Why Do Intelligent People Believe in God? (page 2)

slimboyfat

Why do intelligent people not believe in God?

The function of the question is boringly transparent.

cofty

You've probably heard the illustration, " it would be more likely to place a bomb in a print shop, blow it to smithereens, and the result would be the complete volumes of the encyclopedia from A- Z with no errors! - Truth Doubter

That makes sense to you because you don't know the first thing about evolution.

You have confused logical with simplistic.

ttdtt

1. Like the video - when you have that belief ingrained in you as a kid, its hard to let go of it.

2. No one wants to think when they die that there is nothing else.

slimboyfat

Why do intelligent people not believe in God?

Simon

Einstein believed in God

Typical ignorant claim by theists. It's clear he spoke about god as the natural forces at work in the universe, not as some personal deity.

But why do you care? Why do you need validation via "social proof" - effectively a celebrity endorsement of god?

Faith by definition is not based on anything but happy thoughts and wishful thinking. Don't pretend it's because of reason or intelligence and don't try to invoke brilliant people as believers when they weren't.

Why do so many idiots believe in god and think it's their job to make everyone else believe in him too?

Luther bertrand

Agreed the question the original post posed is rather loaded. In terms of the Dawkinsian scale I consider my self a weak theist ( to those who do not about the scale) I just say that I am agnostic. However, admittedly the irreducible complexity argument does make me wonder if some kind of organizing feature is out their that is indeed intelligent. But because this intellectual inclination of my is not based in any kind of truly empirical argument but more a mathematical one, I choose to live my life as if there isnt one (a supreme deity) in the same vein as William Cliffords book entitled, "The Ethics of Belief".

Alive!

Like, truth doubter - basic questions prompted my 'search'

I view 20 odd years with WTBTS as a journey which I willingly embarked upon, but I failed to respond to 'concerning' clues from the start - allowing 'God' and interpretation of scripture to be the projection of an elitist and separatist sect.

Today, I find 'concerning clues' as to why the whole story can't be just wrapped up in the relatively modern theory that nothing 'supernatural' exists out of our tangible dimension and daily material experience.

I sometimes ponder when I read or hear the words of those who wipe out the 'theory' that there is a supernatural world of supernatural life as in a 'Creator' and life beyond our dimension - I ponder that 'supernatural' may seem like a highly amusing word to 'supernatural' intelligent life who we just can't see, yet millions and millions throughout human history have aspired to communicate with, to be with.......

My initial stance as a teenager through to early 30s was agnostic. But I always thought it was close minded to state 'we are the only intelligent life' in this 'thing', 'universe' whatever.....

So, when I considered the history of mankind forever trying to communicating with other intelligent life, from primitive to sophisticated civilisations....I wondered how mere animals who should merely be concerned with surviving, thriving etc have conceived of and wanted to communicate with something greater than themselves outside of their known dimension?

And yes, I know there are modern answers to this question - but I've sampled them and I keep responding to this 'something' within me......

TheListener

Why is the board so focused on God vs atheism/evolution? It seems that the a large portion of our topics revolve around atheism vs. belief in God. Our beliefs are unique to ourselves and that should be something we celebrate. That's the freedom we achieved when we left our controlling life in the WTS.

The homepage of the discussion board in part says this "...provide a friendly, tolerant and informative environment where you can ask questions, share information and make new friends. Membership is completely free and anonymous so why not join today!"

I come here to share experiences based on the similarities we shared as witnesses and to be here when new ones need help and support and to find support for myself when my life goes wonky (and to see what's new in the JW world that my family is part of).

I know we don't all agree on our new beliefs since leaving the WTS but we should be celebrating our differences. Joy joy happy happy.

EndofMysteries

That video is absolute crap. What do you consider intelligent? I have a 130 IQ (tested several times professionally throughout my life), honors degree that included religious studies and basic biology, genetics, astronomy, etc. An IQ can be quite broad, my highest scores aside from knowledge were on puzzle, problem solving, and critical thinking. I also used to be a programmer.

The video was NOT made by an intelligent person, nor one possessing good critical thinking skills. Why do I make that claim?

1. The basis for the reason being to fit in and emotional ties defies those who use thinking and intelligence. An 'intelligent' person, if considering one a 'thinker' vs a 'feeler' wouldn't still believe in God because of social pressure or emotional attachment.

2. The lack of critical thinking is very evident when they as many others claim that believe in God must mean acceptance or belief in ANY religion on this planet. Very narrow minded thinking. Even though God is a religious term, if you take the concept then there need not be any religious ties to it. God also is understand in many different ways throughout beliefs and religions, the only exact specific is our life is the result of 'intelligent design'.

Why do I believe in God? First, my only 100% certain belief is "intelligent design". I am not 100% certain what form this intelligent design is from, where they are, if still around, etc. Having been a programmer, researching into AI, genetics, etc., I see intelligent design in all life. I am even considering learning programming again to try to create AI since faster computer processors, memory steadily rising in capacity but shrinking in physical size, cloud computing, camera, audio devices, and the new industrial revolution all have the right conditions to begin to develop this technology.

What is my take on life? Like computer programs, we can see the code and see the programs. But without the platform and appropriate software, we cannot create our own programs from scratch. Some intelligent lifeforce designed life, using DNA as the language. Designed it to replicate, and to adapt to its environment. The adaptations are the evolution we see.

None of those things has anything to do with social pressure or how I was raised. It doesn't tell me what to expect when I die. It doesn't tell me the nature of God, spirit or physical or something else. If man can ever replicate instead of by trillions of random chances for a cell life to just emerge, then group up to develop heart, brain, lungs, kidneys separate from each other or spontaneous at the same time, and into other life forms, then I might change my mind. If all those things w/ DNA developed by chance over millions or billions of years due to random chemical mixes, etc, then surely with man intervening and mixing the right things at the right time it should happen a lot quicker. And if all the varieties of life all happened by chance too, then we should be able to design and create customized life forms as well. (That may soon be possible w/ genetic engineering, but the key is to do it all from scratch and not use anything existing).

cofty

EndofMysteries - Does nobody ever feel the need to read a book anymore?

There are facts and then there is stuff people make up with no foundation in reality.

Why Do Intelligent People Believe in God?

Share this