My hypothesis about why people don't believe in God.

[pocaracas]

Each persons lack of faith is unique, although it tends to boil down a very limited pool of reasons:
- you may come to realize that the concept of god is used by people to manipulate the general ignorant population.
- you may come to realize that the attributes that these people imbue in god are self-contradictory (there's a very long, but recent, thread around this forum about the omni-potency of god, that you might find interesting). My personal version was the realization that there were cameras everywhere, god was also supposed to be everywhere... how come no camera ever captured god?! (I was 10 at the time, so excuse the lack sophistication of the argument... nonetheless, it was the seed that planted disbelief.
- you may come to realize that there are several religions, each trying to impose their own version of the divine "truth". Imagine you're an alien and find yourself on earth and all these people trying to make you believe this or that god. How do you choose? Certainly, many (if not all) of them are mutually exclusive. If you choose one, then all others are supposed to be false. Repeat the step and choose another. Perform a logical OR on the two sets of false religions that you get and you arrive at "all religions are false".
- you may compare scientific facts about the world with what is written on the same subject in holy books and realize that the holy book is giving you a completely erroneous account. If that one particular thing is wrong, what else is wrong in that book? Remember that holy books are "inspired" by the divinity of that particular religion and so should be spot on with reality. Since they are not, there's a good likelyhood that the whole thing of "inspiration" is equivalent to the inspiration of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster when they started writing about superman.

can't remember any more... I think Min would do a great job at completing this list.

[Rayaan]

You confuse me Rayaan. You really do.

WHY YOU NO ATHEIST?

Oh, I believe without evidence.

It's just that my standards of what constitutes as reasons and/or arguments needed to support the existence of God are different than yours.

[Angrboda]

[Napoléon]

Oh, I believe without evidence.

And that's the bit I'll never understand.

It's just that my standards of what constitutes as reasons and/or arguments needed to support the existence of God are different than yours.

I guess

[Norfolk And Chance]

I can only guess as to why people don't believe in God

You don't need to fucking guess, we've told you.

so bear with me, I'm not stating the following as facts, but rather my hypothesis.

It seems to me that we humans have a spiritual instinct that knows the divine but doesn't quite know it. The more we grow, the more we are capable of growing in knowledge of the Divine.

Our early "knowledge" of God, or belief in God, is there, without much reflection. We don't really think about how we know God or whether we truly do, we simply accept it. But as children along with "knowledge" was a lot of "blind trust" in what our parents taught.

As we grow older, most of us question what our parents taught us, and try to investigate to find the truth. But we do this with a bias. Many people however objectively find that their religion and what their parents taught, was without basis.

Many of what their parents taught was without basis. They then conclude that their belief in God was simply out of trust of parents or society or bias or wishful thinking.

What I feel they failed to do is to investigate the knowledge of their souls regarding their "origin" "source" and "foundational basis", which is God. There is a connection between the soul and God, similar to the rays to the Sun.


At any rate, part of the reason, is that they find intellectually, is to simply rely upon cold logic + scientific method. This is a lot with due to how the intellectuals of our time are presenting the matter.

Also with society now become more inclined to "fleshly desires" and the media idolizing from "the animal desire" perspective, the spiritual exalted "Moses" of the Soul is belittled, while the "Pharaoh" of the Soul is exalted, people feel ashamed of any spirituality, and belittle it, and hence we have many people disbelieving in God.

People feel "shy" from connecting to God and claiming spiritual knowledge, because it feels anti-intellectual as well as society structure is belittling the "Moses" and heightening the "Pharaoh" of the Soul.

Another thing is that religion has presented a concept of God that truly isn't worthy of Worship while at the same time emphasizing on the attributes of the God that is Worthy of Worship. People then feel disconnected to God all together when they disconnect from their religion and realize that it described a God unworthy of worship.

The various factors, make a person feel inclined to ignore their connection to God.

Otherwise, I feel there is a strong connection between humanity and God, that without all these factors, we can easily connect to God and know he exists.

This is my perspective/hypothesis, not stating it as fact.

Yet more mindless waffle.

[Minimalist]

but it's not sufficiently the reason.

It is for me.

[Anomalocaris]

It seems to me that we humans have a spiritual instinct that knows the divine but doesn't quite know it.

This is my perspective/hypothesis, not stating it as fact.

Your hypothesis is based on a foundation so conceited and unsupported it is almost christian. It calls into question whether you will ever be capable of being worthy of being talked to.

[Ryantology]

Overthinking simplicity.

I don't believe because I don't see any reason or benefit in believing.

[The Grand Nudger]

I can only guess as to why people don't believe in God so bear with me, I'm not stating the following as facts, but rather my hypothesis.

It seems to me that we humans have a spiritual instinct that knows the divine but doesn't quite know it. The more we grow, the more we are capable of growing in knowledge of the Divine.

Why do you feel that this is the case? Is "growth" somehow related to a yearning for the divine? Isn't this a bit presumptuous?

Our early "knowledge" of God, or belief in God, is there, without much reflection. We don't really think about how we know God or whether we truly do, we simply accept it. But as children along with "knowledge" was a lot of "blind trust" in what our parents taught.

Right....except that I've never believed in a god...and my parents never forced one on me.

As we grow older, most of us question what our parents taught us, and try to investigate to find the truth. But we do this with a bias. Many people however objectively find that their religion and what their parents taught, was without basis.

Sure, that seems entirely likely, but what does that have to do with my atheism?

Many of what their parents taught was without basis. They then conclude that their belief in God was simply out of trust of parents or society or bias or wishful thinking.

I think you've been given a variety of reasons why people fall away from religion. For some the above is probably a factor, yes.

What I feel they failed to do is to investigate the knowledge of their souls regarding their "origin" "source" and "foundational basis", which is God. There is a connection between the soul and God, similar to the rays to the Sun.

You feel they failed to do something because they don't believe in a god? Why is that? What knowledge, what god, what soul? We're about to take a trip off the Res now aren't we?

At any rate, part of the reason, is that they find intellectually, is to simply rely upon cold logic + scientific method. This is a lot with due to how the intellectuals of our time are presenting the matter.

Actually it has a lot to do with how evidence is presenting the matter.....

Also with society now become more inclined to "fleshly desires" and the media idolizing from "the animal desire" perspective, the spiritual exalted "Moses" of the Soul is belittled, while the "Pharaoh" of the Soul is exalted, people feel ashamed of any spirituality, and belittle it, and hence we have many people disbelieving in God.

I hadn't noticed that, seems to me that spirituality is taken to be a shortcut to respect and commonality between people, for whatever reason. I also want to point out to you that the majority of us here (in the US at least) are believers in something, so your comment about spirituality and fleshy desires means precisely what? I honestly don't know anyone who is ashamed of their spirituality, not a single person...but maybe that's just the people I know...maybe there's this vast current of shame that I am unaware of. I really hope so, but I doubt it.

People feel "shy" from connecting to God and claiming spiritual knowledge, because it feels anti-intellectual as well as society structure is belittling the "Moses" and heightening the "Pharaoh" of the Soul.

Again, in our case, it would be a society of believers belittling belief. Not likely, and at least in our case - not happening. Peoples superstitions have been "out-of-bounds" for a very long time.

Another thing is that religion has presented a concept of God that truly isn't worthy of Worship while at the same time emphasizing on the attributes of the God that is Worthy of Worship. People then feel disconnected to God all together when they disconnect from their religion and realize that it described a God unworthy of worship.

Do you think that you have some concept of a god that is worthy of worship? Dying to hear about it.

The various factors, make a person feel inclined to ignore their connection to God.

My connection to god is about as tangible as my connection to Liath Macha

Otherwise, I feel there is a strong connection between humanity and God, that without all these factors, we can easily connect to God and know he exists.

"believer in a god believes that there is some connection" - unsurprising, and unimpressive. Are you actually trying to suggest to me that if it weren't for thought...I could easily "know god".........

This is my perspective/hypothesis, not stating it as fact.

Probably for the best.

[NoraBrimstone]

I don't believe in any gods because I'm not a gullible retard. That's probably the same reason for most atheists tbh.