Do you believe in GOD?

[kitoy]

Discuss..

[Will]

No.

Z will like this thread.

[-Z-]

God...

do I believe in God...

its a loaded question, I will not give my full out answer, because I could write 5000 words on this if I was inspired, which I have been in the past.

We have discussed the issue of religion many times on these forums.

The way you phrased the question is good, as opposed to "does god exist" or "is god real"

to believe in something means to have faith that it without actually having knowledge of it for a fact.

to prove that god existed or that aliens exist, or any such myths or legends would be to abolish faith itself...

Some my find this a strange idea... that if we knew that god existed, there would be no faith... I suppose it is simple symantics, although it can be taken on a deeper level.


I will simply state my opinions now without any reasons or explanations to back them up, if u disagree please say so, and we can discuss and debate.
(I will try to keep it civil if I find we have some Evangelists here lol)

Organized religion is the most dangerous force on earth.

If there is to be religion it should be a personal thing, not a community deal.

If God Exists he has no control over life or matter.

I believe that what many people refer to as God is something different than the classical view of God.

If god is real, she is clearly a woman
(this statement is here only to piss off the Evangelists :-p)

There is no God.

We are god. all life, matter and energy is god.

God is the space between what we know as life and what we see as death.



Ok... well some of these are in contradiction to one another, and some are ambiguous, but its a very complicated question.

I will check back in a days time to see whats up.

Z

[Devil]

No.

Z will like this thread.


you were right....


my short answer: no, i dont believe any traditional god of a religion, i dont know if there is one but i can tell you that if there was one he is nothing of what religions make it/them out to be.

[Shabaz K]

i believe in God but then again i believe it in way i want to.


though i do not like to get involved in htese types of dicuss only cuase its very sensitive subject to me:thumbup:

[esco]

To keep it short, yes I believe there is a god which I won't bother to describe its thoughts, intentions, or anything like that. Only thing that I can assume is that it is a god that doesn't interfere in daily life but was responsible for life whether by creating the first cell or by splitting itself into cells themselves or something else entirely. I can't say. The probability of the rise of life especially intelligent life is up there in the impossible region. Of course I could be wrong.

[Max Logan]

It`s a matter of belief

There`s no evidence for either side, so another discussion is pointless

[Piker]

Indeed, Max.

[totte]

i do not belive in god

[Soviet Russia]

I do

[Mr President]

God is the space between what we know as life and what we see as death.


Has to be one of the most interesting statements you have ever made. It caught my eye and I actually like it. :)

I have several conflicting beliefs myself. I personally agree with Z on organized religion. My main question is if there is one God and he instructed man to write the bible then why are there so many other religions?

I personally don't feel I need to stand in a church to give thanks or feel good. I feel that raising my children to be the best they can be and also to be good and decent people in the world is my reward for being here and also my way of saying thank you for what I have.

I really really want to believe that there is one almighty but then things in life tear at me to think otherwise. Like children who suffer. Good people who die a hard death while scumbag murderers and other pigs of the planet live a full and healthy life.

I do believe in life after death. I personally have seen things in my life that are 100% unexplainable. Go ahead and laugh at me, but I will swear on all I own that I have seen things.. But there are other things that lead me to believe this as well. I feel we get a little help from time to time leading us through trouble times or with split decisions.

I do not know for sure if there is a God or not. Most of the time I feel there is one, but certain events cause me to doubt from time to time. Unquestionable faith is very hard. After all we are only human, and out of all species on the planet we make the most destruction and mistakes. :)

What I decided a long time ago was, I was going to live my life to the fullest, be a decent person and try to be the best I can be and then when I die, my questions will be answered.. I will not spend my life worrying about what is out of my control.. And what may or may not be waiting for me on the other side.

Free will is the best thing in life. I ask that nobody tries to shove religion down my throat and in return I will do the same for them.

[Mhaphew]

I am an atheist, so no.

[-Z-]

in response to Esco.

You said the probability of life forming from non-animated matter is almost impossible.

With what we understand I would be inclined to agree with you.

However...

Humans on earth do not understand everything.

how can we possibly know or judge what is or was possible across the universe when we have never been outside of our solar system.

We know there are so many galaxies out there, who is to say that physics are the same in each one?

I would imagine that we have yet to discover many sources of power, different types of matter, and all sorts of strange things.

If Humanity is able to continue down the path it is going now (minus the war and such) perhaps in some thousands of years we might have a fully different understanding of life than we do now.

Personally I do not think we will be able to simply continue down the path we are going now due to some complications involving peak oil and global warming.
This is just my opinion.

It does not mean that one day we will not develop much farther than we have now.


in summary, I do not per say believe in god... But I do believe in the unknown, and perhaps what lies within that is God.

Z

[BeeNo]

pfft, -Z-, are you questioning my belief in aliens? you saying that our star and our planet is the only one in the billions and billions and billions and 100X over again billions of stars out there? (some should fine some humor in my reaction to -Z-'s comment and my slam of organized religions)

i think we'll find other forms of life in our very solar system. scientists examined the south pole and various lakes in antarctica where almost no sunlight reaches and found them teaming with life. now one of our satellites orbiting mars has detected signs of water buried underneath one of its polar caps. so its likely that we will find some early stages of organisms there. Or at least the possibility of them is good.

Now there is also a moon around saturn with lakes and rain and cloud cover much the same as our earth. its just that it is made out of different chemicals and the rain is acid and the air would kill you. but that fact that it has a climate like that makes it a very interesting place, and i would think it would have high probability of some type of organism developing there.

now to this whole god thing. we can all look at some of the many horrible things organized religions have done around the world over time and realize that whether we belief in god or not everyone is entitled to make their own decision on the subject, as each of our faiths is our own.

i think most people today who read the bible and believe in god don't believe that it is a factual book and all these things happened exactly like what was written, but rather believe they were stories put together to teach us or that we can take something from to learn or grow.

anyways, its my opinion that the bible was an early attempt to create a moral set of beliefs, could you call it, moral fiber?

so is god real? for me, its too early to tell. I'll let you know when i reach the limits of my own mortality.

[Max Logan]

Unless he comes down and walks a mile on water, I ain`t buying it!

[kitoy]

ok i'll answer my own question:

i dunno.. sometimes I feel like there has to be a higher power, other times I think it's pretty silly.. when I'm of mind that there is a higher power it's not of the christian variety but something older with no dogma attached..

god is impossible to prove or disprove and so are invisible pink unicorns..but still..

i'm about as agnostic as they come I suppose..

[-Z-]

I like how you mentioned thought Kenneth.

I mean... thats the only thing that connects anyone to god.

What we feel/think leads us to believe in the possibility of some higher being, or power...

If we did not have the idea of god, then we would be very strange indeed...

As an Idea, god is a must it would seem for intelligent conscious life.

Our existence and our minds lead us to question ourselves, and by questioning ourselves that brings up the idea of God.

I'm having trouble explaining exactly what I mean, but basically, its in the mind, and if we did not have some inclination that there might be a god, then we would not be normal humans.

I wonder if there are any other animals that suspect that there is a "god"

perhaps not a big cow in the sky (for a cow) or a big dog in the sky (for a dog)

but some greater power at least, or some guiding force.

I feel that animals, while not as intelligent as humans, do have thoughts and emotions.

obviously they do not have the language capabilities we do, but they could still "feel" something similar to our questioning, wondering.

a bit abstract, I'm sure more people would disagree with that.

My girl and I are animal people, I have a dog, cats and other litter critters, so that probably affects my strange opinion on animal consciousness.

Z

[Xavior]

I was brought up without God or religion. It was never mentioned or discussed.

For me, God doesn't pop into my everyday life so I don't think about it. I grew up with what I believe are decent values and obviously I'm not totally morally centered but I do my best and I think thats enough. I don't need a book to tell me how to live my life, or whats right and whats wrong. I don't need to go to church to recognize the grey areas that are always being debated. And I really don't think being blinded by faith can be a good thing.