50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God (21 page)

Religious belief for most people is not a logical conclusion that they
arrived at after researching the world's faiths and deciding on the most
sensible one. For the individual, religious belief usually comes during
childhood and is wrapped up with many values and loyalties developed
at the same time. Belief in a god or gods became a part of who they are.
This belief in a god is more like a close friend, sibling, or parent than it
is some cold concept in one's head or a club membership. The connection to a god is deep and strong for many believers. It won't be shaken
easily. Losing a heated debate to an atheist usually doesn't make a dent
in faith. The believer who did not make a rational choice to believe is
unlikely to make a rational choice to stop believing. There are other
things at play here. There is feeling. There is love. There is intuition.
There is loyalty. The best a compassionate atheist can do is to set the
table of reason with all proper manners and etiquette and then invite the
believer to dine.

Some atheists underestimate how serious the more passionate
believers can be about their gods. This is no casual thing for many of
them. Hard as it is to understand for an atheist, many believers are
being honest when they say they love their god. Belief is the most
important part of their life, some say. I tend to believe them because I
have seen their trembling hands and twitching bodies when they cried
and prayed to their gods. I have seen this love and fire up close. I stood
close by while Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Jews prayed in their
temples around the world. I've seen the tears run down their cheeks.
I've heard the whispered word "love" from many believers. Sometimes it was beautiful. Sometimes it was scary. But it was always sincere, in my opinion. Name calling, complicated sparring over fine
points of logic, and quoting dead philosophers won't put out the fire I
have seen burning in the hearts of these people. Reason has virtually
no chance when atheists approach the believers as bullies rather than
friends because they won't give an inch. It only makes them believe
harder.

Many atheists are too quick to dismiss the deep emotional commitment to belief that many people have. To a devout believer, it just
doesn't matter if a nonbeliever bluntly declares that there is no scientific evidence for their god and therefore it's unlikely that the god is
real. It just doesn't register. They won't even listen to what is being
said because it is seen as an attack, an attempt to blow the house down
rather than as a knock on the door. Imagine if someone came along
and told you that your favorite color was wrong, that there is no evidence that it is the superior color. How likely is it that this would make
you denounce your favorite color? You probably picked your favorite
color for unknown reasons in childhood and remained loyal to it all
these years. My favorite color is blue. I would love for someone to try
and tell me that blue is not the best color. Why, just look at it! It's such
a calm and peaceful color. It's the color of the sea and the sky. It's the
best color of all and I don't care what anyone says to the contrary. I
have faith that blue is best! Case closed!

I have engaged in both forms of the atheist-believer clash over the existence of gods. I have had bitter battles with supremely confident
believers. I have also had friendly discussions with believers during
which tough questions and contradictions came up. Without a doubt
the latter is more enjoyable, more productive, and far more likely to
leave believers thinking in ways they may never have before. I am
convinced that one cannot force a believer into a corner with scientific
facts or scriptural errors and hope to achieve something. If, for
example, someone came at me ranting about flaws in the theory of
evolution, I would react to their aggression by listening less to their
ideas and concentrating more on how to launch my own arsenal of
arguments at them. If, however, someone came to me and said that
they want to know the truth about our origins but evolution seems to
fall short in their view, I would be willing to listen, at least for a while.

I don't go looking for it, but if I find myself in the presence of a
true believer and we drift onto the topic of gods, I mostly ask questions. That's right, I just ask how they know their holy book is a collection of words from a god; how they know the universe was made
by their god; how they know the apocalypse is almost upon us; and so
on. I let them do most of the talking. After listening for a while, I ask
more questions. Socrates figured it out a long time ago. Asking questions is a great way to teach. Asking believers questions about their
gods is better for everyone. It also is far more interesting and educational for the atheist because it offers a chance to learn more about
how believers think and what it is they actually believe. For the
curious believer, I imagine that hearing politely delivered yet challenging questions can be an eye-opening experience. I wouldn't be
surprised if many questions from such an exchange linger in some
minds for many years. Posing questions rather than simply firing off
facts also tends to keep things friendly and pleasant. There is a world
of difference between, "There are no gods!" and "How do you know
that your god is real and all the others aren't?" The former tends to end
meaningful conversations while the latter starts them.

Perhaps the charge some believers make is true. Maybe too many
atheists really do lack sufficient humility. After all, shouldn't we non believers be the most humble people on earth? Remember, we are the
ones who don't know much of anything when it comes to the big questions. We are the people who don't know why or exactly how the universe started. We don't know how life started on earth. We don't know
with absolute certainty what happens to us after we die. Yes, compared
to believers, we don't know much at all. Atheists definitely should be
the most humble people of all.

Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Hunsberger, Bruce E., and Bob Altemeyer. Atheists: A Groundbreaking Study
of America's Nonbelivers. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2006.

Wilson, E. O. The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. New York:
W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. E. O. Wilson is a scientist, environmentalist, and atheist. He is about as far away as one can get from the
negative stereotype of the bitter, angry atheist. This book is his respectful
plea to believers to do more to stop environmental destruction.

I wish I could stand on a busy street corner, hat in
hand, and beg people to throw me their wasted
hours.

-Bernard Berenson

en in expensive suits work the aisles with quiet, focused
efficiency. Like robots, they move through the audience
without saying a word. No need to. Everyone knows what they want.
The believers fill the collectors' containers with their money. I see
twenties, fifties, hundreds, and checks go into the containers. Some
believers request credit card slips from the collectors. The pace of this
massive money transfer is impressive. Hundreds of people who came
to take away "God's word" are leaving behind a considerable fortune.
The collectors pick up the pace. They empty pockets and purses like
emotionless army ants efficiently dismembering a still-living
grasshopper for transport back to the nest. Meanwhile, the preacher up
on stage repeats over and over how important it is to give money to
god. He warns the faithful that god knows exactly how much they can
give and exactly how much they do give. Even more cash flies into the
containers. God made a lot of money tonight. Or did he?

Some believers won't reconsider their conclusions about the
reality of a god or gods because they don't recognize that they pay a price for believing. It's all gain and no loss, say many believers, so why
rock the boat? Why question it? Why think? Just keep on believing.
First of all, I would suggest that nothing should be off-limits to questioning, not even cherished religious beliefs. The safest policy is to
leave everything in life open to skepticism and analysis. No matter
how wonderful something may seem, shutting off one's mind is risky.
Skepticism, by the way, is not the dirty word some believers seem to
think it is. Skepticism simply means thinking once or twice before
accepting anything as true. What can possibly be wrong with that?
Skepticism is a positive attitude and being a skeptic is a smart way to
navigate through life. It should never be confused with cynicism. A
cynic may drip with negativity and scorn but a skeptic merely questions claims before believing. There's nothing negative about that.

Despite what believers say, religion seems to cost believers a lot
from the atheist's perspective. This is not to say there are not real and
significant benefits to believing. For example, a believer who attends
worship services might be healthier because she has a network of
friends who will encourage her to get regular medical checkups as
well as check on her when she is ill. But this could be a benefit of
Islam and not necessarily Allah. Anthropologists say we are a social
species and psychologists say we depend heavily on relationships for
our happiness. So when a man finds joy in praying with others it could
be the people who make him happy and not necessarily the Hindu
gods he worships. Benefits that often come from belonging to a belief
system do not prove that any particular god is real. However, because
so many believers claim that believing in a god is cost-free, a closer
look is warranted to see if this is true.

It is safe to say that belief in gods can claim a heavy toll from
believers. This cannot be denied because there are many examples of
believers destroying family relationships, losing jobs, draining life
savings, and even killing or being killed in the name of a god. However, it's too easy to criticize unpopular religions that make extreme
demands on members. (Believers like to call them "cults" to make
them seem significantly different from popular religions. They forget, however, that virtually all religions pass through a time in which they
are labeled cults.) Most believers understand that it would be a mistake to sell their house and car just because someone told them that the
end of the world is next week. Most believers understand that it's
wrong to release poisonous gas into a subway station. But what many
people may not recognize is that believing, no matter if it is within a
popular and peaceful religion, is not free. A price is paid.

Money is not the only price of belief but it is a good place to start.
Believers around the world spend many billions of dollars each year
on their gods. So many religions that cannot see eye-to-eye on anything else are somehow able to agree on one thing: the gods need lots
of money. A god may be able to create a galaxy for nothing, but to get
anything done here on earth apparently requires cash. Those who
claim to speak for the gods say that giving money to a god is the right
thing to do. Some go so far as to warn of severe punishment from a
god for those who do not give. Many believers are encouraged to give
so that they can get an even bigger return from their god. Some religious leaders tell believers that their donation is like an investment
that is guaranteed to pay off many times over. To the atheists this all
sounds very suspicious. First of all, why do gods need so much
money? If they can make a universe can't they make a hundred-dollar
bill? What is it that they need to buy, anyway?

The weirdest thing of all about believers giving money to their god
is that none of them ever give money to a god! Okay, the pharaohs of
ancient Egypt, Alexander the Great, and other "human-gods" may
have collected funds in person. Other than them, however, no purely
supernatural god has ever made a confirmed appearance on earth to
personally accept a believer's donations. What happens instead is that
believers give their money to a middleman, usually one who is
wearing very expensive clothes and living in a very big house. Why
do believers do this? Wouldn't it make more sense to burn cash as an
offering to their god in some sort of ritual? Interestingly, some Chinese
people do something very similar to that. They burn paper money in
hopes of sending it on to the afterlife for use there. Or maybe a believer could be creative and give their money to the most needy
people on earth, people who any good god should be concerned about.
How about giving "god's money" to a few of those nine or ten million
children who die each year in the developing world for lack of food or
a two-dollar vaccination? Giving the money to them might impress
any real gods more than giving it to some holy man with a private jet.

Stating the obvious, that religion is big business, is not meant to
be insulting or an attack on believers. Surely all believers see that religion is one of the oldest and most effective ways to make money. One
can argue whether the money is doing the work of a god or not, but the
fact that religion is a booming global industry is clear. Admittedly, just
because so much money is flying around in the name of so many gods
is not evidence of fraud. What it does mean, however, is that many
people on this planet today are wasting a lot of their money. The undeniable truth is that most believers in the world today who regularly
give money to a god are throwing their money away because the god
is not real or the religion is invalid. How, for example, can the Christian who gives money to help fund the distribution of Bibles and the
Muslim who gives money to fund the distribution of Korans both be
right about the wise use of their money? Either one of them or both of
them are wasting their cash pushing a book that is wrong. The Bible
and Koran contain opposing claims that cannot be reconciled. Therefore, at least one of these believers is wasting their money.