Guy P. Harrison - 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God

For Natasha, Jared, and Marissa. May your minds be curious and free forever

"There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but now Guy Harrison has given us 50 ways to believe in God, or not if you care to read this engaging and enlightening book in light of what it says about the cultural and psychological power of belief. If the number one predictor of which God someone believes in is what culture and time period they happened to have been born in, what does that say about the actual existence (or not) of a deity? Read this book to explore the many and diverse reasons for belief."

-Michael Shermer Publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, and author of Why Darwin Matters

"Guy P. Harrison does a splendid job of critically examining the many reasons people offer in support of their religious beliefs. He shares the exhilaration of moving beyond religion, but Harrison doesn't bully or condescend. Rather, he approaches the reader gently. Reading Harrison's book is like having an amiable chat with a wise old friend."

-Cameron M. Smith and Charles Sullivan Authors of The Top 10 Myths about Evolution

"Religion is as universal as language, which hints at a biological basis. Why did our ancestors evolve an attraction to the supernatural? The fundamental question is not whether this attraction is rational or notwhich is the subject of a dozen recent provocative books-but what exactly faith delivers to those who possess it. The present book treats this question respectfully, listening to the answer of the believers themselves, which seems an excellent place to start."

-Frans de Waal Leading primatologist, author of Our Inner Ape

thank editors Steven L. Mitchell and Jacinta Meyers, and Prometheus Books for helping to make this book a reality. I am deeply grateful to my wife, Sheree, for her consistent encouragement and my son, Jared, for his helpful advice. I also thank Andrea Roach for her invaluable comments and criticism. My greatest debt of all, however, is to the many people around the world who openly shared with me their reasons for believing.

Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense.

-Chapman Cohen

No gods were harmed in the writing of this book.

-Guy P. Harrison

have asked many believers in many countries over several years a basic question: Why do you believe in your god or gods? This book is a response to the fifty most common answers I heard to that question. Many people gave me virtually identical reasons for belief, despite being adherents of contradictory religions. I learned that the gods may be very different and the faithful may sometimes hate and kill one another, but believers are remarkably synchronized on why they believe.

I also discovered that if you ask believers on the streets of Jerusalem, Cairo, Paris, Nairobi, New Delhi, Athens, Suva, New York City, and Port Moresby why they believe in their gods, the answers you hear are significantly different from the noise coming from theologians and religious philosophers. Most of the Christians I have encountered around the world, for example, don't give much thought to the works of St. Thomas Aquinas or C. S. Lewis. They will tell anyone who asks, however, that they believe Jesus is a real god because the Bible says so or because they feel his presence when they pray. Out in the real world I found that believers have little interest in convoluted arguments for gods that involve imagining perfection, irreducible complexity, or the laws of thermodynamics. Unlike profes sional creationists and apologists, most of the believers I talk with do not feel the need to cite long lists of questionable evidence to attempt to prove that their god is real. They "know" their gods are real because they have "faith" that they are. They believe because they think that they must in order to be a good person. They believe because the world is "perfect" or at least "beautiful." They believe in a god because it is the only way they have ever known.

This book is not an attempt to prove the nonexistence of gods. Nor is it an attack on anyone's entire religion. This is a respectful reply to the friendly people around the world who shared with me their reasons for believing in a god or gods, nothing more. Too many books that attempt to challenge belief in gods are interpreted by believers as combative and arrogant. I have made a sincere effort to prevent believers from feeling that way about this book. There is no name calling or condescending tone here. I do not think that I am smarter than believers, nor do I agree with anyone who feels that believers' minds are hopelessly closed. My fifty replies to common justifications for belief can be read as friendly chats designed to do nothing more than stimulate critical thinking. I am not interested in winning debates or insulting anyone. I only want to encourage readers to think more deeply about why they believe in a god.

Readers will notice that I do not limit the scope of this book to the religions that are currently popular in the West. In my view all gods are equal, regardless of how many people believe in them at this moment in history. My skepticism for Ra and Apollo, for example, is no more or less than my skepticism for Jesus and Allah. Throughout this book I usually will write of gods in the plural rather than singular. This may feel awkward to readers who are used to only hearing and talking about one god. The fact is, however, there are many thousands of other gods that people have confidently claimed to be real throughout history. Failure to acknowledge this important truth would be historically ignorant and culturally prejudiced. Fairness and logic demand that we respect the indigenous tribal believer who sees many gods in the forest and the ancient Greek who saw several gods atop a mountain as much as we do the contemporary monotheist who sees one god in the sky.

Many people think that religious belief should be above challenge or somehow out of bounds. I disagree. There is a lot of good to be found in the world's religions. I would never deny that. However, the dark side of religion cannot be overlooked. When claims for the existence of gods negatively impact world peace, the education of children, the development of new medical cures, safety and justice for women, and the progress of science, they must be challenged.

If God has spoken, why is the world not convinced?