50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God (41 page)

It's never too late to learn.

-Proverb

any believers point to the age of their religion as some sort
of evidence for their god's existence. A lie or a mistake,
they declare, could not have endured for so long. So many people
could not be so naive that they would worship a made-up god generation after generation, they say. This is another justification for belief
that I have found to be common within many different religions.

The fact that this claim is so common is another indication of just
how little people know about religions other than their own. Perhaps
from the very limited perspective of a society in relative isolation
where a single religion dominates, one can see how this view might
seem to make a little bit of sense. However, if one simply looks at religious belief, both globally and historically, it is immediately obvious
that the "my religion is old and therefore true" claim doesn't hold up
at all.

Believers would never go down this path if they thought about it a
little more and did the tiniest bit of research on what the people over
in the next valley are up to because there are many very old religions
still hanging around today. If age mattered, some of today's most popular religions would be in trouble. For example, Christians, Muslims, Mormons, Scientologists, and followers of other relatively young religions might have to switch allegiances and start praying to Poseidon
and Athena because the much older religion of the ancient Greeks is
still in business.

Christianity is by far the most popular belief system in Greece
today and many years have passed since Zeus and his crew enjoyed
top billing. Nevertheless, the old pagan gods refuse to die. In 2006, for
example, an Athens court ended a ban against worshipping the ancient
gods. "What we want, now, is for the government to fully recognize
our religion," said Zeus-believer Vasillis Tsantilas. "We will petition
the Greek parliament, and the EU if that fails, for access to worship in
places like the Acropolis, for permission to have our own cemeteries
and, where necessary, to re-bury the [ancient] bones of the dead"
(Smith 2006).

Does the fact that some Greek citizens are still worshipping
ancient gods in the twenty-first century prove that these gods are real?
Clearly Zeus is showing impressive stamina to still be attracting new
worshippers. Does the measure of time make claims of his existence
legitimate? I don't think so, but if you make the argument for one god,
especially a younger god such as Jesus, then why can't you make the
same argument for Apollo? Isis was an ancient Egyptian goddess but,
after more than three thousand years, she's still in play. Some "new
age" believers today look to Isis for guidance, protection, and comfort.
Is this evidence of her existence?

Hinduism is so old that it can take on anybody's religion in the age
race. This ancient and still-popular belief system should trouble nonHindu believers who see a connection between age and truth. Hinduism has nearly one billion followers today, making it the thirdlargest religion in the world behind Christianity and Islam. It also
might be the oldest of today's "great religions." One can't be sure,
however, because Hinduism is so old that nobody even knows when it
started. Without a doubt it is much older than Christianity (2,000
years), Buddhism (2,400 years), and Islam (1,400 years), however.
Judaism is very old as well, stretching back at least a few thousand years, but Hinduism probably can match if not beat that. So does this
mean that the Veda and Torah are more likely to be true than the New
Testament, the Koran, or the Book of Mormon? "Hinduism is the most
ancient religion on planet Earth today," declares an article in Hinduism
Today. "No other religion, living or extinct, even approximates the distance in time Hinduism has traveled. The earliest known discovered
evidence of the Hindu religion-temples, fire pits, ceremonial baths,
Siva Lingams, dancing Siva-like figures, Sakti figures, yogi statues
and seals-from the Saivite Indus Valley empire in Northwest India,
is over 60 centuries old. That is 200 generations of human souls, a
continuity of historical religion that is twice that of any other faith"
(Hinduism Today 1988).

Hindus are very proud of their religion's age. While traveling
throughout India I spoke with many Hindus about their religion and
several of them were very quick to tell me that it is the oldest on Earth.
No other comes close, they declared. It was an obvious source of pride
and validation for them. There is no clear picture of Hinduism's
ancient origins and I am sure there are many rival believers who would
argue that their religion is just as old or older. Nevertheless, Hinduism
is tough to beat.

So, does the fact that some Greeks are still worshipping Aphrodite,
Hera, and Hermes prove that a bunch of gods are up on a mountain
somewhere peering down at us right now? Of course it doesn't. But
how could the religious beliefs of ancient Greece endure for so long if
they were not true? It is because religious claims do not live or die
based on whether or not they are accurate. The duration of a belief is
influenced by far more down-to-earth factors, such as who wins the
wars and who gains political and economic superiority. It also depends
heavily on which religion can adapt to changing times and which religion does a better job of selling itself to each new generation. And
don't forget that virtually no believers make the effort to study a broad
range of religious options before settling on the one they judge to be
the most reasonable and accurate. The primary reason that beliefs
endure is because parents teach them to their children. This simple method of perpetuating belief works and it sufficiently explains how a
religion can survive for thousands of years. Intrinsic truth does not
necessarily have anything to do with it.

Still, some believers question why so many religions have faded
away while others, such as Christianity or Islam, have become so popular. The duration of more successful religions might be explained in
many ways. Maybe they have staying power because they are flexible
and evolve in ways that help maintain the interest of believers century
after century, while more rigid belief systems come and go like fads.
Christianity is a good example of this. With many thousands of versions available today, Christians have a wide variety of options to suit
their tastes. One Christian can be a monk and live a life totally
immersed in the religion. Another Christian might never enter a
church or never once pray aloud in the company of others. Perhaps
some religions have survived simply because their followers tended to
be smarter, kinder, meaner, more compassionate, more evil, better at
cooperating, more aggressive, more passive, more imperialistic, or
maybe just lucky. Perhaps it comes down to which religion has the
superior military behind it. It all depends on what attribute is advantageous at a given time.

Most Hindus claim that many gods exist and most Jews claim that
only one god exists. Both Hinduism and Judaism have shown impressive endurance so far, stretching back a few thousand years or more.
They have overcome invasions and fierce competition from rival religions. But they cannot both be true if only for their contradictory
claims about the number of gods. At least one must be wrong because
the math just doesn't work any other way. This shows that time offers
nothing conclusive about truth when it comes to belief in the gods.

Finally, what about animism? Still very popular around the world,
animism is the belief that spirits or gods inhabit just about everything
in nature. It is not a highly structured religion like Islam or Christianity but it should not be ignored when millions of people embrace it.
Animism likely predates all other known religions, even Hinduism
and Judaism. One can easily imagine some version of it being the first form of religious belief practiced by our prehistoric ancestors. If animism reaches back fifty thousand to one hundred thousand years or
more-and it probably does how can today's believers who place a
premium on age dismiss it as untrue?

Haught, James A. 2000 Years of Disbelief. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books,
1996.

Sagan, Carl. The Varieties of Scientific Experience. New York: Penguin
Press, 2006.

Smart, Ninian. The World's Religions. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1998.

Smith, Helena. "Greek Gods Prepare for Comeback." Guardian, May 5,
2006. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/may/05/greece.

"Windows to Timeless Truths." Hinduism Today, June 1988. http://www
.hinduism today.com/archives/1988/06/1988-06-07.shtml.

Only you can make your mind up!
You're the one and only one!

-Dr. Seuss

his is a tough one. Suggesting that gods are almost certainly
not real is not as simple as pointing to the absence of evidence
and leaving it at that. It also means getting around the sticky issue of
personal loyalties. The most important people in a believer's life, usually parents, were probably the ones who introduced the god or gods
in the first place. Many believers have strong emotional ties to both
the magical being and the real live people who taught and encouraged
the belief. This mix of loyalties can be a powerful obstacle to thinking
freely and questioning the existence of a god. For some, admitting that
a god is not real can feel like betraying mom and dad.

Religious belief comes to most people very early in life. If it
didn't, there is a good chance that all religions might fade away within
a couple of generations. Consider how easy it is for a child to believe
just about anything. When I was around four or five years old, for
example, I believed in Santa Claus. I thought he really existed. I
imagine that it didn't take much work for my parents to get me to
believe in him. I loved my parents and they told me he was real, so I believed. It was as simple as that. But I am an adult now and if
someone approached me with a wild claim about a man flying around
the world in a sleigh delivering presents, I would not be convinced so
easily. Belief in a god seems to follow a similar process. Some trusted
authority figure, usually a parent, tells a young child that a god or gods
are real and that's that. It's presented in a matter-of-fact manner with
no mention of doubt or rival gods. End of discussion and the child
believes. What is a four-year-old supposed to do, challenge the parent
to a philosophical debate? Is a five-year-old likely to research classic
religious claims and skeptical rebuttals? No, the belief usually settles
in unopposed without resistance. After all, mom and dad would not
say it if it weren't true, thinks the child.

In most cases, parents never tell the child that there are many thousands of gods who people have claimed to be real throughout history.
They also fail to mention that there are thousands of religions active
today and most of them make contradictory claims so many of them
must be wrong. And they are sure to leave out the part about no religion having any strong evidence to back up its claims. The parent just
declares that their god is the real one and the child should believe it,
too. The child agrees, of course, and that's that. Given this process, it's
no wonder that most people are believers today. And it's no surprise
that virtually every believer believes in the same god that her or his
parents believe in.

Most Christians today were born into societies where Christianity
is the dominant belief system. Most Muslims today were born into
societies where Islam is the dominant belief system. Most animists
were born into societies where animism is the dominant belief system.
And most Hindus were born into societies where Hinduism is the dominant belief system. This pattern shows that there is little or no thinking
taking place when it comes to the selection of a god to believe in. It's
all about what one is told to believe as a child. There are exceptions,
but in the vast majority of cases, adult believers are clinging to what
they were told as children by someone they trusted. Belief in a god
comes to them as part of the parental package of love, guidance, pro tection, and wisdom. Believing in a parent's god becomes a significant
part of the childhood experience. For some, it becomes extremely
important, maybe even the most important part of their identity. To
doubt one's god might be interpreted as disloyalty to parents. I think
many nonbelievers fail to appreciate the complex emotions that can be
tied up in belief. Believing in a god is not just about analyzing evidence
and debating the concept of faith. Many times it also is about having to
admit that a beloved parent probably was wrong.