If "God" wanted humans to believe in him...

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why did he give us a brain? If "God" created us and gave us brains, why did he give animals brains and not expect them to believe in him?

This is the part I enjoy most, is watching believers make excuses for and justifications for, this response. No bible quotes, please.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ... Oh, never mind.

Are you saying that animals believe in God? I suppose that's possible. Who knows?

No, I asked the question, "If a God gave brains to humans so that they could believe in him, then is that the same reason animals have brains?"

A rationally thinking mind would not find reasons to excuse and justify the irrationalities and inconsistencies of a book that human beings printed just 1200 some years ago. That book not even being the first "religious" teaching to be printed, as the Buddhist Diamond Sutra was printed in the 6th century. The Buddhist religion formed more than 500 years before the birth of Jesus and other "religions" even earlier than that.

How can a rational mind...........?

I think what's not stated, but rather implied is that having a brain is not proof of the existence of God. Am I on track? I'm going to assume that animals believing in God is rejected as a possibility.

I am not very good at finding a way to make a point that doesn't seem contentious. I am asking, if a "god" demands our submission, detailing a punishment for noncompliance, why give us a brain capable of rational thought that can discern the contradictions and ambiguities of said "Gods" instructions for existence (bible). If said brain is going to be utilized to its fullest potential it would not base important life decisions on the whims of "faith." Otherwise, why not just create a realm of minions? Any other conclusion that I can make is that IF a "God" is responsible for all that exists, our human life is nothing but a game being played between any number of "Supreme" beings, with humans nothing more than a consolation prize.

A touch of cruelty?



Or they've just forgotten about us. I don't think we're as interesting as we think we are.

How do you determine that animals have a need to believe in anything or not

There's this:

http://www.naturalnews.com/023055_brain_god_the.html#

http://www.goethe.de/ges/phi/dos/her/ren/en2507250.htm

http://www.goethe.de/ges/phi/dos/her/ren/en2507250.htm


(quote is from first link)

I remember when this research came out. The reaction divided neatly into 2 camps: that religious beliefs are an artifact of brain function or that the brain function was designed that way by God in order to facilitate religious beliefs. Since I'm not religious, I fall into the former camp. But I can see the appeal of the latter camp since it neatly aligns neuroscience with religion. And it would be a good explanation for why God gave us brains (and I would use it if I believed in God).

As to why God would give brains to animals with no expectation of belief.....if their brains aren't structured with this "God module" as it's being called, then no belief or expectation of belief.

That is the least problem with this brain-dead brain question- indeed If I were the OP I would demand that the moderators take this thread off of life support.

There are too many logical problems with the question (as worded) to list.

But I'll just skip that and state the question that I THINK he is trying to ask.

That question is: if God demands faith, then why did he create us with brains that can reason well enough to see the contradictions of faith? Why didnt he just make us dumb enough to just have faith without the ability to question faith? Something along those lines.

thank you. That works for me.

Awww

An animal learning to mimic behaviors doesn't mean it believes in anything. Just a cute trick.

As poorly worded as the OP is, it depends on your perspective. If you're a believer, the higher cognitive brain is just the means "God" used to make us test faith. In which case, critical thinking is a sin to overcome.

If you're not a believer, the whole question is just ridiculous in the first place. As a fellow Godless heathen I appreciate the jab, but it definitely could have been thought out better.

By using rationalizations. Is everything you believe perfectly justified? Get off your pedestal friend. Every rational mind is also irrational. Everyone makes errors. Also the issue isn't nearly as clear cut as you would like to say and I think I speak for most Christians when I say we would appreciate more respect than that, after all we gave the world minds like Aquinas, Pseudo-Dionysus, Augustine of Hippo, Kant, and Kierkegaard. Those were very rational people. Maybe they weren't right about everything but it has to be agreed that they made many rationalizations and helped to progress our understanding of many topics like theory of mind, determinism, etc. Not believing in God/gods doesn't place you in some special, more rational category and frankly I'm sick of seeing this behavior online.

Btw that picture is extremely cute and funny, lol.

Last edited by Lukecash12 on 28 Oct 2014, 12:46 am, edited 2 times in total.

Yet another person in the giant ocean of folks who think that "faith" in the bible means "don't think rationally, just believe anyways because you're supposed to". The bible wasn't written in English and sadly many people today like to act like it was, especially the fundamentalists and backwards thinking groups like the Southern Baptist convention or Church of Christ convention.

The truth of the matter, which I've referenced a couple of times now, is that pistis, the Koine Greek word for faith, explicitly involves a rational process and not only that but there are a number of examples of apologetics in the New Testament. Peter presented an argument for Christianity on the day of Pentecost, and not much later in the book of Acts Paul goes to Athens and debates with the philosophers there, arguing that God is immaterial because the idols they worshiped were unresponsive. There are a number of philosophical debates in the New Testament and some of them are even between two apostles, as can be seen in Acts and Galatians when Paul rebuked Peter for pretending to hold to the Law one second and then eating "unclean" food with Gentiles the next.

Most notably Paul makes an appeal to teleology in the first two chapters of Romans, and the book of Job talks extensively about physics, describing concepts like gravity, a round earth, the earth revolving around the sun, etc. In spite of the attitude today there is no indication in the bible itself that everyone should just accept all of it uncritically.

Why assume a creator wants us to believe in it? Or cares if we worship, it or not? Or even if it did why oblige? Why assume there is an afterlife?

I'm atheist, but if I wasn't I'd be a Deist. Basically the idea that God created the universe, then took the rest of time off, wants us to use reason and scientific endeavors to sort out problems. Including developing our own system of morality.