curious about religion

[isengard]

can a religious person please explain to me how they can believe in something that has no evidence? i'm not attacking you, i consider myself agnostic and i consider atheism JUST as ignorant as religion. i just can't wrap my mind around how you could so blatantly confirm or disapprove something such as a higher power. i feel like as humans we have absolutely no way of knowing the truth, so i'm curious, what is the basis behind your faith/lack of faith and why do you believe in it?

[Tigerlily.]

For general purposes on questionnaires or when talking to people lacking enough intelligence to understand my outlook, I simply identify as either Wiccan or Atheist depending on who I am talking to. In any case, I prefer to label myself as an open-minded atheist. Meaning I believe in miracles and everyone having a purpose however, there is not a God or higher power influencing what it is that happens. My way of seeing it is, we can prove evolution and history, we cannot prove that people were made by some mystic man out of thin air, and science disproves that as well, but besides that point, I believe in what we can prove moreso than what is more likely impossible. Therefore science, evolution, all that good stuff, that is what I believe in. However miracles can happen, people who shouldn't be alive for whatever reason are, people can get feelings of bad things happening, it doesn't make them a supernatural being and it doesn't make it a message from god, it's coincidence really. That's my outlook on things anyway.

[Always *]

Its the same way that I choose to NOT believe in anything because of the fact that I have no way actually knowing that it exists. But for all I know i'm going to die and be like oops. I consider myself to be atheist or agnostic or to believe in aboriginal stuff (first nations though, NOT polynesian or maori). For me if I die and that's that it's fine, but if I die and go to heaven then great. I can't prove what's going to happen until I die and even if people say they've "seen" good I'm more likely to be like "oh that's nice....."
What you believe largely has to do with your upbringing as well and what makes the most sense to a person. So even though people can't see God and heaven or hell they believe it's there.

[mindflower]

Well, first of all, hi, my name's Tay if you don't know me, and I go to a Catholic School. I totally, 100% support anyone with a different belief then me, even when my teacher is trying to tell me otherwise. However, though I do respect others' religions, I know that my religion is my whole heart and I do believe in God.
There are 5 reasons that many Christians use, called Aquinas' Five Proofs.
Those are my logic for believing, not only that, but I believe he has helped me survive some hard times in my life.
I guess, that's my reasoning, but I can see where you are coming from when it is hard to believe in something that you can't exactly prove.

[ThisWillDestroyYou]

Originally Posted by isengard

can a religious person please explain to me how they can believe in something that has no evidence? i'm not attacking you, i consider myself agnostic and i consider atheism JUST as ignorant as religion. i just can't wrap my mind around how you could so blatantly confirm or disapprove something such as a higher power. i feel like as humans we have absolutely no way of knowing the truth, so i'm curious, what is the basis behind your faith/lack of faith and why do you believe in it?

I am considered a weak-atheist. I think, perhaps, you're misunderstanding what an atheist is. An atheist simply says, "There is no good argument, or empirical evidence for the existence of currently defined deities."

In other words, I do not believe in Zeus because there is no solid empirical evidence for Zeus, nor is there a satisfying philosophical argument for his existence. Thousands of years ago you might have told me, "Lightning exists. Zeus causes lighting. Therefore, Zeus exists." Logically, that makes sense, but clearly we know that Zeus does not cause lightning. So, I do not believe in Zeus.

I take the same view with any deity I am aware of. This does not mean that I dogmatically state that I know there are no deities. No, I simply say that I do not find evidence, or a solid argument to believe in currently defined deities. So, maybe in future there will be a given definition of god that I agree with. Maybe there will be evidence for that god. At that point I may be persuaded to accept the existence of a deity. But, until I agree with a definition of god, and see evidence for that definition, I will not believe.

In other words, to be an atheist, you base things on evidence. Not faith. We don't believe in unbelief. We just don't see any evidence for a deity. This doesn't mean that we KNOW there are no deities. There very well may be. But, where's the evidence? There's as much evidence for a deity as there is for my imaginary friend I had named Joe when I was 3.

I don't choose to believe in my unbelief. I choose to accept ideas and theories which have physical evidence and falsifiable arguments in order to establish a knowledge of truth.

[JustACityBoy]

Good point. I can say with ignorance I'm 80% sure a greater being doesn't exist.
Truth is, I'm putting more faith on the side of atheism then I am any other religion. (Has alot more proof that makes sense, though it's improvable/just a theory. So atheism/agnosticism > primary religions. There are still uncertain theories that counteract deism/agnosticism though so again, I choose atheism>agnostic)
I suppose I chose atheism to secure spiritual peace.

[KiwiGal]

Well I am a Christian, and i guess it just takes a lot of faith to believe. Though for me as cheesy as it may sound, it's just something that i feel in my heart, I firmly believe that there is a higher power out there. I come from a family who think it is all crap, and i did too, but i dont know, it's just something that feels right to me, and in the end if I somehow was wrong than I know i have lived a life following something that has brought me joy and decent morals :P