What keeps these guys in belief?

[Poptop]

John Polkinhorne is a respected theoretical physicist.  He is also an Angelican preacher. 
Another guy, a college professor, has heard all the arguments for atheism and read Dawkins, Harris etc., has extremely liberal social views and yet believes, not all of the Bible but just 'the important parts'.  God is a large part of who he is and how he raises his family. 
Why don't they use their brilliant minds when they think about their god?

[Recusant]

Compartmentalization? If they find religious belief comforting and comfortable, why mess with it, after all.  These people know perfectly well that there is no conclusive proof one way or another when it comes to a certain type of faith.

[xSilverPhinx]

Yeah, I think let them be. There are so many other believers and the ignorance that they want to inflict on others that are more worth fighting.

[Will]

Compartmentalization?

This is exactly my thinking. Back when I was younger, I had to do intellectual back flips to keep my religious faith. You basically have to put your faith in a little box, impenetrable to logic or reason or doubt. The instant the box fails, the faith fails. What helps is a group of certain claims by the church. Some of them are carrot and stick, basically, saying that skepticism of faith leads to hell and not questioning leads to paradise. Some of them also make it a moral issue, that doubt is like lust or wrath.

It's really sad, though, because intellectual religious people are missing out on so much.

[Poptop]

Yah, I get to post here now that I have 50.

I think it's true that progressive liberal Christians will do less harm than fundamentalists.  On the other hand when you have an intellectual like Polkinghorne advocating belief, that in itself adds confidence to lay people that  his belief must be valid.

It seems by compartmentalizing, some people value comfort over truth maybe. ?
But then they are so proud they know the truth that their belief is correct.  Hmm

I'm having a hard time understanding how the compartmentalizing works and all that goes with it.
I guess fear, cognitive dissonance, lots comes into play when compartmentalizing.
I'm just trying to get at the heart of this type of thought process.  Getting closer!

[xSilverPhinx]

Yah, I get to post here now that I have 50.

I think it's true that progressive liberal Christians will do less harm than fundamentalists.  On the other hand when you have an intellectual like Polkinghorne advocating belief, that in itself adds confidence to lay people that  his belief must be valid.

It seems by compartmentalizing, some people value comfort over truth maybe. ?
But then they are so proud they know the truth that their belief is correct.  Hmm

I'm having a hard time understanding how the compartmentalizing works and all that goes with it.
I guess fear, cognitive dissonance, lots comes into play when compartmentalizing.
I'm just trying to get at the heart of this type of thought process.  Getting closer!

Ever hear a religious persons claim that god is above logic?

Some of the things they say can be like saying that 'god (as defined) exists' and 'god (going by the same definition) doesn't exist' at the same time and then turning around and telling you that the subject is above logic and so such inconsistencies don't matter.

The worse thing is, I don't think they really even notice how compartmentalised their thinking is.

[fester30]

Ever hear a religious persons claim that god is above logic?

Some of the things they say can be like saying that 'god (as defined) exists' and 'god (going by the same definition) doesn't exist' at the same time and then turning around and telling you that the subject is above logic and so such inconsistencies don't matter.

The worse thing is, I don't think they really even notice how compartmentalised their thinking is.

Have you seen Religulous?  There was a guy who plays the role of Jesus at a Biblical amusement park.  Whenever stumped by Bill Maher about something, like the Holocaust, Jesus replies that it is God's plan, and God's ways are beyond our understanding.  When you decide to maintain religious faith in the face of dissenting fact, you are leaving reason behind.  We (atheists) know this, so it shouldn't surprise us how wacky some of these beliefs are.

[Will37]

John Polkinhorne is a respected theoretical physicist.  He is also an Angelican preacher. 
Another guy, a college professor, has heard all the arguments for atheism and read Dawkins, Harris etc., has extremely liberal social views and yet believes, not all of the Bible but just 'the important parts'.  God is a large part of who he is and how he raises his family. 
Why don't they use their brilliant minds when they think about their god?

Seeing as Polkinghorn has written several books on the interplay between reason and faith, maybe you could look there for an answer.

[Sweetdeath]

@fester30: I    can't believe anyone would be inhuman enough to say the Holocaust or any genocide in history was part of God's plan.

This is why I try not to argue, because my brain hurts trying to understand how anyone can look at me with a straight face and say rape and murder are all part of his brilliant plan.

I once read a book two years ago my dad gave me about a woman who flatlined for 2mins and had a religious vision. She said she understood God's plan. IE: when a drunk driver kills an adult, its ok, because he learned his lesson, and only killed one human instead of hitting a group of kids. Last time I fucking checked, anyone hitting/killing an innocent human being because they are selfish emough to drink and drive hasn't learned shit. Are you really saying one human life means more?

What if that person was my girlfriend or my friend's husband/wife? Or my mother?

Someone being murdered is aweful! I   love how no one question God sitting back in his relaxomatic, watching all this unfold like a choose your own adventure book.

-sweetdeath

[xSilverPhinx]

Ever hear a religious persons claim that god is above logic?

Some of the things they say can be like saying that 'god (as defined) exists' and 'god (going by the same definition) doesn't exist' at the same time and then turning around and telling you that the subject is above logic and so such inconsistencies don't matter.

The worse thing is, I don't think they really even notice how compartmentalised their thinking is.

Have you seen Religulous?  There was a guy who plays the role of Jesus at a Biblical amusement park.  Whenever stumped by Bill Maher about something, like the Holocaust, Jesus replies that it is God's plan, and God's ways are beyond our understanding.  When you decide to maintain religious faith in the face of dissenting fact, you are leaving reason behind.  We (atheists) know this, so it shouldn't surprise us how wacky some of these beliefs are.

I have, in fact Entertaining film.

Saying that something happens because  "god works in mysterious ways" is essentially saying that you have an answer but give an non answer instead. It's useless.

Like..."I know why we exist, it's just the way it is."

[Twentythree]

Compartmentalization may be part of it. But I do not think their faith stems from a lack of knowledge in the improbability of god but rather a choice to view god as less of an ethereal interventionist punisher of sins, and more of an abstract psychological enforcer of moral guidelines. It could also be that these rationalist see the truth up to the point that they feel that it affects morality. And through certain lenses a godless world is an immoral world. So support of naturalism can only extend so far before god has to come into play for moral checks and balances. God is a crutch or a cocoon that is built because without god the infinite moral choices and the subjectivity of right and wrong become uncomfortable if not unbearable.

[Sweetdeath]

I have heard the arguement before that    a Godless world would be chaotic and immoral, but i've always felt it was quite the opposite. I mean, look at us now. The most religious counries tend to have the most violence.

Ie: Afganistan. (Irony, am I right?)

[penfold]

John Polkinhorne is a respected theoretical physicist.  He is also an Angelican preacher.  
Another guy, a college professor, has heard all the arguments for atheism and read Dawkins, Harris etc., has extremely liberal social views and yet believes, not all of the Bible but just 'the important parts'.  God is a large part of who he is and how he raises his family.  
Why don't they use their brilliant minds when they think about their god?

They often are using their brilliant minds when thinking about God.

Historically the existence of the deity has been a central part of much of the best of human thought. From Liebniz's elegant Monadology, to Keirkegaard's painfully honest Fear and Trembling.

Faith is not, nor should seek to be, rational. For some belief in God is a valid way of interpreting and making sense of the parts of their lives which are not rational; what Tillich would call 'grounding ourselves'. for others the notion of void is too terrible, and belief can be a way of encouraging action (what Marx called Praxis). Interestingly one of the founders of the Selfish Gene hypothesis George Robert Price converted to Christianity and spent his final years giving all his possessions (down to the clothes on his back) to the homeless.

We all construct arbitrary meaning to keep us going through the day; if some people use God as part of that process, well, fair enough. Moreover I don't think that this tells us anything about their intelligence (though it may tell us something about their emotional landscape).  

[Tank]

I have heard the arguement before that    a Godless world would be chaotic and immoral, but i've always felt it was quite the opposite. I mean, look at us now. The most religious counries tend to have the most violence.

Ie: Afganistan. (Irony, am I right?)

And Sweden.

[xSilverPhinx]

We all construct arbitrary meaning to keep us going through the day; if some people use God as part of that process, well, fair enough. Moreover I don't think that this tells us anything about their intelligence (though it may tell us something about their emotional landscape).

This.

There are some (strangely) intelligent people who are also theists.