why there’s any universe for life to exist in. And for that matter, why there’s any reality for that universe to exist in.

Oh, and maybe we ought to explain the complete lack of correspondence between Darwinism and the fossil record, but you might be counting Gould as Darwinism.
 
For starters there’s no way around the 1st Cause, nor can evolution explain it.
Click to expand...
There is no way around it? Only if one is enmeshed within a perspective that demands it. The demand for a “1st Cause” is a demand that only arises and functions within a set of very specific metaphysical suppositions. If one does not share those suppositions, there is no question of “getting around” the 1st Cause, because it has no real import.
 
St_Aloysius said:
This is a question primarily for those who accept the facts of evolution and subscribe to the theory of its mechanisms.

Why, if not out of necessity (since Darwinism has proven itself more than capable of explaining the origins of life naturalistically), do you believe in God?
Click to expand...
The laws of physics adequately explain how things move too. But you still have toi account for the contingency of those laws themselves. Science is the observation of how things operate and behave, but it doesn’t answer why they operate that way in the first place. God creates both matter and the mechanisms for how it moves, changes, etc.
 
Why not believe in God? Anyone who believes science has all the answers is truly deluded. 🙂
 
Personally, I have seen God move in my life in ways that may be mere coincidence, but they are very great coincidences at the least. That, and I will at least admit that the difference between a Christian and an atheist is that Christians remember God is good, truth, and beauty, while the atheist makes gods of these things so that he may still hold onto these things without admitting they came from God.
That, and I had the first cause down when I was 4. 😉
 
rwoehmke said:
Why not believe in God? Anyone who believes science has all the answers is truly deluded. 🙂
Click to expand...
I’ve yet to meet a person who believes that science has all the answers (perhaps there’s one out there, but I haven’t meet them yet). What most of us nontheists would say is that while science doesn’t have all the answers, that by no means makes your answers true. One problem we see with religion is that it gives answers that it can’t possibly know is true.
 
Let us not distract ourselves by analyzing the how and wherefore of our origin. I believe in God because He revealed Himself to us throughout the ages, through Moses and the prophets, through the miracle of the Incarnation, by Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, for which countless of his disciples then and now were willing to lay down their lives rather than renounce.

As a scientist myself, I remain in awe when I contemplate the marvelous complexity of even the most simple organism or plant. The structure and function of a single cell is a marvel of nature that no engineering can duplicate with the elegance and functionality of the original.

As a physician, I am constantly surprised by the amazing human body. One will live for years when we scientists predict death within days. The opposite is also true. There are wonders in medicine that transcend human reason – despite our best efforts to create an evidence based world view.

If we did not have free will to accept or reject Him, what value would Faith have? If the existence of God were 100% obvious (for example, if non believers were struck down by cosmic thunderbolts) we would be a race of automatons. What value would Love have if it were forced upon us?

The universe provides us all with enough data that all who truly seek Him with an honest heart will find Him. Don’t stop seeking Truth. He is longing to show his love to all his creation.
 
babydoc said:
If we did not have free will to accept or reject Him, what value would Faith have? If the existence of God were 100% obvious (for example, if non believers were struck down by cosmic thunderbolts) we would be a race of automatons. What value would Love have if it were forced upon us?

The universe provides us all with enough data that all who truly seek Him with an honest heart will find Him. Don’t stop seeking Truth. He is longing to show his love to all his creation.
Click to expand...
So instead of god being known to exist, we must spend immense time looking to find god, and, if we were to conclude that there might be a god, spend another immense amount of time trying to find the right way to worship/the right religion. If Catholicism or even Christianity is right then the majority of the world has been doing things wrong, possibly offensively, and possibly loosing salvation. All because they chose the wrong answer in a massive sea of information, misinformation, truths, lies, and deception that the populous has not been able to reconcile in millenniums.

What is the benefit of this massive complexity? What would be lost if god were to play a current, more active role, such as Jesus did? What would be lost if someone were to ask god a question, and god were to call them on the phone and answer, instead of the person desperately trying to find any experience to fit into an idea that its god trying to talk to them? What is wrong with clear signs that are not easily open to unintentional misinterpretation? What is the downside to a person having all, accurate information before being expected to make a critical choice?

I do not see how having accurate information turns a person into an automaton. Isn’t that the minimum that we provide to another before expecting an important decision - truthful, accurate information about all options? And while most people would probably have the same preference, there are always some who choose otherwise. How is a choice forced when a person has correct information? How is your choice anywhere near accurate if you are misinformed?

There are many who have devotedly searched for years, even decades, and have not found god. I fail to see the good in this - god is leaving someone miserably deceived when he could easily change that. The system sets up most to fail this way.

I know my spouse exists, as do my siblings, my parents, my coworkers, and my extended family. My love to them is all freely given. If knowing these people exists does not mean that my love is forced, then why would knowing god exists automatically mean that my love is forced there?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top