do u believe in god?

[freckleonear]

Yes, I absolutely believe in God. My first degree was in science, so the two can definitely coexist.

Regarding bad things happening, I believe that God created us with free will and that mankind's sin spoiled the world. God will not prevent us from sinning, but he does offer salvation through the death of Jesus Christ.

To chelseav1213, no I don't believe that church is necessary. The Bible teaches that salvation is by faith alone, not works. However, Christians have a new life when they are born again and as a result they want to spend time worshipping and learning about God, which is why many attend church regularly.

 

[Quackquack99]

I believe in God, I've battle the past few years with my faith but I do believe. I think the creation of a baby has completely made me realise that for me personally God exists. Its hard to explain.

 

[Ozzieshunni]

I would be curious as to how the creation of a baby involves god. I'm not being condescending, I just want to know.

 

[Quackquack99]

Its so hard to explain, I've had bouts of atheism, agnosticm but when I was pregnant and I read up the finer details of pregnancy and to learn that one cell mutates into billions of cells just made me believ in God. It is a very personal thing and I'm struggling to explain properly

 

[Ozzieshunni]

I suppose because I am Pagan and believe in nature that I just see the creation of a child as a biological process. Won't begrudge anyone's beliefs though when it comes to religion

 

[Quackquack99]

My best friend is a pagan, I honestly thought it meant rituals and sacrifices til she taught me there is more to it than that. I think paganism came before monotheistic religion so I do believe in a lot of the principles of paganism. Also could be possible that 'mother nature' is another term for God possibly?

 

[Ozzieshunni]

To me, "God" is from Christian or Christian based religions. That is what it is most widely associated with so I don't like it. I like the balance. A respect for nature and all things. A balance in the universe. I'm sure my beliefs are actually cobbled together from a variety of Pagan and Celtic belief systems.

Most of the Christian holidays are actually based on Pagan ones. The Christian/Catholic church found it was the best way to get people to convert.

 

[minties]

No I don't, and I am happy with that choice. Believing in god would contradict and go against many of my other interests so the two could never work.

I don't know any religious people.

 

[RoseKitten]

My best friend is a pagan, I honestly thought it meant rituals and sacrifices til she taught me there is more to it than that. I think paganism came before monotheistic religion so I do believe in a lot of the principles of paganism. Also could be possible that 'mother nature' is another term for God possibly?

God is a specific deity. That being said, the Sumerian's were similar in a lot of ways to Christianity. While they had multiple gods, one of the 7 core moral guidelines (similar to the 10 commandments) was to not worship any other deity aside from the one you were dedicated to. So, they were polytheist in belief, and monotheist in personal practice.

Paganism, though, is a rather broad brush, and there are a lot of paths that have rituals, some have sacrifices (though, rarely of live critters directly).

"Mother nature" as a deity is true in some paths, and in others she simply just "is" because she is what we live on. In other paths she isn't given much thought. But, in a sense from a Christian perspective, mother nature could be considered a part of God, because he is in everything. Personal perspective and all that.

 

[summer rain]

When it comes to the creation of a baby, the Qur'an mentions detail by detail the process of fertilisation, implantation, and pregnancy and this from a book from a time when no-one had a clue about how these things worked. Some militant atheists dismiss it out of hand as they do anything from religion, but a very well known, award winning Embryologist researched this and was completely blown away, his name is Keith L. Moore. I do believe in God and have done since I was a toddler despite my parents being atheist; and I have been Muslim since I was very young. We believe there is only one God and while some Muslims believe God is in everything or is everywhere; this is not the mainstream view held by most Muslims. God's knowledge is everywhere though. We believe God is neither male nor female and our God is the same God as Jews and Christians xx

 

[Leliana]

Summer Rain - I find that extremely interesting, I will have to look up Keith L. Moore. Thank you for sharing I really think being open minded when it comes to these things, in all respects, can be very liberating. Despite the fact I come from a very science-based, agnostic viewpoint I love researching aspects of spirituality from all their various starting points. It helps me understand the world immensely

 

[summer rain]

Thanks. This is a really recent and regularly updated scientific paper (or more like a small book, it is 80 pages) on Embryology in the Qur'an by Hamza Tzortis. It debunks various myths and misunderstandings about the descriptions in the Qur'an regarding such, as well. Fascinating stuff.

https://www.hamzatzortzis.com/research/embryology-in-the-quran/

Xx

 

[Mummy Bean]

sorry not read all the responses...but i answered no, although i spent many years devouting my life to christianity, going to church, running groups, even got baptised in the sea! but then i started really studying at GCSE, A Level, Uni and personally and i didnt like what i found.

i do believe that this world is too special to be random, and that something had a hand in its making...but do i believe what ever this was has any influence over our lifes or the day to day running of the show - NO.

 

[CMarie]

I absolutely believe in God So many things have happened in my life that have always pointed to Him and I couldn't imagine not knowing Him!

About the church question...I believe that church, at its roots, has a good purpose...to gather Christians in worship and prayer...but I really don't think the church today is what it was meant to be.

 

[JASMAK]

Absolutely.

 

[ShanandBoc]

Yes, absolutely.

I believe there is one, all powerful, true God

 

[ShanandBoc]

No I dont believe in God x
So many bad things happening in the world how can there be??

Beacuse the "whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one" - 1 John 5:19

Wicked Humans and satans influence as the 'ruler of this world' is why i believe the world is such a mess, Our independence from God is the cause of suffering, not God himself.

 

[Ozzieshunni]

I'm all for people having beliefs, but the world is lying in the power of the wicked one? That's a little far, no?

This is why I don't believe in heaven or hell. It's all so forboding. I love the old Celtic beliefs

 

[robinator]

It's not a "little far" if you believe that the Bible is the word of God. You and I don't share the same beliefs, Ozzieshunni, but I'm not going to knock yours.......?

Why do bad things happen? Does anyone really know? And does not knowing discount your entire belief system and thus God?

Why do I think "bad things" happen? Because God loves us. If he didn't love us, we would all be a bunch of Stepfords running around bowing to the commands of our Creator. But because he does love us, he lets us make our own decisions on how to live our lives and when that happens, people do what they want. And bad things happen.

 

[Ozzieshunni]

I just don't understand why people feel that they have to be punished by religion. To me, it feels like an excuse to blame something beyond yourself. Why do bad things happen? Because "God" is punishing us for something we did.

Do you know that Chrisitian mythology is based on Celtic ceremonies? Christmas, Easter, etc. These were all things celebrated by the Celts and morphed to gain conversion. It's fascinating to me.