Do people believe that God exists?

Answer 1

Answer 1Most certainly, yes, although one's personal opinion or philosophy about the matter makes not the slightest difference to the fact of the matter. Nor does it make any difference whether or not one has had a personal experience of God, or whether one tries to reason Him out of existence. I haven't met Neil Armstrong, nor seen any moon rocks either, but I don't have a problem thinking that he really did go there. Even if I didn't believe it, that wouldn't change the fact either, because my personal thoughts do not change the reality of the thing.

The very fact that we can even discuss this matter, or want to, and that every single culture that has ever existed, has considered this an important issue, suggests that there is more to it than just mere imagination. If The Bible, which speaks a lot about God and His dealings with man, were just human imagination about God, then the over 5000 individual archaeological verifications of the Bible could not exist, since it would be all a lie.

People who met Jesus Christ and interacted with Him on a daily basis, did not know so at first but came to ask 'what manner of man is this' and concluded in the end that He was 'God made flesh' that is, God incarnated into human form. They did not understand everything about this, but they did know what they saw and heard and wrote about it afterwards. People believe a lot of things with a lot less testimony than this.

So, to summarize, many people think God exists because they have good reason to do so. Any thinking that He doesn't makes no difference to the fact of the matter.

Answer 2

This has been put in multiple categories, including "atheism", which is where I live. My answer would be: most certainly, no. I have never encountered any argument for ther existence of god(s) which did not contain at least one (usually more) logicall fallacies. No convincing evidence has ever been offered for the existence of any god(s). So: no. On balance, it seems highly unlikely. If god(s) do exist, then they certainly don't interact with our world in any way we can detect.

Answer 3

It depends on how you see God if you are looking for an almost almighty figurehead that replaces the authority that was once in the hands of your father or mother No. However if you see God as all creation not excluding any thing Yes.

Answer 4

I really don't think that one person (god) could have created everything on earth peronally even going to a catholic high school i still think that we came from apes not adam and eve.

Answer 2

Well... When the universe started... Well nobody knows how the universe started. So, we make up things like that God created the universe. And other explanations for not understood things. But different people had different ideas, so many different faiths began.

Answer 3

Quite often, yes - but consider that religious people are simply people that believe in SOMETHING superior; this may be a single supreme God, but it may also be a multitude of gods (like the ancient Greek religion, which still has some followers).

Answer 4

Billions of people believe that God exists. There are tens of proofs for God's existence. These have been recorded for centuries and are easy to look up. However, this subject ultimately becomes one of personal belief, since our possession of free-will mandates that it be possible to put forth arguments (fallacious or not) against every one of the proofs.
Here are a few.
1) Teleological Argument: The universe has definite design, order, and arrangement which cannot be sufficiently explained outside a theistic worldview. (This is how Abraham, without benefit of teachers, came to reject the chaotic world-view of idolatry and the possibility of Atheism.)From the complexities of the human eye to the order and arrangement of cosmology, the voice of God is heard. God's existence is the best explanation for such design. God is the designer.Is there evidence against Evolution

God's wisdom seen in His creations

More about God's wisdom

2) Anthropic Principle: The laws of the universe seem to have been set in such a way that stars, planets and life can exist. Many constants of nature appear to be finely tuned for this, and the odds against this happening by chance are astronomical.

3) Sensus divinitatus: The innate sense of the divine exists within all people. People and cultures of all time have, by instinct, sensed a need to worship something greater than themselves. No ancient societyever existed that did not believe in a supernatural power.

4) Tradition: There are events in human history which cannot be explained without God. Many people have their subjective stories that bend them in the direction of theism, but there are also historical events such as the Giving of the Torah to over two million people at Mount Sinai, which are underpinnings for the belief in God.

5) Pascal's Wager: Belief in God is the most rational choice due to the consequences of being wrong. If one were to believe in God and be wrong, there would be no consequences. However, if one were to deny God and be wrong, the consequences are eternally tragic. Therefore, the most rational choice is not agnosticism or atheism, but belief in God.

6) Logic. Why is there reality rather than nothing? Aside from God's creating it, there are only five options:
a) The universe is eternal and everything has always existed.
- Even atheists have abandoned this possibility, especially because it would violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

b) Nothing exists and all is an illusion. There is no reality; there is only nothing.
- This possibility, it should be obvious, is completely self-defeating. In order to even make such a proposition, the subject has to exist in some sense. If all is an illusion, where did the illusion come from? Even the solipsist, who does not believe in the existence of other minds, has to explain the genesis of his own mind.

c) The universe created itself. This is the idea that the universe and all that is in it did not have its origin in something outside itself, but from within.
- Like with the previous two, this makes a logical absurdity. It would be like creating a square triangle. It's impossible. A triangle by definition cannot be square. So creation cannot create itself as it would have to pre-date itself in order to create.

d) Chance created the universe. The odds of winning the lottery are not very good; but given eons of time, everyone will win. While the odds of the universe spontaneously appearing are not minuscule, could it happen, given enough time?

- This option is a dishonest sleight of hand that, like "survival of the fittest," amounts to nothing, because it implies that "chance" itself has quantitative causal power.
The word "chance" refers to possibilities. It does not have the power to cause those possibilities. It is nonsense to speak of chance being an agent of creation, since chance is not a force. "What are the real chances of the universe being created by chance? Impossible. Chance is incapable of creating a single molecule, let alone an entire universe. Why not? Chance is no thing. It is not an entity. It has no being, no power, no force. It can effect nothing because it has no causal power within it. It is a word which describes mathematical possibilities which, by the curious flip of the fallacy of ambiguity, slips into the discussion as if it were a real entity with real power, the power of creativity." (R.C. Sproul, Not a Chance. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999.)

e) The universe is created by nothing. Simply put, nothing created the universe.
- The problem here is that it is either a repetition of option "a" (the universe is eternal) or fails due to the irrationality of "d." In our current universe, the law of cause and effect cannot be denied by sane people. While we often don't know what the cause of some effect is, this does not mean that there was no cause. When we go to the doctor looking for an explanation for the cause of our neck pain, we don't accept the answer "There is no cause. It came from nothing."

Now, the other side of the Question: why might people notbelieve in God?

1) Peer influence. In high school, for example, the one or two religious believers in a class may be subject to ridicule.

2) Convenience; desires. No one wants "bothersome" rules, or limitations to their personal pleasure. We see how lack of self-discipline has led to epidemic obesity, drunkenness, divorce rates, violence etc.

3) Lack of proper information. People have inaccurate notions about God, religion and belief. They've picked up tidbits, jokes, and "sound-bites," and on such solid authority they dismiss the entire topic.

4) Unfortunate experiences. Many have had personal hardships, or a harsh religious upbringing or education, and as a consequence may retain an unhappy feeling towards belief, without realizing that emotions and proofs are two different things.

5) Many think that science, and specifically Evolution, have proved that there is no God. They don't comprehend that even if Evolution was an unquestionable fact, it would not automatically follow that God isn't there. They also seem unaware that there are a significant number of highly-qualified scientists who do not believe in Evolution.

6) Intellectual laziness. Many people have simply never delved into the subject, to see if God's existence can be convincingly demonstrated.

7) Stereotyping. People call us "religious nuts," "Bible-thumpers," etc.; so the average layperson may get a negative feeling toward all belief, not realizing that he/she should first look into the existence of God in principle, before necessarily looking into religion.

Answer 5

Millions of people have faith in God. On the other hand, an increasing number do not even believe in the existence of God and therefore have no faith.