Why do people believe in God / religion?

1. Emotional/Experience - Heart

Can we base our belief on our sincere feelings about God?

If you have ever invited young Mormon missionaries into your home, you may have been asked to pray about the truth of their testimony. You are told that if you have a "burning in the bosom," then that is proof that God has answered affirmatively about their assertions.

If we feel certain about an idea, does that indicate truth? James W. Sire, author of the book Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All?, writes:

…many of us are indeed certain about our beliefs and are willing to die clinging to them. But notice something about certainty. It does not guarantee accuracy.If it’s the feeling of certainty we are after in our beliefs, we may not have much of a problem maintaining it. We can just believe, never question our beliefs, play our Walkman or watch television when we begin to wonder about our beliefs, and generally avoid asking if our beliefs are really the right ones.The problem is that some of our beliefs may be false.

See Questions & Answers on Apologetics, Nov. 1995

Do worship activities that work up our emotions bring us closer to God?

2. Mystical - Spiritual

1 Cor 2:14: Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

It seems that legions of people are claiming that they have had a mystical experience, and this, to them is evidence of God, or at least of the existence of the supernatural.

The skeptic dismisses the supernatural as an impossibility. Many Christians dismiss such experiences as well, since they do not appear to be happening to everyone who is a sincere believer.

Findings from a Gallup study conducted during January and February 1996:

An extraordinary high proportion of Americans, a net of 30%, report they have had at some point in their lives a "remarkable healing" related to a physical, emotional or psychological problem. A total of 21% say a physical problem; while the same proportion, 21%, cite an emotional or psychological problem. Most attribute the healing to supernatural forces, with 42% saying God or Jesus Christ or a higher power, and another 30% to their own prayers or to the prayers of others. Still another 27% gave other responses. Most who said they have had a healing say that it made them more aware of the importance of their spiritual life (89% said this), while 84% said it deepened their religious faith. Nearly half (47%) said it changed their lifestyle in terms of aspects of daily life such as eating habits. Thirty-five percent said they developed more interest in using non-traditional therapies or treatments.

See 3 in 10 Americans report a ‘Remarkable Healing’

Would a miraculous healing be reason enough to believe in God? Is God the only explanation for this phenomena?

The Bible is full of supernatural events, so we cannot rule out such occurrences based on Scripture. Can we rule out supernatural experiences based on evidence? Should we?

3. Rational Thought/Evidence - Mind

Of all the ways that we have of knowing truth, it is the rational process that we are most familiar and comfortable with. We use reason every day to help us make sense of the world. It is a democratic method, and well-accepted by non-religious people as a reliable way to find truth. If Christianity is true, then shouldn’t it be available through the use of reason? This is the main thrust of this course, since all of us will be searching for, thinking about, and drawing conclusions about truth using the material presented here.

4. Christianity is grounded firmly in all three

Even though the main purpose of this class is to discover the truth of the Christian story through reason and evidence, we must not forget about people's feelings, emotions and experiences, nor should we attempt to leave the supernatural or spiritual to the realms of fantasy. As thinking, feeling people, we must look everywhere for truth.