A world of belief

The argument is called an "inference to the best explanation". The best explanation for why most people have a disposition to believe in God, is that God exists. My argument is not that given humanities condition, would they or would they not create an idea of God (since that begs the question, did man develop the idea of God, or did God create man and reveal Himself to us?). The argument is meant to illustrate that, if atheism is true, then no God exists in reality; it then follows that there is no God to ensure that beings would come about that believed in Him. It then remains purely accidental that any being should arise with sophisticated enough intellect to even conceptualize God. If atheism is true, it is purely accidental that such a being as man exists that believes in God, and thus, is highly improbable to have ever come about. Alternatively, if God exists, then it is no longer based on probability if man exists and believes in God; it is ordained and designed.

1. Belief in God is highly likely
in a world where God exists

2. Belief in God is an abnormality/anomaly and highly unlikely
in a world where God does not exist

:. Therefore, God is more likely to exist than not
in a world where people believe in God

A popular response has been:

1.Belief in a flat earth is highly likely in a world where everyone believes the earth is flat.

2. Belief in a flat earth is an abnormality/anomaly and highly unlikely in a world where the earth is not flat.

3. Therefore, the earth is more likely to be flat than not flat.

Strawman. Belief itself does not make something true nor is that the argument, we understand why people did believe the earth is flat given strictly a view from the ground. It is possible to make good observations (the horizon is flat) and make bad conclusions (the earth is flat). However if belief in God arose because of observations, then it must have been God that was observed. Notice that "earth" and "flat" both exist and were observed, and thus caused belief in "flat earth". So if observed "flatness" and "earth" made people believe in "flat-earth", then something of God must have been observed to cause the belief.

The issue is that if there is no God, then there is nothing that should logically give rise to the belief in it. The next objection looks like this;

1. Belief in Santa Clause is highly likely
in a world where Santa Clause exists

2. Belief in Santa Clause is an abnormality/anomaly and highly unlikely
in a world where Santa Clause does not exist

:. Therefore, Santa Clause is more likely to exist than not
in a world where people believe in Santa Clause

The issue here is that a) We know Santa Clause was invented by Coca Cola and is a fictional character b) children are the only ones who believe and are not sophisticated enough to have justified true beliefs based on reason c) The existence of Santa Clause requires first the existence of God, seeing as how Santa Clause would both be a human being and thus contingent in a created universe, and is able to perform supernatural acts which require a realm of the supernatural, and thus presupposes the existence of God.

The issue terminates in this; what caused belief in God? Some say it was "The need to explain things we couldn't otherwise explain. We used to think that rain, thunder, floods, earthquakes, etc, were caused by a God or Gods. The need to have an explanation for something is what caused the first belief in God." Notice this is neither a historical or scientific fact, but only wishful thinking on the part of God rejecting atheists. First you need the idea of "God" in order to ascribe divine causation to the rain, thunder, and floods. You don't look at rain and think "God", you look at rain and think "rain". So the idea of God must come before the ascribing of divine causation to natural elements, but this idea of God is without cause, in the atheists case, and thus is utterly distinct from the flat earth, santa clause, and any other idea you can think of which has elements of observed natural phenomena. Even Santa Clause requires things like "Saint Nick" who was a real person, presents, the north pole, snow, human, and all other things observed compiled into the fictional character.

There is no reason for belief in God to exist in a world where God does not exist, because no natural phenomena can adequately cause belief in a being who isn't natural to begin with.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• world
• of
• belief

[Laylow4now]

Exactly !!!!! Millions of people state that they have encountered spirits, demons, angels, UFOs and a whole bunch of other paranormal activity....

Regardless of your worldview or religion, how do you explain that?

[VenomFangX]

@Laylow4now The Bible says that angels and fallen angels (demons) exist and interact with us, this explaining paranormal activity, including "ghosts", "ufos", and "aliens". The Bible explains them all as the interactions of beings that transcend our dimension with our own.

[ApocaIypseNow0I2]

The best explanation for why people have a disposition to believe in invisible-pink-vampires, is that invisible-pink-vampires exist?

[VenomFangX]

@ApocaIypseNow0I2 Does anyone believe in invisible pink vampires? If they are invisible, how can they be pink?

[nazra7]

You guys are misunderstanding his argument. This is INDUCTIVE not DEDUCTIVE, meaning he is not saying because people believe in it then it is true, what he is saying is that it's more likely to be the case that it is true because so many people believe in it which does have legitimate merit.

People used to believe in Elves and Fairies, yet now almost no one does. Same goes for all other mythical creatures, yet if God is mythical why is HE different?

[VenomFangX]

@nazra7 Exactly. Thank you.

[GmRebelliousV]

According to this syllogism when most people believed that the Earth was flat, that phenomenon itself indicates that it is more likely that the Earth is indeed flat. Furthermore this logic can be applied by any religious person on the planet and reach the same conclusion for any given deity; for example if we put the argument back to Ancient Greece where people believed in the Olympian Gods would that mean that those Gods are more likely to exist than not to?

[bl4h1]

because theyre taught it at an early age........

pretty basic

[GmRebelliousV]

@NoRoomForMrCockup yeap ;P

[NoRoomForMrCockup]

@GmRebelliousV My words exactly. Just because you believe, it doesn't make whatever you believe in more real. The reason religion even exists is because for a long time people didn't have the means to be able to explain natural phenomena and therefore said it was caused by 'God' or the 'spirits'.

The reason religion continues is because of human fear and ego. People are scared of what will happen when they, and they desperately want for humans to be special. It's quite silly really

[uru301]

You can't say "Believing in God is more likely if God exists" because we simply do not know that to be true. However, We can confidently say that the existence of something is independent of the number of believers. Years ago many people were pagan but today many people believe in one Christian God. Who is right? Well according to your statement, neither believers of the pagan God's or believers of the Christian God are right. Both religions have/ had strong numbers of believers.

[ReptoidBoffin]

Surely they'd all believe in the same God, if this was the case. Not the thousands upon thousands of radically different concepts of God throughout history. Just my opinion.

[SqueakerAlpha]

@VenomFangX they exude an aura of pinkness. It is evil pinkness though where the pinkness of the Invisible pink unicorn is entirely good. It is one of the GREAT MYSTERIES of the IPU and vampires.

[ElManoNegro]

I think most people believe in a deity because of culture and up bringing . Depending on where you live, usually prescribes the reason for your chosen religion. Americans are usually Christian, Arabs muslim, Indians..Hindus And seeks, Malaysians, Buddhists. If everyone believed in the same god you'r argument would have been better.