I wanted to share my views on the human need regarding the pursuit of religious knowledge. In other words I am reflecting on the "why" in this context; asking: "why are you chasing the idea of the existence of a God?"

"What's in it for you", is another question so interrelated with the "why"; actually answering the "what" would automatically mean that the why is answered.

Why do you want to know if God exists or not? what made you feel alerted and feel the urge to chase such a terminology, validating if it was right or wrong?

We humans never give something any long-term attention (the idea of God is present since the dawn of time) until it makes a huge impact on our existence, for example I don't notice the "absence of winged unicorns" because simply: "winged unicorns have no effect on my life".

God -on the other hand- is given all this positive and negative attention; literally we can say that the concept of God is innate capacity in any society. Religion existed with humanity since the first recorded days of history, why didn't the idea die out?

Yes; it has a huge impact that cannot be ignored, no matter what.

The amount of reaction to religion is evidence in itself that the concept of God existed, will exist no matter what.
People always seek God. And God's presence is felt no matter what.

No, what is innate is the desire, nay the need, to explain things.  Humans are constantly seeking to discover how and why things work.  God is/was simply an easy explanation when there isn't a better one at the time.

Why do we exist?
Why did my child die?
What are the sparkly points in the sky?
How did they get there?

Before we understood evolution, germs, astronomy, etc, God was an answer for all of this and much much more. Why are their floods?  The Gods are angry. And so forth.

People do not automatically seek god. They automatically seek answers.  And they tend to believe what they are told by adults and authority figures, a natural part of human psychology.

That's all there is to god.  Just a need to explain everything when everything cannot be explained, and an evolutionary benefit to teaching/learning gone wrong.

(August 5, 2018 at 6:18 am)AtlasS33 Wrote: I wanted to share my views on the human need regarding the pursuit of religious knowledge. In other words I am reflecting on the "why" in this context; asking: "why are you chasing the idea of the existence of a God?"

"What's in it for you", is another question so interrelated with the "why"; actually answering the "what" would automatically mean that the why is answered.

Why do you want to know if God exists or not? what made you feel alerted and feel the urge to chase such a terminology, validating if it was right or wrong?

We humans never give something any long-term attention (the idea of God is present since the dawn of time) until it makes a huge impact on our existence, for example I don't notice the "absence of winged unicorns" because simply: "winged unicorns have no effect on my life".

God -on the other hand- is given all this positive and negative attention; literally we can say that the concept of God is innate capacity in any society. Religion existed with humanity since the first recorded days of history, why didn't the idea die out?

Yes; it has a huge impact that cannot be ignored, no matter what.

The amount of reaction to religion is evidence in itself that the concept of God existed, will exist no matter what.
People always seek God. And God's presence is felt no matter what.

Bad guesses are a matter of evolution. It stems from fight or flight, and life does not always have time to slow down and asses and test to insure the perception is correct. As Richard Dawkins put it his book "The God Delusion", it is like a antelope seeing the tall grass sway. The antelope doesn't have time to decide if it is mere wind, or a lion stalking it. 

"God" is merely the bad guess of projecting our qualities onto the world around us. In our species early evolution, we didn't have our modern knowledge. If a volcano affected us, we'd falsely presume it was a cognitive being with super powers over us. If we were affected by weather or animal migration, we'd attribute that to a magical cognition either providing or punishing us. Deities later on took on more human like qualities in the forms of written religion in polytheism and monotheism that we know today.

Most humans get sold the religion of their parents at birth prior to developing adult critical thinking skills. So the argument that "God belief" is in us is misunderstood.

Aurora nailed it. God-belief is an attempt at explaining the natural world.  Supposing Oog drops his full water gourd on the ground.  It makes a puddle.  It isn't too much of a leap for Oog to explain rain as coming from the Mighty Gourd Dropper In The Sky.

But human nature is to seek better and better explanations.  Sure, there could be a celestial dropper of gourds, but it never rains unless there are clouds in the sky.  Oog can see the clouds and the rain,  but not the Gourd Dropper - maybe clouds have something to do with the rain.  And so on.

And as we find better and better explanations for the world around us, there is less and less for God to do ('god of the gaps').  God continues to be an explanation only for those things which human beings haven't yet sussed out.

Boru

Brainwashing. Implant well made fear and it will work as a "leash". And it takes time to recognize that shit for what it is.

(August 5, 2018 at 6:36 am)Aroura Wrote: No, what is innate is the desire, nay the need, to explain things.  Humans are constantly seeking to discover how and why things work.  God is/was simply an easy explanation when there isn't a better one at the time.

Why do we exist?
Why did my child die?
What are the sparkly points in the sky?
How did they get there?

Before we understood evolution, germs, astronomy, etc, God was an answer for all of this and much much more. Why are their floods?  The Gods are angry. And so forth.

People do not automatically seek god. They automatically seek answers.  And they tend to believe what they are told by adults and authority figures, a natural part of human psychology.

That's all there is to god.  Just a need to explain everything when everything cannot be explained, and an evolutionary benefit to teaching/learning gone wrong.

Exactly, great answer.

I've never sought "a creator" because I'm comfortable saying, "I don't know"; and I accept reality on its own terms. I truly don't care if there's a creator or not.

But as I always say, if it wants to communicate with me, it's welcome to.

nvm...

(August 5, 2018 at 6:18 am)AtlasS33 Wrote: I wanted to share my views on the human need regarding the pursuit of religious knowledge. In other words I am reflecting on the "why" in this context; asking: "why are you chasing the idea of the existence of a God?"

"What's in it for you", is another question so interrelated with the "why"; actually answering the "what" would automatically mean that the why is answered.

Why do you want to know if God exists or not? what made you feel alerted and feel the urge to chase such a terminology, validating if it was right or wrong?

We humans never give something any long-term attention (the idea of God is present since the dawn of time) until it makes a huge impact on our existence, for example I don't notice the "absence of winged unicorns" because simply: "winged unicorns have no effect on my life".

God -on the other hand- is given all this positive and negative attention; literally we can say that the concept of God is innate capacity in any society. Religion existed with humanity since the first recorded days of history, why didn't the idea die out?

Yes; it has a huge impact that cannot be ignored, no matter what.

The amount of reaction to religion is evidence in itself that the concept of God existed, will exist no matter what.
People always seek God. And God's presence is felt no matter what.

Not chasing that idea. Simply enjoy arguing with believers. My favorite sport.

(August 5, 2018 at 6:18 am)AtlasS33 Wrote: And God's presence is felt no matter what.

That is at the heart of the matter in explaining why God belief is so prevalent. Something is intuited as "God" because of the mystery of consciousness. We don't know ourselves completely and that something extra we experience inside gets projected outside as God. What I think you need to explain is why that something inside can only be explained in terms of something as vast as the cosmos that is all powerful and all knowing. It really is hubris on a grand scale to imagine that only such a being could be giving me those signs, that guidance and those feelings. If belief in God is mundane, then so is its source.

I've been meaning to make this video for a while and you reminded me about it