[quote]groo wrote:
[quote]mbdix wrote:
I meant man searching for God throughout history in any ‘theism’ form. Besides atheism. Why do people that don’t believe in God, think societies throughout history have used God? [/quote]
Your question is really broad. Obviously early on gods were used to explain natural things like say lightning that people didn’t understand. As the understanding of the natural world got better the concepts of god had to become more abstract.
Mostly I was meaning if you meant an Islamic/Christian/Jewish idea of god since there are many other conceptions that came about in history and prehistory.
I’d say at its heart its largely fear and not understanding the world around them that caused a lot of belief historically. Some societies in my opinion have used religion to keep people ok with the status quo in the sense that they are willing to wait for some greater reward in the afterlife instead of working to make this life better.
I don’t think societies are intrinsically linked with religion. Atheism in at least the sense of non theism is the fastest growing segment of the American population and we are currently one of the if not the most religious western nation. I think Islam is the second fastest growing. I believe if you split by sects…bundling every sect together as Christian is a relatively recent, say 50 year old thing…that only Catholics will be a larger group in America than Moslems and nontheists by 2030 if the current projections hold.
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I personally think it’s a fad. Atheism’s popularity has increased and decreased through out time. I will tell you why I think it’s a fad and that most atheists will subscribe to a faith in God is because I have yet to meet an atheist who is flippant or nonchalant about it. Reading atheist blogs and websites, it seems to me that for not believing in God there is a great deal of interest in God and religion. More often it’s non-practicing people of faith who are flippant and nonchalant about it. “I am Catholic, but I only go to church once in a while.” That kind of thing. I guess in them there is some sort of comfort in the fact that they have some belief and there is time to worry about that crap later. No so with atheists. They seem to be very interested in religion as a whole. Perhaps to mock it or malign it, but something about atheism, no matter how militant the atheist, seems to have some level of discomfort to it. Perhaps it’s a void in the human psyche that demands a belief in something greater than ourselves, and forcefully removing that, creates an imbalance. What ever it is, it is true that most atheists are seemingly very interested in religion and God, even if they hate it, there is a profound interest there.
I don’t think it’s related to explaining phenomenon anymore after all we have science, in large part to provide us with those answers, but it does not satisfy.
Just here on this forum the behaviour is pretty evident save for a couple, almost every thread about religion has been started by an atheist. Why such interest if you don’t know and don’t care?
I think it’s because they do care, and the answers come. It’s because the answers come that I beleive most people will not stay atheists forever. Some will surely, pridefully hang on to it despite their personal experiences that would indicate otherwise, but many will hear the answers and answer the call themselves.
I can’t prove it, but these questions and inquisitiveness about God will not go unanswered.
I think there is a fear that you will become a ‘Jesus Freak’ if you become a person of faith. That you will have that abhorrent, fundamentalist behavior that is apparently repulsive in some people. After all, they think, “I am good with out God”…Well if that’s true, then your life wouldn’t change all that much. You’ll just finally give credit where credit is to. You’ll understand how fragile this life we have is and be grateful to the correct source for the many blessings that you normally don’t recognize that give you the blessed life you lead. That a simple twist of fate, it all comes crashing down. In the blink of an eye, it can all change.
