Do you believe in God? 55 members have voted

[struki]

I dont belive in Jesus,i dont belive in Allah,i dont belive in Buda.

For me thats all nonsense.

 

 

But i do belive in some kind of higher force,call it whatever you want.

 

What does that make me?

[Nemesis]

I was born and raised as a hardcore Catholic. While I believe in most of the stuff in the Bible, you have to realize that a good chunk of the Old Testament is not factually true, but allegorical. Those who take the time to research know that the Magisterium acknowledged this principle. Also, in regards for evolution and taking into account that the Garden of Eden story isn't factually true, we can combine two beliefs by saying "Evolution is true, we came from monkeys, yadayadayada." But God, being the badass that he is, decided to give us grace whenever he so chose, in this case when we became sentient creatures who could reason and understand God's teachings.

 

See? Compromise! (nubs)

 

 

when i read this i stopped reading since the only fact you had , was false

 

then i lol'd

[Huwajux]

Despite the fact that I popped several blood vessels reading this thread on my 10kb/sec connection (thank you Hazardous), I'm going to write my views.

 

I am an agnostic through and through. I was born and raised a Catholic, but had gradually lost my faith as I grew up. I was offered a course in philosophy rather than religious studies early in my school life and found it so fascinating that I took it up at A-level and I am now currently doing an undergraduate course in it.

 

To spare you all a life story I shall get to the point. Discussing religion is very risky as it is obviously a passionate topic and I'm impressed at how far this thread has come. God, for me, will almost certainly never be revealed to us in our current plane of existence, since we are incapable of objectivity and always will be, no matter how hard we strive for it. This is not our fault because the way we empirically experience the world is through subjective means which are clearly open to fault.

 

To keep this as short as possible, if there is in fact a God then we will have to transcend into a higher state of being whereby we can objectively experience his existence. This may be accomplished upon death or some other 'spiritual transcendence'.

 

I am, however, not entirely closed off to the possibility that we can experience God's presence within this realm of reality, as there have been numerous accounts of people having 'religious experiences' and finding that they are completely ineffable. Whether any of them hold some truth or not remains to be seen, but for me it at the very least opens the door.

[Lux]

I dont belive in Jesus,i dont belive in Allah,i dont belive in Buda.

For me thats all nonsense.

 

 

But i do belive in some kind of higher force,call it whatever you want.

 

What does that make me?

 

Religious?

 

Alright. Let see if we could help you find god. Shock yourself to death probably be dead for about 15 mins meet god. then get defib back to life.

 

Too much L4D2

 

I'm a Baptist Christian, I believe in God(jesus). But I'm not ignorant about other people's beliefs.

 

Btw, what's there to lose in believing in a faith?

 

Well, the main fault for me is actual belief. I don't have faith and never will do, so it's hard for me to explain really..........

 

Having faith in something that I think doesn't exist just makes you ignorant....and sure ignorance is bliss....it's a nicer way to think about life in some ways (virgins and ice cream and eternal happiness after death etc) but then for me it can make your actual life not as good. You spend however much time praying/other religious activities to something that doesn't even exist. You follow a certain way of life because of what a God/s that doesn't exist wants you to do it, and failure to do so results in going to Purgatory/Hell that doesn't even exist. With Christianity it's not so bad....the smart person who was too lazy to be hard core religious wrote that God has given you free will to eat whatever, do whatever etc and you can be forgiven....but some religions really do restrict what you can do in life, and I think it's a shame to be doing it for nothing, and I do pity some people for being what I perceive as naive/ignorant.

 

Sure, I can't prove what's right or wrong so when I say "doesn't even exist" that's just the mind set of someone who doesn't believe in a God. It's hard for me to respect someone's decision to be religious, because the only thing IMO stopping religion from being fiction is mankind's current lack of knowledge. I can respect religious people because I see no reason to go around spreading hate as it does no good, but I can't respect the beliefs themselves (except maybe the ones that make people do good in life...even if I relate it to Santa Claus telling kids to be nice or they won't receive any presents).

[Eldest]

Atheist. Allah-akbar! Wait what

[matt 187]

If your not Jewish your fucked.

[KScorp]

Well, the main fault for me is actual belief. I don't have faith and never will do, so it's hard for me to explain really..........

 

Having faith in something that I think doesn't exist just makes you ignorant....and sure ignorance is bliss....it's a nicer way to think about life in some ways (virgins and ice cream and eternal happiness after death etc) but then for me it can make your actual life not as good. You spend however much time praying/other religious activities to something that doesn't even exist. You follow a certain way of life because of what a God/s that doesn't exist wants you to do it, and failure to do so results in going to Purgatory/Hell that doesn't even exist. With Christianity it's not so bad....the smart person who was too lazy to be hard core religious wrote that God has given you free will to eat whatever, do whatever etc and you can be forgiven....but some religions really do restrict what you can do in life, and I think it's a shame to be doing it for nothing, and I do pity some people for being what I perceive as naive/ignorant.

 

Sure, I can't prove what's right or wrong so when I say "doesn't even exist" that's just the mind set of someone who doesn't believe in a God. It's hard for me to respect someone's decision to be religious, because the only thing IMO stopping religion from being fiction is mankind's current lack of knowledge. I can respect religious people because I see no reason to go around spreading hate as it does no good, but I can't respect the beliefs themselves (except maybe the ones that make people do good in life...even if I relate it to Santa Claus telling kids to be nice or they won't receive any presents).

 

Ignorant of what exactly? First off, as many have said, existence or lack thereof of a higher power can't be proven (which is something you know judging from your second paragraph), but you're saying everyone should simply believe there is no higher power? I'm having a hard time following your reasoning, unless you're writing the post under the assumption that there is no higher power.

 

Obviously, if proof existed that there was no higher power (which is likely impossible), then people who worshiped something which was known not to exist, that would be ignorant. It would also be ignorant to not have a belief if there WAS proof of a higher power. But no such proof exists, so it would be ignorant to judge either those who believe or those who don't, as you have.

 

As for the reasons people follow their religious laws, it's the same as the reason they follow the laws of where they live and why they can create their own personal restrictions (like being a vegetarian, or vowing to never buy a Mac). Religious laws, state laws, and personal restrictions may or may not have a good reason behind them, so why single out religion? (After all, I'm sure many Americans have drank alcohol while they were underage and specifically forbidden by their state laws...)

[SchmoSalt]

Agnostic. Until there is undeniable, tangible proof of a god or gods I cannot say that I truly believe. I believe there may be something out there though.

[Lux]

Ignorant of what exactly? First off, as many have said, existence or lack thereof of a higher power can't be proven (which is something you know judging from your second paragraph), but you're saying everyone should simply believe there is no higher power? I'm having a hard time following your reasoning, unless you're writing the post under the assumption that there is no higher power.

 

Obviously, if proof existed that there was no higher power (which is likely impossible), then people who worshiped something which was known not to exist, that would be ignorant. It would also be ignorant to not have a belief if there WAS proof of a higher power. But no such proof exists, so it would be ignorant to judge either those who believe or those who don't, as you have.

 

I'm writing under my assumption that there is no higher power. At the very least, shorten it to no Gods. Why? As it cannot be proven I can only assume rather than state as fact. There's such a small chance that any of the religions today (leaving aside ones like Buddhism) are not fiction.....for me it's pointless to even consider them. Why believe in something that has no logical explanation? At least scientific theories have that.....if you're not happy with the word ignorant....then I'll use something else? Whatever the word......my clear point is that I believe there's no such things as Gods.....and maybe sooner or later we'll have the means to prove it.

 

For the sake of satisfying those who say there is a chance and "it's ignorant to judge those who believe"...sure there's such an unbelievably and uncomprehendably small chance that stories human beings have made up without any theory or scientific reasoning could be true.....but it's as likely (probably a lot less likely) then even something like Star Wars being true. So for me...that is enough reason to discount Gods.

 

We don't know and can't prove everything.....that is asking too much of us right now....so we'll just have to manage with theories, probability and common sense.

 

As for the reasons people follow their religious laws, it's the same as the reason they follow the laws of where they live and why they can create their own personal restrictions (like being a vegetarian, or vowing to never buy a Mac). Religious laws, state laws, and personal restrictions may or may not have a good reason behind them, so why single out religion? (After all, I'm sure many Americans have drank alcohol while they were underage and specifically forbidden by their state laws...)

 

I never singled out religion, but this thread is about religion...and I was answering the question of why it's bad to have faith in a God/religion. Leaving aside laws why make things worse? i.e. the government already restricts us enough, I'd rather not add further restrictions then say "Oh the state has laws so it's ok if religion has some laws that restrict us too".

[mapper]

Atheist. Although, It's pretty nice to believe that there's someone to help you in bad days and I think I wouldn't accept the fact if you die, that there's nothing more.