23 Aug '11 08:44>
Originally posted by wolfgang59For many people, belief is taught to children by their parents, so in that case, I might agree with you. But for many, belief comes not so much as a result of trust, but rather after a trial. Someone tells you 'try praying', or 'try putting your faith in it' and you say 'well its worth the experiment, I have nothing to loose', and you try it out, have an emotional experience and get converted. But at no point do you directly put your complete trust in a person. Once you gain the belief, you then grab on to the first religion that helps you maintain that belief (for the reasons I listed earlier). Once again, trust is of little importance. Even the validity of the religion is of little importance except for a few core teachings that are necessary for the belief. Many people change denominations or even religions.
Well yes I agree. But the [b]origin of their belief came about by believing in another man (unless god has spoken directly to them!). They then go on about their belief in god but never mention (because they themselves no longer neeed it) their initial belief in other people. One could call this gullibility.[/b]
What is interesting is theists understand the above processes quite well and deliberately exploit them to try and gain new converts. Theists try to use logic and theology to defend their beliefs from attack, but in general do not do to when trying to convert others. Instead they go for the emotional and try to get others to experiment.
Most theists only really hold a tiny set of core beliefs, and the rest of what they claim to believe is really just scaffolding they erect to try and protect the core. They will quite readily change the scaffolding if doing so does not threaten the core.