Conchobar

I don't think that any of us choose to believe anything. You believe that the Rocky Mountains exist because you and every person with eyesight can see them. You don't choose to believe that they exist as you stand at the Lodge at Lake Louise. You don't choose to believe that you are tired after working 10 hours without a break. You can't see Atoms and protons but you know they exist because of the abundant scientific data, the secondary results of chemical reactions etc. You know atoms are real, you don't choose to believe in atoms.

You don't believe in cubical spheres, the square root of minus one, or that a snail can play Lord Gordon's Reel on a fiddle. You know that those are not possible by any natural law. You don't believe them; you don't choose to not believe.

God is in a different category. He is invisible, inaudible, intangible, and non-tactile to our investigation. But so is outer space dark matter. He is or is not the creator of the universe. If he is such a creator you don't know if he is sentient (conscious) and intelligent, or on a level different from human mentality. As a result some people believe and others do not. It might seem to you like choice; but I can tell you it is not. If it were simple choice, I would have been a believer since childhood.

My life would have been far nicer if I could have honestly identified as a believer. There is no advantage anywhere in being a non-believer, only varying degrees of negative social stigma.

So here is my biography. I did spend years wrestling with the question of God's existence. I was taught standard Christian (Irish Catholic) theology. I studied the bible and had as I said, taken a theology elective in Biblical Studies and Exegesis in each of my four years at university. I had counselling with our local priest. I did this because I "wanted" to believe. I tried to choose to believe but it just wouldn't stick. Now as I note a few grey hairs among my formerly solid black mane, I note my approaching mortality. I want to be "right". So I try to find a reason, even an excuse to believe in God and have immortality. That is a very desirable situation.

An Atheist believes that at death, all is over forever. That is not very pleasant. So I am motivated to find that I am wrong. I know that my elder years would be nicer if I looked forward to an afterlife and a good afterlife.

So, when I die, I may not have not yet found the key data to convince me that God is real. Then I am face to face with God. Everyone tells me that it is too late then to say, "Corblimey, you are real."

Do I get an "A" for effort at trying hard to believe, but failed the final exam because I couldn't programme it into my brain?

This leads me to conclude that the brain has to have the necessary hardware and circuit systems that process religious concepts as plausible and correct (what we call belief). If my brain either has a rigourous rational filter that rejects all that is not strictly logical, I may be incapable of belief in spite of my desire to believe. Perhaps I lack a religious module that you have, and therefore I am unable to formulate a believable processing of information on God and religion.

I have a good appetite. I generally like anything on my plate. But on a visit to America, I tasted sauer kraut. It was disgusting. I almost threw up. I tried twice more but just could not make myself swallow it. I didn’t choose to not like it, my taste system and olfactory brain did. I was embarrassed for insulting my host’s cooking.

This hopefully sums up my ideas about the brain. I don’t think there is any “we” who control our brain. I think “we” are our brain. It chooses what we do and think.

Conchobar

Azathoth

You may not believe in him,but he believes in you

Godot

I do not believe in god/gods of any stripe because I think it far too arrogant of mankind to believe we were some form of special creation, or that the universe was created for the amusement of others.
Belief in life after death falls into this category as well.

mike_decock

Tarnaak: Why would you rather believe the opinions of a CS professor, a baptist web site and a dentist rather than the people who are professionals in the field of study?

-Mike...

Shake

First, from your initial question in the o.p., I would refer you here to read what I and many others have already posted on this very topic.

Next, as far as the above question goes: Death = end of life. Therefore, there is no life after death. Our bodies decompose, and we become part of other forms of life.

Tarnaak

These people have already "prepared" the information and I only provide it as examples of the proof out there on the subject. Unless one can disprove what they have written, then I find the information to be useful.

fishbulb

A rational and empirical investigation of human history turns up evidence that strongly suggests that the gods of all human faiths are made-up characters. A similar investigation of the natural world strongly suggests that there is nothing that exists which requires the hand of god in order to function and, even though it is conceivable that there is such a thing as a god, there is no real evidence to lead us to suspect that this is the case.

These observations are available to everyone, so it doesn't really answer why I am an atheist while someone else with access to the exact same information believes in god. I can tell you that I was raised as a Christian and that I once believed in God, but stopped believing about four years after I stopped believing in Santa Claus. I think that I stopped believing because I allowed myself to ask questions that many people would find either too uncomfortable or inappropriate to ask. At some point, I became perfectly comfortable with the notion that the world could exist without a god to watch over things and make sure we contintued to live on after we die. I suspect that people who are uncomfortable with this idea avoid asking questions whose answers point to this conclusion, or else ignore the evidence when they don't like what it implies.

Why I was able to accept this possibility while others apparently can't, I don't know. It's probably a combination of many factors. Genetics and environment, is what I usually say. I would guess that I don't believe in god for the same reason I don't believe what TV advertisers say. (Or, for that matter, that CNN is telling me the whole truth or that it has even bothered fact checking its stories.)

Bear in mind that I didn't consciously choose not to believe in god; I just saw that the hard, cold, empirical evidence doesn't support the premise that god exists. I came to the conclusion that the reason most people believed wasn't because they knew something I didn't (I did grow up going to church every Sunday, after all), but because they assumed it must be true if everyone else believed it, and they didn't know what to make of a world that didn't have a god in it.

I do not see any reason to believe that one's consciousness survives one's death. From where I stand, it appears as though when you die, you don't exist any more. I don't even think about "my corpse;" once I'm dead, it will be "a corpse."

That idea seems to bother a lot of people, but it really isn't a big deal. Once you die, nothing matters any more because you don't exist. So you don't have to worry about what happens after you die -- nothing happens. If the assassin hiding in the corner were to fire into my brain stem right now, I would simply cease to exist and that would be the end of it. I don't want it to happen, but I wouldn't be around to regret it if it did.

Perhaps I am wrong and there is life after death. If so, I will find out when I die. But if I am right, I will never know, because I won't exist after I die. So I don't worry about it.

mike_decock

Here's a site which "prepares" the information which disproves what those people you pointed to have written. The information is very useful.

Talk.Origins Archive

If you want to debate dating techniques, drop by the Evolution/Creation Forum. I'm sure the folks there would be happy to discuss those "proofs" you have.

-Mike...

CaptainOfOuterSpace

These dating techniques are worthless! I tried them on my date yesterday, and today she totally dumped me.

NOGO

It is impossible to do justice to this question in a few words.
I believe that man has invented himself many Gods.
None of them are worthy of an actual God.
Note that every group of believers say that they are right and by consequences all other have just created their beliefs. That is, every group believes that they along have some direct knowledge of the real God and that ever other belief is man made.

Now isn't that peculiar. As an impartial observed it is far easier for me to believe that they have all created their beliefs rather than believing that there is special one out there that is so different from the rest that it becomes obvious that they are the true faith in the true God.

The only evidence that we have point to death as being just that death. Some people get into an accident and suffer brain damage. They become vegetables. Essentially they are dead but the body keeps on living. Some wake up from coma but are mentally retarded for the rest of their lives. Some forget important periods of their lives etc. The conclusion from such evidence cannot be removed by wishful thinking.