Do you believe in God? 55 members have voted

[Harpr33t]

 

Why was this guy not included?

[Lux]

I believe in God and Science equally (possibly more at times). I use Science to explain the normal and God to explain the paranormal. I was raised a Catholic but I believe religion should not teach people to block out other ideas, opinions, and facts, so we can have less of those loud people preaching nonsense and making their religion look bad.

 

Let's not kid ourselves here..........the m00se God is the truth.

 

 

Just throwing this out there. What makes you think that I as a Christian believe that the earth is only 6000 years old? Who said that God's definition of a day is the same as ours? The Bible says that the universe was created in six days and he rested on the seventh. It never said it was created in 6 earth days.

 

Cmon...you could consider it but it's clutching at straws. No God even told whoever wrote the Bible anything. The author/s was/were Human....so unless they were shooting LSD regularly you could assume they meant Earth days........

 

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To the guy saying there's no proof the Earth isn't 6000 years old......ridiculous.

[iNorris]

Rawr. I find the rage against "day" length funny, because the tale of the Creation of the World and the Garden of Eden isn't factual, but allegorical. Did nobody here read the records from Vatican II? Silly, silly, silly little flamers.

[Lux]

Rawr. I find the rage against "day" length funny, because the tale of the Creation of the World and the Garden of Eden isn't factual, but allegorical. Did nobody here read the records from Vatican II? Silly, silly, silly little flamers.

 

Was it ever thought of in that way until it appeared in the public eye to be too ridiculous, and so the Church had to twist it to benefit them? I can imagine in the future people saying the religious teachings of today were all allegorical.

 

What's with the flamers thing anyway? There hasn't been any flaming at all. Silly, silly, silly little Norris.

[TheVirus]

Yes, I believe the Bible. There is no viable proof that the earth is not 6,000-12,000 years old.

 

One can say that there is no viable proof the Earth is not. However, I am more likely to believe several hundred scientists over a 2000 year old book.

 

I say this because the method used to prove it is however many millions of years old is know as carbon-dating. Carbon dating takes something and measure the amount of carbon in it to determine how old it is. They then take what has been measured and compare to something else in that time period thus finding out how old it is. The only problem is, they use circular reasoning. They date a fossil that's say 6 millions years old, they claim it is that old because they have a rock that measures the same and is 6 millions years old. They get that measurement from the fossil, repeat ad nauseam.

 

Carbon-14 dating is only useful for dating things to about 60,000 years old, since Carbon has a shorter half-life than other elements. Carbon-14 dating does not work in the way you mention it. It works because C14 is radioactive and decays. They use estimates, based on quite a lot of information, to determine what the C14 ratio should have been around the time the fossil was discovered. This is the area creationists use to try and defeat carbon dating. Yes, there are guesses and assumptions made about C14, but these were not developed overnight. C14 dating cannot be used to determine rocks that are millions of years old, they have to use other methods for that.

 

Once again, you're trying to discredit research because it goes against something in an old book. This is not how science works. This is not how the world works. This is not the way towards a better future.

 

You seem to enjoy taking parts of the Bible out of context in an attempt to discredit it.

 

The part about women remaining silent was prevalent in that culture.

 

And it's still in the Bible.

 

 

For example the "should not get haircuts" that comes from a jewish tradition know as a nazerite vow, it's just a way for people to express their commitment, in no way are Christians forced to not get their haircut, grats on that.

 

And it's still in the Bible.. You're talking about Numbers 6:20.

 

Giving up your firstborn in reference to Egypt I assume? That was a punishment for Pharaoh not obeying God.

 

And it's still in the Bible.

 

And praying for the sick isn't wrong, it doesn't lead to improper treatment. Now there is a certain group that uses only prayer as treatment. That is in no way every Christian. In fact, prayer can help turn a patient around, but to just do that and not add modern medical help is foolish.

 

You're right. It doesn't lead to improper treatment. It never happens. People think that they can pray their problems away. Life doesn't work like that. Can prayer help a patient? Sure, it can take their mind off things and calm them down. If that helps them, go for it, but it's not the only way.

 

The point is, people tend to use prayer for selfish reasons. Either to get something they want or to clear themselves of guilt. "Oh man, I was a dick to Johnny and now he has cancer. I'll just pray for him and then I'll be forgiven." People pray for the poor and hungry, hoping for some miracle, instead of donating (Note: Tithing doesn't help the people outside of the church's community. Many churches use tithing to help the needy, but many more use it to build mega-churches and spoil themselves silly).

 

The sad fact is, most people that donate/tithe are the people that can't afford to. Lower-class citizens give more to churches and charity than any other group. Why? Probably because they believe that if they do something good, that God will reward them. So, instead of saving your money for emergencies, they give it to a church, and then wonder why they can't pay the bills several months down the road.

 

Please read the Bible and understand what your talking about before spouting things out of context, thanks.

 

I'm taking in the Bible exactly how I see it. I'm also giving out simple examples because I don't want to waste hours upon hours of my time to do the research you should have done.

 

You reject faith in religion, ok. But you have faith in something else, perhaps science. Faith is a broad term, it can be applied to religion but isn't limited to it. To say I'm an atheist is ignorant.

 

Learn words. An atheists doesn't believe in any God at all. You sir, are grossly ill-informed.

 

I reject religion because it doesn't make sense. Faith is a broad term and is acceptable in certain context. Saying you have faith that your God will help you somehow is vastly different than my faith that 2+2=4.

 

You reject the notion of other gods, do you not? In a broad sense, that makes you an atheist. To say you are an atheist is not ignorance, it's reality. To a Muslim, you are an atheist in their eyes for not believing in their god.

 

I don't reject science, science helps explain God's principles and what He created. The first law wasn't violated because it didn't exist at the time. If this has been discussed why don't you explain it to me? Because Scientism hasn't come up with a viable answer as to where everything came from, because it had to come from somewhere. I have done my research, apparently you seem to just blindly listen to whatever your told by a professor.

 

I already provided you with links. That white text back there are links. Click them and you'll be surprised at what happens. I don't accept any notion that any single person or book has given me. I research my questions and get answers from different sources. You're the one blindly accepting what's in a 2000 year old piece of fiction, not me. My beliefs are in the realm of reality and sanity. They make sense to me and millions more. They were developed by hundreds and thousands of people, not a book that had no concept at the time.

 

Quantum Physics.

 

What about it? Just because you don't understand it doesn't make it untrue. It's a field of study and a growing one at that. What about quantum physics do you find hard to believe? What are your questions regarding it? What contradictions have you found? You can't just say a phrase and expect to get away with it.

 

I have tried to find the answer myself and that is God. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I take everything with a grain of salt. I know how to think critically and I have come to my conclusions. It isn't a scapegoat, and if you see it as such, the idea of "Fuck it, nothing did it," is as much of a scapegoat as anything.

 

I have a hard time believing you have done much critical thinking on this subject. There are so many contradictions in the Bible it's staggering. I am not going to waste my time listing them, all you have to do is read it. My idea is not 'nothing did it' my idea is 'something happened, we just don't know what yet.' But I refuse to believe some cosmic being snapped its fingers and created everything we see.

 

When it is proven, I will believe it. As of yet there isn't any proof to make it the fact. I'm not stifling progress, I'm stifling nonsense. My thought process wouldn't keep us in the middle ages. The people that wanted to find the answers that got us out of the middle ages were theists for the most part. Believing in God isn't giving up, I truly searched for answers and God is that answer.

 

Right, so you proved my point. You are stifling progress, you just do not and cannot see it. People in the middle ages were theists because if they were not, they would have been killed. Believing in God is not giving up, sure, but stating that since you cannot prove what happened, or accept a theory, is giving up. If the people who were researching theories gave up, we would be no where.

 

For you to say I should be hunting witches is incredibly thick. In the past certain people who believe in God have done bad things, this doesn't disprove God. People are generally not good. For you to make such broad generalizations is incredibly annoying.

 

For you to not understand my example is incredibly thick. 'People are generally not good' is one of the fundamentals behind rejecting religion. People KILL other people for not accepting their deity of choice.

 

When you are born, you are completely innocent, tainted by nothing. It's when people begin to disagree with others' beliefs that things start going bad. Look at WWII, Israel, Iraq, and Afghanistan. I am making no broad generalization. You cannot say that these wars are not fueled by some religious beliefs.

 

You're one of those snide atheists who thinks everyone who believes in God is stupid. Who are you to say that? In fact, I applaud you, of all the people I have talked to about such matters, you are the most ignorant. At least the others had some idea of what they are talking about. They read the Bible and studied it instead of throwing out random passages completely out of context.

 

No, I'm a rational atheist that detests misinformation and irrational thinking. I never said that people who believe in God are stupid. They are free to believe in whatever they want, and I'll fight for them to do so, but I will stand against them to claim the Bible is the end all be all of knowledge on all things unknown. It's funny how atheists seem to know more about religion than the followers. It probably has something to do with them reading the material and saying, "Huh, that doesn't quite add up. Let me ask my priest." Then, when they do not get the answers they are looking for, drop the religion entirely.

 

You see me as ignorant because you refuse to believe anything that isn't in your book. You see me as ignorant because you do not have an open mind to ideas that contradict your book. You see me as ignorant because you cannot fathom life without your religion. You see me as ignorant because you fear the religion more than you respect it.

 

Richard Dawkins himself said a respectable case could be made for the existence of a God. And he is one of the most brilliant modern-day atheists.

 

Right, he said the belief in God is like any other hypothesis, which is correct. But what relevance does that have with any of this? You throw out a statement and give no reasoning to back it up.

 

So again, you appear horribly misinformed. Get your facts together before you discuss such a heated topic.

 

I encourage you to not be one of those atheists that is just as close-minded as you imagine religious people to be, shooting down my ideology when you yourself haven't even looked into it thoroughly.

 

The only one misinformed, sir, is you. I have presented the facts, I cannot help it if you outright reject them.