When facing one's own mortality, it is almost impossible to carry the burden of cognitive dissonance, that is, conflicting ideas that one cannot come to terms with. For peace of mind, a lot of people decide to either believe in God wholly or believe there is no God (plenty of other caveats, but I'm speaking to our current topic). Any inkling thought countering these beliefs brings about a lot of anxiety. No one likes that.
It takes hard work to be a good person.
This is because we are fighting against our human nature. Our natural inclination to sin, from the Christian perspective. The idea that you have to be a good person to be in grace is flawed, since no matter how good you are, you will always sin. This is why Christianity is appealing to a lot of people, the idea that we cannot lift ourselves up but that merely having faith in Christ is the requirement.
What's so odd to me is that I sincerely believe people NEED faith in SOMETHING, as in it is built into their core being.. Christians believe in God and Christ, obviously, but leftists (to return to topic) believe in the idea that government knows best for them and will usher them into some socialist utopia. Even atheists have a belief system, even if that belief is accepting that there is no divine being.
Even atheists have a belief system, even if that belief is accepting that there is no divine being.
Kind of. Saying there is a belief system in not believing, is like saying that not playing basketball is just as much of a sport as basketball. I would argue that each individual has their own individual belief systems, even if they adopt components of core belief systems. That's how you end up with variations of the Abrahamic religions, then in Christianity itself, and its denominations, and I would go as far as down to the individual from the pew in church believes slightly different from their neighbor(s) in the pew with them. And the retelling through time, adds different perspectives and interpretations of a message.
Everyone has there own belief systems in all sorts of ways, from the concrete to the abstract, all in conjunction with their life experiences. Like, people believe in their employer will pay them for work done. People believe that if they walk in a straight line from a cliff, gravity will cause them to plummet to their doom. People go to bed at night, believing they will wake up in their house in their body in their own reality that they were a part of before they went to sleep. Some people believe in ghosts, aliens, bigfoot. It can be rational or irrational. Believing doesn't make something factual or fictitious, it's part of your critial faculties experience mixed with what you want/expect (or don't want/anticipate).
I think you misunderstood what I meant by belief. I meant we have this inate need or desire to believe in something bigger than ourselves. It’s in our core. It is part and parcel of who we are as humans. If we didn’t have this in ourselves there would be little motivation for religion.
The desire for belief doesn’t create what we belief in, it just serves as our motivation to seek out and discover the object of that belief.
My apologies. I thought I summarily brought up the differences between beliefs and entire belief systems. I guess even a cosmic nihilist finds meaning in waking up every morning.
When facing one's own mortality, it is almost impossible to carry the burden of cognitive dissonance, that is, conflicting ideas that one cannot come to terms with. For peace of mind, a lot of people decide to either believe in God wholly or believe there is no God (plenty of other caveats, but I'm speaking to our current topic). Any inkling thought countering these beliefs brings about a lot of anxiety. No one likes that.
This is because we are fighting against our human nature. Our natural inclination to sin, from the Christian perspective. The idea that you have to be a good person to be in grace is flawed, since no matter how good you are, you will always sin. This is why Christianity is appealing to a lot of people, the idea that we cannot lift ourselves up but that merely having faith in Christ is the requirement.
What's so odd to me is that I sincerely believe people NEED faith in SOMETHING, as in it is built into their core being.. Christians believe in God and Christ, obviously, but leftists (to return to topic) believe in the idea that government knows best for them and will usher them into some socialist utopia. Even atheists have a belief system, even if that belief is accepting that there is no divine being.
Kind of. Saying there is a belief system in not believing, is like saying that not playing basketball is just as much of a sport as basketball. I would argue that each individual has their own individual belief systems, even if they adopt components of core belief systems. That's how you end up with variations of the Abrahamic religions, then in Christianity itself, and its denominations, and I would go as far as down to the individual from the pew in church believes slightly different from their neighbor(s) in the pew with them. And the retelling through time, adds different perspectives and interpretations of a message.
Everyone has there own belief systems in all sorts of ways, from the concrete to the abstract, all in conjunction with their life experiences. Like, people believe in their employer will pay them for work done. People believe that if they walk in a straight line from a cliff, gravity will cause them to plummet to their doom. People go to bed at night, believing they will wake up in their house in their body in their own reality that they were a part of before they went to sleep. Some people believe in ghosts, aliens, bigfoot. It can be rational or irrational. Believing doesn't make something factual or fictitious, it's part of your critial faculties experience mixed with what you want/expect (or don't want/anticipate).
I think you misunderstood what I meant by belief. I meant we have this inate need or desire to believe in something bigger than ourselves. It’s in our core. It is part and parcel of who we are as humans. If we didn’t have this in ourselves there would be little motivation for religion.
The desire for belief doesn’t create what we belief in, it just serves as our motivation to seek out and discover the object of that belief.
My apologies. I thought I summarily brought up the differences between beliefs and entire belief systems. I guess even a cosmic nihilist finds meaning in waking up every morning.