WHY WE BELIEVE IN GODS

This video is nearly an hour long, but will be an hour well-spent to understand why people believe in gods.

WHAT PEOPLE BELIEVE

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, we’ve recently heard about the growing number of Americans who believe President Obama was not born in the U.S. and is a Muslim, not a Christian.
I recently took a survey on the Association of Religions Data Archives which also brought up some disturbing statistics for me.
Some questions could be answered yes or no, but some had 5 choices from “always” to “never” or “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” Thus, unless one answered “never” or “strongly disagree” the respondent believed the statement to some extent or other.

The statistics are from a 2005 Baylor Religion Survey.

By answering the survey questions on the ARDA website, one’s own results are compared to the 2005 survey. The results come up in two columns, comparing others like oneself (age, gender, and religious affiliation) and comparing oneself to the entire study group.

Some results follow:

As reflected the in graph above, those who believe in:
God 89%
Satan 73%
Heaven 82%
Hell 71%
Purgatory 41%
Angels 80%
Demons 66%
Armageddon 55%
Rapture 49%
Ghosts 46%

Despite these high numbers of belief, when asked if they had experienced a miraculous, physical healing, only 31% said they had. Only 6% had a vision of a religious figure while awake and only 14% had heard the voice of God speaking to them.
Many people think God is slightly more involved in their own lives than in everyone else’s. While 85% think God is directly involved in world affairs, 86% think he is involved in their own affairs.
On the other hand, they think their own sins are of slightly less concern to God than other people’s sins. While 87% think God is angered by human sin, only 85% think he is angered by their own sins.
And, of course, there are those who believe that God favors the United States in world affairs (57%) and that God favors one political party in the U.S. (43%.) Gee, I wonder which party that is.
When it comes to the paranormal, 76% assume that science will discover Bigfoot & the Loch Ness Monster, 78% think places can be haunted, 65% think astrology impacts one’s life and personality, and 87% believe it is possible to influence the physical world through the mind alone.

Other questions were about abortion, sex, alcohol, pornography, stem cell research, consumer consumption, taking care of the sick and needy, and seeking social and economic justice.
I found it interesting that while 57% think it is important to convert others to their religious faith and 86% think it important to teach others their own morals, only 40% think it important to seek social and economic justice for others. These statistics are why I never donate to religious organizations, which (in my opinion) are often more interested in converting people in disaster areas (such as Haiti) than in helping the people with their basic needs. I gladly donate to non-religious relief organizations.

To take the ARDA online survey, click HERE.

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Religious fundamentalists alone are a huge popular grouping in the United States, which resembles pre-industrial societies in that regard. This is a culture in which three-fourths of the population believe in religious miracles, half believe in the devil, 83 percent believe that the Bible is the "actual" or the inspired word of God, 39 percent believe in the Biblical prediction of Armageddon and "accept it with a certain fatalism," a mere 9 percent accept Darwinian evolution while 44 percent believe that "God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years," and so on. The "God and Country rally" that opened the national Republican convention is one remarkable illustration, which aroused no little amazement in conservative circles in Europe.

--- Noam Chomsky

speech to the Library Information Technology Association

June 1992, San Francisco

* * * * * * *

REASON REJECTED - Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon
1561 – 1626

1st Viscount

St Albans, KC

English philosopher,
statesman and essayist

I have mentioned here before, that recent studies have shown that it is almost impossible to change someone's mind about a long-held belief. In fact, it seems that the more facts and well-reasoned arguments one gives, the more the believer digs in his/her heels to accept that belief even more than previously.
Sir Francis Bacon knew this when he wrote the following, nearly 400 years ago (1620) ---and I'll bet he didn't use a scientific study to figure it out.

"The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.... And such is the way of all superstitions, whether in astrology, dreams, omens, divine judgments, or the like; wherein men, having a delight in such vanities, mark the events where they are fulfilled, but where they fail, although this happened much oftener, neglect and pass them by."

Today (April 9, 2010) marks the 384th anniversary of Francis Bacon's death.

As quoted in
Why People Believe Weird Things
Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time
by Michael Shermer

See this and other Michael Shermer books below.

I DON'T BELIEVE IN PRAYER BECAUSE.....

        Diane, at Diane's Addled Rambling blog, posted a wonderful heartfelt post about why she doesn't believe in prayer. I had been thinking of writing on this topic myself, but Diane said it all on her post of March 23, 2009.

        She said: "I often say I believe in tolerance over faith because in the end, not a one of us knows for sure."

        So click on the link to her post to read what else Diane had to say about prayer, religion, faith, and tolerance. And enjoy what some others have said about prayer below:

• "Pray, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy."  --- Ambrose Bierce (The Devil's Dictionary, 1911)

• “Hands that help are nobler than lips that pray.” ---Robert G. Ingersoll

• "Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer." ---Author Unknown

• "Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." ---Mark Twain

• “It is safe to say that almost every person living in New Orleans at the moment Hurricane Katrina struck shared...belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, and compassionate God. But what was God doing while Katrina laid waste to their city? Surely He heard the prayers of those elderly men and women who fled the rising waters for the safety of their attics, only to be slowly drowned there. These were people of faith. These were good men and women who had prayed throughout their lives. Do you have the courage to admit the obvious? These people died talking to an imaginary friend.” ---Sam Harris, (Letter to a Christian Nation)

• "It may be that ministers really think that their prayers do good, and it may be that frogs imagine that their croaking brings spring." ---Robert G. Ingersoll (Which Way? 1884)

• “Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; give him a religion, and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish.”  ---Author Unknown

• "Praying is begging for an unseen deity to alter the laws of nature for someone admittedly unworthy." — George Carlin

• "When we talk to God, we're praying.  When God talks to us, we're schizophrenic." — Lily Tomlin

• “This doctrine of the material efficacy of prayer reduces the Creator to a cosmic bellhop of a not very bright or reliable kind.”  ---Herbert J. Muller

• "Man is a marvelous curiosity... he thinks he is the Creator's pet... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watches over him and keeps him out of trouble.  He prays to Him and thinks He listens.  Isn't it a quaint idea?" -—Mark Twain

• "When did I realize I was God?  Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself." —- Peter O’Toole

• “The creator who could put a cancer in a believer's stomach is above being interfered with by prayers.” --- Bret Harte (as quoted by James A Haught, editor, 2000 Years of Disbelief)

• “Most of us spend the first six days of each week sowing wild oats, then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure.”  ---Fred Allen

SARAH VOWELL ON RELIGION & other matters

SARAH VOWELL

writer, journalist,

humorist (1969- )

•"The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief. And by dangerous I don't mean thought provoking. I mean: might get people killed." (opening sentence, The Wordy Shipmates)

•"History repeats itself. The first time as tragedy. The second time as farce. The third time as tourist trap." (paraphrased from Karl Marx)

•"In death, you get upgraded into a saint no matter how much people hated you in life."

•"One thing I find ridiculous is the notion of the good old days and the decline of American morals. This period of American history is called The Gilded Age for a reason. It's all about greed. Our forebears were just as corrupt as our contemporaries."

•"I hated mystery. I think it comes from being religious, being a Fundamentalist, especially, because that's all about certainty." (Vowell is now an atheist.)

•"Presidents and presidential assassins are like Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. Even though one city is all about sin and the other is all about salvation, they are identical, one-dimensional company towns built up by the sheer will of true believers. "

•"Was Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop a communitarian, a Christ-like Christian, or conformity's tyrannical enforcer? Answer: Yes" (The Wordy Shipmates)

•"Was Rhode Island's architect, Roger Williams, America's founding freak or the father of the First Amendment? Same difference." (The Wordy Shipmates)

•"From New England's Puritans we inherited the idea that America is blessed and ordained by God above all nations, but lost the fear of wrath and retribution." (The Wordy Shipmates)

•"I just feel sorry for him [Roger Williams] that he lived in an age before air quotes; maybe he would have calmed down about the use of the word 'Christendom' if he could make sarcastic hand gestures every time he heard or said it."

•"What was the Puritans' pet name for the Pope? The Great Whore of Babylon." (The Wordy Shipmates)

•"I really can't fault [Al] Gore for saying that what happened at Abu Ghraib is sickening, not only because it's just plain sickening, but because America is supposed to be better than that. No: best. I hate to admit it, but I still believe that, too. Because even though my head tells me that the idea that America was chosen by God as His righteous city on a hill is ridiculous, my heart still buys into it. And I don't even believe in God!" (The Wordy Shipmates)

•"I was exposed, from infancy on, to so much wretch-like-me, original-sin talk that I spent my entire childhood believing I was as depraved as Charles Manson when in reality I might have been the best-behaved nine-year-old of the twentieth century." (The Wordy Shipmates)

•"How jarring it must have been to be an adult Narraganett [Native American] and this strange white man shows up out of the blue and shatters his lifelong peace of mind with what the stranger calls the 'good news' that the native is in fact a wicked, worthless evildoer and so was his mother. So said native dies terrified by his big, naughty un-christian heart of stone instead of, say, as the Shawnee Tecumseh would later advise, 'Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.'" (The Wordy Shipmates)

A few words about The Wordy Shipmates:

I highly recommend this book. It tells, in depth, much of the history of the Puritans and Pilgrims in early America ---many things I had never learned or had forgotten ---from the point of view of an admitted geek and history buff who spices her writing with amusing asides. It approaches the subject seriously, yet is amazingly witty. Even though Vowell frequently points out the ridiculous actions and beliefs of these early settlers, she also admires them. I liked that the author relates the actions or writings of these people to recent history, making history meaningful to us today. This would make a great history text book, except for the fact that it would never be approved by school boards because Vowell is an avowed liberal and atheist.

A review in The Seattle Times said: "Quirky observation and droll insights, a dish Vowell consistently serves... These commentaries are the thoughtful and thought-provoking musings of a genuine patriot ---one who loves her country even if its politics disappoint her."

Read more reviews of Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates:

HERE, HERE, and HERE

Also on YouTube:

Sarah Vowell on writing. 
Sarah Vowell on "The Wordy Shipmates." 
Sarah Vowell on Letterman "The Wordy Shipmates."
Sarah Vowell on Letterman "Unfamiliar Fishes."
Sarah Vowell on "Unfamiliar Fishes."
Sarah Vowell (audio only) on Thanksgiving, Part 1.
Sarah Vowell (audio only) on Thanksgiving, Part 2.

CHRISTIANS PICK AND CHOOSE WHAT TO BELIEVE

Pollster George Barna's recent survey of American Christians reported some interesting information.

"Americans are increasingly comfortable picking and choosing what they deem to be helpful and accurate theological views and have become comfortable discarding the rest of the teachings in the Bible," said Barna.

"Growing numbers of people now serve as their own theologian-in-residence," he continued. "One consequence is that Americans are embracing an unpredictable and contradictory body of beliefs."

By a margin of 71 percent to 26 percent adults "noted that they are personally more likely to develop their own set of religious beliefs than to accept a comprehensive set of beliefs taught by a particular church," the report said.

None of this should be surprising to nonbelievers. Christians have decided that despite the Bible's admonitions against eating pork and allowing women to speak in church (to give two examples) they can do it anyway. The only "abomination" some of them care about is homosexuality.  Many ignore Bible passages that don't fit into their own comfort zone. We already know they have been picking and choosing what to believe to satisfy their own agendas ---and they have been doing it for many years. 

All of the GREEN TEXT was quoted from this WEB SITE where you can find more detailed information on Barna's survey. 

WHY I AM AN ATHEIST: The Bible - Part 1

In a previous post (Why Are There Atheists?) I noted that atheists say reading the Bible started them on the road to religious skepticism more than anything else.

I came from a highly religious home. Although we always belonged to one denomination or other of a mainstream Protestant church, at heart my father was an evangelical. However, he repeatedly told me it didn’t matter if I were a Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist or Methodist, just so I was a Christian. He didn’t mention the Catholic church, but I assume he wouldn’t have been pleased if I’d become a Papist.

I’m sure everyone has heard someone say, “I believe what I see,” but actually the reverse is true: we see what we believe. If one believes the Bible is full of inspiration, one will see and believe those passages that support that belief and ignore the rest. Instead of finding the Bible beautiful and uplifting, I found much of it rather appalling. Thus, reading the Bible was one of the triggers that started my doubts.

As George Bernard Shaw said: “No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.”

For as long as I can remember, my family read a chapter of the Bible before dinner each night. At first, my parents took turns reading a verse at a time. As we became old enough, the children helped with the reading. I joined in when I was about 8. We didn’t pick a chapter at random, but rather started at Chapter One of Genesis and continued to the end of Revelation, then started over. Even taking into consideration an occasional dinner elsewhere, calculating the number of years I read along before I left home for college, I read the entire Bible at least 3 times, maybe 4.
As a 10 or 12 year old, reading that children who disobey their parents should be stoned was very scary. People who work on the Sabbath should also be stoned. (I wondered if that included ministers.) Eating pork or lobster was an abomination. I was horrified that God wiped out populations of entire cities because one or a few individuals displeased him and that dashing babies heads was perfectly okay.
Because we read the King James Version, for a while I assumed that I just wasn't understanding what was written. If I questioned anything in the Bible, my parents looked upon me with horror and fed me the usual drivel, "God works in mysterious ways."
Around the age of 12, when we were reading Judges, two stories, in particular, hit me like bolts of lightning.

Judges 11: 30-40 and Judges 19: 22-29

I was reading these passages long before the women’s movement, but as a teenaged girl, I was horrified that the women in these Biblical stories were expendable. They had been treated worse than most people would treat animals. How could God allow these horrible events?

If God was all-knowing, then he would know that Jephthah was sincere in his intent to follow through on his vow. But how could an all-loving God allow Jephthah to kill his daughter? Why wouldn't God have let him off the hook on that promise?

How could a father offer his daughter to rapists, then cut up her dead body?

These passages bothered me for months. In the solitude of my bedroom, I read them over and over, sure that I had misunderstood the verses. Surely, if I read them often enough, I would see them in a new light. I wanted to believe in an all-knowing, all-loving God.
As we continued reading the Bible, I learned that women who are not virgins when they marry should be stoned. Women should be silent in church, that a woman was worth half a male, that if a virgin is raped, her rapist must marry her and never divorce her, that 32 virgins were given to a priest as “the Lord’s tribute” when the Israelites conquered the Midianites.

Thus, I developed serious doubts about the veracity of the Bible. And if I doubted the foundation of my religion, I also had to doubt Christianity. I probably hadn't heard of atheism at that time, but at the age of 12, I started on the path to become a nonbeliever.

Of course, I continued to attend church, Sunday school, choir practice, youth group, vacation Bible school, and church camp. I had no choice. I read along with my parents as we plowed through the Bible, but instead of blind acceptance, I was looking at everything I read in the Bible with the eye of a skeptic.

copyright 2008 by C. Woods

Look for a future post:

WHY I AM AN ATHEIST: The Bible - Part 2

WHY ARE THERE ATHEISTS?

A 2006 Study of America’s Nonbelievers

        In a book titled Atheists, A Groundbreaking Study of America's Nonbelievers (by Bruce Hunsberger and Bob Altemeyer, 2006) the study of atheists in America confirms that most atheists, like most religious people, form their beliefs from their upbringing.
        About 30% of the atheists taking part in the study had at least one agnostic or atheist parent and most of the rest had parents who believed in God or maybe even belonged to a particular religion, but didn’t regularly partake in religious activities or emphasize religion in their homes.
        Yet a quarter of the participants in the study had come from homes that emphasized religion to a “moderate extent” and more than 10% to an “appreciable extent.” The members of this latter group were dubbed, in the study, as “Amazing Atheists” because despite coming from very religious homes, they rejected their religious training.
        How could there be such a complete religious turn around in the group of “Amazing Atheists”?
        The authors interviewed 46 “Amazing Atheists” in depth, to determine the cause of their dramatic change. Their conclusion was that the indoctrination didn’t fail completely, but instead worked rather well. The “Amazing Atheists” group overwhelmingly stated they gave up their faith because they could not make themselves believe what they had been taught. They decided that the religious dogma was not true. This adherence to the truth came, ironically, from their strong religious upbringing. As children they had been taught to do the right thing, to be ethical and have integrity. However, when religious questions were not answered to their satisfaction, religion took second place to truth.
        The authors stated, “They were trapped...and had no other choice. So as a first cause, their upbringing was not repudiated by their apostasy, but startlingly fulfilled by it.... If they had cared less, if their home religion had not fostered a strong drive for the truth and integrity in them, and if they had not overcome their fear of going it alone, they probably would not have quit it.”
        Another factor in this group was intelligence. The members of the “Amazing Atheists” group were quite bright and may have searched for answers through reading and study. When they found flaws in traditional religious teachings, they wanted to decide for themselves rather than accept religious teachings on faith.
        In the total study which questioned both religious and non-religious people, almost everyone admitted to having doubts about their own beliefs at some point in their lives. However, most of the religious people who remained religious after a period of doubt, dropped the questions or resolved them in their religion’s favor. Many consulted parents or ministers who, of course, shepherded them back to their religions.
        Those with weaker religious backgrounds or those who were both inquisitive and intelligent were more likely to search more widely and their questions may have turned into active doubts.
        The authors of the study found that many atheists from non-religious homes admit to having gone through a religious period in their lives, usually starting around age 7 or 8, and this period may have lasted several years. In most cases, non-religious parents don’t preach against religion, but rather expect their children to decide for themselves. Some children, of course, decide to stay in the religion, but many eventually see the flaws their parents saw and leave.
        Serious doubts about religion among the “Amazing Atheists” usually emerged in adolescence (median age of 15, but ranging from age 5 to 50.) What triggers these doubts? Most skepticism began over ideas.
        More than any one thing, atheists say reading the Bible started them questioning. Some say interest in science or evolution was a trigger. Some mentioned reading books by atheists or freethinkers. Hypocrisy in churchgoers bothered others. A few started doubting religions when they learned there was no Santa Claus. Many doubted reports of religious miracles, bleeding statues or were skeptical of the sincerity of TV evangelists. Most realized that all religions couldn’t be true, so maybe none were. Many were put off by religious intolerance, including homophobia. Many were disturbed by the history of religion, including atrocities committed in the name of God during the Crusades and the Inquisition, and more recently by religious terrorists.
        One additional factor was that many were turned off by the Religious Right and its attempts to interfere with government. Thus, by their aggressive tactics and inflexible opinions, instead of attracting more people to their religious beliefs, they actually drove people away from religion.

        I grew up in a highly religious home. What triggered my atheism? Probably all of the above to some extent or other. But I have to agree that reading the Bible was the trigger that started my doubt and was the biggest factor in my rejection of religion. Once a little stone fell out of the structure of my parents' beliefs, more cracks formed as I found more and more inconsistencies and impossibilities in religion. Eventually it all crumbled before me. 

Please see my post: WHY I AM AN ATHEIST: The Bible - Part 1

      

FAITH - Part 1:

AMIS, KINGSLEY, English novelist (1922-1995):
•“He was of the faith chiefly in the sense that the church he currently did not attend was Catholic.” (One Fat Englishman, 1983)

BARKER, DAN, American freethought activist, former evangelical minister (b.1949):
•“Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits.” (Losing Faith in Faith, 1992)

BIERCE, AMBROSE, American journalist (1842-1914):
•“Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.” (The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911)

CARLYLE, THOMAS, Scottish historian, critic, sociological writer (1795-1881):
•“Just in ratio as knowledge increases, faith diminishes."

DICKINSON, EMILY, American poet (1830-1886):
•“Faith is doubt.” (The Atheist’s Bible, Joan Konner, ed. 2007)

EMERSON, RALPH WALDO, American essayist, philosopher, poet (1803-1882):
•“The faith that stands on authority is not faith.”

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, American statesman, scientist, author (1706-1790):
•“Lighthouses are more helpful than churches. The way to see faith is to shut the eye of reason.”

HOFFER, ERIC, American author, philosopher (1902-1983):
•“ . . Faith organizes and equips man’s soul for action. To be in possession of the one and only truth and never doubt one’s righteousness; to feel that one is backed by a mysterious power whether it be God, destiny or the law of history; to be convinced that one’s opponents are the incarnation of evil and must be crushed; to exult in self-denial and devotion to duty—these are admirable qualifications for resolute and ruthless action in any field.” (The True Believer, 1951, p. 126)

HUXLEY, THOMAS H., English biologist (1825-1895):
•“What are among the moral convictions most fondly held by barbarous and semi-barbarous people? They are the convictions that authority is the soundest basis of belief; that merit attaches to readiness to believe; that the doubting disposition is a bad one, and skepticism a sin; that when good authority has pronounced what is to be believed, and faith has accepted it, reason has no further duty.” (What Great Men Think of Religion, by Cardiff)