Because the bible tells you so?

[robvalue]

God wasn't always invisible. In genesis he walks about like a man in full view. But really, it's not surprising that the first thing someone is going to say about something they can't prove exists is "It's invisible!"

My main problem with the argument that the bible is inspired (or any holy book) and that it's gods way of communicating with us is that it's about the very worst possible way of communicating us I could ever imagine. I bet anyone could list at least 5 better ways than this which would leave no doubt as to who was sending the message.

Let me have a guess at some of the "real" reasons people believe. These may be way off as I've never been under myself, so let me know if I'm on or off:

1) I've always been told it's true and those around me all think it's true

2) I'm scared to even think about it not being true, questioning God is a sin and I don't want to go to hell

3) It feels like it must be true

4) I haven't yet been given a better set of complete answers for how things all came to be

5) It makes me feel good inside to believe in it

6) I want/need it to be true, and I don't want to even think about reasons it might not be true

7) I'd rather keep believing than consider I've been wrong for all this time and that I've been fed a bunch of bull

I'm giving a rough guess that some combination of those are the underlying reasons for belief. All these other "arguments" are just defence mechanisms in order to not have to think about or challenge the core reasons. It is quite possible people do not realise the core reasons.

I agree Pyr, belief is a complex thing. It got me thinking when you said about the belief the Earth is spherical. Straight away I thought, "Oh crap! I better have some reasons for this!" On inspection, I found I have numerous sensible, testable reasons to believe this.

I think that is what I really want to do with theists, if they are interested in obliging. I want to find out these underlying reasons. I just don't accept that all these weak-ass pseudo logical arguments are what has convinced them, mainly because most of them "work" for any religion! If a theist hasn't even thought about those real reasons, I'd love to them to try. And then I'd be interested in hearing them analyse those beliefs, and see what other beliefs they rest on, like you say. I understand this is a scary thing for a theist to do, and I've encountered a lot of resistance in making this suggestion. I've tried with several people and I just get fobbed off with more cover arguments I've debunked a million times already.

If the theist's beliefs are actually true, they should not fear closer examination. I found it exciting rather than scary to examine why I believe what I do about the Earth, because I'm confident it will hold up, and if it doesn't, I want to know about it! It's the unexamined beliefs that cause all the problems I think.

What say you, theists? Do you want to travel into your mind and really challenge those beliefs?