Why Believe in God?

February 26, 2010

Is a belief in God irrational? There is no proof of God’s existence and yet there is no proof that God does not exist.  Can one argue the lack of the existence of God rationally when humans by nature are irrational beings?  Can the disbelieve in God be as irrational as the belief in God?

Interestingly, one of the first tomes on probability theory was developed over the question of God’s existence.  A 18th century French philosopher name Blaise Pascal offered up an interesting if not controversial opinion when he said it a better bet to believe in God than not  from a rational perspective. This is known as Pascal’s Wager.

Pascal’s Wager basically says that if you believe in God and you are correct you gain everything but if you are wrong, you lose nothing.  A win, win bet. If you bet against God’s existence and are wrong, you lose everything.  If you are right you’ve gained nothing.  A lose, lose bet.

If that is true, why not believe in a philosophy that is based on loving thy neighbor, doing unto others, promoting faith, hope and charity? Why not a belief system that emphasizes a universal ethic of honesty, fairness, mercy and forgiveness? Why not believe in an Almighty being or a personification of all the goodness of humankind that disdains the failing of human nature? Why not believe in a philosophy of sacrifice, atonement and redemption?   What can it hurt to believe in God?

Now what is more rational? The belief in God or the belief in no God?

I personally don’t know if God created man or man created God. Perhaps the ability by man to create God is how God created man.  Does not the manifestation of God by man prove God’s existence?

Which ever way it happened, God exists and his word is better than any thing else that has ever been presented to us lowly creatures.  We have nothing lose, it is a win-win situation.

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