Ask HN: Why do you believe that your religion/faith/worldview is correct?

I’ve had my worldview destroyed and changed so many times that personally I don’t put too much weight on my current worldview. I believe I’m in the minority though.

I believe my worldview is a tool to help me get what I want while avoiding the things I don’t want. That’s probably the case for most people.

As my “wants” and “do not wants” change so does my worldview. Once I get the thing I want or I can’t seem to get the thing I want then I have to re-evaluate my worldview and/or wants.

I believe most people’s worldview is fairly static. They find something that is good enough (they don’t suffer too much and they kind of get what they want) and they stick with that. Problems happen when these two groups of worldviews clash.

A God who defines His paramount and most important characteristic as being Holy not His power. The God Jehovah Jesus HolySpirit is the God who is worthy of being called God. Scientific reasoning only proves to me the existence of God as does historical evidence. The levels and layers of interdependent complexities in the universe and living things in the macro and micro are without a doubt proof of such an amazingly intelligent and powerful being.

Some things that confuse me are the stories of a global flood occurring and as a result all humans deriving from noah. Why God seems to be amazing when it comes to math and science and yet He spends a lot of his interaction with us on the foibles of man because we are obviously flawed creatures ( I know that I am ). As though He is surprised by how wretched and evil we are at times.

Evolution just seems to be the self generative and adaptive mechanistic process by which God seems to build complex from the simple. I think that doing it this way is harder than to just produce fully formed complex systems whole cloth. It is actually a more thought out and elegant method of producing robust survivable beings.

Just as an aside, it almost seems to me that when he created this universe, He first started with what a human needs to be in order to have dexterity (fingers etc..), intelligence, communication (vocal cords) and so on. Working backwards creating a physical programming language(dna,rna) that synthesizes molecules tailored exactly so for biochemical systems, to atoms to subatomic particles and the forces/fields that govern/marshal these discrete particles.

Amazingly, these 92 elements had to be created in generations of stars and neutron stars as only the simple element hydrogen existed.

sorry for rambling on.

I'm an agnostic (because agnosticism >> atheism in terms of empirical strength), and the extent of my theological beliefs is: only an atheist can be a true christian [0] and Matthew 10:34:

> "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send [or bring] peace, but a sword."

As for religion, I think it's mostly a vessel for 'naturally' (socially) selected rituals, and the spirituality is tacked on after the fact [1]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X_hwUEPelQ

[1] https://medium.com/incerto/we-dont-know-what-we-are-talking-...

True believers are also true non-believers. Thus, if you truly believe in the Hindu gods, you can't also believe in the Christian or Muslim god.

It then becomes a matter of which set of beliefs you espouse, and why. The 'why' is usually due to imprinting, in that your beliefs are the ones you were first introduced to by your family, or close familiarity.

This also means there's is very little difference between (say) a devout Christian and a committed Atheist, because the Atheist disbelieves in just one more god than the devout Christian disbelieves in.

(To explain, assume there are 453 possible known deities: the Christian does not believe in 452 of those, while the Atheist does not believe in 453 of those.)

Muslim here. I'm open to being convinced. In fact, if you want to convince me, my inbox is open. I think it is possibly the most important question to decide on, so I'd appreciate honest discussion. Most online discussions are rarely civil because they're a little dishonest.

IMO, there is always going to be lack of evidence for or against. Agnosticism is logical, but I would rather just pick something and experiment with it. There's a theological/philosophical aspect of belief. But in the end, there will always be too little evidence and we have to pick something.

Theological reasoning:

1. First, it's not a problem we can solve. We're too busy living our lives, working 40 hours a day. Tech and society in the last 3000 years hasn't helped us with the problem at all. It's almost certain that someone in the past has figured it out, with all the nobles spending their time on something. It's possible some knowledge was destroyed, but for the most part, it's best to work with existing frameworks.

2. Religions are at their best as soon as they become popular. After a few generations, they become corrupted as they're an easy way to seize power. So be wary of anything that wasn't part of the original teachings.

3. I think a God is inevitable. You have all these planets out there, some billions of years older than ours. Even if a God didn't create the universe, it's likely that one life form has spawned a godlike entity, at least compared to ours.

4. I don't believe that God is infinitely omnipotent or omnipowerful. But relatively so. As in God might be able to destroy Earth in seconds, but that doesn't necessarily mean he can teleport or possess people.

5. Multiple gods are unlikely, because they'd be conflicted if ruling the same space. If there are other gods, they might be governing other planets or universes. But it doesn't matter. In the case of humans, it's likely that there is one God governing us.

6. If God doesn't care about us, then there is no purpose to this exercise. Earth would be accidental, like an old can of soup which bacteria somehow developed from, and we would be the bacteria. If God doesn't care, then there will never be enough evidence to work from and this could well be the case.

7. But the Abrahamic God really seems to care.

8. If God cared, he would at least let us know before destroying us for being infidels. Hence the Prophets - Jesus, Moses, Muhammad, etc.

9. Muhammad was also an outstanding individual, very brilliant and lucky. He's either a genius or divinely guided. Not a lot of people go from being an outcast in his 50s to building an empire that conquers Byzantine Rome and the Persians.

Practical reasoning:

1. Pascal's Wager.

2. A variation of Pascal's Wager: I can't see a situation where I'd be happier in life, as an atheist. The Buddhism approach of "life is suffering/impermanent" seems to be the logical outlook. A life as an atheist would mean living in constant existential crisis. I donate, without anyone seeing my donations, because I feel God would reward me for it. Maybe God doesn't actually care, but it makes my life pleasant to think he does. Religion acts as a placebo. Why would I want to remove a placebo if it works?

3. The Prophet Muhammad and his companions were great role models. People seem to point out his marriage life as a negative, but the other 99% of his life were great. Very honest, friendly, forgave enemies, very down to earth despite their power. If Muhammad says believe in Allah, then I'd do so.

4. I think life has to be anchored on to something. Should I take Job A or Job B? Which brings me closer to God? Is Job A more sinful? Sinful isn't just sex, drugs and murder. It can be subtle things like usury, which is profitable, and very well respected.

5. If God cares that we believe, then we should be fine asking for things. God has near unlimited resources; we could basically...

Your religion/faith/worldview has not to be correct, until it works for you.

A lot of people believe the world was created by God and he placed the fossils into the ground to test our faith. Are they right? It doesn't matter much until it works for them.

I think my strongest belief is that we can never ever have any objective evidence on whether or not God exists. I'm deeply suspicious of any attempt to prove or disprove the existence of God.

I do belief God exists and created this universe, and as creator of this universe, God is not subject to its laws, and therefore falls completely outside the purview of science. This universe exists entirely because God wants it to, and God[0] could interfere with this universe at any time without leaving a trace, but clearly created a universe that is internally consistent[1].

Due to not being subject to this universe, God must by necessity also exist outside our concept of time (which is part of the universe according to Einstein), and therefore presumably causality. This follows logically from the above, but also conveniently solves an ancient dilemma about predestination.

I am Christian. I believe Jesus was some aspect of God that somehow became human, to teach us and to carry our sins. I believe the Bible is for the most part the result of divine revelation, but it has been written down by people, usually in the context of that time, and occasionally been rewritten, hopefully by well-meaning people.

Apart from the first paragraph, I'm not remotely sure of any of this. I'm a fairly agnostic Christian. To claim to know the truth about God would be the height of arrogance and hubris to me. I'm sure I'm wrong about some things, though I believe I'm relatively close on most.

I believe this because it makes sense to me. It explains the existence of the Bible, of Jesus, and of the religion He inspired, but it's strongly tempered by my understanding of science.

[0] I'm reluctant to call God "he" here, because it would suggest I believe God has gender, which I consider an silly idea. I do normally call him "he" though. Mostly out of habit.

[1] Except maybe in Quantum Mechanics, and possibly Inflation, because the former feels like a hack where we almost caught God in an inconsistency, and the latter feels like a cheat to get the universe he wanted.

> Nearly everyone in this world holds to some central and defining philosopy or faith or religion that shapes the meaning of life for them.

Is that a fact? Seems like a false assumption to me. Unless you just mean whatever deeper beliefs everyone has, whether aware of it or not, but it seems you're making a stronger claim. For example, I'm in Australia, and I'd say 95% at least of the people I've met in my life aren't among this "nearly everyone".

I think faiths and ideologies are group identities that pass me by since I'm a perpetual outsider.

There are books and sayings and thoughts that I really appreciate and like to think about... And I definitely have some personal biases, motivations, desires... But I don't have a worldview that I could write down, and my views on many things are marked by confusion, doubt, or pluralistic appreciation.

Here's one quote I like, by Paul Goodman:

Behavior is more graceful, forceful, and discriminating without the intervention of the state, wardens, corporation executives, central planners, and university presidents. These tend to create a chronic emergency that makes them necessary. In most cases, the use of power to do a job is inefficient in the fairly short run. Extrinsic power inhibits intrinsic function. "Soul is self-moving," says Aristotle.

I tend to agree with that based on experience, but then, I'd also have to add that it's a biased statement. Of course sometimes the state improves things, the executive inspires, the planner gets things done, and the university president has courage and wisdom...

Of all the spiritual traditions, Zen is the one I've been most interested in, but as soon as you find some dogma in Zen, someone comes and slaps you.

Basically my worldview is that of a cosmic know-it-all without any concrete suggestions. And then I just try to do whatever's in front of my nose to do, as Henry Miller once said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYL3mB3rAfU

I also like imaginative, powerful, crazy manifestos, like Hakim Bey's "Temporary Autonomous Zone".

http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/taz.htm

And rather than join some political party, I'd rather be at home reading Spinoza, Simone Weil, Huangbo, Van Gogh's letters, anthropology, McLuhan...

Sometimes I try to figure out, like, is private property good or evil? I just don't know, man. There's so many ins and outs.

The more an idea is operational the more it is correct.

I think having seen all of the worst evils in the world committed in the name of some belief, I have dropped concerning myself with anything that isn't scientifically validated. I feel like all organized religions are just some form of control and don't provide any benefit except for forcing an association with a group that might not hold the same complete beliefs as I do, but is essentially pushing those beliefs onto you by association.

One thing that kind of blows my mind still is how the engineers I work with (some of the best most logically discerning minds) can believe in religion. It seems counter intuitive. Maybe it's out of fear? Not sure. I used to be religious though, and constantly thought about what makes my ancient book of mumbo-jumbo more valid than someone elses book? And is it not messed up that everyone is so divided and just because they were born to a culture or society that does not believe a religion, they will all burn eternally? Seems shady to me. Anyways, ridding my life of unfounded beliefs allowed me to realize the value of life, empathize, and treat others equally, irrelevant of culture or beliefs, whereas I feel like religion tries to make everyone else the "others" who are less than.

The answer to this has some (however minimal) overlap to 'why do you believe object oriented programming is a good idea?'

In no small part because any alternative is inconceivably unbearable.

Sri Ramakrishna said that all religions are just different path to the same divinity. Just like we call water by different names in different languages but ultimately they all mean the same liquid that quenches thirst , similarly different religions also lead to the same quenching of our spiritual thirst. Sri Ramakrishna not only said that but he practiced reaching enlightenment through different religions.

The main reasons I hold my belief in the religion of Islam to be true are its compatibility with common sense and the overwhelming amount of outside evidence in favor of it.

Unlike other religious groups that define faith as something you engage in despite facts (a "leap of faith"), I see it as a return to objectivity and reason that is, first and foremost, based on facts.

The first fact I am referring to is the utter helplessness and dependency of mankind on forces outside our control, and the seemingly perfect ordering of everything in the natural world to our advantage even though cosmically we are only a speck of dust and a blip in time.

The second is the existence of individuals throughout history who succeed against all odds in calling their people to worship a wise Creator whom they claim to be sent by, and whose teachings become guiding principles in the minds of billions of people of different races, cultures, and languages.

There are many, many more signposts but these are the most obvious.

Specifically about Islam, I researched the religion before I embraced it and found the exact opposite of what its detractors say. I found a moral teaching superior to all others containing no contradictions with science or reason. Every theological or moral problem that used to trouble me had an answer in Islam, and not only that, but usually in the most ancient sources.

The clarity and "take it on face value" character of Islam was very satisfying to me in a time of my life I was experiencing a lot of confusion. There are no baffling paradoxes in Islam, or ranks of mystic knowledge to climb. It's about accepting simple truths, like the Oneness of God, reality of death, etc. into your heart in deeper and deeper ways, and a sense of communion based on that that transcends millenia and unites continents.

Also, as a side note, there's a very important fact that atheists / agnostics dismiss too easily, which is the answering of prayers. Until you yourself have been in dire need, prayed for something improbable, then received it from a direction you didn't expect, you can't understand the effect that experience has. It's easy just to say, "you're imagining it," or, "confirmation bias."

I am not the type of person to enjoy religious flame wars, just posting for those who are curious.