Why do I have to believe in God?

Yes. It is ridiculous beyond measure.

To even accept the argument that by not believing in God, God will send me to Hell, I would have to ALREADY believe in God.

So if Christians want to be useful with their preaching, they will have to provide some evidence for their god. It's the only way they can hope to convince anyone.

You DON'T -- as tens of millions of atheists demonstrate daily.

Feel free to believe in god or not.Its your choice.

People believe in gods to be on the safe side, just in case.
A person has to be very strong not to believe in gods, only the weak need the back ground support of unproven entities.

Seems like you are growing up to maturity.

You don't have to be a god-soaked superstitious idiot. It's a free country. You can be a normal person (aka atheist) if you want.

You only have to believe in God if you want to avoid burning in hell forever. And even that's not a guarantee since God requires an obedient faith (Rom 1:5), not just an acknowledgment of his existence.

you can believe in anything you want. :) and if anyone ******* tells you that you can't and judges you for it (christians, mormons or whatever ) tell them, "YOUR GOD SAYS TO NOT JUDGE AND YET YOURE JUDGING ME! YOU ARE NOT HOLY"

If people tell you that you're gonna go to hell if you don't believe in god, tell them to go shove their beliefs up their ***. IT'S YOUR LIFE, YOUR SOUL, GO WHEREVER THE **** YOU WANT. WHEN I DIE, I'M GOING TO CANDYLAND.;)

freedom of religion- bill of rights

The reason why you should believe in God because he's the creator of our world and universe. He created us humans to worship him and give him praise. Wether you're a Jew, Christian, Muslim.

this universe was created by God. That's why.


islam.

Look, nobody is forcing you to believe in God. Nobody is making you feel bad for being an Atheist. Look at the previous answers; the most hateful, mean and patronising Atheist answers aimed at Christians are thumbed up because, guess what? Bullies are respected, so don't worry, you are a conformist sheep so nobody will make you feel bad. My answer will get thumbs down but that proves my point so thank you very much guys. If you waste your time insulting and looking down on someone for their beliefs then personally I find it funny. I like to think that you spend your time insulting and looking down on other people rather than keeping religion out for your life because, to be honest, I don't think - even though you don't believe in god - that you have nothing to do with religion. You are in fact just part of the negative side of religion, the hateful, mean side and so are all of the people judging others for a belief. I have nothing against normal people ("aka atheists" according to you) but you are not normal. You are sad and mean and that's funny. I'll spend a while laughing at all of you hateful incessant people and you will angrily thumb down this answer. Have fun. Idiots.

Alien life is pretty much accepted by most scientists as highly likely... just using basic mathematics. However, whether they have the ability to traverse the large distances or bend space, is another question.

I had a discussion with an Atheist about the existence of God... and it went like this:
Atheist: Prove to me God exists
on my lunch break at work, I point at my coffee and say: This coffee is my god. Now prove to me my God doesn't exist.
The first thing the atheist tried to do, was tell me how my coffee could not be a God. I abruptly interrupted him, asking him not to preach his personal beliefs of what a deity had to be. If God or Gods, deities in general do not exist, then telling me my coffee is not a God is stating your theory of Gods... theory being Belief... A Belief in what a God should be. A Belief in God.
After discovering I had cornered him, he quickly turned to the idea that reality is merely external signals sent via our senses and processed within our minds. Our minds of which, can create vivid and realistic worlds in our dreams... cutting it short, he pretty much said "Reality was not Real".
I answered, then the means by which science proves existence could be incorrect. All correct could be incorrect... what I see is Green you could see as blue based on visual fault but audio sync? Meaning God could exist.

The conversation went quite askew, ending up talking with him about string and m theory, and saying though my coffee in this dimension is just a coffee, in another dimension, my coffee being a multidimensional deity, it has a life, however our dimensional perspective on the coffee moves so rapidly it seems to be lifeless (moving extremely slow).

Why should you believe in God... I cant answer that. However, why does God have to be God. Why cant it be something random. My favourite is a tool fan friend of mine, merged Tools beginning of "Third Eye" with Star War's jedi "The Force" and says that is his Genderless, Nameless God.

I'm not atheist but you should just believe to not believe really you can live under a religion but you don't have to believe it.

Look at the Arabs,the Gaza Strip,why did the west take on this Jesus sandal wearing dude. The Arabs never never stop blowing themselves and every other person standing near them up. Look at the twin Towers. Boom.

If your comparing the theistic God to unicorns then your either one atheist in delusional denial or you simply don't possess the one brain cell to understand him, but throw retarded stubbornness into the mix and you become one potently stupid atheist. Reverend Soleil is one such atheist as he got trounced in our shroud of turin email debate and hes still smarting from it, but then again most atheists run as far as they could from the shroud becauise of the amazing evidences for its authenticity.

You don't, don't let a fear based religion ruin your life.

Seems like you are growing up to maturity.

Seems like you are growing up to maturity.

Seems like you are growing up to maturity.

Seems like you are growing up to maturity.

Seems like you are growing up to maturity.

The current christian god is the most popular, but that also makes it the lowest common denominator -- the easiest to accept -- because it's a belief system, though seemingly strict, that actually casts a wide net. In doing so along with the ideal of evangelism, it crosses cultures smoothly.

It's also a belief system that is often easy to slide through, meaning a person gets a bunch of pals whether they actually believe or not, like, "Yay, I'm part of a group! And that group gets together at least once a week!"

The only issue I have is, wrong forum, all else irrelevant

romans 11:8
According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear; unto this day.

It's inconsequential what others believe in. I say live and let live.

You don't have to believe in God. You do, however, have to believe in Orgo the Space Jellyfish... If you don't he will come down and sting you to death with his Tentacles o' Smiting.

I've grown up in a God-believing family and environment so it's still made to seem like I HAVE to believe in God or a god or gods or goddess, etc. But I can't help what I believe and no one understands that. But that's fine with me.
Be true to your beliefs.
Fear is a good tactic to gain followers.
To each his own.
:)

The only issue I have is, wrong forum, all else irrelevant

The only way primitive religion exists today is through the child abuse of forcing it into very, very young children but thanks to better education and growing intellects so many teens are able to discover the truth, throw off the indoctrination and step into the real world!

To be honest, there really is no purpose of life without God in the front guiding, as Jeremiah 10:23 shows that we humans cannot even direct our own steps (making decisions and guiding ourselves) without making a mistake or it resulting in harmful effects immediately or later.
Revelation 4:11 shows that God deserves the glory & honor because of his will, everything else was created. So it makes sense that we should serve him. And the fact that he gives us a free will to serve him should move us even closer to him as it shows love for us and dignity.
There are many reasons why we should believe in God and the validity of his word, the bible. One is how many prophecies have been fulfilled that have foretold many years before it was fulfilled. So the bible is accurate. I have an interesting article from a website that answers many biblical questions like yours. Feel free to read as many as you'd like relating to your question and any other questions you may have about God and the bible.

It's not really your choice because if you deny God
You will inevitably BURN