Is the belief in God, a primitive instinct?

I would have to agree with you on many points, i too dont believe in religion, however i do believe in god. As for multiple religions i believer there is one god with many faces. You also have to remember historically Jews, Catholics, Christianity, and Muslim religions all stemed from the same religion (Judaism) but through cultural differences and time(and prophets, or sons of god) all split off from each other.

JackJuice

I agree, I believe that the God that all the different churches and religions speak and call by different names are probably the same God so it is just futile to fight over which religion is the correct one.

On a side note in South Park Season 4 Episode 410 titled "Do handy caps goto hell"

There is as scene were a bunch of new arrivals to hell are being checked in to hell and people from all the different religions are asking why they were there and the hell coordinator responds that they picked the wrong religion. Someone asked , we'll which one is the right religion and the response was "Mormons, Mormons is the correct answer, any question?"

Just a little humor, I hope I didn't offend anyone.



[edit on 10-3-2005 by bpletcj]

Doesn't Saddam piss Satan off at some point and as punishment Satan sends him to heaven to be with the Mormons for eternity?

I totally agree with the first part of your sentence. The reason that I worship God is because He IS, but I can't altogether agree with your statement that he need be nothing else. One might try to understand His aspects to know why he simply IS. The IS is the bottom line, but I do believe that one needs to comprehend how one gets there.

To me, His aspect of eternal truth is the reinforcement that helps give understanding to the IS.



[edit on 11-3-2005 by Leveller]

Primitve, well I would say its a basic instinct, just like survival, procreation etc.
So what?
If by primitve you mean irelevant to the modern world, then no more so than the other "primitve" instncts I just listed.

I'm sorry . It had a great concept, but just seem to get worse as the counter on the DVD player ticked on. If you're into thinker-type movies, try watching 'The Messenger' with Milla Jovovich, a Joan of Arc story. That one really messes with one's head. I'm still not sure what to think about it and I saw it two years ago.



I'm going to go back to my computer Basic programming and write an "If, Then" statement. All caps in original programing starting with line # 10. (anyone remember this?)

10 IF YOU BELIEVE THAT GOD CREATED YOU, THEN GOD PUT INTO YOUR PROGRAMMING THAT HE EXISTS AND IS GOOD

This is where our conscious being our guide comes from. We can discern good vs. evil per Genesis.

Very good original question because it make me wonder if any dogs worship anything? I think my dog worships the dogfood god and in the morning me and the tree out front get a lot of attention but not sure who wins that contest. But the question for me is why is it only aparent for humans?

you saying that god or religion is there to fill a void makes it sound like its all made up just for the sole purpose of filling a void, rather than actually being real. Which is why people first created religion to fill that void of humans having a spiritual need. Religion isn't really all it's cracked up to be now. there are so many christians because that's the way they are brought up, that is their way of life. Religion has become a lifestyle rather than an actual proclaimation of a higher being. You hit the nail on the head with the void remark, because most humans cannot accept their fate holds nothing. They need to have something to fill that void of their spirtual need so they can brainwash themselves in to thinking there is life after death. Once they have brainwashed themselves...that's called faith, and not much can turn them the other way after that, even if loads of the bible shows many contradictions...they dont care because they have faith. having faith isn't being certain about something. faith is actually hope. so they merely hope there's something after death, it's quite lame that some people are so weak they need that hope and faith for there to be something after death.

Well it took me an hour of research on the subject to realize I was misinformed.

I t was episode 411 titled "Probably" which was a continuation of episode 410 titled " Will the Handicapped people go to Hell".

SO yes to your question, at the end Saddam is sent to heaven to live with god and the Mormons, which to Saddam would be true hell.

If anyone is offended please remember we are discussing a cartoon called South Park.

As muslim i believe nothing is unexplainable everything goes with the laws of nature.

Once again, the question being asked is about the need for a belief in god, not about religion. Religion will come afterwards, when someone tells someone else about their god and what their god wants people to do. You keep going on rants about Christianity, which is not the only religion that believes in a god.

I think it is a primitive instinct. It seems ingrained in the human psyche to explain how everything works. And when there was no explanation we turned to gods and magic for the answer.

i do stick to the christian side more because that's the main religion i've been brought up around. it seems more a primal instinct because many are taught about religion from such an early age before they can fully understand. it's like walking. when you first walk, you are doing it because you copy everyone else around you. that's how we learn when we are young. apparently the most important learning years is from 1 to 5 years old. therefore if you start teaching a 4 year old about how religion is the right thing whether you're hindu, jewish, christian etc..they will still have that ideology implanted in to them at such an early age. once you learn to walk and talk it would be hard to turn around an say im not going to walk or talk anymore. if a person is brought up at such an early age as a christian, hindu, jew etc, then it's very hard for that person to then get out of the religious circle. therefore is a person is taught by their parents to be a christian that makes it a primal instinct because they've been taught before they understand it. if people become a christian when they're 30 that's not a primal instinct, yet more a fear of death or a want of something after death.

You are told or taught to believe in a god. It is not instinct. You are born with instinct.

Instinct is like when a domesticated dog walks in circles 3 or 4 times before sitting down because his ancestors had to do the same thing to trample tall grass into a bed.


I still think humans do the same, but we will never know for sure unless we take some humans at birth and isolate them and study them like lab animals or something.

Excellent posts thank you all for repling.

I do believe the belief in God is Taught, and not a natural thrist like for water and food.

I wonder how long humans will take to loss this belief in God....Wonder how Jesus is fairing in the regons worst hit by the tsnami?

i actually came across some research today that 50% of your religiousness can be down to your genes, and the other 50% envionmental influences. so i guess in someway in some people it can be an instinct to a certain extent...

Back in 1997 research was carried out to discover what influences there are on a person that could make them more religious. You may be interested in knowing these include neurological and genetic influences. It has long been known that certain neurological disorders, such as temporal lobe epilepsy, can cause hyper-religiosity. The visions of St Paul, Mohammad and Joan of Arc come to mind.

Researches on identical twins, that have been raised apart, are usually found to be either religious or both non-religious. These same studies have also concluded that your religious belief is 50% genetic and 50% environmental. This says nothing about the truthfulness or logic of religions, but the huge numbers of people with this genetic disposition does indicate that the genes involved had a selective advantage in the past.

Irrational beliefs are not entirely independent of intelligence and education. A number of studies, 43 to be exact; which four found no relationship between religious beliefs and intelligence and education. However, the other 39 studies consistently found a clear relationship between religious beliefs and intelligence and education. In other words, the more intelligent and educated a person is, the less likely that person is (on average) to be religious.

New studies in 2005 also determine that genes do have an influence on how religious a person is. These studies also show that the effects of a religious upbringing may fade with time. These recent studies, including those ones on adult twins raised apart, suggest that genes contribute about 40% of a person’s religiousness. Before these studies in 1997 and 2005, many thought that religious beliefs were purely down to a person’s socialisation or nurture.

A few studies on children and teenagers, with biological or adoptive parents, show the children tend to mirror the religious beliefs and behaviours of the parents with whom they live. That suggests genes play a small role in religiousness at that age and also the environment with which they live in.

Now, researchers led by Laura Koenig, a psychology graduate student at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, have tried to tease apart how the effects of nature and nurture vary with time. Their study suggests that as adolescents grow into adults, genetic factors become more important in determining how religious a person is, while environmental factors wane.

The team gave questionnaires to 169 pairs of identical twins - 100% genetically identical - and 104 pairs of fraternal twins - 50% genetically identical.

The twins were asked how often they currently went to religious services, prayed, and discussed religious teachings. This was compared with when they were growing up and living with their families. Then, each participant answered the same questions regarding their mother, father, and their twin.

The twins believed that when they were younger, all of their family members, including themselves, shared similar religious behaviour. But in adulthood, however, only the identical twins reported maintaining that similarity. In contrast, fraternal twins were about a third less similar than they were as children. This all suggests genetic factors are becoming more important and growing up together less important.

These findings may not be universal, yet in most cases a person’s religiousness will differ because of their genes and environmental surroundings. When you’re young and living with your parents, you cannot be entirely yourself. However, once you leave the nest, you are free and able to make more conscious decision about your life. This points to the fact that environmental influences become less influential as a person grows older, especially to the point at which they leave home. It’s then, when a person leaves home, when genes play a more important role in their religious beliefs.

That wasn't a Jesus area to begin with. You should ask them what they think of their religions. But, I still disagree. Yes, God is taught, but someone had to think it up in the first place. I still think that if you erase any thoughts of god from everyone, that eventually, someone, probably in their 20's, will think up some new supernatural forces to explain the true meaning behind everything. It is not as strong of a motivation as hunger, thirst, or even the drive for sex, but it's there. I say 20's because I think that is when people begin more philosophical thoughts in life. Some maybe earlier or later, but that's besides the point.

Also, we seem to keep bouncing back and forth between religion and god. They are not one and the same. Yes, religions include gods, and god is in religion, but you can have god without religion. I think that there is a strong drive to find the true meaning, that is why we are all here. Wheter or not you believe in god is up to the individual, but the drive was there for you to decide, thus it is an instinct.

[edit on 19-3-2005 by steggyD]

Yes that explains those primitive folk running around talking to invisible non-existent gods that never talk back of course and by the time they start talking back those people are you know where locked in an institutoin under heavy medicationThe belivers are excatly what the church labels them with SHEEP beeee beee beee