Posts: 33018
Threads: 1412
Joined: March 15, 2013
Reputation:
152
Why is belief in a higher power required?
June 19, 2013 at 3:01 pm
(This post was last modified: June 19, 2013 at 3:06 pm by Silver.)
Considering that people are perfectly capable of living happy, moral lives without a belief in a higher power, I would like to hear logical answers from theists as to precisely why belief in a higher power is required in this world. It is a question I have never seen adequately answered.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
Posts: 601
Threads: 33
Joined: January 12, 2013
Reputation:
13
RE: Why is belief in a higher power required?
June 19, 2013 at 3:10 pm
They believe that it is BECAUSE of the higher power that they can live happy, moral lives.
Life with god is completely indistinguishable from life without god in every way.
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." -Einstein
Posts: 3022
Threads: 34
Joined: May 11, 2013
Reputation:
30
RE: Why is belief in a higher power required?
June 19, 2013 at 3:11 pm
I think we all know possibly the most common and biggest factors to why people believe in a higher power.
1) They are ignorant. Not in a mean way but in the sense that everyone is ignorant of how the universe began and how life started. We do not yet have an answer, and not knowing is something religious people don't particularly like.
2) They fear death because they don't know what happens to you after you die, no one does
It will be interesting to see the responses they come up with
'The more I learn about people the more I like my dog'- Mark Twain
'You can have all the faith you want in spirits, and the afterlife, and heaven and hell, but when it comes to this world, don't be an idiot. Cause you can tell me you put your faith in God to put you through the day, but when it comes time to cross the road, I know you look both ways.' - Dr House
“Young earth creationism is essentially the position that all of modern science, 90% of living scientists and 98% of living biologists, all major university biology departments, every major science journal, the American Academy of Sciences, and every major science organization in the world, are all wrong regarding the origins and development of life….but one particular tribe of uneducated, bronze aged, goat herders got it exactly right.” - Chuck Easttom
"If my good friend Doctor Gasparri speaks badly of my mother, he can expect to get punched.....You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others. There is a limit." - Pope Francis on freedom of speech
Posts: 5170
Threads: 364
Joined: September 25, 2012
Reputation:
61
RE: Why is belief in a higher power required?
June 19, 2013 at 3:17 pm
because it is a bronze age system and people could only attribute bronce age concepts of rulership to their religious figures.
if most religions would have sprung into existance during the last 40 years, god would have been an elected official.
Posts: 13051
Threads: 66
Joined: February 7, 2011
Reputation:
92
RE: Why is belief in a higher power required?
June 19, 2013 at 3:48 pm
I know for Christians it's a prerequisite for having your sins washed away.
I'd be curious to hear the Islamic reasoning, though.
Posts: 480
Threads: 1
Joined: May 15, 2013
Reputation:
9
RE: Why is belief in a higher power required?
June 19, 2013 at 3:52 pm
Because if there's a creator then there must be some kind of purpose. If there's no creator then everything that's going on, all the hardships of life, at end of the day is all just a bunch of stuff that happened for no reason. That's frightening, and belief in a creator gives (false) comfort.
"Men see clearly enough the barbarity of all ages — except their own!" — Ernest Crosby.
Posts: 2854
Threads: 61
Joined: February 1, 2013
Reputation:
35
RE: Why is belief in a higher power required?
June 19, 2013 at 3:58 pm
I would like to know why so many mental health professionals think I need to believe in a higher power in order to be mentally well.
Posts: 4940
Threads: 99
Joined: April 17, 2011
Reputation:
45
RE: Why is belief in a higher power required?
June 19, 2013 at 4:36 pm
(June 19, 2013 at 3:01 pm)Maelstrom Wrote: Considering that people are perfectly capable of living happy, moral lives without a belief in a higher power
That's just it. Christians often think that we atheists don't live happy, moral lives without belief in a higher power. That's why so many of them claim that we're all unhappy and if we do happen to have morals, they came from God.
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.
