I think for every individual, the answer to this one will be different. As a child my belief came first from my parents and then from those who taught me at school. However a lot of those beliefs did not sit right with me and only since beginning to awaken and question those beliefs for myself have I actually begun to 'feel' God as opposed to just believing in Him. He is no longer that whitebearded man of my childhood, but rather a Presence in my life that I experience, when I stop and take the time to slow my busy mind.

Where does our belief in God come from?

Did we create God because of our need, or did God create us because of God’s own needs? Dumb question? Maybe? Maybe not?

I am an agnostic, not only because of the doubts I have regarding the existence of such a supreme being, but were I to profess having faith in such a divinity, faith alone is not sufficient to aver the absoluteness of God’s existence.

In terms of known homo sapien earthly presence, “God “ is actually a newcomer. The Lord’s Prayer begins with the address, “Our Father…” and this is precisely where it began; in the dawn of earliest mankind; the first “god” was the paternal figure; the first “powerful being” that registered on the consciousness of the developing infant. We are not born wired for religious fealty with an inborn sense of divinity; many, uncountable steps were taken, through multiple gods until mankind breathed life into the notion of one Supreme entity to whom we gave the name GOD. In our awareness of, and fear of life’s uncertainties, we created a “Divine Father” to carry on the protective role of our male parent.

Centuries of religious inculcation, from one focus or another, has created a more apparent than real sense of innate religiosity in us coupled with the parental need most of us still retain from our earliest conscious moments, to help us face what is beyond our control in our lives. God becomes our “comforter” in which we wrap ourselves against uncontrollable vicissitudes.

Does that make God real or imagined? I don’t Know. Only “God” knows.

Personally, my belief in God came from my parents. My parents are quite religious and since I was a little child, I was told that I should pray to God and that God will then listen to my prayers. I was quite religious at some point because I believed that if I prayed, then God would answer all my prayers, which happened to a large extent.

However, when I grew up, I started to question religion and I started to realise that it was my belief and faith that were behind the manifestations in my life and not God answering my prayers.

So, in answer to your question, I would say that society is what starts off our belief in God.

I believe it's it's a combination of all three, certainly from history,but mostly it's just knowing that our Creator is a part of us, living in us, and we are a part of It. We are one universe, one mind, all connected. If we hurt one person,we hurt ouselves and we hurt our God, if we honour one person, we honour ouselves and we honour our God, if we love someone, we love ourselves and we show our love for our God and so it goes.... Knowing that the Power within me is greater than any adversity I'll ever face is the most comforting thing in my life.

At this point in time, my answer might be considered a little controversial. Based on everything I've researched, I am certain that of our ideas about 'the Gods' as well as the monotheistic God, have all been influenced by extraterrestials that have played a part in our evolution as a species.

Most, if not all of the religions that exist in todays' world are based on the words of prophets that had recieved messages or direct revelations from "angels", which were considered to be spokespersons for God. It is quite possible that that more than one race or species of extraterrestrials was. involved, resulting in the different religions. Most of the people who frequent this site have come to accept the reality that extraterrestrials likely exist in this vast universe. The idea that these angels that appeared to early humans might very well have been extraterrestrials is really not so far fetched.

So, to answer your question, our belief in god was passed down to us by our ancestors, whose belief in god came from prophets, who received their information about God from angelic beings, who in all likelihood were extraterrestrials that understood that they could influence earths reality by influencing the belief systems of the human species living there. Whether or not this grand manipulation, this great experiment will be a success, in their terms, remains to be seen.

I believe we are the soldiers fighting God's battle of life. When the battle becomes unbearable, we start asking "Hey who is giving out these orders?" and we try do discover why we are in this battle, and for whom?

Somebody needs to coordinate the battle for the greater purpose, a purpose that the soldier cannot comprehend. And somebody needs to do the fighting without question. When the soldier finds out the pointlessness of war he/she tends to renounce war.

When a person on the quest of God starts to get somewhere, they spontaneously start to renounce the loud distractions of living large & turn to simplicity, and in the extreme case, they walk away from life completely & hide in a cave.

So in a sense, this is God's game of hide & seek where there is a shaky balance between blind enthusiasm & self discovery.

Another way to see it is that it is a child playing with dolls. The child knows that the dolls don't have individuality other than the one given to it by the child. But knowing that spoils the fun of the game.
So it is as if the doll, who's identity is actually the child's consciousness playing the game, starting to ask the question, who am I? Am I the doll or am I the person pretending to be the consciousness within the doll?

I would say that answer 1 and 3 are probably the most correct, Allah(God) has created us with conscience that is concious of God and aware of His existance, In the Glorious Qura'n there is a verse that emphasis that: (( And (remember) when your Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their loins, (their seed) and made them testify as to themselves (saying): "Am I not your Lord?" They said: "Yes! We testify," lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: "Verily, we have been unaware of this." )) This is why, you would find a child naturally so concious of his creation, and vulnerable to believing , because it is rooted in the conscience, it just happens that as we grow older and deviate and draw further from the path of God by falling into sins and being attached to worldly 'pleasures' ( or rather limited pleasures), preocupying our lives with materialism and indulgements, our conscience becomes exaughsted and that inoccence is killed as we commit cruel and inhumane sins . May Allah protect us and purify us and cleanse our hearts and make the light of faith penetrate the core of our hearts and give us firm belief in Him alone. Allahum Ameen

Our belief in God is from our family roots. My parents, my grandparents etc, it is about the values that we were brought up with. We went to Church and Sunday school every Sunday with our parents. We learned about who God and Jesus is, even before we could talk. We were baptized into the Church three to six weeks after our birth. We grew, and learn about the love of God, and Jesus from infancy. Praying to God was a normal everyday conversation; he was a part of our family in our everyday life.

If we were going through any kind of hardship, my mother would pray to God to help our family. And one of her favorite saying was: “If God would provide for the birds in the air, he would also provide for us.” My mother believed every word in this quote, and she was quite sure that God would provide for her family, and she was never disappointed. Because, God did provide for her, and her family in the time of need. The check came in the mail when she least expected it etc, and she received other unexpected gifts along the way. Therefore there was no doubt in my mother’s mind that God was real, although we have never seen him. And this is the belief system, and values that I was raised with. The Bible was the most important book in our family, and it was scared to us.

As I grew up, and I learned about other aspect of religion, and evolution, I was able to decide for myself which path I wanted to take. I was baptized as a Christian when I was a baby six week old, and I am still a Christian Today. Although the theory of evolution is quite a believable story, I still think the Bible story is more convincing, and it makes more sense. To some the Bible is the Book of Life, for it teaches all about life, and some people spend their entire life trying to interpret the scriptures in the Bible.

Most people celebrate the special occasion of the Birth, and Death of the son of God Jesus Christ: did you ever asked yourself why is this? Maybe, because most people believe in the Birth, and Death of Jesus Christ, if not the author has written a very convincing story, and everyone is falling for it.

So my belief in God comes from my heart. It is a feeling, an emotion that compare to no other emotion. It is the love I feel for God that makes me believe, trust, and adore him the way that I do. It is a very spiritual experience, but it is very real in my heart. I choose to love, and believe in God, and Jesus Christ of my own free will. I am a Christian, and Christians believes in God, and Jesus Christ.

Let's look back before language was developed. or even in the early time of civilization when languages were being formed. Our minds or consciousness needed to be able to explain unknown phenomenon. Like lightning and thunder. It was interpreted as a superior being expressing anger. There were many gods at this time. gods for rain, gods for fertility, gods for crops and abundance. Then as we became more and more advanced in mind we learned how some of these natural events occured. Eventually someone realized there was one God. Still being personified with human like features. So, I would say the belief in god or gods came from past authorities, parents, teachers, and others that were advanced in thinking and passed down to generation to generation through stories and allegories. Until someone comes along with a little bit better understanding and closer to the truth and changes our beliefs, concepts, ideas, and understanding of god.

My belief in God (Generator of Dimensions?) comes from experience.

When I was a child I was taught that God exists. When I was adolescent I applied logic to the question. When I was adult I started to realise to a much greater extent the perfection of our Earthly system. When I started to follow instructions from those more saintly than I, I actually started to actually experiences some of the 'unseen' wonders. I was given information, I was shown some things - all of which proved correct. Now I don't know that it was God, maybe it was an agent .. but I KNOW FOR CERTAIN that there is more to life than meets the eye (literally) and that it is benevolant. I also KNOW that there is some malific influences out there as well, but my intuition tells me that it is inferior.

Maybe we come with hard wired IN-TUITION of our origins.

Vee,I for one do not find the God and evolution to be mutualy exclusive.My personal belief is that both could very well be true as I believe it to be ,for who is to say with any degree of authority that we were not intended to evolve over eons of time into just what God intended for us to become,after all eternity is his exclusive domain.

where it comes from is easy. some have meet God and have talk to other about it. then man made religion according to their own understanding. in a way it is perfect in its imperfection since none are perfect in this world. every one makes error in this world. there is new stuff each day that comes out and no one know everything in this world. many think that they are perfect and that only their opinion is good and they are far from the truth. as for belief you can believe anything you like it does not means it is the truth. some belief are in truth some are partly truth and error and some are totally in error. if you need to know more about belief https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief . The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." if I tell you that man see God in the spirit and not in the flesh. also said in the bible: God is spirit . God made us in is image. unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." let me ask you this question if you go to a place that very few people have went before and tell some people that never went there before and you tell them how to get there, are you sure they will reach the place they need to go to? some will enter that narrow gate and some other will get lost on the wide gate. on this path only the solitary can enter. those that enter the kingdom will know where they come from and where they are going. some return to this world for a little while and they are like the wind they know where they come from and where they are going.

Weakness, fear, peer pressure, the need for a crutch. I can't uderstand how an intelligent person can actually believe in such a thing. It boggles my mind.

Everybody has their own perspective. You use your own reasoning and logic to answer to your question. In my opinion, there is super hidden cosmic intelligent energy which covers/ governs the whole of cosmos know or unknown. That can be defined as God rest all our practice and traditions are limits to time and space (geographicaly).