Why believe in God? The following are only my thoughts open for comments. I have not formulated these thoughts into convictions but I will say these are my beliefs at this point in my spiritual growth. By posting these thoughts in, 4 parts, I hope to not only organize the reasons for my beliefs but to stimulate others to search and find answers to the question – Why believe in God?
THE GOD SPOT
“A group of neuroscientists at the University of California at San Diego has identified a region of the human brain that appears to be linked to thoughts of spiritual matters and prayer. Their findings tentatively suggest that we as a species are genetically programmed to believe in God.” ( http://www.parascope.com/articles/slips/fs22_3.htm )Why would this be. How can evolution account for a God spot in our brain? I don’t know! While this question is in no way proof of God’s existence it may at least cause us consider as does the above article: ‘Did God create the God spot, or did the God spot create God?’
This desire to believe in God, this spiritual appetite, the God Module I believe is demonstrated in the discussion started by dobby at http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=26934&site=3
For example:
Dobby:
“lately I just want to believe in God and heaven. Maybe it is a backlash from having the "false religion" concept drilled into your brain. But sometimes I just want to believe the simple idea that God is up there, and will reward us with heavenly life if we simply follow the Golden Rule.”Borgfree:
“I feel that God is working in me, to make me into the “vessel” that He wants me to be. I want that.”That thread touched my heart. Did not most of us at some time ‘WANT” to believe in God, that he cares about us and we are part of his plan? But many have what they feel is sound reason to doubt or even the conviction that God does not exits. I do not intend to produce indubitable prove of God’s existence but I would first like to discuss why we doubt.
WE WANT IT YET WE DOUBT
A reason so many of us doubt is tied to the reason most of us are here on this discussion board. What do we have in common? Is it not that we have all been duped? Were we not ‘captives of a concept’ (C of C p334), victims of a scam?
But this scam did not simply defraud us of money. This scam robbed us of the faith we had before we fell victim to it. This ‘concept’ elevated itself to the level of divine, won our confidence, took over our lives, dictated our beliefs and abused us if we failed to perform. To protect itself the scam artists told us God did not want us to open our eyes or ears to any criticism of the ‘concept’ and we largely obeyed. However, we are here because we eventually baulked and questioned the validity of the ‘concept’. Finding our faith was founded on a fraud we left the organization disillusioned, angry and FAITHLESS.
We have come to despise our once cherished impression of the JEHOVAH of the WT and some are now bewildered by our past anxious anticipation of the world Wide massacre of Armageddon.
How could we have believed all this?
How could we turn over our time, our money, our thoughts, our will, our families, our whole lives to this fraudulent concept?
How could we have been so stupid?
The most precious attribute of which we were robbed was our confidence in our own selves and our judgment of spiritual matters. Can we trust any religious concept from here on?
This consequence is summarized by Greg Stafford:
Humans are imperfect and will fail at some point in varying degrees. When such failure occurs, the loyalty that a person feels toward that agency, as a representative for God, is negatively impacted. And if a person’s loyalty to God’s perceived representative is shaken then it is easy to see how that same person might also lose faith in God himself.” Three Dissertations p32Did we not have some faith in God before becoming Witnesses?
Why do so many disbelieve now?
Is Stafford and R. Franz as well right that we have been set “adrift, floundering, due to no longer being tied to some visible authority structure” having lost faith in God himself? (C of C p 385)
Or is it possible this disastrous experience with the WT forced us to examine the facts and face reality, that nothing is for sure and even God should be doubted?
SUMMARY
The bottom line is that regardless of the possibilities, we no longer believe because of our Watchtower experience. Like it our not the WT has changed us and continues to affect us.
So here we are, on JWD sharing our feelings and doubts and what beliefs remain. In this post I have not tried to present evidence for God’s existence. I have only offered some explanation for how many of us feel about God. To see more clearly where we are going it is sometimes helpful to examine where we have come from. I would suggest that having identified the WT as the cause of much of our doubt, it may be prudent to keep an open mind to a discussion of this sort just encase we have again been victimized by the WT.
Before you object to my over simplification of why we do not believe, please note there are other factors to be covered in Part II, Why Believe in God. You may be surprised to learn that a scientist, and a Christian at that, in his attempt to bolster belief in the Bible has contributed probably more than anyone else to it’s disbelief in modern society. Has this scientist influenced you? He certainly influenced the WT.
I will post Part II as soon as it is finished, unless I get my butt kick mercilessly for posting Part I.
Jst2laws