Do you believe in God? Why or why not?

[Salome]

The newest scandals of the church is just on the news...so no wonder that ever more people turn away from the institutionalized religion.

I consider myself part of the christian heritage but not following strict religious rules or observance...

I am not sure there is a God out there in the classical sense, but maybe we can say we all have a divine side, somewhere deep inside...and we shall be all from the same stardust

[hiptanaka]

i believe in God because i dont believe theres any scientific or logical sense in thinking otherwise. As in i believe theres too much an element of intelligent design in the universe for it to have come about spontaneously or by chance.

[tricky]

i wrote this some time ago. i guess it's my answer for your question

And on the 8th day, humans created god.

When the first human opened his eyes he realized something very simple and very important. There are powers and things in his surrounding that affect his life, positively and negatively. Since humans just like animals seek pleasure instead of pain, they somehow liked the things that brought pleasure and disliked the things that brought pain. So the ancient humans called those objects “God”, each object had a specific god. So the word god came into existence on the 8th day. So why was god created? The word god in reality means “An unknown object or power or answer of a question that is known”. That is why the word god was created to fill the gap of human limited knowledge. Before god was fully created there was the up rise of history writing and myth & legends which made way to religion to be born. So history and myth merged to give us religion. Religion promised people that if they worshiped these gods, they will reward them. The reward came in the form of giving a lot of crop. So people turned too gods to maximize there chance of a good crop and seek the protection of these gods from disasters. Not having the knowledge and science to understand how to get crops to give maximum production, people turned to gods to fill the gap of knowledge. Once science made its way and made clear how to get maximum production, god wasn’t needed anymore, so god was killed. Just like the people who worshiped the sun and the planet etc, once knowledge and science made way, god wasn’t needed anymore, god was killed again. With these new revelations, with these new ideas, with science making its way, the human mind evolved to a new generation of thinkers. With this new generation, new questions raised, no answer was found. For science was weak with respect to these new questions, just like before when the science and human mind was too young to actually understand the movement of the planets. Now it is too young to answer some major questions, such as the perceive of oneself. Questions about how and why did the universe start to expand? Now it seem that thinking about life after death is pointless and I can assure you it is. That’s because we lack much knowledge. It’s like trying to shoot a target with a bow while standing inside a hurricane. You can release your bow but you will never hit your target. I’m sure that even life after death will be uncovered one day. That’s if humans don’t destroy themselves first. The tendency of humans seeking knowledge is inevitable. The death tendency of god is inevitable as well. Knowledge and god will never reach their final tendency. When questions are answers new questions will arise. When new objects are understood new objects will arise. Hence neither god will ever be killed, nor will knowledge ever totally be attained. So the death of god and rebirth is never ending.

[Layyouss]

Originally Posted by tricky

i wrote this some time ago. i guess it's my answer for your question

And on the 8th day, humans created god.

When the first human opened his eyes he realized something very simple and very important. There are powers and things in his surrounding that affect his life, positively and negatively. Since humans just like animals seek pleasure instead of pain, they somehow liked the things that brought pleasure and disliked the things that brought pain. So the ancient humans called those objects “God”, each object had a specific god. So the word god came into existence on the 8th day. So why was god created? The word god in reality means “An unknown object or power or answer of a question that is known”. That is why the word god was created to fill the gap of human limited knowledge. Before god was fully created there was the up rise of history writing and myth & legends which made way to religion to be born. So history and myth merged to give us religion. Religion promised people that if they worshiped these gods, they will reward them. The reward came in the form of giving a lot of crop. So people turned too gods to maximize there chance of a good crop and seek the protection of these gods from disasters. Not having the knowledge and science to understand how to get crops to give maximum production, people turned to gods to fill the gap of knowledge. Once science made its way and made clear how to get maximum production, god wasn’t needed anymore, so god was killed. Just like the people who worshiped the sun and the planet etc, once knowledge and science made way, god wasn’t needed anymore, god was killed again. With these new revelations, with these new ideas, with science making its way, the human mind evolved to a new generation of thinkers. With this new generation, new questions raised, no answer was found. For science was weak with respect to these new questions, just like before when the science and human mind was too young to actually understand the movement of the planets. Now it is too young to answer some major questions, such as the perceive of oneself. Questions about how and why did the universe start to expand? Now it seem that thinking about life after death is pointless and I can assure you it is. That’s because we lack much knowledge. It’s like trying to shoot a target with a bow while standing inside a hurricane. You can release your bow but you will never hit your target. I’m sure that even life after death will be uncovered one day. That’s if humans don’t destroy themselves first. The tendency of humans seeking knowledge is inevitable. The death tendency of god is inevitable as well. Knowledge and god will never reach their final tendency. When questions are answers new questions will arise. When new objects are understood new objects will arise. Hence neither god will ever be killed, nor will knowledge ever totally be attained. So the death of god and rebirth is never ending.

Thank you for the valuable post!

I agree with most of what you said,these are almost facts, however in my opinion this does not mean that there is no God.
During hundreds of years and generations many Gods were created and sometimes invented and these Gods were copied and recreated in other civilizations, but the question is, if people misunderstand the concept of God and his/her/it nature, does this mean that he/she/it does not exist ?

[tricky]

Originally Posted by Layyouss

Thank you for the valuable post!

I agree with most of what you said,these are almost facts, however in my opinion this does not mean that there is no God.
During hundreds of years and generations many Gods were created and sometimes invented and these Gods were copied and recreated in other civilizations, but the question is, if people misunderstand the concept of God and his/her/it nature, does this mean that he/she/it does not exist ?

first of all i think the concept of hell and heaven is dead, even priests dont believe in hell and heaven, hell & heaven is such a childish concept... if god exists he is all loving and forever forgiving god, which also disproves the childish idea of hell and heaven, so we where created because god was overflowing with love, god is the ultimate god... but when i look to this world i just cant imagine that god created this world and it's so F*****. Thousands of ppl of dying of hunger, i just cant see the reflection of god's fairness when i see ppl dying of thrist while others are swiming in a pool...

Even the most logical reasons why god exist aint that logical
1- Since we exist something must have made us exist just like when we see a table we can conclude that somebody made it and we conclude that humans made it just like god made humans

1- even this analogy fails, if god created us , then who created him? same problem, the analogy of going back aint the right analogy to go by clearly it fails. we just need a new analogy, maybe we still are young at the level of thinking...

2- the perfection of this world reflects god who created it

2- this world has been around for billions of years, hence the need of evolution and the survival of the fits and to everything that comes with it, it's not like the world just woke up one day and we had birds and fishes, this evolution took so many years to be where it is now...

Missing link found? Scientists unveil fossil of 47 million-year-old primate, Darwinius masillae

some times ago i wrote a very small essay about like 2 pages title "Christianity falls short" since it will offend ppl i wont put it here ^_^ , but can i put a link to a page that contains the essay?

[Layyouss]

Originally Posted by tricky

first of all i think the concept of hell and heaven is dead, even priests don't believe in hell and heaven, hell & heaven is such a childish concept... if god exists he is all loving and forever forgiving god, which also disproves the childish idea of hell and heaven, so we where created because god was overflowing with love, god is the ultimate god... but when i look to this world i just cant imagine that god created this world and it's so F*****. Thousands of ppl of dying of hunger, i just cant see the reflection of god's fairness when i see ppl dying of thirst while others are swiming in a pool...

Even the most logical reasons why god exist aint that logical
1- Since we exist something must have made us exist just like when we see a table we can conclude that somebody made it and we conclude that humans made it just like god made humans

1- even this analogy fails, if god created us , then who created him? same problem, the analogy of going back aint the right analogy to go by clearly it fails. we just need a new analogy, maybe we still are young at the level of thinking...

2- the perfection of this world reflects god who created it

2- this world has been around for billions of years, hence the need of evolution and the survival of the fits and to everything that comes with it, it's not like the world just woke up one day and we had birds and fishes, this evolution took so many years to be where it is now...

Missing link found? Scientists unveil fossil of 47 million-year-old primate, Darwinius masillae

some times ago i wrote a very small essay about like 2 pages title "Christianity falls short" since it will offend ppl i wont put it here ^_^ , but can i put a link to a page that contains the essay?

I do believe in heaven and hell as a concept, but not as two places where we go after death to spend the rest of our "lives" waiting for the Armageddon.
In my opinion heaven and hell are relatively the result of the actions you take in this life, and the one you're living now is the result of what you did earlier.
As for God, unfortunately most of the people are becoming atheists because of the religions. The religions who can't answer all the people's questions because even they can't afford giving a true answer that obviously is a contradiction for a big lie on which they built their glories, or because they know that the true religion is so very spiritual that most of the followers can't comprehend. Maybe it's time for a new religion..

I agree that the idea of God as we know it today is very absurd and i dare saying wrong, but on the other hand don't you think that you're insulting people's intelligence when you say that the idea of God who's been running for thousands of years and maybe more is a myth ?
In my opinion God exists for sure, but of course not as you described it in your post nor as my parents told me he would be, but for me I would be a coward who deserves Hell (that i told you about above) if I don't look for him and for the truth, It's very wrong to assume that if something is wrong than its opposite is right.

[tricky]

Originally Posted by Layyouss

I do believe in heaven and hell as a concept, but not as two places where we go after death to spend the rest of our "lives" waiting for the Armageddon.
In my opinion heaven and hell are relatively the result of the actions you take in this life, and the one you're living now is the result of what you did earlier.
As for God, unfortunately most of the people are becoming atheist because of the religions. The religions who can't answer all the people's questions because even they can't afford giving a true answer that obviously is a contradiction for a big lie on which they built their glories, or because they know that the true religion is so very spiritual that most of the followers can't comprehend. Maybe it's time for a new religion..

I agree that the idea of God as we know it today is very absurd and i dare saying wrong, but on the other hand don't you think that you're insulting people's intelligence when you say that the idea of God who's been running for thousands of years and maybe more is a myth ?
In my opinion God exists for sure, but of course not as you described it in your post nor as my parents told me he would be, but for me I would be a coward who deserves Hell (that i told you about above) if I don't look for him and for the truth, It's very wrong to assume that if something is wrong than its opposite is right.

not sure if i get ur concept of heaven or hell, are you saying if you are good your life would be good (heaven) if you have been bad your life would be bad (hell)? i quote you why did i think like this "and the one you're living now is the result of what you did earlier." if you mean it so i still dont know why you call it heaven and hell cause it has nothing to do with it " We are a mer reflection of the experiences and problems we have faced in life and our life is a mer reflection of the choices we have made"

am not sure that religion cant answer most question as far as i know christians can answer all, i would recommend you to read " The Confessions of St Augestine" really good book ^_^. to me when i was christian i never believe in the church nor in priests, i dont need them, all i need was my bible. this is from the Thomas Gospel ( Nag Hammadi) "77 :Yeshúa says: I-Am the Light who is above them all, I-Am the All. All came
forth from me and all return to me. Cleave wood, there am I. Lift up the
stone and there you shall find me." God is everywhere we dont need the church or priests to talk with god... so the church and priests screwing up shouldnt affect the so called believer... so the church can go on killing ppl ex:Spanish Inquisition, the war on cathar, islam etc... or it can sell places in heaven, or rape children all those shouldnt affect the christian believer, when jesus came he said i think " Hear what they preach but dont do what they do ( he was talking about the priest)", jesus clearly didnt like priests and stuff he use to call them hypocrite to me nothing has changed :P, same situation different ppl :D, priest are just hypocrites... so if you are affected by priest and the church i think you have a small problem, the christian faith isnt build on those but on jesus.... like i said in my first post the death of god and rebirth is envitable ^_^...

nop i dont think it's insulting, it's just that they didnt have the tools that we have right now for example we know when the bibles where written and we know that the church chosen to keep some bible and discard some hence the "Nag Hammadi library gospels" the bible is about 66 books or 73 depending on the sect and it is written by 40 writters, and most likly we know that the actually gosples wherent written by " Mathew, Mark, Luke, John" since they are written about 70 B.C so the persons who actually wrote the bible never met jesus in the first place, it's more like a story which was told and i know one thing or two about how humans tell stories , yeah they add a lot of Bhar and mele7 and Mark and Luke are thought to have been copied from a previouse gospel known as Q gospel ( Q stands for Source in german, it's still a theoratical gospel), and now it is known that the story of Adam and Eve is just a myth and Noah as well , Noah is known to be taken from a story before christian if you want the book it is called " The Epic of Gilgamesh " ( written by the summarian civilization) , i guess when you add all those up and some other stuff .... about the opposite of wrong isnt correct yeah i believe so as well that it doesnt have to be, this is from St Augestine book well i dont have the book right now but it means something like this " Darkness is not a matter itself but it's the lack of light" and about the truth this is what i believe right now...
"Truth is a made up word
Describes something that doesn’t exist
The world in the eye of the holder;
There is no truth but perspective"

[Ataraxia]

I think as long as we can agree that the holy books are just books to guide and ones that helped shape the further progress of civilizations, then we can agree that the concept of God used in those books cannot exist. That means that any other concept of "God" renders useless because it has no organized religion to go with it no matter if that God actually existed or not. He won't hurt you nor award you and thus you won't feel affected by that "God"'s presence and you won't care about him; probably at the very most you just have a certain level of curiosity to know the real nature of this God.
To me , I hate going into debates mainly because religion is carved in almost every person's mind. It's probably one of the biggest part of one's identity and thus one will do anything to support it to extents of ignoring logical discussions.
However, just like Zeus and his friends were the Gods of the world years back, and just how the concept of those Gods was equivalent to the knowledge and intellectual progression prevalent back then, the God of religion is also equivalent to the knowledge and intellectual progression that we have made over the years. Otherwise, there would be no reason for God to just appear and ignore the millions(?) of people that passed before and suddenly exhibit his dominance on the world. Some people back in the time of Zeus' dominance were probably pretty skeptical about Zeus just like agnostics and atheists are skeptical about the god of religion today.

[Frisbeetarian]

Guyz god is out there, dont fool yourselves, he is out there and he is out to get you. God is not good folks, just look at our **** up world, no way a kind god would permit such a crumbling world to operate and exist. Logic dictates that if there is a god, he must be a complete ******* and sadist. The results on the ground explain no other kind of god. He is out for to control you, through these various lovely institutions he has established, and these institutions teach you to hate each other and to always fight one another. He has opted to to divide us and enjoy the our ensuing conflicts.

We must root him out like a bad seed, a seed that has been driving at the core of our humanity and corrupting it. He must be driven out, like the oppressor he is, this controlling being which has sought nothing but your obedience in exchange of a supposed afterlife filled with bliss. He demands your slavery for the variable heaven's he has created for you. And to prove your worth and obedience, you must fight one another, for -as he dictates- the heretics must be subjugated or die. God is out to control and disperse you.

Go on, frantic humans, abolish this absurdity, so you can move on to your next destructive ideology.

[ostwind]

i am shocked...
after all what God did and after all the miracles and all the people he cured and still there are people who don't believe that there is a God. People should not even doubt this fact.