God/The Lord

I do. I am a Christian and I firmly believe in the Holy Trinity: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. I believe that He has died on the cross for all our sins and has been raised to life again, and that anyone who chooses to believe in Him will have eternal life.

I do not believe in any God. I was raised non-religious, although I have very religious close family. The way my view of the universe works, there is no need for a God, but if it turns out there was one, I wouldn't be mad about it. I default to agnostic atheism, which means I do not believe in a God or any deity, but I do not claim this to be sure about this, because if there was a God his existence is not able to be proven at the moment, and it is unknown if there is a higher being. There is no proof that there is either a God or a lack there of, but I default to not believing in a higher being. I respect other people their beliefs if they do believe in a higher being, as long as they respect my boundaries on the subject.

I was raise Catholic and went to a Catholic school all my life. (except for college, it's just a community college). So I was raised to believe that their is a God. I think there is some sort of higher power, but i don't understand when we pray for safety and forgiveness, bad things happen? I always was taught that things in the Bible were suppose to be "true" stories, but now i'm hearing their just lessons we need to learn and the stories are made up? Now that is where I am confused. I am also confused by that in the Bible you aren't suppose to have a child before marriage or get a divorce, then why did the current pope marry those people who had a child before marriage and a divorced couple? Lastly, in a Catholic mass, you are suppose to kneel during some parts of a mass. I've been to different churches, and all churches do their own thing which confuses me. My religion confuses me and it seems nobody is on the same page anymore.

I was raised as a protestant christian (Lutheran? idk). Mum read me tales from the bible at bedtime and I was baptized and confirmed and believed in god like it was natural and true. Aaand then I became a scientist :B

I don't know if the science has really got something to do with it or if I just grew up. But when I've been thinking hard about it, I've come to the conclusion that the reason all kinds of humans have always had some deity or higher force to believe in, is that there have been things we couldn't explain otherwise. Thunder? Oh, it's Thor and his hammer. Bad luck? It's karma biting your ass. The beginning of time? Must have been a god in heaven pointing his fingers and declaring what's what. But now there are many things for which we don't need a god anymore.

Some claim to believe that there "is something up there, but not a bearded allfather". I used to say this too. Because how else can we truly explain the fact that we are here, on Earth, in the vast empty nothingness that is the universe, and that we have created all these fantastic things? Well... Logically looking at history, I see that we will know more and more and possibly at some point in the future reach the ultimate truth. Perhaps that turns out to be a god of some kind. But until we know, I find it ridiculous to run around and believe in stories dictated by age old politics, such as the Bible. Again, I mean no disrespect to believers as individuals, I just cannot bring myself to take your beliefs seriously. To me, it's similar to how some people believe they were cats in a different life and want to wear diadems with ears and make their teeth pointy to get closer to that again. It's just a belief, why should one be more right than another in this world? As long as you are a nice human being, I'm gonna let you believe what you want. Just don't pull me in with you.

Now, individual beliefs is one thing. Religion is different. Religion has over the course of history brought people close and given them reasons to hold on and do great things. But it's also completely ridiculous when it comes to war. At this day and age, religion is dangerous. Some people believe that religious laws stand above a country's laws. We can't have that in countries where not everybody believes in the same thing. We need laws based on reason, not old myths.

What I "believe" in, is the human spirit. We are fantastic beings and when we bond together, we can do so much. The only thing we know for sure in life, really, is that we can make each other feel happy. Bond together over that and live by laws of reason, not ancient guidelines with no practical purpose today!

So to answer the question, finally: no, I don't believe in god. Sometimes I wish that there was something more "up there", and sometimes I believe it. But I can't know and I don't want to pretend that I know by claiming to fully believe in something. So I guess that makes me... a textbook agnostic atheist? :)


EDIT: oh lord... I just read on Lutheranism on Wikipedia and yep, this is how I've been raised. Hello Sweden. What we're taught in our early years sure defines how we see the world.

I am a Christian so I do believe in God and I take it very seriously. For all of you who talk about the "problems with religion" and having it "shoved in your face," I have a message: they're doing it wrong. Don't judge all of us by the sign wavers until you get to know us.

No.

Just over a year ago I was actively defending my Catholic faith here on PC. Flash forward to January 2015 I happened to pick up a curious book -- "the God Delusion". It changed my life, I never imagined myself to be an atheist (I always imagined I'd be agnostic if I stopped believing in God somehow).

Quajutsu said:

I am a Christian so I do believe in God and I take it very seriously. For all of you who talk about the "problems with religion" and having it "shoved in your face," I have a message: they're doing it wrong. Don't judge all of us by the sign wavers until you get to know us.

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I just find it very interesting with people who thoroughly believe. It's been a long time, if ever, since I been able to convince myself of something like that. In a way, I'm jealous of your faith and would like to understand it.

just a couple years ago I was a christian. but as I continued my studies in university, experienced different cultures, and looked for answers to my long standing questions about christianity, I slowly began to realize that it was a logically untenable position.

so now, no. I don't believe that god exists. even if a divine creator of the universe existed, it's most likely much closer to a non-caring, deistic god than the JCI god. (which is basically the god people think about when they talk about god)

Aeroblast said:

just a couple years ago I was a christian. but as I continued my studies in university, experienced different cultures, and looked for answers to my long standing questions about christianity, I slowly began to realize that it was a logically untenable position.

so now, no. I don't believe that god exists. even if a divine creator of the universe existed, it's most likely much closer to a non-caring, deistic god than the JCI god. (which is basically the god people think about when they talk about god)

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I agree so much. These are pretty much also my thoughts/experiences.

A couple of years ago I was a believing Christian myself and I actually considered it rather important to me. But as time passed, I began to question religion and ultimately came to the conclusion that the concept of a God as portrayed by most religions is kind of irrational. Admittedly, the question of how this universe came into existence is beyond my imagination, but if there is a creator, I'm pretty sure they don't share any human attributes like an idea of what is good and what is bad. Given how big and old the universe is, it just appears unlikely to me.

So therefore, I consider myself an atheist. And I'm pretty glad that I left my belief behind and came to this point of view.

Despite my Atheist upbringing, my answer is yes. I am not traditionally religious (although I do pray in my own way, I do not attend Church and I do not subscribe to any particular religion), but I do believe there is a superior benevolent force permeating the whole Univese as we know it.

I used to be an Atheist as well, but some things happened that have led me to believe that perhaps I was wrong and God/a God-like presence really exists.