Do You Believe In God?

slipss

So do you believe in a God, Christian or otherwise? yes or no?

Anonymous poll

I know theres religion boards but asking the question in a christian board ect would get a very one sided response I think.

I have left only yes or no awnsers, you either believe in some form of God or do not, if you can't bring yourself to decide then simply don't vote.

PlayGirl

you should make more options, such as 'some aspects' or something like that

Ozzy

I beeleve... I beeleve in Gaud

I believe in myself, does that count?

Royale with Cheese

Ozzy wrote:

I beeleve... I beeleve in Gaud

you do?

plonk

No i believe in science and evolution

Sarky

No i believe in science and evolution

That makes you just as bad.



Anyway, Define "God".

plonk

plonk wrote:

No i believe in science and evolution

Mutually exclusive?

plonk

Sarky wrote:

That makes you just as bad.

Why?

Mr.Nice Guy

plonk wrote:

No i believe in science and evolution

Pfft. They didn't make the universe, silly.

plonk

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

Pfft. They didn't make the universe, silly.

How do you know if they did or not

monkeyfudge

I believe in monkeys.

Good old dependable monkeys... always there when I need them.

No god for me thanks.

Mr.Nice Guy

plonk wrote:

How do you know if they did or not

Because if they did they would have said.

toString

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

Pfft. They didn't make the universe, silly.

I'm confused by who they is.

Tar.Aldarion

toString wrote:

I'm confused by who they is.

Science and evolution silly.

plonk

Nobody knows how it all started, probably never will but I like to think there is a logical explanation for everything

cournioni

Whoever this god lad is, someone is making a killing on his books.

Mr.Nice Guy

plonk wrote:

Nobody knows how it all started, probably never will but I like to think there is a logical explanation for everything

You should thank God for your logic.

Sarky

And science and evolution came from where, precisely?

plonk

I used to but now i thank science and evolution

Sarky] Crazy people who took a lot of drugs

Tar.Aldarion

Sarky wrote:

And science and evolution came from where, precisely?

Only BOD can answer you.

toString

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

You should thank God for your logic.

It would seem your views resemble those of you avatars.

No, I don't believe in God/religion, I believe in science/evolution. I think any suggestions that there was a "god" which created man, the planet etc are just a bit naive

Sarky

And believing a system of rough guesswork and a theory full of holes isn't?

Mr.Nice Guy

tostring wrote:

It would seem your views resemble those of you avatars.

You're darn-diddly-right about that!

tostring wrote:

No, I don't believe in God/religion, I believe in science/evolution. I think any suggestions that there was a "god" which created man, the planet etc are just a bit naive

You might enjoy reading this.

NEW YORK - A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. He now believes in God — more or less — based on scientific evidence, and he says so on a video released Thursday.

At age 81, after decades of insisting that belief is a mistake, the professor, Antony Flew, has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a telephone interview from England.

Flew said he was best labeled a deist, like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people’s lives.

“I’m thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins,” he said. “It could be a person in the sense of a being that has intelligence and a purpose, I suppose.”

A gradual conversion
Flew first made his mark with the 1950 article “Theology and Falsification,” based on a paper for the Socratic Club, a weekly Oxford religious forum led by the writer and Christian thinker C.S. Lewis.

Over the years, Flew proclaimed the lack of evidence for God while teaching at Oxford, Aberdeen, Keele and Reading universities in Britain, in visits to numerous U.S. and Canadian campuses and in books, articles, lectures and debates.

There was no one moment of change but a gradual conclusion over recent months for Flew, a spry man who still does not believe in an afterlife.

Yet biologists’ investigation of DNA “has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce [life], that intelligence must have been involved,” Flew says in the new video, “Has Science Discovered God?”

The video draws from a discussion last May in New York organized by author Roy Abraham Varghese’s Institute for Metascientific Research in Garland, Texas. Participants were Flew; Varghese; Israeli physicist Gerald Schroeder, an Orthodox Jew; and Roman Catholic philosopher John Haldane of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

‘Follow the evidence, wherever it leads’
The first hint of Flew’s turn was a letter in the August-September issue of Britain’s Philosophy Now magazine. “It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism,” he wrote.

The letter commended arguments in Schroeder’s “The Hidden Face of God” and “The Wonder of the World” by Varghese, an Eastern Rite Catholic layman.

This week, Flew finished writing the first formal account of his new outlook for the introduction to a new edition of his “God and Philosophy,” scheduled for release next year by Prometheus Books.

Prometheus specializes in skeptical thought, but if his belief upsets people, well, “that’s too bad,” Flew said. “My whole life has been guided by the principle of Plato’s Socrates: Follow the evidence, wherever it leads.”

Discussion among the unfaithful
Last week, Richard Carrier, a writer and Columbia University graduate student, posted new material based on correspondence with Flew on the atheistic Web page Infidels.org. Carrier reassured atheists that Flew accepted only a “minimal God” and believed in no afterlife.

Flew’s “name and stature are big. Whenever you hear people talk about atheists, Flew always comes up,” Carrier said. Still, when it comes to Flew’s reversal, “apart from curiosity, I don’t think it’s like a big deal.”

Flew told The Associated Press that his current ideas had some similarity with those of U.S. “intelligent design” theorists, who see evidence for a guiding force in the construction of the universe. He accepts Darwinian evolution but doubts that it can explain the ultimate origins of life.

Flew, the son of a Methodist minister, became an atheist at 15.

Early in his career, he argued that no conceivable events could constitute proof against God for believers, so skeptics were right to wonder whether the concept of God meant anything at all.

Another landmark was his 1984 article “The Presumption of Atheism,” playing off the presumption of innocence in criminal law. Flew said the debate over God must begin by presuming atheism, putting the burden of proof on those arguing that God existed.

Interesting...

plonk

Sarky wrote:

And believing a system of rough guesswork and a theory full of holes isn't?

Yes but its more accurate than religion

Tar.Aldarion

Sarky wrote:

And believing a system of rough guesswork and a theory full of holes isn't?

get back in yer hole solopsist.

aidan_walsh

Why not both theories?

Someone created it, buggered off and let it run from there. Possibly observing, but not interacting.

toString

Sarky wrote:

And believing a system of rough guesswork and a theory full of holes isn't?

Inappropriate use of the word system, science and evolution is not a system.
There may be holes, but it does make more sense at the end of the day.

Tar.Aldarion

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

You might enjoy reading this.



Interesting...

read http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054867366
and no it is not interesting, his view is of no more importance or relevance than anybodies.
If one guy starts believing in *a* god, whats the news, it goes the other way too you know.

Sarky

plonk wrote:

Yes but its more accurate than religion

There's no way of proving that.

Why can't both sides just accept that neither point of view is anywhere near what probably happened and go for a drink together?

toString

Sarky wrote:

There's no way of proving that.

How about taking a scientific approach to prove it?

Tar.Aldarion

toString wrote:

How about taking a scientific approach to prove it?

I take the evolution way to approach things.
http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~pbowl/issues/futu/HESTON.jpg

EOA_Mushy

I am GOD!




No, realy.... belive in me..... Please.

Mr.Nice Guy

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

read http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054867366
and no it is not interesting, his view is of no more importance or relevance than anybodies.
If one guy starts believing in *a* god, whats the news, it goes the other way too you know.

If a guy renowned for his atheism and who has spent his life preaching atheist views suddenly states that he believes in God, I'd say that's pretty interesting and relevant.

Tar.Aldarion

No no it's not. You seem easily entertained:s when a priest rebukes religion it is no more relevant than anybody doing it. If the pope did it it would be a good laugh though. Same goes the other way. The dude has no proof, only his opinion.

mickymg2003

I believe in god, just not organised religion.

Mr.Nice Guy

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

No no it's not. You seem easily entertained:s when a priest rebukes religion it is no more relevant than anybody doing it.

This guy wasn't the average Joe. You don't seem to get that. He basically renounced the views he held his entire life which influenced people around the world. I'd say that's interesting and relevant and the fact that it has been covered around the world would seem to indicate that many others agree.

You seem a hard man to please.

Crucifix

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

This guy wasn't the average Joe. You don't seem to get that. He basically renounced the views he held his entire life which influenced people around the world. I'd say that's interesting and relevant and the fact that it has been covered around the world would seem to indicate that many others agree.

You seem a hard man to please.

It isn't a big deal; lots of people go senile in old age
Personally, I'd go for 'nobody knows, so lets just chill out and play Mega Man games' school of thought, otherwise know as 'Atari Jaguar'.

Tar.Aldarion

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

This guy wasn't the average Joe. You don't seem to get that. He basically renounced the views he held his entire life which influenced people around the world. I'd say that's interesting and relevant and the fact that it has been covered around the world would seem to indicate that many others agree.

You seem a hard man to please.

Quite hard

read the thread about it, atheists are going so what, if a cardinal turned atheist, christians would say, so what?
and so what? is correct.
Views he held his entire life?
He is not even a scientist, he is a philosopher who likes to admit he is wrong about his own views and that our views are as important as his. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50602035&postcount=8.
there are many people whom go the exact opposite way as him.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50602066&postcount=9

you must remember; "Regardless of whatever Flew's views are, many from authoritarian religions seem to forget that atheism is not an authoritarian religion itself. So it's really not hugely important which way Flew flew, even if he did change direction."

Also,things like some celebrity girl getting breast implants is news around the world, doesn't mean it is interesting.


also, he believes in *a* god not a christian god or anyone people worship.
A lot of atheists accept that a god *may* exist as a lot of theists admit one may not.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50601658&postcount=6

Binomate

I believe in the force.

Dave!

At age 81, after decades of insisting that belief is a mistake, the professor, Antony Flew, has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a telephone interview from England.

That just sounds like a man spending most of his life believing and trying to prove something, and now that he's old and realising that he's not gonna live forever, gives up.

Anywho,
I would be an agnostic... Obviously the universe had to come from somewhere -- something had to come from nothing, etc -- and I don't think it's possible to explain scientifically what it came from, which leaves the only explaination as "something divine did it." Sounds like a cop-out to me, that we can't explain it so stop trying, but unfortunately that's the only explaination out there.
However, like I said, I think it's a cop-out, and there MUST be a logical explaination, like there is for most things that we know exist -- we just haven't worked it out yet.

So I'm agnostic, but leaning more towards atheism.

Sarky

toString wrote:

How about taking a scientific approach to prove it?

Good luck. You'll damn well need it.

Sam Vimes

PORNAPSTER wrote:

Whoever this god lad is, someone is making a killing on his books.

thats fcuking hilarious.


i realised i was god when i was praying one day and i realised i was talking to myself.

i can see the point behind the idea that the universe is so complex that some intelligence must have been behind it. and lets not forget the law of conservation of mass: matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another.

having said that, believing that something created us doesn't mean i have to go to a church every sunday any more than i would go to a synagogue or mosque, or generic temple. there is evidence that something created the universe, but none that that "entity", for want of a better term, has had any interaction with the universe since then. however, there is plenty of prescedent for people making up crazy stories and killing people/shunning them/generally getting a superiority complex over them for not believing them


The Official God FAQ

plonk

Tar Aldarion knows what hes talking about

Mr.Nice Guy

Maybe the atheist cannot find God for the same reason a thief cannot find a policeman. ~ Author Unknown

Sleepy

You can't prove that a God/Allah/Lord Krishna exists.
You can't prove that a he/she/it doesn't.
Therefore the only logical course is to say you don't know if one exists (i.e. Agnosticism)

Given that there's no credible evidence indicating the existence of a God on this planet in the last 5 centuries (the period of human existence for which somewhat reliable accounts of history exist) it's fair to be pretty sceptical about the existence of a deity that has any interest in us. That no more accounts to proof of a lack of a deity however, than a fairystory written over a few hundred years that's peddled to the masses milleniums later by a secretive organisation with an extremely checkered past is proof of the existence of one.

The Gurriour

Do you believe in God . Answer yes or no.....whatever happened to maybe....sometimes...Yet again us undecided cowards are excluded for having our opinions or lack of opinions taken account of, its always the way, ...well its sometimes the way anyhow.

I believe in the idea of God, created in my imagination, a bit like Santa, but God works 24/7.
especially at night or when I need a favour .

Its only been a few hundred years since our ancestors were wiping their bumbums with grass, we are still evolving as creatures who can exist on a planet without killing other creatures for their flesh.....I could murder a big mac right now....... So our ancestors were flesh eating crazies... they invented a God who approved of their Atkins type diet...but then the fools invented boats...and travelled to other islands where other crazies had invented different Gods, and all hell broke out...so is God the problem......or boats....or foreigners... none of this God trouble would started if we had stopped evolving millions of years ago......but no, we had to keep on evolving.. look at me, I can walk up right...and if God is created in our image...at what stage of evolutionary progress was that image set,... does God also evolve...if so why would he need to, if he is mister perfect....where is this evolution thing taken us,...to creatures of radiant light...or fossils .....never see dogs trying to start religions.....they seem quite content to smell each others rears and chase cars....perhaps we could learn a lot from dogs......or perhaps not, after all, a dog will do anything for a reward......perhaps we are descended from slimy worm like aliens, from somewhere off in the Milky way, and our space ship crash landed on Earth, we may have crawled out from the mother ship, all dazed and confused and into the ears of local ape like Earthlings..growing into brains...or perhaps not...now I'm all confused, see the trouble that's caused when someone starts asking , do you believe in God , Yes or No..........I say sometimes....maybe...yes...and ...no.:)

Tar.Aldarion

plonk wrote:

Tar Aldarion knows what hes talking about

Well I do study in the great NuiG :v:

Commander Vimes wrote:

i can see the point behind the idea that the universe is so complex that some intelligence must have been behind it. and lets not forget the law of conservation of mass: matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another.

Let's not forget that that law is not perfect and it does not hold at the quantum level. Things are created from nothing all the time.
At our present stage of understanding, our two main universal laws, concervation of mass and quantum mechanics, do not hold, they are condraticting to each other, before we find a universal theory of 'everything' lets just not take that little fact, something can not come from nothing, as a fact at all.

there is evidence that something created the universe, but none that that "entity", for want of a better term, has had any interaction with the universe since then.

No I think you will find there is no evidence whatsoever, not a glimpse of a shred of a taste.

however, there is plenty of prescedent for people making up crazy stories and killing people/shunning them/generally getting a superiority complex over them for not believing them

There sure is.

Toasty

yeah i do believe in God. sure why wouldn't i?

I suppose I believe in all of them, I just don't worship any. The closest I'd come to that is the indian gods.
And I really don't care where the universe came from.

Nickibaby*

I'm shocked at how little people believe in god, very suprised