How did you choose your religion? Or was it chosen for you?

[furballdn]

My point through that is not saying that God exists. I'm explaining why so many people believe in a God even though there is no evidence to support that he exists.

So many modern day people believe in god the same reason medieval people believed the world was flat and why Greeks believed in Zeus.

[OldTrees]

My point through that is not saying that God exists. I'm explaining why so many people believe in a God even though there is no evidence to support that he exists.

So many modern day people believe in god the same reason medieval people believed the world was flat and why Greeks believed in Zeus.

That reason might be: They were raised to see purpose in the world. Pattern matching is one of the skills humans have. It was evolutionary beneficial to be developed to the point to find patterns that do not exist in order to find more patterns that did exist (hidden predators).

God is one of the major patterns people see when looking at the world. Whether it is a real or fictional pattern is unknown.

[furballdn]

I'd definitely say societal and cultural values (the way they were brought up) contributes most to people's beliefs and thoughts.

[Absol]

One more comment:
These days, any people are "addicted" to religion. It's like they try to escape reality through prayer and stuff.
They can't face life so they pray. In prayer, they find peace. That's what the addiction is about. Peace in life, which they can't attain normally.

My point:
1. Consider the purpose you pray
2. If you pray to escape reality, then change it
3. Pray for the strength (and courage) to face reality

[BluePriest]

My point through that is not saying that God exists. I'm explaining why so many people believe in a God even though there is no evidence to support that he exists.

So many modern day people believe in god the same reason medieval people believed the world was flat and why Greeks believed in Zeus.

What do you define as evidence?

Personal Evidence of God for me.
1)Feeling his presence, not just while in church but during prayer
2)Hearing footsteps by like the classic footsteps poem during a very dark time in my life when I wanted nothing to do with God and jumped out of a moving car. I heard footsteps by me which comforted me.
3)Having the chronic knee pain that the doctors said I was going to have for the rest of my life healed during a service at church

While, there is no evidence, but the fact that I can feel his presence indicates makes me, at least, know that God exists. He has worked on me miracles too by sending me a wonderful guardian angel while I was depressed and cured me of it .

If we present evidence then it should be counteracted in a definitive way, and if you cant then Im not saying that you should convert, but I am saying that it is unwise to think people are being illogical for believing in god, and assume that they do so with no evidence whatsoever

[OldTrees]

My point through that is not saying that God exists. I'm explaining why so many people believe in a God even though there is no evidence to support that he exists.

So many modern day people believe in god the same reason medieval people believed the world was flat and why Greeks believed in Zeus.

What do you define as evidence?

That which would be if god exists but would not be if god did not exist. (Or vice versa)

Subjective accounts that could very well be influenced by the subject could be caused by the subject rather than the outside force they ascribe to the account. Therefore it does not fulfill the second half (would not be if god did not exist).

[BluePriest]

Subjective accounts that could very well be influenced by the subject could be caused by the subject rather than the outside force they ascribe to the account. Therefore it does not fulfill the second half (would not be if god did not exist).

I completely agree with you.

[ElementalDearWatson]

It's been a while since I've posted, for which I apologise.  Life got in the way, I'm sure you know how it is.

OldTrees, it seems that this has rapidly become a discussion in which almost all of the energy is devoted to going back over points which have already been discussed.  In my experience such discussions rarely progress forwards and even more rarely end up anywhere good, especially if one of the participants has expressed anger over the issues being discussed.  I think therefore that it's best that we leave this discussion where it is.

Personal Evidence of God for me.
1)Feeling his presence, not just while in church but during prayer
2)Hearing footsteps by like the classic footsteps poem during a very dark time in my life when I wanted nothing to do with God and jumped out of a moving car. I heard footsteps by me which comforted me.
3)Having the chronic knee pain that the doctors said I was going to have for the rest of my life healed during a service at church

While I completely respect that these things are no doubt very powerful for you, and that it's entirely your right to interpret them however you wish, I don't think that they are indicative of a higher power of any kind.  What you list as 1 and 2 have alternative explanations in what is known about the way the human brain operates.  Occurrences such as these are commonplace and well understood. 

I can't comment directly on point 3 without knowing the exact details of the case, but faith healing has repeatedly failed to provide any results under controlled conditions, beyond short-term placebo effects.  Therefore, with the greatest of respect, I remain sceptical of your claim.

As I say, this is your evidence, and I cannot and will not comment on how you should interpret it.  However, it's certainly not evidence for me that any kind of deity exists, as there are alternate explanations which don't require one.