What backing do you have for your beliefs.

[Ben]

I was wondering today, as this crossed my mind, I am curious to why or why not you believe in god and what your proof for either side is. I am not trying to state either side is wrong, just curious to what peoples backing for what they believe are. I would love to hear why each person genuinely believes in what they do and what proof they have. I find these things interesting.What evidence you have to support why you believe in said belief.

[JorickHorn]

who made the earth?

Is a fallacious question. The earth formed from debris in space, orbiting the Sun, which itself formed from clouds of Hydrogen, water, nitrogen and a few other elements. The universe may have always existed, in some form or another. To say who made it is fallacious. Ask instead what made it.

and how about when someone dies? it seems absurd that we will cease to exist after we die.

Why? You experience unconsciousness every night. You didn't exist before you were born. What makes you think you'll exist after you die?

if not, we have no souls, we are merely organisms and the world is merely a cold, cruel place. life would be pointless because we wouldnt be important

Why do we have to be important in order for life not to be pointless? You have a life. Live it. Help others to live it. You do not know that you have any other life, so don't give up your chance to live this one in order to gain the next.

[XOX]

One more thing.

You said, " if not, we have no souls, we are merely organisms and the world is merely a cold, cruel place. life would be pointless because we wouldnt be important"

Yes. we have no evidence of existence of soul and we are amazingly complex organisms that know how to give lives meanings without creating an imagery god.

[Danielle Alexandra]

I believe in every religion, God, gods, practices, hymns, and stories.. I believe in a common Good, so if God means love and goodness, I'd say it helps people to have the thought of a Creator.. If higher beings exist, and that's fine with me. People seem to have a instinct to not kill one another, I believe that is a common Good.

I believe also that dreams have a huge impact on where everyone goes in the after-life.

I came to this conclusion on a spiritual out of body experience that lasted a week and a half.

[Nick Jones]

I think you've all got it completely wrong:

For my part, I'd suggest that the thing about religious belief is that it requires FAITH. And faith, fundamentally, cannot be explained in rational terms - the two are mutually exclusive. So to ask one to justify, rationally, one's beliefs, is an impossible task.

Also, in response to JorickHorn:

I agree that the question itself is fallacious, but then, so really is any question. Our understanding of...well, anything is a constantly changing process - I'd reefer you to the work of Thomas Kuhn, who essentially argued that science is a process of ever shifting paradigms, the "accepted" or "true" being merely the belief with the most followers/ardent supporters.

I'd also mention, as an intellectual substitute for the soul, the Descartes' statement "I think, therefore I am" (preferably "I exist as thinking thing") - existence is defined by the presence of..."something", not necessarily the physical form (he's not quite sure what), but "something".

[XOX]

We all have mistrust for irrational persons, so why make it an exception when it comes to relgion? We all have to rationalize with and explain why we believe in certain things. We could not just ask people to accept our irrationality on anything, including religious belief.

[Nick Jones]

Lack of conclusive evidence does not imply there is nothing to prove, only that there is no evidence.

Anyway, faith, by its very definition, is irrational. Are you saying we shouldn't ask for acceptance on anything which cannot be proven rationally? Keep in mind the treatment of Galilleo, when he proposed that the earth was NOT the center of the universe. Could he "prove it"? And yet his "leap of faith" is now accepted fact.

[Erica]

Here here: "Lack of conclusive evidence does not imply there is nothing to prove, only that there is no evidence." That is definitely the position science takes. Through we are, I am assuming from your post, of contrasting beliefs. But I must correct you though, Galilleo did have bit of evidence, you know like seeing Saturn's moons through his telescope. It helped upturn the logic of the currently upheld geocentric model, because if Saturn has moon, then there only isn't one moon circling around the earth, and complicated the simple model they had at the moment. It was a little bit more than a leap of faith, because there was undeniable sensory proof, as aided by the telescope.
So yeah... you're tricky.

[Mira]

In the wise words of Dar Williams, " you find magic from your god and we find magic everywhere" in terms of christians vs. pagans... And it's too true--

[Violafaithe90]

I always think that it's interesting when people ask you what evidence you have to back up your personal beliefs as a Christian. I just happen to be a Christian and I also know that a definition for belief is faith and to have faith in something is to not have evidence in it but to be confident that it is correct. If there was evidence for your beliefs then everybody would believe in it, I would think. Christianity it seems is all about blind faith, yes I could talk about all the cool supernatural things that I have seen happen or have happened to myself and other Christians but that is not why I believe in God. I believe in God because I do and I really don't care if people think thats stupid or ignorant because in the end I would rather have followed god and then die and nothing happens and I will be wrong in my beliefs than to die and have not believed in God and then in conjuction be punished for my unbelief.

[Nick Jones]

I'm not sure about the being punished for non-belief, but YES: you don't have to care about whether or not you can "prove" or "explain" (which you can't) your faith to anyone! When it comes to faith, you're the only one that matters!

[Erica]

Pascal's Wager!
Fear of eternal punishment, is it a reason to uphold a belief? Is it genuine faith? Is it noble?

[Ben]

That's a really good quote. Hadn't heard that one before.