Do you believe in God?

[weedlefruit]

I don't believe in God, although quite like the poetry of Spinozas God. However, I've always found Spinozas God to just be a needless redefining of the term, a term which in it's basic form is just referring to the indiscriminate and impersonal laws of the universe. That is something you can't not believe in, as the laws of the universe are what we have discovered so far to be the way things are.

In terms of the anthropomorphic personal God concept, I personally don't believe one exists. I'm not against people having the belief and defend the right for people to do so but for me, I've never felt comfortable going on faith as faith to me is not seeing the wood for the tree's. I feel we know too much about biology, geography, sociology, psychology, history etc to be able to go against all of that on faith.

Too much explainable beauty in the world against a very small set of accounts that weren't witnessed first hand.

Those who do believe in God(s), I'd like to find out I guess firstly, which God and why? Have you always believed or was there a particular event, or moment where you started to? (I'm not looking to start debates/arguments/flame wars with this, genuinely want to hear more peoples experiences etc)

[Volatile Psycle]

Good god nooo

[bferg333]

Depends on how you define 'God'.

A greater being than yourself, w/ promises of salvation after death here on earth

[abs]

how or why does anything exist?

[JBoy]

The whole does he or doesnt exist debate has as much point to it as peace talks between israel and palestine.

[wormcode]

Depends on how you define 'God'.

Yeah pretty much, and it will often vary from person to person.

When I was in my teens I read something Noam Chomsky said about the definition of God and why he doesn't consider himself atheist even though he doesn't believe in 'god', which is how I felt since I was old enough to ponder the question myself. Basically, it's not 100% clear what exactly an atheist is supposed to be denying. Years later he described it as being a 'secular atheist'. He explained a bit more here: http://www.edge.org/discourse/bb.html#chomsky

His 'definition of god' text: http://www.wisdomquotes.com/quote/noam-chomsky-11.html

[nousd]

Depends on how you define 'God'.

A greater being than yourself, w/ promises of salvation after death here on earth

When you put it in those terms, no.

There may be a being or beings greater than myself
but it makes no sense that such an ineffable presence
needs to extort me or even have me believe in it.
I have more faith in God than that.

[d-T-r]

There was a big thread on this a while a go i remember. not sure how many pages but it had some alright discussion in it. The search isn't letting me find it, but if anyone else can, link it in here.

If we're going to believe in anything, it might as well be in ourselves and the true potential implications of that.

We can't say for sure if a god exists or not, but what we can see for certainty ,is that there exists a Natural 'Ordering' in the universe. Whether we know something or not, through exploration and harmonious participation with this natural ordering, there's not much we won't be able to find out.

[unwind]

I don't believe in any of the abrahamic gods. Although i would say i'm not an atheist - i think if there is a God or gods, they are far greater than anything we as humans could possibly imagine. And they definately couldn't give two shits about what goes on here on earth.

[fassyman]

I dont believe in god as its defined by christians or any of the other religions.

but i have no doubt there are forces and energies out there in magnitudes we couldn't comprehend with our tiny human minds.

[Dub_freak]

I'm somewhere between agnosticism and atheism, I dont beleive in god but im unwilling to write it of as a possibility (albeit an incredibly minute possibility)

Agnostic atheism

Its possible that the universe was created by a 'god', simply because we dont know what created the universe yet, so anything is a possible explaination.

And what makes yahweh more believable than all the other gods?

[Electric_Head]

I'm somewhere between agnosticism and atheism, I dont beleive in god but im unwilling to write it of as a possibility (albeit an incredibly minute possibility)

Agnostic atheism

Its possible that the universe was created by a 'god', simply because we dont know what created the universe yet, so anything is a possible explaination.

And what makes yahweh more believable than all the other gods?

Universe creation is really not something I`d even consider God for.
All this God talk is just good religious marketing.
Jesus must have been an amazing spokesperson.

[fassyman]

i find it hard to believe the universe was created at all. its constant, its always been and always will be.

[Electric_Head]

i find it hard to believe the universe was created at all. its constant, its always been and always will be.

yep, how did God manage to get the glory for it?

[Dub_freak]

i find it hard to believe the universe was created at all. its constant, its always been and always will be.

Going to need some evidence for that.

[Forum]

i find it hard to believe the universe was created at all. its constant, its always been and always will be.

yep, how did God manage to get the glory for it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manipulation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indoctrination

[fassyman]

i find it hard to believe the universe was created at all. its constant, its always been and always will be.

Going to need some evidence for that.

i have no evidence

but if there was a point in time befor the universe was created, what was there befor?

it cant be nothing

[SoundNuisance]

I don't think there is a 100 foot tall leprechaun flying around jupiter. For that reason I don't think there is a higher being controlling everything.

[Dub_freak]

i find it hard to believe the universe was created at all. its constant, its always been and always will be.

Going to need some evidence for that.

i have no evidence

but if there was a point in time befor the universe was created, what was there befor?

it cant be nothing

Yes it can be nothing

[Electric_Head]

I`ll state the std Atheist comment.

If God is such a loving deity, why does he allow so much pain, hatred and death??
Makes me wonder if he actually has any swing up there in heaven.