Is blind faith an indication of low IQ or indoctrination at young age or could there be another reason?

[Tim2nice]

I was born in a communist country and I wasn’t exposed to religion until I was 14. Until then I’d never even heard of Jesus, Mohammad, Moses or any other religious figures. Then in early 90’s democracy came along and religions sprung like mushrooms after rain. Being an academic and curious child I read the Bible, Koran, Torah, Talmud, Buddha, Confucius, etc. but I found it incredibly hard to believe in any of them. There’s so much utter nonsense in those books that had me thinking surely anyone with an ounce of brain couldn’t possibly believe these tales. But apparently over 7 billion people do. How is this possible? Surely it’s indoctrination from an early age and low IQ. Can anyone offer another explanation?

[Levin]

A large amount may be due to fear.

However, it is important to differentiate between exoteric and esoteric religion.

Plus, the bible, for example, is obviously not supposed to be taken literally or as some kind of historical document. It is full of meaning. The Adam and Eve story is supposed convey something. A metaphor or whatever. The kind of meanings become clear for those who actually want to try to understand, earnest seekers, rather than those who want to demolish everything with hard-headed reason.

In any case, egoism and scientific materialism present huge challenges for the individual. Nihilism is the most obvious one, plus a kind of descent into the darker recesses of consciousness, speaking from experience. Look at art in the past 100 years. Look at classical music. Classical music is a really interesting one. Compare the composers who created works 'for the grace of God'. Have you heard any 20th or 21st century classical music? This is godless music, totally reflective of the subconsciouses of those who have composed it. And it is dark stuff. Really fucking dark stuff. You can be super cold and hard headed about it. But that is some fall of consciousness. On a more basic level, it's fucking shit.

A third or more subtle way isn't an easy path. Not thinking you know everything is not easy. In reality, things are not so black and white.

But I agree with your central premise. That religion, as a generalisation is a terrible thing. It gives people an excuse to act in brutish and bloody ways. I mean, even the religious sects want to kill each other. Religion of peace, the most overt blatant nonsense.

[LoveHotGrillz]

I've wondered this myself. I think it's purely low-iq reasons that people fall for this stuff.

I was told since I was a baby about Christianity, everyone around me are Christians, friends, family, fellow students, everyone! (I'm American, most people are Christians here). Growing up all I heard everywhere by everyone was about how Jesus Christ is our God and he is our salvation.

Yet, I remember when I was 14 I started questioning this. I remember thinking this sounds like bullshit, so I did an unbiased search online, heard arguments from popular atheists and watched religious vs atheists debates and all that stuff. I realized that Christians were a total and complete joke. So many obvious contradictions and disgusting stories in the Bible that claim rape is ok, slavery is ok, killing babies is ok. Just endless disgusting vile things in the Bible. So many obvious lies as well.

I'm sorry but you have to be either ignorant or kinda low-iq to believe in this stuff. You can't blame being indoctrinated as an excuse because they tried indoctrinating me and I managed to see through the bullshit WHEN I WAS A 14 YEAR OLD CHILD. No excuse to be an adult and a Christian/ Muslim/ Jew.

TLDR: Low-IQ is to blame for religiousness, not indoctrination.

[buzzword]

The Bible is very logical. If you actually had more than subpar IQ you'd find it pretty interesting. It seems you haven't studied it that much though, and that's probably because you have a low IQ. People with higher IQ tend to become obsessive and see the patterns and connections and thus keep going back to it. For smart people, the Bible is hard to ignore. Torah is also very logical and lines up very well with the new testament. As to the Quran it's a bunch of bullshit, the same goes for the Talmud. That said Islam and Rabbinic Judaism have a lot of similarities.

[Tim2nice]

What’s logical about talking snakes, flooding your creatures, murdering babies, incest and tons of contradictions?

[buzzword]

I knew you had a low IQ. It runs with the territory for atheist and especially communists. A person with at least an IQ of 100 would be able to actually point to a specific passage in a particular book and ask an honest formulated question after evaluating the context of the passage. You can't even organize your thoughts into a cohesive question, let alone follow connections and patterns across multiple books.

[Tim2nice]

You’re beyond help

[buzzword]

You never even made an argument. You're definitely mentally retarded. But since I'm sympathetic to the mentally handicapped, here's a door prize for you. It's a communist talking snake. You know since you like communism so much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huOW8XVtlhY

[buzzword]

Did I also mention it's an atheist snake? I guess if we apply your attempts at reason, we'd have to conclude that both communism and atheism are illogical. You see how logic works.

[Tim2nice]

That’s funny because Jesus comes across as a communist in the fictional book called the bible

[buzzword]

What's wrong man? How come you're running from your talking snake? You brought it up. I showed you one possibility how a engineer, a maker, a creator can talk through a snake and now you don't want to talk about how it's illogical and disproves your entire religion. Come on man. Stick to your position and explain how communism and atheism are now illogical. Don't run like a pussy.

[Tim2nice]

The talking snake is in the Bible. It spoke to Eve and corrupted her. That’s how stupid it is. Snakes can’t talk. They lack vocal cords

[buzzword]

I just showed you a communist atheist snake that can talk in Chinese. So clearly communist and atheism are also stupid? Can you apply the same attempt at reasoning to both ideologies, or are you just an emotional bitch that knows he's not up to par with an actual smart person? See because it's very easy for me to come up with creative ideas like that, but your feeble brain can't even imagine a single possibility. That's why it's very clear that you have a low IQ. People that actually have high IQs are very creative thinkers.

[buzzword]

*communism

[buzzword]

Take that into consideration, and we haven't even gotten to the context of Genesis yet, which you don't even understand. I'm just trying to see if you can be honest with your own claims and apparently you can not.

[BonzoInBitburg]

It's a weak argument if you have to resort to insults. It faith makes a person happy, who are you to yuck someone's yum. Try stating your position without insults and maybe you might get somewhere if you are trying to convince someone you're right. Otherwise it sounds like your intimidated by it. If you know you're right you don't need to insult the other side because facts are on your side

[Anonymous]

Well, I am sure lots of people have a hard time believing some of your beliefs too. For example, if you are very liberal politically, lots of people would consider your beliefs to be "utter nonsense."

Historically, people have believed lots of different things. These things may seem like "utter nonsense" to others, but they make perfect sense to believers. Another example is the belief that men and women deserve equal rights. For billions of people around the world, this is "utter nonsense," but you have been indoctrinated to believe it, so it makes sense to you.

[Tim2nice]

I have no beliefs. I mean I only believe in things I can see

[Opinion Owner]

So you don't believe democracy is good? You don't believe that racism is wrong? You don't believe that all people are created equal? You don't believe that all people should have equal rights?

[DrPepper12]

CORRECT! Without indoctrination of children it would wither away as it deserves to!!

[jshm2]

Yes, it's why atheists are stupid, for their blind faith in science.