# Why do so many people still believe in God?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [April 17, 2022, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965 "2022-04-17T20:24:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 29
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/561 "2024-02-02T02:12:03Z")
I didn’t bring up disrespecting or courts(or proof, although that response almost always comes up when evidence is discussed). I only asked if you think there is evidence to support the existence of your particular deity, or are you one of those who believe that blind faith is sufficient.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/562 "2024-02-02T03:02:33Z")
Faith is the belief in something without proof. There is no blind faith; at best, it is a rendundant term.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/563 "2024-02-02T03:17:33Z")
From this site: [Defining Faith - Definition of Faith — Compassion International](https://www.compassion.com/christian-faith/faith-definition.htm#:~:text=Biblically%2C%20faith%20is%20considered%20a,belief%2C%20trust%20is%20a%20necessity). “Biblically, faith is considered a belief and trust in God based on evidence but without total proof.”
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/564 "2024-02-02T03:22:25Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#):
>
> Faith is the belief in something without proof. There is no blind faith; at best, it is a rendundant term.
You really don’t see anything between the two extremes of (1) proof and (2) no reason to believe whatsoever?
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/565 "2024-02-02T03:24:48Z")
There a a million reasons to have faith. Proof isn’t one of them.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/566 "2024-02-02T03:27:06Z")
There is one one side that keeps bringing up proof in this thread (and so many others).
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### Author:  [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/567 "2024-02-02T03:37:51Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#):
>
> There a a million reasons to have faith. Proof isn’t one of them.
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> There is one one side that keeps bringing up proof in this thread (and so many others).
This brings to mind the classic story of Doubting Thomas.
> **[Doubting Thomas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubting_Thomas)**
>
> A doubting Thomas is a skeptic who refuses to believe without direct personal experience—a reference to the Gospel of John's depiction of the Apostle Thomas, who, in John's account, refused to believe the resurrected Jesus had appeared to the ten other apostles until he could see and feel Jesus's crucifixion wounds.
> In art, the episode (formally called the Incredulity of Thomas) has been frequently depicted since at least the 15th century, with its depiction reflecting a range of theological i...
At least according to wikipedia, there seems to be a difference in the Catholic and Protestant approaches. Take the question of whether or not Thomas actually put his finger in the hole in Jesus’s side. I grew up Catholic, and was raised with the idea that Thomas actually did so. It seems that Protestantism seems to favor the idea that upon being challenged to do by Jesus, that Thomas decided he didn’t need to go quite that far.
Those two different approaches to how we think about the word faith may be where some of these differences are coming from.
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/568 "2024-02-02T04:16:41Z")
The very first answer in this thread was pretty much spot on and only four sentences. You may not have liked it, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t spot on.
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### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/569 "2024-02-02T04:30:02Z")
> [@Baker](#):
>
> I don’t know why anyone else believes in God but I do because God exists and I wish to honor God for the good that I have experienced. And yes, there is no way to prove God is out there but I believe anyway.
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> Do you believe blindly, or do you think there is evidence of your god’s existence?
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> There is one one side that keeps bringing up proof in this thread (and so many others).
You mean, you?
I generally just don’t have time for this whole argument any more. If someone says “I believe, just because” then fine, now I know, and I can let it go at that. There is absolutely no sense in trying to persuade any believer that they are wrong.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/570 "2024-02-02T04:39:16Z")
I am not trying to. I am only asking that, if you believe, do you do so because of any particular evidence.
Not proof.
Not evidence that would pass in a court of law.
Just evidence.
I have no plans to debate whether that evidence is valid or not, so if you want there to be a trap you’re going to have to create it your self.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/571 "2024-02-02T06:25:56Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> There is one one side that keeps bringing up proof in this thread (and so many others).
There is no proof God exists. There is also no proof God doesn’t exist.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/572 "2024-02-02T06:58:13Z")
Not asking for proof.
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### Author:  [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/573 "2024-02-02T07:21:03Z")
There is no proof God exists . . . which is evidence that God doesn’t exist.
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/574 "2024-02-02T08:55:20Z")
As yer local neighbourhood ignostic, let me add - there is no agreed or coherent definition of what this “god” thing is or what would or would not constitute evidence of its existence or non-existence anyway, so the entire question of “evidence” is moot. We once had a thread along the lines of “What exactly is this god thing of yours, anyway?” and there were approximately as many different answers from theists as there were posts by theists.
There is no evidence _wefopiefnf_ exists, there is no evidence _wefopiefnf_ doesn’t exist. Same same.
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/575 "2024-02-02T12:20:49Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> I am not trying to. I am only asking that, if you believe, do you do so because of any particular evidence.
Curious of what is your take on a person having an experience like Paul (of the Bible) had? That the Lord came to him directly. There is no proof so to speak. Would/could that cause a belief in God?
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### Author:  [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/576 "2024-02-02T13:04:41Z")
Given that the authorship of six of the thirteen canonical epistles of Paul is in question, we can’t even be sure Paul actually wrote about that experience let alone experienced it.
There’s no proof, so to speak? There’s no evidence, to speak.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/577 "2024-02-02T13:27:24Z")
Never mind the example – the better phrasing of the question to **Czarcasm** and others would be if they would take an answer based on personal _subjective_ “experiential” evidence. Someone who says “I felt the Divine in this point of my life”. Or would it then just start a chain of “what evidence do you have that what you experienced was Divine”? (Or just be scornfully dismissed)
Because some people are acting like the believers have to _justify_ being believers.
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### Author:  [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/578 "2024-02-02T13:37:23Z")
My problem is ‘I felt the Divine in this point of my life’ is very often followed by ‘and that’s why you should believe in my god!’
> [@JRDelirious](#):
>
> Because some people are acting like the believers have to _justify_ being believers.
Given the number of times I’ve heard the demand that non believers justify their non belief the phrase ‘Prove my god doesn’t exist!’ is burned into my brain.
If they aren’t trying to convert me then why are they bringing it up and if they want to convert me then they better have more than ‘my feels say god is real!’
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/579 "2024-02-02T13:41:20Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#):
>
> My problem is ‘I felt the Divine in this point of my life’ is very often followed by ‘and that’s why you should believe in my god!’
Which sounds like a different issue from “why do people believe”.
I guess I have not had the chance to experience any more than mild annoyance from and eyerolling at both insistent proselytists and aggressive antitheists, though granted the former have been far more numerous.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2024, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-still-believe-in-god/962965/580 "2024-02-02T13:48:53Z")
> [@kanicbird](#):
>
> Curious of what is your take on a person having an experience like Paul (of the Bible) had? That the Lord came to him directly.
Hallucinations, drug use, mental illness all are things I’d consider before OMG, Hallelujah!
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