do you believe?

[rubixcyoob.]

Yes this is about religion.
No it is not a debate.
Yes it is a discussion.

The minute anything offensive gets said by believers or non believers I'm going to ask for it too be locked. I don't want people bashed on their beliefs and ideas of the world. It's all circumstantial and personal.

My question is, if you do believe in a God, why? If you do not, why not?


Me personally, for ages I rode the fence on this subject. I went back and forth between no and yes due to lots of influencing factors. My main ones:

- there can be no God if there is war/famine/death/poverty. However, I soon realised God is not a dictator, he gave free speach and humans freedom to do as they wish. Sure, he laid down ground rules for people to follow, but only if they choose too. He never inforces it. That is the reason for such attrociates. People can choose to go to war and cause these things. (now this is all purely notorious wrongs with the world and deaths).
- there can be no God if so and so died. Again, God doesn't make people die. There is a road set out for people to travel, for however long or short. It is predetermined and nothing can halt it. Everyone has their time, regardless of what kind of person they were. God is just there to help create them so to speak, their path is created through their destiny and when they die God takes them into his Kingdom.

This is what I've started to believe. Sometimes I am still unsure as this is all new to me, I do question it, I do question certain things (which I won't divulge because this isn't a pick apart religion thread), but I'm sure if I just keep going down this path I'll find the answers one day. Until them I am happy believing that there is a God, even if I am unsure of what and who he is exactly. He is there.


I also think that when people ask "if ther eis a God, why do bad things happen to good people" are missing the make up of the world. The world needs to be both good and bad to exist. Ying and yang. Without one there could not be the other, there could not be the Earth. It wouldn't work. So yes, bad things may happen to good people, but it's no ones fault it occured - unless someone committed a crime against them ovbiously (but that's free will so not God's doing). These things happen because it is what is needed to keep the natural balance of the Earth going. It's a delicate balance. It doesn't mean things that happen and are bad are dismissable because it is necessary to keep everything flowing, some things should not happen at all and I do feel deeply for people, I simply cannot imagine. But since I have never looked at it from a hurt ones point of view I suppose it is easier for me to step back and say it is all destiny, it is all needed to keep the balance.

 

[v2007]

I dont know, i want to but when Taylor died i honestly couldnt believe their was a Being up there who wanted my child more than i did.

V xxxx

 

[smokey]

I find it very hard to explain what I believe in.
Some will call me a hypocrit but I attend church, I prey and I will bring my son up within the catholic church and while he is still innocent enough to believe it is all as simple and safe as that I will encourage him to believe.
As a child yes I most certainly did and I still read the bible and would like to think myself quite knowledgable in the teachings of the bible but I cant actualy bring myself to say the words "I believe in god" I believe there is somthing there but as of yet still havnt determined what.
I most certainly believe in the morals behind my religion and the comunity it creates and am fascinated with the teachings of the bible and what it represents.
I think I believe more in the idea of gods, fate, destiny, some form of being rather then a god if that makes sense?

 

[rubixcyoob.]

V I am so so sorry for your loss

Yeah smokey, it makes sense to me. That's kind of how I am, because I am just broaching the waters myself, after 17 years

 

[Dopeyjopey]

I don't believe there is a God in the traditional sense of the word. I do have lots of theories as to how we came here, ranging from a completely random sequence of events to us being an experiment of another species. I may be written off as a weirdo here, but i am starting to sway more towards the idea that when people have documented gods or angels 'descending from above' they are actually referring to beings from other planets. I don't want to pin myself down to one belief system though and am open to the possibility of many things. Unfortunately a single 'God' or 'Creator' doesn't have enough evidence for me to believe it.

 

[OmarsMum]

I believe in God "Allah" one God. For me there must be a creator, life cannot just be a coincidence. Look into the sky & think about it deeply. The only logical answer is that there is a creator, a God, that has created this entire universe and all that exists within it. In fact, there is only one God, because if there were multiple Gods, the universe would not be so perfect and seamless. Everything matches and fits perfectly together in this universe. Everything that exists follows the same laws of nature, the same laws of physics and chemistry. There must be one God who made everything in the universe fall into place and work together to produce this wonderful and inspiring world that we live in.

There must be a meaning to our lives. It cannot be just a matter of living, eating, reproducing and then dying. There must be something more to it. God must have sent us guidance on how to live our lives in the most perfect and pure way, and in the way that would bring us and the entire human race the most happiness and success.

God also knew that not all humans will want to follow this guidance. God created humans with many good attributes and many faults and weaknesses as well. We were given the ability to do good and bad, and the choice was left up to us. This is our test, and our chance to prove our goodness and integrity. In order to help us make the right choice, messengers and prophets with guidance were sent to us. It is up to us to follow their path or to abandon them and continue to live our lives blind to this reality.

There is afterlife (Heaven & Hell), we will all be facing the Judgment of Allah (God), people will be either admitted to Heaven by His mercy, or entered into Hell by His justice.

 

[smokey]

I don't believe there is a God in the traditional sense of the word. I do have lots of theories as to how we came here, ranging from a completely random sequence of events to us being an experiment of another species. I may be written off as a weirdo here, but i am starting to sway more towards the idea that when people have documented gods or angels 'descending from above' they are actually referring to beings from other planets. I don't want to pin myself down to one belief system though and am open to the possibility of many things. Unfortunately a single 'God' or 'Creator' doesn't have enough evidence for me to believe it.

My dad is an athiest (sp?) and I used to spend hours discussing this with him as a child about the possibilities of it all being a experiment.
I remeber playing a sim game that was based on a space shuttle where you had to create a enviroment and atomsphers and an eco system to creat oxygene and had to have all little workers all doing their own jobs to keep everything running and you had to change things like the weather and stuff.
Anyway I was playing it and left it running while I went off out for a few hours to see what would happen and when I came back everything was chaos, the eco sysem had broken down because no one had cared for the plant life so oxygen was minimal, the workers went on strike because because no food was being produced so litter covered the station, all the workers turned to crime, all the buildings where vandalised or deteriating and a brothal had poped up in the middle of the station (go figure) and I remeber looking at it and thinking "wow this is basicly earth, god was running an experiment and got bored and left it to run its course, and this is what happens when you havnt got someone proding the rain and sun button"

Bit pointless but thought id share my musings

 

[Tegans Mama]

I believe there is one God, who overlooks everything that happens here on earth. God is essentially good. I don't think God wrote 'rules for us to follow', I believe everything that is going to happen is already written and we are just following the paths we are destined to take, with some free will thrown in. Every decision we make leads us onto a different path. Things that can be important in ours live would never happen if we didn't do one mundane thing - i.e if I hadn't given my OH my email address, Tegan would not be here.

As for the war/famine etc, some people believe that is God's way of punishing us for our wrong doing. As a race we are killing the Earth. However, I can't believe this part, when I look around at all the women who have lost children through miscarriages, stillbirths, SIDS. It is cruel, nothing less than cruel and if it God has caused that, then it makes me sick. Unfortunately I do think that death occurs when the human body just cannot continue it's life cycle. It is tragic and horrifying, but afterall, our bodies are only here for an infinite time. I believe we live on in spirit - the after life is a good place for everyone, after we have atoned for our sins. By atoning for your sins, you spend time parted from those you love who have passed. When we pass in good light, we join our families who have gone before us. On Judgement Day, there are three groups of people - the thoroughly righteous people will have everlasting life in heaven (Gan Edan) where we will enjoy sunshine, good food, and lots of... sex! , the thoroughly wicked will be damned to hell (Gehinnom) where we spend 12 months being punished, and then are sometimes sent to heaven, or annihilated from existence, or sometimes further punished and those inbetween, who will be re-cast as good people. Judaism is more about doing than believing - our time on Earth as people is short, and whilst we're here we are here to serve God and the people who inhabit the world with us. One of our major duties on earth is to create more children to populate the world. The Righteous dead will be resurrected in the Messianic Age - when the messiah comes. In Judaism, we don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, therefore we don't celebrate Christmas.

I don't force my beliefs or views on anyone. My OH is not religious, and although I am (Jewish) I don't practice because I was bought up my Mum, and my Dad is Jewish. I am Jewish by birth, so no matter what I do, I'll always be Jewish - if I convert to Christianity I'll be a Jewish Christian!

 

[Dopeyjopey]

^^ it's fascinating, isn't it? We were given life, be it by God, Gods, aliens or Mother Nature, and we don't respect it at all. There is a far bigger picture that many of us are missing out on.

 

[Kimmer]

I don't believe in any God. I believe in science and evidence. Always have done.

 

[Dopeyjopey]

I don't believe in any God. I believe in science and evidence. Always have done.

I hope you don't mind me asking this, it is general interest rather than debate, but what do you think of Einstein's quote - "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."?

 

[smokey]

I think there is more then plenty of room in life for both science, facts and belief, pure faith.

I understand the science of most things such as particles, photosynthesis and evelotion but then I cant help but think about bumble bees
Everything says that little bee should not be capable of flight given its body mass to wing ratio yet it still manges to happily fly around bugging me on summer days

 

[freckleonear]

I believe in the God of the Bible, Jehovah. He created a perfect world but gave us free will. When Adam and Eve disobeyed Him, sin entered into the world and ruined it. All human beings since Adam and Eve are born as sinners. God is just, so the punishment for sin is death. He sent Jesus Christ as a substitute for us, to live the perfect life that we could never live and then die to take the punishment for our sins. Those who repent of their sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved and have everlasting life in heaven.

When I was little I didn't understand free will and used to think that God should have made it so Adam and Eve didn't sin, then the world would have stayed perfect. Some spiritual things can be very hard to wrap your mind around!

As for why I believe in God, it is partly because of personal experience and partly because of the evidence in creation. Since I was converted I have experienced the power of God in my life through answered prayer, so He is very real to me. I also don't find religion and science to be incompatible, even though I studied biology at university level. Things like irreducible complexity in nature just confirm my belief in God.

 

[Kimmer]

I don't believe in any God. I believe in science and evidence. Always have done.

I hope you don't mind me asking this, it is general interest rather than debate, but what do you think of Einstein's quote - "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."?

I'm not 100% sure what that means exactly to be honest.
I've spoken about this topic at length with a lot of science teachers/lecturers and all scientists that I've met do not believe in any God.

One quote I feel sums it up quite well is 'Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings'

I find it quite a shocking thing to say, but it made me think a lot.

 

[Tegans Mama]

One quote I feel sums it up quite well is 'Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings'

I find it quite a shocking thing to say, but it made me think a lot.

Wow, that's quite an offensive thing to write on a thread about religion, is it not??? I don't think Al Qaeda really base their insane mass murders on any genuine religion 99.999999% of religious people do not believe God wants them to kill people.

 

[smokey]

I don't believe in any God. I believe in science and evidence. Always have done.

I hope you don't mind me asking this, it is general interest rather than debate, but what do you think of Einstein's quote - "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."?

I'm not 100% sure what that means exactly to be honest.
I've spoken about this topic at length with a lot of science teachers/lecturers and all scientists that I've met do not believe in any God.

One quote I feel sums it up quite well is 'Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings'
I find it quite a shocking thing to say, but it made me think a lot.

Haha sorry but that made me laugh, tell that to the guy who tried creating a gas propeled flying machine that lost controll and smashed
I bet he chose to talk to god at the last second

 

[Kimmer]

One quote I feel sums it up quite well is 'Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings'

I find it quite a shocking thing to say, but it made me think a lot.

Wow, that's quite an offensive thing to write on a thread about religion, is it not??? I don't think Al Qaeda really base their insane mass murders on any genuine religion 99.999999% of religious people do not believe God wants them to kill people.

It's not my quote, it just really makes people think. I don't believe for one second that all religious people want to kill everyone else, but very religion has it's own God, every religion thinks they have the only God and that they are right.

I think there are a lot of issues that are around now that would exist if it wasn't for religion.

Just my opinion, I'm not trying to get anyones back up here

 

[Tegans Mama]

Of course you're right, however mostly I don't think religion itself is to blame, I think it's people. If there wasn't religion, they'd fight about something else.

 

[freckleonear]

I don't believe in any God. I believe in science and evidence. Always have done.

I hope you don't mind me asking this, it is general interest rather than debate, but what do you think of Einstein's quote - "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."?

I'm not 100% sure what that means exactly to be honest.
I've spoken about this topic at length with a lot of science teachers/lecturers and all scientists that I've met do not believe in any God.

One quote I feel sums it up quite well is 'Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings'

I find it quite a shocking thing to say, but it made me think a lot.

Many of our greatest scientists were devout Christians. Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Pascal, Boyle, Huygens, Wren, Newton, Faraday, Mendel, Kelvin and Maxwell are just a few. I agree that many scientists nowadays are atheists but so are many of the general population. There are plenty of my great modern day scientists who believe in God, such as Professor Stuart Burgess and Dr Andy MacIntosh in the UK and many of the famous American scientists.

 

[indy and lara]

I don't believe in any God. I believe in science and evidence. Always have done.

Me too. Have no faith or belief in God. Each to their own but nothing is likely to change my mind.