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Reasons why people want to believe in God.
invite response
2012 Oct 22, 10:35am 57,604 views 143 comments
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curious2
2012 Dec 6, 12:10pm
Why do people confuse God with some man-made religions?
That's a good question. The answer is because organized religions, almost by definition, purport to tell you what "God wants." The obvious contradiction is, if an omnipotent god wanted you to know something, you would know it; an omnipotent god wouldn't need preachers to "spread the word." As a former priest explained to me, and this took me years to understand fully, "Organized religion is fundamentally about the denial of God." As soon as man puts one stone atop another to build a church, man puts himself above God, deciding what God wants, and building something that obviously no omnipotent god had wanted to build. No omnipotent god can ever need your help, but organized religion depends on preventing donors from realizing that tautological fact.
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I'm teaching a religion class in a Sunday school.
Last Sunday I tried to give my pupils (10-12 y.o)an assignment to find out why some people want to believe in God. I asked them to write about it from both perspective: of those who think they do believe and those who think they don't.
Their reaction was:
--but how will we find out?
me--Ask your friends.
--Where?
me--Ask other kids at your school, i'm sure you'll find some atheist there.
They shouting (5 or six at once)
--IT IS FORBIDDEN TO TALK ABOUT RELIGION IN SCHOOL!!!!
The rest of the conversation is not very important, but it boils down to the fact that there is no way to openly talk about this in American society.
So, I want to ask you here to tell what are possible reasons people want to believe in God. Any opinion would be very valuable. Religious atheists are more than welcome!