Coming to a mutual agreement and some rambling.

[Mystic]

Which leads me to believe that your main reason for your belief is your fear of death.

I question what "motivates" me to want to know God exists. And this is certainly a factor. But it's not just my own death, it's the death of all life.

Therefore I know I have strong bias to believe in God. Having recognized that, I still can't get myself to believe that I don't know God exists.

I'm trying to be as honest to myself as I can. I realize that if I'm going to overcome bias, I have to have courage to face death of all life as a possibility. At the same time, I feel holding on to knowledge of God being a special type of spiritual knowledge, takes patience.

[pgrimes15]

Which leads me to believe that your main reason for your belief is your fear of death.

I question what "motivates" me to want to know God exists. And this is certainly a factor. But it's not just my own death, it's the death of all life.

Therefore I know I have strong bias to believe in God. Having recognized that, I still can't get myself to believe that I don't know God exists.

I'm trying to be as honest to myself as I can. I realize that if I'm going to overcome bias, I have to have courage to face death of all life as a possibility. At the same time, I feel holding on to knowledge of God being a special type of spiritual knowledge, takes patience.

I can understand most of what you are saying here. You seem to be aware of and wary of the anthropological reasons for holding a belief in god ( fear of death, explanation for unknowns etc.). Also you feel that "holding on to knowledge of God" takes effort.
This sounds to me like someone on the deconversion curve who has thrown away the nuts and bolts of religion (virgin birth, miracles, talking donkeys, and whatever their equivalent in other religions.) as being implausible, so reverting to a sort of Pantheism, (God without the religion), then a struggle to get over the God shaped hole "I still can't get myself to believe that I don't know God exists".

Ask yourself what all atheists have - "Do I believe there is a supernatural god or gods"

Then get yourself a hobby.

Regards

Grimesy

[Mystic]

Ask yourself what all atheists have - "Do I believe there is a supernatural god or gods"

The answer to that is yes. I am even inclined to believe gods/demigods aside from the Creator exist but come no where close to the greatness of their Source of greatness. The reason for that, is I believe God wants life to be heading towards greatness and there being no limit, it's very likely that some creation have reached that and if not, then are on the way to be reaching that.

I can say factors that motivate me to want to believe in God are as follows:

Life of all creatures continuing.
A higher purpose.
Delight for a Ultra Being existing ( I feel happy for God)
Spiritual connection
Closeness to God, feels like God would be closer to us than family.

I would say also that 3 is probably the strongest factor. I'm in love with the Divine and feel very happy for it existing and being ultra great/ultra peace/ultra bliss.

I don't know how to do away with any of these factors.

[Epimethean]

Life of all creatures continuing. Sweet but at odds with all evidence.

A higher purpose. LOLS

Delight for a Ultra Being existing ( I feel happy for God). Why, so you can say that you told us so?

Spiritual connection. To what and how is this different from:

Closeness to God, feels like God would be closer to us than family. This is ridiculous. Biology trumps mythology.

None of your reasoning is rational.

[Mystic]

None of your reasoning is rational.

These are factors that motivate me to want to believe.

However, ultimately, I don't feel they are the reason why I believe, although I understand if you guys believe these are the very reasons I do believe ( I believe only because I want to). I believe that I believe in God is due to properly basic knowledge that I am holding on to. But what motivates me to want to hold on to this knowledge from my perspective, it's not simply because I feel it's knowledge, but these factors I mention.

At the same time, there is pressure from the intellectual and scientific community, that no such knowledge exists, and that belief in God is for the weak and feeble minded.

Since the belief is coupled with love towards the entity, it does feel emotional, much like people feel emotion over moral issues.

[Epimethean]

"Since the belief is coupled with love towards the entity, it does feel emotional, much like people feel emotion over moral issues."

How is this different from love toward Professor Dumbledore, Neytiri or Pikachu? We love pretending they exist, and in our minds, after a fashion, they do, but they don't do anything outside of the written page, off the silver screen or away from a game.

[Mystic]

How is this different from love toward Professor Dumbledore, Neytiri or Pikachu?

We know for certain that these are fictional characters or at the very least are certain we don't know they exist, while I feel I know God exists.

It was tough on me, to let go the image of Prophets and Imams, that I had of them, when I left my religion.

I also felt delight for such great valiant selfless souls existing, but it turned out it was not true.

But belief in them, I think made me strive for higher level of piety.

[Jackalope]

I feel

That about sums up the substance of your arguments.

No offense intended, you seem like a decent person. Just a bit confused.

[genkaus]

I'm not saying you are not justified in Atheism.

I'm not stating you should become Theists.

I'm not stating Theists are justified in believing in God.

I'm saying there is no rational knock out argument to show either way.

Why? Because as far logical possibilities, then all are possible. This is different then actual possible.

You say the words, but do you really understand the difference between logical possibility and actual possibility? A logical possibility is determined by the premises you choose. Those premises, such as those you spelled out here, may not have any relevance to reality. And that constitutes the rational knock-out argument for excluding some ways.

Yes it doesn't mean because it is possible, that necessarily believers are justified in their belief. But just like I shouldn't be telling Atheists they should become Theists because I feel I know God exists, the same is true of the other way around, don't you guys agree? Because you feel you don't know God exists, doesn't mean a Theist should feel the same way necessarily. You maybe totally right that they shouldn't, but do you have proof and evidence?

Feeling have nothing to do with it. The question is regarding actual knowledge. And any assertion of such knowledge without justification is irrational.

If not, what's the point of asserting it constantly? Isn't it this what you dislike about Theists, is coming on here, asserting you should believe in God without proof?

All I'm saying, it's something people have to decide within. Hostility or constantly wanting to assert one's disbelief on others, doesn't come across well, and doesn't make you seem more logical, in the same way theists telling disbelievers they should believe and trying to assert their belief doesn't come across as logical.

I have yet to meet an atheist who simply asserts without providing the reason behind it - and unlike theists, that reason does not come down to "because I feel it". The reason for dislike is not constant assertion, but assertion without any logic backing it up.

[Epimethean]

"You say the words, but do you really understand the difference between logical possibility and actual possibility? A logical possibility is determined by the premises you choose. Those premises, such as those you spelled out here, may not have any relevance to reality. And that constitutes the rational knock-out argument for excluding some ways."

This. To suggest that one brand of fantasy literature and its operant characters are more logically possible has no weight in attempting to make this argument go anywhere. There are undoubtedly people who believe in their heart that Dumbledore exists as a real being.