Why do you believe in a religion?

[AlNg]

There is a purpose for suffering, and since Heaven is the ultimate goal, what happens in this temporal world doesn’t matter.

Here you are assuming that heaven exists. I doubt that an atheist will accept that assumption. Also, why should there be such an enormous discontinuity between what happens to the good on earth and what happens to the good in heaven?

 

[Start]

Probably not, but it makes sense to me.

 

[Roseeurekacross]

Faith, it’s the vibe…

Faith and belief are seperate, we can believe without faith and have faith without the full measure of belief.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

Why do I believe in God? Because it is more logical to believe that the uncaused first cause is intelligent than not.

Why do I believe that Christianity is the true faith? Because it is the only one of the major religions that stands up to scrutiny.

Why do I believe in a religion/the Catholic Church? Because I believe God reveal truth through his son. If he relvealed it, the message is important, he expects us to believe the message, and he has given us the means to understand the message (the Catholic Church).

 

[AlNg]

Why do I believe that Christianity is the true religion? Because it is the only one of the major religions that stands up to scrutiny.

Why do you think that Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism or the Bahai religion do not stand up to scrutiny.

 

[Vonsalza]

I believe in God because I believe in the metaphysical and it must have a cause like anything else, thus God.

I’m a Christian because I grew up and live in Christianized culture.

I’m an Orthodox catechumen because it think it most accurately reflects the message of Christ.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

mrsdizzyd:

Why do I believe that Christianity is the true religion? Because it is the only one of the major religions that stands up to scrutiny.

Why do you think that Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism or the Bahai religion do not stand up to scrutiny.

Short surface answers (because this isn’t really on topic).

Hinduism… Polytheism makes zero sense to me logically speaking. There has to be an uncaused first cause thus there can’t be divisions.

Buddhism… A religion based entirely (or almost entirely) on mysticism is thoroughly unsatisfying. There needs to be some level of historicity to it (there isn’t strong evidence for the historical existence of Buddha).

Judaism… would be acceptable if Jesus hadn’t lived, but he did and he fulfilled prophecy.

Bahai… setting aside the issue I have with its founding, it’s main premise is completely unworkable. It is illogical to think that God would reveal himself to be contradictory (all religions are a part of the same continuous revelation).

 

[MiserereMei]

Some atheists will point to the existence of evil in the world as contradicting the existence of an all merciful, all powerful and all good God. Some children suffer horrific pain, while evil scoundrels live a comfortable life and die peacefully while sleeping.

This perhaps is the single greatest difficulty of the Christian religion in particular, and of the Abrahamic religions in general. I cannot find myself faulting those who abandon religion with this as justification. Concluding that God must not exist with such evil, pain, suffering, and unspeakable injustice in the world is easier than trying to resolve the contradiction, and it is more palatable than looking at oneself and seeing how one contributes to the systems that cause such injustice. In fact, when one begins to reflect on one’s own real responsibility, both direct and indirect, one begins to see just how lothesome and wretched one is, and one begins to see a monster, not a man or woman, in the mirror.

 

[joeybaggz]

So my question is, why do you believe?

A valid question. When I look at the perfection of creation as we humans are capable of observing it, if you absent man from the equation, creation is perfect. The heavens act in a perfect pattern and the earth is self sustaining, self regulating, and self perpetuating. It is perfectly in balance (absent man of course). I cannot conceive of that creation and its perfection arising from simple random happenstance without intelligence, plan, or purpose behind it. And, the nature of man himself suggests to me a creator. Man is the only known creature that possesses logic, reason, volitional choice. He/she does not possess instinct, at least when the age of reason is reached. And man is the only creature that possesses the capacities for trust, faith, hope, and love, the reflection of a higher being.

 

[Thom18]

I was raised spiritually confused. I ended up being Confirmed in the Catholic Church when I was a teen, but spent some years in the Episcopal Church. Between the two churches I attended, my religious “education” was less than stellar, because I didn’t even know that Jesus is God until I was 18. I spent years in Catholic and Episcopalian Sunday school and was never taught (as far as I can recall) this essential Christian belief. Needless to say, I’ve had to make up for this by educating myself since December of 2015.

At that time, I was in my first year of college and preparing for Winter break. I was invited to Mass (I was attending a Catholic college for their great nursing program), and I decided to go since I had few extracurricular activities going on. The service was small (only one other student and a handful of faculty showed up) and short, but I was paying attention for the first time (after having gone to Mass countless times since I was born). It blew me away, so I attended another religious event that night. Over the next month I learned the basic Catholic truths, and I’ve been in more advanced study since then.

I can’t chalk my conversion up to coincidence. The wheels for this were in motion since at least 2011- when I was a freshman in high school- if not earlier. I wanted to be a police officer at the time, so I was exploring the option of going to a vocational school for their security program. When application time came around (end of sophomore year), I decided to apply for the marketing program instead for less-than-good reasons. My mother found out that there were spaces left in the security program and urged me to apply for it, and I was accepted after writing a letter to the principal stating why I should get the spot.

The old program was being overhauled as it didn’t really help students get a job in the field. Since it was a high school program, and high schoolers tend to be minors, we couldn’t do a lot that would’ve helped us. So, EMS and firefighting was added to the curriculum as, in Ohio, you don’t need to wait until you’re 21 to get a job in these fields. Long story short, I have a natural talent for medicine and ended up being the only student in my class to get the EMT certification. I was worried about not being able to make money in EMS, though, and pursued nursing as a more financially rewarding career path.

 

[Thom18]

CONTINUED

While in vocational school, I had to take civics. Here I was exposed to our country’s founding fathers like never before, and I also learned of our Christian heritage. This class, which I had originally tried to weasel out of, “converted” me from communism to conservatism, and thus made religion more relative to me.

All of this came together when I decided to enter a Catholic college (only because their nursing program is the best in Ohio). Though I was open to religion and believed in God, I wasn’t churchgoing and didn’t have any set beliefs. I didn’t even pick up a Bible until that point. I was invited to that Mass and chose to go, and the rest is history.

I can’t stress enough that my conversion was more than just coincidence. Too many “coincidences” lined up just at the time they needed to in order to soften my heart and bring me back to the Church of my youth. If I had to sum up my experience, I would say that I initially came to faith due to emotions that I felt one night in college. I remain in faith today both due to my intense study, and my recognition that my conversion was years in the making, even though I didn’t know it.

 

[Happymom]

Faith is a gift. I believe in God because I do and my religion supports my faith and allows my relationsip with God to grow.

 

[Shakuhachi]

Hinduism… Polytheism makes zero sense to me logically speaking. There has to be an uncaused first cause thus there can’t be divisions.

While Hinduism may have many gods they are all manifestation of one god.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

mrsdizzyd:

Hinduism… Polytheism makes zero sense to me logically speaking. There has to be an uncaused first cause thus there can’t be divisions.

While Hinduism may have many gods they are all manifestation of one god.

Manifestations of various distinct aspects of one God, but they are not each a complete manifestation of the totality of God. That means there is conflict and division within God. If there is conflict and division then he does not qualify as the uncaused first cause.

 

[Roguish]

So my question is, why do you believe?

The vast majority of religious people don’t quite know why they believe. They just do. It’s primarily an intuitive thing, and a heart-felt thing. And that is quite enough. It isn’t enough for the inquisitive (or inquisitor?) non-believer, of course, but is is certainly enough for the authentic believer.

Having said that, in this day and age we are all trained to offer rational explanations for the way we are. In fact we are trained to feel that all questions “deserve” answers. So when asked, many believers will make an attempt at offering reasons of some sort. This creates the impression that belief is somehow “explainable”, and therefore perhaps “conveyable” if the reasons are “convincing”. When they aren’t convincing, the non-believer will scoff and say: “See how there’s no good reason for it?” In truth though, the reasons believers offer when asked aren’t really what’s at the bottom of their faith. At its core, Faith remains an ineffable, intimate experience. You either have it or you don’t.

P.S. I’m not saying it’s wrong to ask about reasons for faith. The answers may prod you on in your search and/or weaken your resistance. However, no answer will ever give you Faith.

 

[Roguish]

Manifestations of various distinct aspects of one God, but they are not each a complete manifestation of the totality of God. That means there is conflict and division within God. If there is conflict and division then he does not qualify as the uncaused first cause.

Mrs. Dizzy, with all due respect – and I mean that – you do not understand Hinduism. Not understanding it isn’t a crime, but it would really be gracious of you if you refrained from theologically analyzing the religion of a billion people in a three-line paragraph and dismissing it as some sort of obvious mistake. Thank you.

 

[michaelArc]

I believe in religion because I am interested in Truth. I believe in God because I can’t see how we can exist without a God anchoring the universe within a perfect design.

The idea that we are here by chance is completely illogically to me. If one cosmic variable is off by the slightest degree, that’s it, life would have never evolved. Also, there are a zillion things that could have gone wrong, but they didn’t. We would be like everything else in the universe. Just a lifeless rock floating in space.

I also believe that having faith is a grace. Some people have it and others do not. Just like some people have a sense of humour and others do not. While still there is some who outright reject it.

 

[UpUpAndAway]

I wouldn’t say that I believe in a religion. I practice a religion, but I believe in God. Since I believe that the Catholic Church was established by Jesus, the Son of God, it only makes sense to me to practice the faith proclaimed by this Church.

 

[Seagull]

You sound like your on the outskirts -
the outskirts of our town, as they say.
Belief comes by many various methods.
The Bible. The 4 Gospels in particular.
Obviously, going to church. The Eucharist.
Prayer.
Devotion to Mary, without question.
The results of personal faith - stepping away from yourself.
Etc etc - lol

 

[lilypadrees]

Why do you not believe?

I don’t believe in a religion. I believe in Jesus the Christ who is God (the Son), a Divine Person, the Second Person of the Trinity.