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When I was a kid I was in a traffic accident and had an out of body / near death experience. It was a bit too realistic for a child's brain to just make up. That didn't make me believe in god, mind you. I just started to believe there's more to this world. A few years ago I was in a really bad place because of health and relationship problems. It was the worst point of my life. One day as I was crying in despair I had a vision of Virgin Mary. That's despite the fact that I never identified as a Catholic or thought much about her. I started praying the best I could (couldn't even say a Hail Mary because I didn't know all the words) and in the following weeks and months it was a great relief. I felt that whatever happens in life, I'll never get a burden which would be too much for me. My faith is very direct. I didn't get it by listening to priests or reading the Bible. And in no way does it provide a broader understanding. I don't know why good people get cancer or what happens after death or whether it would be good for you to become religious.
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Jun 9, 2016 00:30
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Rakosi posted:To the people who answered about why they believe in a specific God; why do you not believe in any of the many other Gods? I do, in a way. I believe the protective, supernatural force that I felt manifests differently to people in different cultures. Virgin Mary is probably no more real or less real than Vishnu.
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Jun 13, 2016 00:16
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Subyng posted:God believers: do you recognize that a belief in any one particular God (most notably God of the Abrahamic religions) is irrational and illogical? And that to willingly act in irrational and illogical ways is, in short, stupid? I'm not trying to be inflammatory, but "stupid" really is the most apt word. Now I recognize that humans aren't perfectly rational beings. For example, if I injure my leg doing squats, but decide the next day to keep doing squats rather than rest, that's undeniably irrational, illogical, and stupid, if my goal is to not hurt myself. Yet I might do it anyway due to some irrational desire, and I would recognize that I'm doing something stupid because of a desire/belief that I cannot rationalize. Likewise, do you recognize that your belief is most likely the result of the circumstance of your upbringing, rooted in a part of your brain that has nothing to do with rational thought and logic, and that it doesn't really make sense, but you believe it anyway "just because"? Or do you honestly believe that God is a truth of the universe in the same way that 1+1=2 is a truth of the universe? You are not very good in not being inflammatory. You also failed to address specific reasons, experiences and beliefs that God believers in this thread had already provided and instead you opted for a poorly thought-out blanket statement. Your post could most aptly be described as "stupid". To give a simple answer anyway, suppose you could do X and live a happier life. X isn't costly, doesn't hurt anyone, is easy to practice and can get you support from other people who also do X. Why wouldn't you do X? Well, for many people X is having a set of beliefs and speaking with God in inner voice. You can scrutinize their beliefs and prove that they are not 100% consistent and logical, but neither are love, friendship, law, sports, enjoying of art, family relations, education... I think that it would be much more irrational and illogical to discard X and thus live a less happy life. I just tried to show you that "why you keep hurting yourself, it's illogical" can be easily framed as "why you keep feeling good, it's illogical" and it loses sense. I'm not saying this is the motivation behind all believers and it's certainly not an all-encompassing explanation of religion.
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Jun 13, 2016 08:52
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Noam Chomsky posted:you don't have to have any expertise in psychology to ask the questions: "Why do you believe your delusions are real?", "If your delusions are real then why aren't all delusions real?", "How do we the real from the delusion?", "Why are your visions, voices, whatever real and a true experience but Scientology or Mormonism or Islam isn't?" I never had any other "delusions". If I were taking psychiatric medicine or if I were prone to hallucinations, I might discard my experience with Virgin Mary as "one of those things" but it was a unique event. Also, it's not on me to explain stuff so that you should take me seriously. I honestly don't care the least bit about that. I merely shared my experience in response to the question posted by the OP.
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Jun 19, 2016 22:56
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The Butcher posted:I sometimes like to privately say a "prayer" of sorts to the universe. I think that's a good attitude but I also pray for other people and myself, though. I don't think my prayer will cure someone or that God will say "Well I planned to make X happen but now that I heard technotronic's prayer, I'll do Y". It's more like a meditation that tunes me in to things that are really important. It's better to go to bed thinking about my parents or a sick friend or my long term goals, than being upset about an email from work or that I lost 4 DOTA games in a row.
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Jun 20, 2016 08:39
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