Can belief in God be rational?

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Reply 20

Cremated_Spatula

Original post by FauxIntellectual

God with a capital G usually refers to the Abrahamic God.

Then no, the Abrahamic holy books are completely flawed.

Reply 21

troubadour.

Original post by DanikaB

As someone who believes in God, I wouldn't say that it was irrational. I would argue that in some way it is rational depending on how you percieve evidence. Many would use the Bible, others would simply use what has happened to them. All in all, it is rational because religion has existed almost as long as humans have been here. But just because it's rational doesnt mean everyone has to believe it

I don't understand how the longevity of religion is supposed to prove that it's rational or irrational to believe in a god(s).

Reply 22

Nununu

Original post by TeeEm

I believe in alien gods ... is that rational?

If the aliens are themselves created then no it is not rational to say they are god.

The question OP you should ponder is "Is it rational that everything we know exists came in to being by themselves".

Reply 23

thefatone

Original post by Keyhofi

Anything supernatural (such as God, Gods, or a spiritual force) cannot be believed rationally.

^^ i agree with this guy

Reply 24

TeeEm

Original post by Nununu

great !!

Reply 25

viddy9

Yes, it is possible for belief in God to be rational if the weight of the evidence lies in favour of God's existence.

In today's world, given the evidence (and indeed the lack of it), belief in God is irrational.

Reply 26

DanikaB

Original post by BristolFresher15

But you have to perceive evidence as the successful output of something that went through the rigors of the scientific method. It can't be any sort of evidence, otherwise there's much more reason to believe Harry Potter as holy literature or UFO abductions as true accounts.

Spoiler

Fair, but as we all know, even science isnt completely reliable. Something that has been 'truth' for years can be completely scrapped down the line. Now I'm not saying that science isnt real or whatever, I do believe in science but my point being is that even science isnt 100% reliable. Science is about trying to disprove theories. So, if you cannot disprove a theory then it deemed to be truth. Until science disproves that God is real then I shall deem that He in fact is.

Oh and dw about sounding belittling :h:

Reply 27

DanikaB

Original post by Hydeman

I don't understand how the longevity of religion is supposed to prove that it's rational or irrational to believe in a god(s).

Well since it's been around for so long, surely it had to originate from somewhere

Reply 28

troubadour.

Original post by DanikaB

Well since it's been around for so long, surely it had to originate from somewhere

That doesn't make sense. :s-smilie:

The oldest religions involved the worship of whatever it was that humans didn't understand and/or feared at the time e.g. the Sun, the stars, the elements, large predators, etc.

Reply 29

FauxIntellectual

Original post by Nununu

The question OP you should ponder is "Is it rational that everything we know exists came in to being by themselves".

The thread is intended as a survey because I want to know how many people think faith is irrational. As it turns out, it's the majority of users. Whether they believe that because they've thought through the implications is a good question. I asked people not merely to assert that faith can/cannot be rational but also to explain why they think so Few people have done that so far.

Reply 30

DanikaB

Original post by Hydeman

That doesn't make sense. :s-smilie:

The oldest religions involved the worship of whatever it was that humans didn't understand and/or feared at the time e.g. the Sun, the stars, the elements, large predators, etc.

They also believed that there was some form of entity. Whilst it was misplaced into things they feared/misunderstood, they still believed in something bigger than themselves

Reply 31

troubadour.

Original post by DanikaB

Until science disproves that God is real then I shall deem that He in fact is.

But you're not being entirely consistent here. There are lots of things that science hasn't conclusively disproved. Science is pretty silent on the existence of fairies, unicorns, and garden gnomes. To be consistent with that philosophy, you'd have to assume that those are real until proven otherwise, too.

Reply 32

the bear

Original post by TeeEm

I believe in alien gods ... is that rational?

have you seen a Kallikantzaros ? :holmes:

Reply 33

BristolFresher15

Original post by DanikaB

But science isn't really something for you to believe in, though! Its a method of figuring out, in the best way possible, the inner workings of our origins and all aspects of our existence. And it would be best to deem something as the best explanation of a phenomenon if it was proven to be relatively sound by the scientific method. However, believing in something because it has yet to be proven opens the gate to all kinds of things. You would probably have to believe in all other gods that have ever existed as well.

Reply 34

TeeEm

Original post by the bear

have you seen a Kallikantzaros ? :holmes:

not yet !!
(my mother when she visits calls my black cat that ... )

Reply 35

DanikaB

Original post by Hydeman

But I don't rely on science to tell me what is real. The reply to me was about science so I was simply giving an answer in relation to that

Reply 36

troubadour.

Original post by DanikaB

They also believed that there was some form of entity. Whilst it was misplaced into things they feared/misunderstood, they still believed in something bigger than themselves

Every sane individual believes in something bigger than themselves; I would be foolish to think that I have any significant chance of winning a fight with a hungry leopard whilst unarmed. That doesn't mean that they believed in the monotheistic formulation that's most prevalent today. They simply worshipped whatever it was that they didn't understand.

Also, that still doesn't prove anything about whether it's rational or irrational to believe in a god(s). Even if the kind of religion that's common today had been around for a long time, that wouldn't prove anything about the rationality of believing in it.

Reply 37

the bear

Original post by TeeEm

not yet !!
(my mother when she visits calls my black cat that ... )

Greece is still haunted by gods.

Reply 38

DanikaB

Original post by BristolFresher15

Okay, fair science isnt something to believe but there are people out there who dont believe in it. And I dont believe in God solely because science has not disproved it. I was just using that argument as saying science isnt completely reliable

Reply 39

troubadour.

Original post by DanikaB

But I don't rely on science to tell me what is real. The reply to me was about science so I was simply giving an answer in relation to that

You clearly said that you would continue to believe in a god because science hasn't disproved it yet...

Original post by DanikaB

Now I'm not saying that science isnt real or whatever, I do believe in science but my point being is that even science isnt 100% reliable. Science is about trying to disprove theories. So, if you cannot disprove a theory then it deemed to be truth. Until science disproves that God is real then I shall deem that He in fact is.

I also missed something earlier: that's not how science works. God is a hypothesis, not a theory, and therefore some evidence needs to be presented for this hypothesis that both supports it and refutes competing hypotheses for it to be elevated to the status of a theory.

It's when the evidence can't be faulted that you can say that, because it hasn't been disproven, it must be true.