Your View of God

[FreakyLocz14]

Atheism is a religion because it is faith-based. If you believe that there is no God, yet you have no evidence to prove that, your belief is based on faith.

 

[Cherrim]

This "is atheism a religion" argument is kind of off-topic and has nothing to do with "your view of god". Someone already posted a dictionary definition that proves both sides so can we get back to talking about god and personal beliefs regarding one rather than atheism vs religion? Specific debate and discussion about atheism (the exact opposite of this thread :P) can go in this already existing thread about atheism.

I say not possible. I mean, wouldn't he stop all these nasty wars, change my username, etc?

If there is a god, maybe it's an apathetic one, or one who wants destruction rather than salvation for everyone. (Or one who doesn't like name changes.) ;P I don't think that's a reason to discount the existence of one, but it may be a reason for you to discount the existence of a good god.

 

[HarrisonH]

Atheism is a religion because it is faith-based. If you believe that there is no God, yet you have no evidence to prove that, your belief is based on faith.

Repeating the same thing over and over again doesn't make it true, case in point. Take the time to read the other posts clearly explaining why atheism is not a religion, and stop repeating the same tripe.

 

[FreakyLocz14]

Repeating the same thing over and over again doesn't make it true, case in point. Take the time to read the other posts clearly explaining why atheism is not a religion, and stop repeating the same tripe.

OK. Let's just agree to disagree and get back on topic.

 

[~*!*~Tatsujin Gosuto~*!*~]

What are your views on god?
Lets just say that I do not believe in God for my personal reasons

Do you think he/she/it is the the highest of beings?
No, But I believe that I am lol

Do you think there is one, or many?
None, I have my reasons

Do you think god is ancient mans perception of aliens? Or do not believe in a supreme being at all, and think we all just are?
I think we all just are


:t354:TG

 

[twocows]

Atheism is circular reasoning in action.
"I don't believe in faith, only things that can be proven. So I'm going to positively believe in the nonexistnce of God even though that cannot be proven, either."

All atheists I know personally believe that there is no God. Perhaps you are confusing pure atheism with agnostic atheism.

Perhaps you should have specified what sort of atheism to begin with. The term "atheism" by itself says nothing of certainty, only of a general belief in the non-existence of a higher power.

I find people who believe anything with 100% certainty to be unwise (for lack of a better term). I believe nothing in the universe happens with 100% certainty. That said, I think most atheists do not certainly believe in the non-existence of a higher power like you say. I do not believe in a higher power because I do not believe that there is a statistically significant likelihood that such an entity exists. I think this is the standard that most atheists base their beliefs on (though surely not all). That and the idea doesn't make any logical sense to me, and I place a great deal of importance on logic.

I also believe that even if there is a higher power, it's probably not the kind seen in Christianity. There are tens of thousands of different religions out there and I see no reason why one is any more credible than another.

However, as I mentioned earlier, Hinduism holds a certain appeal to me personally; I like the idea that if there is a higher power, that it and all of us (and all things, for that matter) are one and the same.

 

[XxSweetDreamsxX]

I avoid these conversations because people are very attached to their beliefs

If you avoid them, why are you commenting on here...?


Anyways, my views of God are mixed. I use to believe in one when I was younger, but now I have my doubts. I don't know what to believe in, and therefore I don't believe. People keep trying to guide me back to Christianity, but I feel as if everything they tell me are...lies.

I don't connect with a spiritual being. I'm just thankful that I'm living period, and that I'll continue to live for many more years to come. No one thinks that's good enough...my friends have literally been forcing me to believe in a God, lately. Help?

 

[Seуmour]

I view God as an entity or superset of entities that others believe in. When this entity/ies or its belief is pushed onto me through religious force feeding, it vexes me.

 

[keoni]

My view of a god in general: There's no evidence of one, and as such I have no belief in one.

As for my view of the god of the Old Testament, I'll have to agree with Richard Dawkins:

I must agree.... I also think a good reference if you want more of a comedic standpoint is George Carlin.... R.I.P.

 

[Esper]

I don't have any personal belief in any god, goddess, non-gendered spiritual being, plural or otherwise. But if I did...

The most reasonable and likely view I'd have would be one where there is a general originating energy - nothing personalized - for the universe and the force behind the structure of everything. However, I think it would be more fun to believe in personalized beings, in a way similar to those pantheon religions of ye olde days, only maybe without so much blood and sacrificing, but still some way to call 'em up if you needed help with anything. It would be nice to have someone whose job it was to watch over all the different aspects and affairs of us wee mortals. You'd know you had someone specific to call and that'd be comforting, I suppose.

 

[Åzurε]

What are your views on god?
Christian Fundamentalist. I believe in God as described in the Bible, the all-knowing, all-powerful, extradimensional and eternal one who created mankind and has been watching and speaking and helping ever since to save anybody who would come and obey from separation. I believe in Christ as the Son and Word of God, entirely divine and entirely human in nature, who had to be sacrificed to overcome the barriers between God and humanity. On a more specific note, I believe God enjoys using harmony in his designs and messages- different sounds, positions, thoughts, all speaking to one truth.

Do you think he/she/it is the the highest of beings?
Mmm...yup.

Do you think there is one, or many?
One God, who has revealed himself to humanity in 3 ways- God the Father to the Hebrew nation, God the Son whose message applies to all people, and God the Holy Spirit to the whole world through the teachings of Jesus.

Do you think god is ancient mans perception of aliens?
Take a guess. I'll give you 3 chances.

Or do not believe in a supreme being at all, and think we all just are?
In my eyes, that's quite silly to even consider. I've yet to see scientific evidence proving any occurrence of macroevolution, which is more or less essential to any naturalistic cause of the existence of mankind. And don't get me started on a naturalistic origin of the first lifeforms. From there, the Christian God has provided the best (not an opinion, in my opinion) answers for how we are to live, which resonate with mankind's real nature, which is also, coincidentally, revealed through the Bible.

You wanna chat with me a bit, SweetDreams? I'm always willing. Your choice. ;o

I find people who believe anything with 100% certainty to be unwise (for lack of a better term). I believe nothing in the universe happens with 100% certainty.

If I may, how then do we conduct science? If you test under one set of circumstances multiple times, you expect the same result. If there is a variance, don't you look for changes in the conditions under which it occurred? What reason have we to believe that gravity and laws of motion only apply 99.9% of the time? I believe we decided to call them laws for a reason.

I also believe that even if there is a higher power, it's probably not the kind seen in Christianity. There are tens of thousands of different religions out there and I see no reason why one is any more credible than another.

Truth aligns with truth. If something doesn't resonate with reality it is, for all intents and purposes, false. I see Christianity and my God as resonating with the truth of reality.

 

[twocows]

If I may, how then do we conduct science? If you test under one set of circumstances multiple times, you expect the same result. If there is a variance, don't you look for changes in the conditions under which it occurred? What reason have we to believe that gravity and laws of motion only apply 99.9% of the time? I believe we decided to call them laws for a reason.

Nothing happens at a 100% certainty. This is the essence of the field of statistics. Whether it's because as you're dropping your object to test gravity, someone comes along and kicks it before it hits the ground, or for some other reason, nothing happens for certain. The reason things are called laws is because we have determined these formulas as things that explain a certain outcome provided there is no interference (in other words, an ideal environment, which is something that never exists in our universe).

Truth aligns with truth. If something doesn't resonate with reality it is, for all intents and purposes, false. I see Christianity and my God as resonating with the truth of reality.

It seems like you're saying no other religion makes sense and that Christianity does (though perhaps I'm misunderstanding, given your unusual wording and seemingly irrelevant tautology). If that's the case, surely you must have an understanding of every other religion that exists (or even every other major religion)? Perhaps you could tell me the basic ideas behind them, for instance?

I can tell you right now that Christianity is no more credible than any other religion. I find it especially laughable that any Christian would outright reject Islam as implausible when it is to Christianity what Christianity is to Judaism. If you believe in Christianity, so be it, but don't try to pawn it off as somehow more credible than other religions. That's just foolish. Besides, one of the main ideas in Christianity is "faith." If there was evidence, there would not need to be faith; to a believer, evidence should be irrelevant. If you want to convince people, you should try to show them that the ideals of Christianity are better (which I argue they are not; I find Hinduism to have the most agreeable ideals).

 

[HarrisonH]

I've yet to see scientific evidence proving any occurrence of macroevolution.

Then you haven't looked hard enough.

And don't get me started on a naturalistic origin of the first lifeforms.

Abiogenesis, anyone?


As for you reaching out to Sweetdreams, I think you missed the point that she doesn't want to be pressured to believe in a god, which is exactly what it seems like you would do.

 

[Livewire]

If I may, how then do we conduct science? If you test under one set of circumstances multiple times, you expect the same result. If there is a variance, don't you look for changes in the conditions under which it occurred? What reason have we to believe that gravity and laws of motion only apply 99.9% of the time? I believe we decided to call them laws for a reason.

"Nothing is always absolutely so"

Nothing is foolproof, notice Sturgeon's Law. You cannot say for sure which way or the other, becuase we simply as mere mortals could not possibly begin to fathom the powers of a god, or omnipotent being. According to most scripture, of many religeons, to say that you're capable of understanding God's motive's or its plans,nature,ways, etc, would surely be blasphemous, putting yourself on par with an all powerful being. This is where philosophically and logically, religion's argument for itself begins to sputter.

 

[Åzurε]

Then you haven't looked hard enough.

Abiogenesis, anyone?

Ohhh, I called it, didn't I?

I've not had time to consider thoroughly on the articles you presented, but I'll get back to you in a day or so. EDIT: maybe not. It's Monday and I haven't had a chance to read through them. I've seen that site before, I believe... After a quick read over one of the abiogenesis articles (Lies, Damned Lies, etc.), they state that they don't know how probable it is that life would form, and that it all comes down to as-of-yet unstudied biochemistry. I wonder if they've closely considered the conditions such a self-replicating molecule would have to exist and persist in, or how the chemicals necessary for it's formation would themselves come to be in the ocean.

As for you reaching out to Sweetdreams, I think you missed the point that she doesn't want to be pressured to believe in a god, which is exactly what it seems like you would do.

No pressure. I only want to help, as much as I could from the other side of the internet. She said the things her friends are saying feel like lies, and lies need to be broken, wherever they stem from. I think you and I could both agree on that.

"Nothing is always absolutely so"

Nothing is foolproof, notice Sturgeon's Law. You cannot say for sure which way or the other, becuase we simply as mere mortals could not possibly begin to fathom the powers of a god, or omnipotent being. According to most scripture, of many religeons,

Name "many religions", preferably with a small sampling of their scriptures.

to say that you're capable of understanding God's motive's or its plans,nature,ways, etc, would surely be blasphemous, putting yourself on par with an all powerful being. This is where philosophically and logically, religion's argument for itself begins to sputter.

According to the Bible, man is made in God's image. A little page-flipping shows that God calls himself invisible, having no physical form. So, what is immaterial about a human? The soul. The innermost being is created like God's own, although noticeably downsized. God relates with members of our lowly race multiple times throughout Biblical history, making promises and giving advice and ultimately circumventing the division between the two parties through the sacrifice of a man inspired of God's Spirit. He's called Father and Brother and Counselor and Friend. We can begin to understand through our similarities, and approach closer with the proper attitude, but we'll never comprehend the entirety of His plans by virtue of being fundamentally inferior to Him.

As for Sturgeon's Law, what proves THAT to be true? It sounds like everybody sort of said "Well, I like that little maxim!". What reason have I to honestly believe that? I'm of the opinion that events stem from other events, even if it doesn't appear that way without very close inspection (Note that this opinion isn't the result of worldly knowledge, though- I understand they're considering truly random movement on the atomic and(/or?) subatomic scales, but I haven't taken much interest in that so far). The universe appears to reveal increasingly infinitesimal facets of order as we conduct research, and it generally seems to be turtles all the way down.

 

[Her]

ARE YOU THERE GOD IT'S ME MARGARET

What are your views on god?
I'm Agnostic, I've always had a confused 'relationship' with God, or gods, as it may be. I've counted myself as Catholic, Protestant and Atheist over the years but I always return to insecurity (I guess) of not knowing if there is a god. In all honesty, I'd like to say that I don't want to know the answer to if God/god's exist or not, but I do. It would answer a lot of questions I've asked over the years, why I've felt abandoned, but sometimes the feeling of something watching over me. I think what it comes down to though is that I am scared of completely denying the existence of God/god's, lest I be wrong, or even worse, lest I be right. I don't believe humanity can handle not having a higher power to believe in, something to keep us in line. I think humanity would be lost without religion, as much strife and anger it causes. If you take away religion, what do people put faith in? Some people would put it in themselves, sure, but some of us just need someone or something to guide them

Do you think he/she/it is the the highest of beings?
no that's leonardo di caprio NEXT QUESTION

Do you think there is one, or many?
I've never been able to wrestle the idea into my head that there is only one god, it's too massive a concept for me to comprehend. It seems that there is just too much in this world, the universe in fact, for one being to be lord and creator of. But saying that, I guess thats what the almighty power of being a god is.
I've always toyed with the idea of polytheism, especially the most famous example, the Greek gods. It seems more... efficient to give many aspects of nature and life to many different gods, such as eg: Apollo being god of the sun, Artemis being goddess of virginity, the hunt and so forth. Actually, touching on Apollo, I'd like to point out that Apollo being god of the sun was man's way of explaining the phenomenon of the sun being, well, the sun. I just find that interesting.

Do you think god is ancient mans perception of aliens?
Have you played Assassins Creed? I'm assuming that's the source of this question, haha. No, I don't believe that god is the ancient mans perception of aliens. Forgive me for being childish, but thanks to modern society, I can't get past alien meaning anything other than 'little green men' or being foreign, particularly Mexican.

Or do not believe in a supreme being at all, and think we all just are?
I'd like to think that we were more than just a chance creation of the big bang, which I guess is the fundamental aspect of all religion, having something to have faith in, something which we can believe in that that makes us think we aren't just a random assortment of atoms, something that lets us believe that we were meant to be. But, as I said in the beginning of this post, I'm Agnostic and am not sure whether I want to believe in something or not.

 

[Spidey]

My view of a god in general: There's no evidence of one, and as such I have no belief in one.

As for my view of the god of the Old Testament, I'll have to agree with Richard Dawkins:

^ Exactly this.

I don't believe in any kind of 'higher power' or whatever you want to call it. There's no evidence at all, to me it's just a made up story, and some of the things in the bible are just ridiculous and are things that could never happen.

 

[twocows]

The universe appears to reveal increasingly infinitesimal facets of order as we conduct research, and it generally seems to be turtles all the way down.

You clearly haven't studied science at a professional level. Statistical error is always part of the results. Every single scientific experiment in today's world includes a section on expected error values. Randomness is inherent to the nature of science. Science hasn't used a strictly determinist model in many, many years.

 

[Åzurε]

You clearly haven't studied science at a professional level. Statistical error is always part of the results. Every single scientific experiment in today's world includes a section on expected error values. Randomness is inherent to the nature of science. Science hasn't used a strictly determinist model in many, many years.

People make allowances for flaws and variables in the environment? Okay. So far I've gathered that humans are imperfect at doing science, and that there are minuscule changes between one instance of an experiment and the next. But that's not what I'm talking about.

Do the principles (the principles themselves- how one chemical reacts to another, or the effects of applying a certain amount of heat to a substance) at work in a given experiment change depending on observed results? Are they uncertain?
A degree of change is expected- a facet of nature, a "law" suddenly not applying is unheard of. That's what I mean when I question Sturgeon's Law.

I certainly hope I'm communicating my thoughts effectively.

 

[Bluerang1]

I believe God is real. He's existence, unexplainable. Made the universe. Madeus.