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From: dsaker@iuvax.UUCP (Daryel Sachse Akerlind)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Belief
Message-ID: <278@iuvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Apr-84 15:49:36 EST
Article-I.D.: iuvax.278
Posted: Fri Apr  6 15:49:36 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Apr-84 01:30:10 EST
Organization: Indiana University
Lines: 62


Several years ago, I had an interesting conversation with a Christian.
He was maintaining that all those who did not believe in the Christian
God (and a reasonable amount of accompanying standard doctrine -- we never
managed to pin down exactly what an acceptable minimal set of doctrines
would be) and accept Jesus as their Saviour before they died would be
damned.  Now, of course this raised all sorts of moral awkwardnesses such 
as: What happens to those who die as babies?  But I don't want to discuss
those points, and I didn't waste much time on them then.  What interested
me was this business of belief.

Why do people believe in God?  (And let's consider the Christian God so
that we can talk a bit more specifically, although the discussion should
apply quite generally.)  I have never read or heard of anyone who came to
believe on the basis of reading the bible, say, weighing its plausibility,
and coming to the conclusion that it must be true.  A few people with whom
I have spoken have started out claiming this as the basis of their conversion,
but always, after questioning, they have admitted that this was not so.
Every case of conversion of which I know has rested on a profound "spiritual 
experience", a revelation of God's existence.  

Now, I have never had a revelation of God's existence.  So, given that I
start from a position of disbelief in God, on what grounds am I supposed to
believe?  Surely I can't be expected (by God or anyone) to believe on the
basis of the objective evidence.  Furthermore, I can't just will myself to 
believe.  In any case, what would be the virtue in willing
oneself to believe?  The substance of my belief would be an arbitrary
concoction.  

This brings us back to a revelation of God's existence.  Now, I have, at 
various times in my life, done as Christians urged, and prayed for help
in this matter.  I have been in such distress that I have literally
wept on my knees for some reassurance, some glimmer of illumination.
But no awareness of God has ever visited me.

So how can I be expected to believe?  Why should I be punished for not
believing?  

The Christian I was talking to had a theory:
There is no good reason to believe in God.  You either do or you
don't -- and you don't really have any voluntary control over the
matter.  What God is doing is selecting for those who happen to believe
correctly.  Perhaps believing correctly stems from some mysterious
faculty possessed by certain humans, and that is what God is selecting
for.

Now, that doesn't please me very much, and I am still left wondering
about this belief business.  What sense does it make to exhort someone
to believe?  As if someone had a choice.

Before signing off, there is one other point I would like to raise.
I mentioned these "spiritual experiences" that seem to form the foundations
of people's belief.  In every case I know of, the experiences supported only 
a very small part of what the person ended up believing.  I am left with my 
original question: Why do people believe as they do?
 

     Daryel Akerlind
  ...ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!dsaker