Do you believe in God? - Page 2

[Phantaja]

Yes. Whole heartedly.

[LavenderMae]

I do not believe in the existence of any gods (goddesses, supreme being/s). The question the way asked has the bias of a god existing and then you are asking us whether or not we choose to believe in said god or not. In actuality most atheist don't believe a god exist to believe in, big difference.
Anyway, I have found no signs, proof, reasons etc that any gods exist and the gods of religions seem so obviously man-made to me (not trying to be disrespectful but it is a reason I don't think a god exist).

[DaughterOfKali]

Well this sure is a deep discussion. I'm going to read for a bit before coming back with my thoughts.

[Liquesce]

Yes. Because ... I can? Belief in a conscious creative force or disbelief in that force are at their core options without a lot of evidence. They're opinions. To a certain extent they're simply preferences. There are certainly elements of religions that make more or less sense, are more or less able to be disproven, but the basic concept of a creator god ... no one knows anything. (Which I suppose makes me read as agnostic, but the cool thing about an opinion about which there are no facts to be had is anyone can hold a strong one while totally acknowledging there's no significant basis for it, because hey, there's no basis for anything else either.)

All of that said, even as a believer I will say that the strong track record of humans trying -- and demonstrably failing -- to explain natural processes through supernatural means gives a good argument to disbelief.

[Purple Sage]

Oops, I forgot to say why I believe in God. It's because I think there has to be something that exists beyond the material, beyond space and time, that is the cause of everything we can perceive. It gives me the answers to the question of why we're here, what is our ultimate purpose of existing. Science alone can't answer that question, and I find that deeply unsatisfying.

[JessicaS]

Originally Posted by Yulia_R

I found this movie to be just mind blowing. It comprised of three parts: first is about religion/Christ, second is about Sept. 11 and the last is about the government. So, if you watch the first third of the movie, I promise you will never be able to look at the concept of a religion the same way ever again. Will give you some major goosebumps (in a good, aha, kind of a way)
Here is the link http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...3847743189197#

It might be more compelling if more of the things said in it were actually correct. It didn't change the way I look at religion in the slightest. It tries to compare the story of Christ with other religions but the information given about other religions is simply inaccurate.

For instance,

Horus was *not* born of a virgin, he was *not* born in December (but...neither was Jesus so I don't understand that being a point) there is *no* story of a star preceding his birth he was never referred to as "The Truth" he was not a teacher at the age of twelve. There is no reference to three kings surrounding the birth of Horus. Horus did have a father, Osiris.

Horus *never* died, he was *not* crucified. Horus was not resurrected, his father was. Horus merged with Ra who was the Sun God. He did *not* have twelve disciplines, he had closer to twenty.


Dionysus was *not* born of a virgin. He certainly performed miracles involving wine, he was the God of wine. He was *not* born in December but the Spring. His father was Zeus, who certainly had other male children (Apollo, Aries, Hermes, Hercules, Hephaestus, Perseus, Minos) so he was *not* his only begotten son. He was *not* called the "King of Kings" or the "Alpha and Omega" he was the God of wine. He is reborn in the spring and dies in the winter...which is longer than three days.



I do believe in God.

[Ellien C]

Yes - but more in the Buddhist sense of their being a kind of divine energy that connects all things to each other, rather than in a "being" kind of sense. I think you can tap into this energy. I feel that everyone is connected by a very thin, thin kind of "fishing line" to the divine source. And the purpose of life is to make that connection strong and thick! Like a giant pipeline. To always feel it and feel it very strongly. I feel that our great spiritual leaders like Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, and Buddha (and many, many others) were able to do this. That each come at a different time and place to show us way to strengthen our connection to that energy.

I think that this divine energy is shaped by the people and things on earth. So before we had "self-reflective consciousness" we had a different kind of divine energy. And as we develop more "interconnected consciousness" that divine energy will change.

I feel that humans are like "wet sand." We're independent and kind "stuck together" like a sand castle. When we die, I think there will NEVER be another entity just like me. I'm unique and only live once. I feel like those grains of sand that are held together as "me" will dry up and join a great big beach again. Some of the grains of sand will go on and get constituted into a "wet human" but they'll never be the same configuration of grains of sand again.

For the record, I belong to the Unity Church and consider myself a Christian and this is all in line with our philosophy. Our church has no dogma and there are people within the church who do believe in re-incarnation. It just never made a lot of sense to me.

[KatWrangler]

No, not at this time.

[purslaine]

I believe, at a minimum, that something was needed to get the universe rolling. I call that "god" but creator is just as good. I have not found anyone who can explain to me how the universe got here without a god. I just can't. Some people do not find that a convincing enough argument but it works for me.

Beyond that - I just do not know. I have thoughts and personal stories that do not add up without a god - but no proof - yk?

FWIW - I very much separate religion from the question of whether god exists. I personally know people who hate organized religion, and have thus decided god does not exist (or this is what they have articulated to me). The two do not corelate, IMHO.

Kathy

[LionTigerBear]

I don't believe . . . I absolutely know beyond a shadow of a doubt.

[JessicaS]

I moved this to RS, anyone can post to RS.

[cappuccinosmom]

Yes, I do.

I liked the post from InchByInch. I come from a very intellectual family (I'm a bit of a black sheep, in that regard ). They have no problem marrying faith with reason, and have all delved deeply into the natural sciences as part of their medical training. One of my sisters double-majored in Biology and Catholic Theology. We have awesome conversations over dinner.

Myself, I just know. I am not insane, or delusional. But I know God. I could not deny knowing him even if I was annoyed and wanted to.

[LavenderMae]

Religion and whether a god exist are separate but also often intertwined issues (it's disingenuous to suggest otherwise imo). They are not one in the same though and of course one can believe a god exist and be non-religious (and be religious and believe a god doesn't exist). And the journey for me from being raised religious to atheist was not done with out entertaining the thought of a god existing outside of and separate from religion. My views on whether a god exists or not was not a knee jerk reaction to my opinions about organized religion.

[bluebirdiemama]

Originally Posted by amma_mama

I do not believe in god and never did. I have seen/heard/felt no compelling evidence to the contrary. I just cannot believe in something without any evidence.

I used to be here. When I realized I wasn't satisfied with the lack of spiritual fulfillment I got from my atheism, I started looking around. I considered every theory/philosophy I could get my hands on, things most people probably wouldn't, looking for the logic in each thing I considered.
The last place I thought I would find myself was here:

Originally Posted by woodchick

Yes. I believe in God. I have yet to hear compelling arguments against Him.

But this is me now. I think the reason I never found evidence for God when an athiest is because I didn't honestly consider the evidence that was there. I said I didn't buy it, but I had never even looked at the evidence! (Im not saying this to start a riot, this is my experience)
I believe in intrinsic value. I believe people are valuable because God made us unique and wonderful, loves us dearly, and gives us our value. Athiests can say they believe people are essentially valuable, and they may actually believe they do, but essential value of the human being cannot be consistent with the Darwin-ist thinking. If this thought interests you, look into it, think about it, and listen to a couple of these:
http://www.rzim.org/usa/resources/li...archive=1&i=50
(For what I am talking about, listen to Man vs God parts 1&2, and Is Atheism Dead, Is God Alive? parts 1-4)
Because I don't have the time right now to give this point any justice, and this guy can say it 100X better than me anyways

Also, if you are at a point in your life where you are giving God real consideration, I recommend The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, and I also have a dvd that's awesome, made by scientists who feel like there is no where to go with science anymore, because the science community will not even consider anything other than darwin/dawkins thinking. They say it doesn't offer adequate answers, and they give some pretty good evidence of that claim. I can't find the dvd right now, but if you are interested in it, pm me and ill send you a copy.
A good documentary on the scientific insistence on darwin/dawkins (and exclusion of everything else) is Expelled ...made by... the clear eyes guy, can't think of his name right now. Richard Dawkins gives him a couple personal interviews for the documentary and it's pretty interesting, especially the ending.

A lot of people think you have to shut down a certain part of your brain to beleive in God. I used to believe that, but now I think it's total ludicrous.

[philomom]

Originally Posted by amma_mama

I do not believe in god and never did. I have seen/heard/felt no compelling evidence to the contrary. I just cannot believe in something without any evidence.

Yep. Me from a tiny age of three..... and my fundie parents tried to beat some faith into me.


Thank goodness I survived and I'm still my wonderful self.

[Purple Sage]

Originally Posted by bluebirdiemama

I believe in intrinsic value. I believe people are valuable because God made us unique and wonderful, loves us dearly, and gives us our value. Athiests can say they believe people are essentially valuable, and they may actually believe they do, but essential value of the human being cannot be consistent with the Darwin-ist thinking. If this thought interests you, look into it, think about it, and listen to a couple of these:
http://www.rzim.org/usa/resources/li...archive=1&i=50
(For what I am talking about, listen to Man vs God parts 1&2, and Is Atheism Dead, Is God Alive? parts 1-4)
Because I don't have the time right now to give this point any justice, and this guy can say it 100X better than me anyways

Thanks for this link!

[LavenderMae]

You absolutely do not have to believe a god exist to think people have inherent value, no god necessary for that no matter what anyone wants to believe. Atheist who believe that are not just fooling themselves the ideas are not mutually exclusive. Getting information about atheist on an evangelist Christian website (that focuses their evangelism on skeptics and free thinkers at that) is probably not the best idea if you are actually wanting to know truthfully how atheist feel (and it's very individual since being an atheist only means one doesn't believe in the existence of a god/s).

[ursusarctos]

What an interesting thread!

A lot of what I think has been summed up here already.

Originally Posted by limabean

No, I don't. I don't believe that humans are superior to the rest of the animal kingdom. If a lion, frog, grasshopper, or bluejay just ... dies ... when it dies, then so do we, and I'm okay with that.

I don't believe humans are superior either, but I still believe in God. I don't see how they are mutually exclusive, unless one is a biblical literalist. I think animals are amazing, miraculous, beautiful manifestations of God just as much as humans and plants and mountains, and life and death in all its beauty, gore, and cyclical-ness, are.

Originally Posted by Freud

"The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference." -Dawkins

Hm, this is why I don't like Dawkins. He takes his subjective impression that the universe has no meaning and expresses that opinion as objective. I think many, many people would beg to differ with this assertion - how can they be proven wrong, any more than Dawkins can be proven right?

Originally Posted by MusicianDad

I also believe that we as humans will forever be incapable of proving that God or someother higher power does or does not exist.

I believe this because I see all evidence for one or the other as being interpritable for either side and the only way to see it as proving one or the other is look at it with a biased mind set.

I agree.

Originally Posted by EmmysMama

I really consider myself a bit of a deist, though. I think the universe is an amazingly complex place (I do think others might exist). What existed before the universe? Maybe energy has always existed. I think some type of energy had to cause the universe to come into being. Perhaps it's an entirely natural energy, or maybe it's beyond our understanding, or maybe it's the kind of "universal energy" some religions/philosophies talk about. That's the kind of "god" I believe in.

Me too. Though I also relate to this energy on the personal level.

Originally Posted by InchByInch

All that said, however... as much as I depend on reason to help me understand (as best a mortal can) my place in the universe, and the Big Guy's, too, I also allow for sacred mystery. One can either be insulted by the idea that one will never, in this realm, know or understand everything there is to know about God, or one can embrace it. I choose to embrace it. Others will think me a fool for saying that, I'm sure, and say I shouldn't believe in anything that can't be proven by our human scientific methods... but that is the nature of faith, is it not? There is something inside of me that pulls me inexorably toward my Abba, and all the Dawkins in the world cannot change that. Sorry, Richard.

I also agree with this.

Originally Posted by Ellien C

I feel that humans are like "wet sand." We're independent and kind "stuck together" like a sand castle. When we die, I think there will NEVER be another entity just like me. I'm unique and only live once. I feel like those grains of sand that are held together as "me" will dry up and join a great big beach again. Some of the grains of sand will go on and get constituted into a "wet human" but they'll never be the same configuration of grains of sand again.

You just summed up beautifully how I interpret reincarnation.

So yes, OP, I believe in God. Not exclusively as the God of the Bible or any specific God really, more as a force that is present in and around everything and that works in mysterious, incomprehensible, but amazing ways. Mostly I see God in the incredible natural world (including us) and the way it interacts with itself so intricately. But I also pray, and have received amazing, gentle, direct answers to prayer. I don't know how it works, but it's one thing that lets me know that God exists in some way. And I believe that most if not all religions essentially lead to the same peace, humility, and happiness. A t-shirt I saw once expressed it well: "God is too big to fit in one religion".

[MusicianDad]

Originally Posted by bluebirdiemama

I believe in intrinsic value. I believe people are valuable because God made us unique and wonderful, loves us dearly, and gives us our value. Athiests can say they believe people are essentially valuable, and they may actually believe they do, but essential value of the human being cannot be consistent with the Darwin-ist thinking. If this thought interests you, look into it, think about it, and listen to a couple of these:

Not trying to be antagonistic, but the many of the Athiests I know seem to have a greater understanding for the value of people and the value of life than many Christians I have come across in my lifetime.

The intrinsic value is not about religion, it is about how we view others in relation to ourselves. For that reason, belief or lack of belief in God does not dictate ones ability to value others or create value in ourself.

[orangewallflower]

No. I realized as a young adult that I was believing in God and trying to squelch my many doubts only because I had grown up believing that if I did this it meant I was good. As an adult I realized that if there were a god it seemed really unlikely that he or she would care about what I believe. It seemed more to me like human created mind control than what a good divine force would have any interest in. So this liberated me from trying to make myself believe something.