why do people believe in the bible?

They want to believe it because death is the most traumatic human event, and some people think they can avoid death with the bible's promise of everlasting life.

You are forgetting that people only believe the parts that they want to believe, that most Christians have basically dismissed the Old Testament, and that the bible, in most languages, has been interpreted AT LEAST two times.

Many want to believe that we are more than animals and that there is life after death. We aren't and there isn't.

If that same bible was only about evil stuff, demons and negative things nobody would believe in it. Theyd find something else to believe in.

because it has predicted many succeses and many of the success described trere were proven to be true...

not to name that it's also the greatest and most perfect book ever written.

PERIOD.

Plus i think that the bible got this big is coincedence. There are 1000's of books about believing and gods. If something else wouldve happened a few 1000 years ago we would believe in the book of who knows who and call the bible crap and nonsense.

Such as?

Are you smoking crack?

I wouldn't be so sure about that. About half the population of the US doesn't believe in evolution.

In your opinion...

See God Inc. video here to see what Heaven is really like

And those people would be idiots...

No.. I'm just fucking your mom...

Crack comes after that...

Why people believe in the bible, and religion in general is a complex question with a multitude of answers.

Some individuals are given religious teachings at young and tender ages by their parents and other authority figures. When we're young, we're psychologically inclined (moreso than other ages) to believe everything authority figures tell us. It's an evolved psychological mechanism. At that age a child cannot afford, for the sake of their safety and well-being, to disobey or question the wisdom of their guardians. Since a child is prone to the dangers of a cruel world (or rather an ancestral world generations ago that was much more cruel) the commands and warnings of a parent had to be obeyed, had to be followed in order to ensure their survival. Hundreds of years ago these commands may have been, "don't wander too far away from me or you'll be eaten by a predator", but today it's more akin to, "don't wander too far away from me or you might fall down a flight of stairs." As a child's intellect develops, then they can begin to question the wisdom of their parents, but certainly not during this sensitive time period.

The upshot of this is that along with the transmission of wisdom regarding safety and well-being, parents also teach their children the "wisdom" of religion. Since what we learn during this crucial time period becomes so deeply ingrained in our psyche, it stays with some of us throughout adulthood, even when history and logic can effectively smash religious belief.

There is also the dynamic of in-groups an out-groups. Everyone needs to feel a sense of "us", and "we", and to belong to a social/cultural body of people that will A) give us a sense of identity, and B) separate us from everyone else. Some people may feel an overwhelming desire to belong to a group, especially one that is, on the surface, as charitable and accepting as Judeo-Christian faiths.

We can also take into account the powerful influence of self-deception. From a sociobiological standpoint, self-deception is an evolved psychological mechanism that actually aids in our survival by promoting positive moods, which in turn promotes health, well-being, and overall longevity. Studies have shown that depression lowers immune system response, and has an overall deleterious effect on the body. Therefore, health favors the happy, and if being happy and healthy requires you to fool yourself, on one level or another, about life, death, and everything in between, then deceiving oneself about the historical, philosophical, and practical facets of personal faith can be a boon.

I guess what I'm really trying to say is: check the sig. Lovesexycash.com coming soon!

thats a whole different issue, maybe i should have said generally accepted among reasonable people

It's as much about politics and control as anything today.

Research how the Bible was put together in the first place as a bunch of separate books, or chapters, assembled by the King and they repackaged as one almighty book.

Learn you history, and follow it to peel back the layers of the control aspect that organized religion brings. Sure, some of the beliefs will bring you solace, and peace of mind. Yes, parts of it have defined or been a guide in both old, and contemporary culture.

But use your brain and peel back the layers my son.. then you will find the wizard.

you guys put too much weight on science. Why cannot your science explain goddamn death? What actually it is and why it cannot be stopped?

Thousands and thousands years gone, man has reached moon .. whatever .. but why cannot you still stop a man from dying? Why at a stage doctors says to patient that they cannot do anything?

People believe in bible because it tells them why at a stage doctors become helpless. They tell them there is a still a supernatural power called God. Who said "Every living thing should must die" ... and your science had not been able to falsify it.

I am posting some images in next post .. further ranting is postponed till then ;)

because it's easier then taking responsibility for yourself.

Science may not be able to explain what death is, in the ontological sense, but it certainly has a monopoly on real world and pragmatic explanations of what it is and why it occurs.

I'm not quite sure why, in your mind, you equate discovering the key to immortality with traveling to the moon. However, if the expanding horizons of science took us from Earth dwellers to soon-to-be moon dwellers, then it's possible to conclude that it will soon lead us toward a path of immortality. Every generation of great minds discovers a little bit more, just as they did when discovering the feasiblity of space travel.

Science may not be able to falsify God, but in the same right, religion cannot prove that God exists. This is the classic argumentum ad ignorantiam fallacy. You cannot reason that "just because science has not disproven God's falsity that God actually exists".

Though, you do touch on one key concept, and that is one of helplessness, which is certainly a major motivating factor in religious belief. If someone feels they are helpless and alone in this world, they may turn their thoughts to a higher power that can comfort them emotionally.

Great thread! I think that we (all of us) don't really know anything. We think we know why people do certain things, but really, we are all just taking guesses. I think the bible is a load of crap, but really, who knows? It might be the only truth out there ( I personally don't believe that), or it could be the opposite of the truth. One day we'll know, or we won't, and that will be that. It's all WAAAYYY to complex for us smart monkeys to figure out.

i would go with that.

While I appreciate your quaint traditions and superstitions, science is real. So I will put all my weight on science.

some people are followers and it's easier for them to believe in something that someone else tells them to be true rather than forming an opinion of their own based on fact and reason.

The first documented version of the bible was written some 400 years after the death of Christ, by many different people and came from verbal information passed on to them from those that had come before. Try describing an incedent to several different people and have them tell several different people over the course of a few weeks. Then compare the details of the incedent the way you had originally told it to the way the last person that was told had interpreted it and see how each version will vary from one another. So if over the course of a few weeks the details of an incedent are distorted imagine how acurate, or should I say inacurate they would be after several hundred years.

It is the way.

It is the PATH.

i don't know - some believe in the bible, others in buttplugs.........

I know science is real. I have done my Engineering with Electronics and Physics as major. But still .. I do not agree with anything that deny the presence of God, even if it is science.

I am no way with quaint traditions or superstitions, but I do believe there is one God.

Like I said in another similar thread, everything cannot be proved at all the times.
So if we cannot put forward proof of God's presence today using our current knowledge and science but we probably will be able to do somewhere in future. When we will have more knowledge and better equipments etc.

For example, 1000 years back no one was able to scientifically proof that X person is his father, all he could do is blind trust on her mother about it .. but with the passage of time .. now we can.

At the end, if you still cannot find any reason to believe in God .. try looking at Pascal's Wager .. you might find it interesting.

actually in the first few books of the old testiment the evolution of the concepts of heaven and hell weren't established yet within the jewish religion and as such no concept of everlasting life existed until later.

The bible is a masterpiece of human literature and still has many concepts and truths about the human experience that can touch most people if they just read it

People believe in the bible for the same reasons others believe in the koran or any other religious book. Some people don't like to have to think for themselves and prefer to let something else do it for them.

weak people will always search for some sort of crutch to hobble their way through life on. christianity just happesn to be the most easily accesible spirtual crutch that surrounds us in north america at the moment...

ROFL... Pascal's Wager?

i think people make a huge misinterpretation of life and the forces behind it in attempting to name a specific deity, or establish godliness in a singular entity. religion is a falsification of all things spiritual in this sense. there is no doubt a great energy or force behind existence, but these theistic/polytheistic entities serve as false idols. attempting to give any name to this force of energy is immediately an error. these are the false idols christianity tells you to be wary of itself. ironic no? to me the "god" is nothing more than the power of existence itself, a singular energy by which everything exists, and anything is a possibity should you make it oe. the energy lies within every individual and animate object in our lives. you must will the power to this existence in yourself though, you will not find it, not in it's truest source anywhere outside the self. be your own god. this pascal's wager business is laughable....

The Bible was "written" with the pen of cynical and power hungry men back in a time of relatively high general ignorance and it's word enforced by the sword & empty promises and lies for many centuries untill it engrained itself so deeply into the culture of so many people that they allmost stopped questioning it's validety and it's mass acceptance meant it became "truth" in many peoples minds. Once there it built a very powerfull "weight of tradition" that although somewhat diminished in recent years is still a very powerfull force to be reconed with.

christianity wasn't so much a creation of the strong to control the weak, or a belief system pressed upon the people by force, as it was as creation of the weak themselves as a means to cope with and create false nobility in their own weaknesses. people bought into christianity of their own accord, the thought of christianity was appealing to people because it put meaning in their simple lives. people just never wanted to think for themselves, and to a large degree still don't want to think for themselves. they believed there was a reason why their lives were they way they were, and never had a thought to change it for themselves. they never had the want to find the will within themselves to rise to power, this was a good enough explanation for them why they lived the way they did. there were just people who did find power within themselves to rise up, and in this they saw something they could manipulate and feed off of, and thus the history of christianity went on in corruption, growin gmore corrupt by the generation. times are changing though and with a religion full of as many holes as christianity, it will fall apart soon enough. as will most of the current religions. i think as we move into the future people will begin to embrace science and technology more fully, as well as a spirituality in life itself, left unnamed within the self...

Right.

God caught on and the boogie man didn't.

Just so you know. This god you worship is a mass murderer.

Death is needed to create life...Its a part of the cycle. If we "stopped" death it would surely be the end of mankind as we know it. why should science disprove something that is obviously true? Geez. You make no sense. There is nothing wrong with believing in a higher power but to believe the entire god vs devil, good vs evil, superman vs lex luther is just silly. Yes "God" will send you to "hell" for having sex unless you are married. Even though we were apparently made in his image, which would include faults and all he is up there on his high horse bringin' da pain.

Well it is certainly a great book, its al genres in one book, has dramma, love, thriller, even sex ... yeah even sex. And many of those things were true, since they were found in Roman and other culture's books (Romans didnt like Jews so wouldn't write the same if it wasn't true). Of course nobody believes in Adam and Eve, thats crap, even the Pope would say it if you ask him.

I can see where you are comming from from a philosophical stance, however I can't agree with your assertion that people have bought into Christianity of their own accord. There is very reliable and clear evidence from history that the Christian religion has most definately been forced upon large amounts of people. One only has to look to the middle ages and the unbelivable brutality that the vatican army dished out in suppressing all and any who stood in the way of the Roman Catholic Church's empire building.

Kill the competition and we will have a monopoly - has most surely and at times literaly been their aggenda for as long as they could get away with it.

"Everything that has a beginning, has an end."

they say its the word of GOD. they believe because they think its worth believing. it makes them a better person. its better to believe than to believe in nothing.

LOL, yes "they" would say that wouldn't they

Belife can so often be a dangerous substitute for knowledge and the cozy refuge of the ignorant and the deceitfull Mystica

Brainwashing and Hope is a powerful combination. Careful!

REPENT! you sinful... sinners.

the blasphemy in this thread is so great that a seat in hell is assured for every one of you.

It was written by shepherds. Think about it.

there's no harm in believing what is written there... it's just a matter of respect to those who want to believe it...

cuz the thought of taking acid and praying to it was too strange for them, so they thought this other strange form of altering reality might be more funn-er.

oy!

"Faith is what you believe, not what you know."
-John Lancaster Spalding (and my )

[QUOTE=Sands;12670214]Why people believe in the bible, and religion in general is a complex question with a multitude of answers.

Some individuals are given religious teachings at young and tender ages by their parents and other authority figures. When we're young, we're psychologically inclined (moreso than other ages) to believe everything authority figures tell us. It's an evolved psychological mechanism. At that age a child cannot afford, for the sake of their safety and well-being, to disobey or question the wisdom of their guardians. Since a child is prone to the dangers of a cruel world (or rather an ancestral world generations ago that was much more cruel) the commands and warnings of a parent had to be obeyed, had to be followed in order to ensure their survival. Hundreds of years ago these commands may have been, "don't wander too far away from me or you'll be eaten by a predator", but today it's more akin to, "don't wander too far away from me or you might fall down a flight of stairs." As a child's intellect develops, then they can begin to question the wisdom of their parents, but certainly not during this sensitive time period.

The upshot of this is that along with the transmission of wisdom regarding safety and well-being, parents also teach their children the "wisdom" of religion. Since what we learn during this crucial time period becomes so deeply ingrained in our psyche, it stays with some of us throughout adulthood, even when history and logic can effectively smash religious belief.

There is also the dynamic of in-groups an out-groups. Everyone needs to feel a sense of "us", and "we", and to belong to a social/cultural body of people that will A) give us a sense of identity, and B) separate us from everyone else. Some people may feel an overwhelming desire to belong to a group, especially one that is, on the surface, as charitable and accepting as Judeo-Christian faiths.

We can also take into account the powerful influence of self-deception. From a sociobiological standpoint, self-deception is an evolved psychological mechanism that actually aids in our survival by promoting positive moods, which in turn promotes health, well-being, and overall longevity. Studies have shown that depression lowers immune system response, and has an overall deleterious effect on the body. Therefore, health favors the happy, and if being happy and healthy requires you to fool yourself, on one level or another, about life, death, and everything in between, then deceiving oneself about the historical, philosophical, and practical facets of personal faith can be a boon.


hmmm.
that pretty well gets it.

gotta admit the GFY is an interesting motley bunch; amongst the misfits, sociopaths, dull normals and fools you find some really SMART people.

nice goin'.

gone one