Do You Believe In God?

CuriousOwl

**Please read before posting**

I don't intend at all for this thread to become a religious debate about different people's views but am just sincerely curious as to how prevalent faith is in Ireland today, particularly since our nation has always been viewed as being quite religious. I initially thought it would be more suitable in the Religion & Spirituality section, however that section has already been sub-divided into different beliefs and therefore posting it in any particular one of those sub-sections would automatically lead to biased results.

The main question I'm asking is do you believe in a god (whatever your particular religion may be)? If you wish, you can elaborate as to why or why not.

Again, I do not intend for this to be a debate as there are other forums for that.

arybvtcw0eolkf

I believe in Stephen Fry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-suvkwNYSQo

Lia_lia

No.

I was brought up pretty much non-religious. Was baptised when I was 8ish so I could get into a primary school in this country, shame that kind of thing still goes on. Never believed in any of it. The end!

NachoBusiness

Of course, what an odd question.

Having mine around the house really helps me cope with my dyslexia too. He's looking at me now as I type this. He just knows I'm talking about him.

osarusan

No I don't.

5uspect

No, there is no reason to.

K4t

Due to intense gullibility in my youth I used to believe a serious amount of stupid sh*t, but thankfully God was never one of the things I fell for.

Also, I think the more potent question is, why do you believe in God, given it is a choice.

Filmer Paradise

No such thing as a non-believer on a sinking ship!

Personally, I'd like to think there's something out there, but I wouldn't totally count on it.

Sheep Lover

Yes, those without any faith in a higher being are hollow, unfulfilled people usually

Jack Sawyer

You never said which God it is that you are interested in finding out if people believe in him/them/it.....

Anyway no, I don't believe in Santa, Unicorns or any of the dozens of Daft Gods that fools worldwide choose to make a lifelong hobby of believing in....

That I have to be subjected to it in any sense bothers me.

darkpagandeath

Sheep Lover wrote: »

Yes, those without any faith in a higher being are hollow, unfulfilled people usually

And those who believe in a higher being tell everyone how to live their lives. See what I did I made a ridiculous blanket statement not based on any fact. :pac:

skinnie

No I don't.

I think Buddhism is the more rational of any spiritual belief that I can find that doesn't make me question others intellect, and be happy with everything

robindch

CuriousOwl wrote: »

The main question I'm asking is do you believe in a god (whatever your particular religion may be)?

No. And I don't have a "religion"

CuriousOwl wrote: »

If you wish, you can elaborate as to why or why not.

Because the stories are obviously made up.

I don't believe in God, but I don't think that everyone who does is stupid either.

Some of the smartest people I've ever met have had some kind of religious faith. I don't understand it, but there it is.

Cold War Kid

Filmer Paradise wrote: »

No such thing as a non-believer on a sinking ship!

Dunno about the "no such thing" part.

Personally, I'd like to think there's something out there, but I wouldn't totally count on it.

Same here.

I have huge respect for people who are actual christians though - as in, following the teachings of Jesus; being extremely decent, loving, kind, non judgemental people.

wakka12

No its a delusion. Why is a person who said they can see floating spaghetti monsters in the sky called crazy just because millions of people don't also follow their belief without the slightest of proof.

gerrybbadd

No.

I think the whole concept of a God was borne out a human need to know where we originated from. Without a suitable answer, the "God Theory" came about

jjpep

No, at best they all seem a bit silly.

Except for Thor. He's awesome.

Filmer Paradise

jjpep wrote: »

Except for Thor. He's awesome.

Hammer Time!

Roger_007

NO,............(thank God)

Filmer Paradise

Filmer Paradise wrote: »

No such thing as a non-believer on a sinking ship!

Oh but there is!

There's even an association of Military Atheists.

http://militaryatheists.org/atheists-in-foxholes/

Atheists in foxholes, in cockpits, and on ships.

endacl

The real question, OP is, does God believe in you?

Answer:

Of course not. That would be an absurdity, what with him/her/it/them not existing outside the imaginations of the credulous.

stunmer

No.

Christian god is just Santa for adults.

Also it would be interesting to know how many people who voted no put themselves down as religious on the most recent census.

KKkitty

I do believe that a person called Jesus existed. The Bible told us many things he is supposed to have done. He possibly became so revered and venerated purely because he was unique in some regards. What I don't necessarily believe is how the Catholic church has made him out to be a super human. The Catholic church has used him to their own financial gain for centuries.

Arghus

I believe that I'm not sure.

There should be a third option, that of undecided.

I suppose I'd be leaning heavily towards the position of disbelief, definitely almost touching outright disbelief in the concept of an oul lad with a white beard sitting on a cloud. But I wouldn't rule it out entirely, stupid as seems.

It's arrogant to assume that your beliefs in a God are a ticket out of having to explain how the universe works, but it's also arrogant to assume that you can say definitely that you - a human being - know for a fact that there defintely isn't a God.

As a kid I believed, then as I grew older I identified as an atheist, to the point where I'd have arguments with "believers". At the time I thought they were stupid. Looking back some of them were, but not all of them. But I was defintely always overbearing and pumped full of my own sense of self importance. Belief is a crutch for some people, but not everyone and to think that of everyone shows you to be as weak and unquestioning in your thinking as those you despise.

I think agnosticism is a logical position. When it comes down to it, for all our pretensions we know absolutely nothing about the universe and our place in it. So how I can hope to come to a final answer on the question of God? Maybe it isn't even inconceivable that the vastness out there may have some source of self-awareness, would that qualify? After all the atoms have come together in this corner of space to evolve to a point where beings such as us exist, who can look up at the stars and wonder where and why we came from. That's pretty magical without even bringing a supreme being into it. Or is all just a universe of cold mathematics and physics? Who knows.

I wouldn't ram religion down peoples throats. I wouldn't have much faith in it. But until we see everything there is to see, go everywhere worth going too, and know all about it all, and whether it's all in fact even worth knowing about, then our final judgements are strictly provisional.

arybvtcw0eolkf

KKkitty wrote: »

I do believe that a person called Jesus existed. The Bible told us many things he is supposed to have done. He possibly became so revered and venerated purely because he was unique in some regards. What I don't necessarily believe is how the Catholic church has made him out to be a super human. The Catholic church has used him to their own financial gain for centuries.

You should read what Marvel Comics tells us about Batman!.

NachoBusiness

I know he changed his mind a lot on God and religion, but I love these words from Albert Einstein nonetheless.

"Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is of the same kind as the intolerance of the religious fanatics and comes from the same source.

"They are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle.

"They are creatures who, in their grudge against the traditional 'opium for the people' cannot bear the music of the spheres.

"The Wonder of nature does not become smaller because one cannot measure it by the standards of human moral and human aims.

"What separates me from most so-called atheists is a feeling of utter humility toward the unattainable secrets of the harmony of the cosmos."

Bongalongherb

No. I do not believe in God or any such Gods. I believe in science, and beer/weed and also the fruits of the earth, things that I know exist in this reality. For me to believe in an unmeasurable or seeing God would have me enclosed in a mental institution.

EoghanIRL

It all became clear to me when I started reading the gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

endacl

Filmer Paradise wrote: »

Personally, I'd like to think there's something out there, but I wouldn't totally count on it.

There's an abacus out there. Loads of them, in fact. You could totally count on any one of them. And not just count. You could perform any number of complicated arithmetical functions on them.

EoghanIRL

endacl wrote: »

There's an abacus out there. Loads of them, in fact. You could totally count on any one of them. And not just count. You could perform any number of complicated arithmetical functions on them.

Ooh, now I'm divided

KKkitty

KKkitty wrote: »

I do believe that a person called Jesus existed. The Bible told us many things he is supposed to have done. He possibly became so revered and venerated purely because he was unique in some regards. What I don't necessarily believe is how the Catholic church has made him out to be a super human. The Catholic church has used him to their own financial gain for centuries.

Evidence supporting the historicity of JC is very poor, and - discounting the New Testament itself - supporting texts amount to a mention by two historians, the first century historian Josepheus, and a mention of Pilates execution of Jesus in a text by the Roman, Tacitus.

How reliable these texts are is up for debate, but it's surprising that if a man existed who came close to the descriptions of the person and his life in the NT, that he's not more widely written about outside of that text.

When Christians speak of evidence supporting the existence of Jesus, it appears the Bible is their primary source. Which begs many more questions than it answers.

endacl

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Ooh, now I'm divided

The puns could multiply on this one...

Bongalongherb

I believe in Jesus, he's somewhere on boards.ie, ye know the funny guy ?.

KKkitty

Wonder when the head honchos in the Vatican realised money could be made from God though.

endacl

KKkitty wrote: »

Wonder when the head honchos in the Vatican realised money could be made from God though.

February 11, 1929.

KKkitty

KKkitty wrote: »

Wonder when the head honchos in the Vatican realised money could be made from God though.

When they persecuted non believers, exiled them, and rewarded themselves by looting their stuff. Probably. They controlled the behaviours of entire populations with fear, and it extended to financial control too. Unaccountability is absolute power.

I've no problem with people believing in god or gods, it's organised religion that does the damage.

Rabo Karabekian

Candie wrote: »

How reliable these texts are is up for debate, but it's surprising that if a man existed who came close to the descriptions of the person and his life in the NT, that he's not more widely written about outside of that text.

It's only surprising because of what he came to mean, and the influence that he (or the people writing about him) had on the course of history. For the Romans, if they thought of him at all, he was a raving religious nutjob with possible revolutionary associations in a far-flung region of the empire. Even within Judea and Judaism at the time, there were messiahs and prophets and revolutionaries. Most of them could claim to have had far more followers than whatever sect Jesus belonged to. Some of them even managed to put up a fairly decent fight against the Romans.

I think it's telling that when the Romans did write about him they didn't simply say that the whole thing was ludicrous as he didn't exist. They assumed he existed, which may count for something. But as you say, whether these texts can be trusted is up for debate.

Peregrine

No. For me, the concept of a god raised more questions than it answered. There was no evidence and the beliefs didn't add up.

I don't have anything against people who believe in it. I only have a problem with religion when someone's faith affects me or others who don't share that faith.

Sheep Lover

Funny how everyone is just assuming this a Catholic thing, and the usual bandwagon haa rolled up.

What about Islam or Judaism?

Bongalongherb

I saw a few UFO's in the eighties and 90's and they were very unusual to say the least, but does that mean that I believe that they are aliens ? of course not, they are just unidentified flying objects that could possibly be secret military craft or unusual atmospheric phenomena. But I saw the proof that they exist, but I do not know what they really are, and as such I have some personal proof they exist as a physical object.

I have not seen any proof whatsoever of a God or Gods in my life-time. If God exists, then we should have some proof of this at this stage. No proof, then your papers are rejected. Find some proof and I will listen.

The Backwards Man

Don't believe, but I'm not obstinate enough to turn my nose up at the pearly gates if I'm proved wrong at the same time

candy-gal1

Of course there was a guy around millions of years ago, He had long hair and some wild ideas and he didnt do what everyone else thought was right, and that mans name was..............................................................
I forget, but the point is......................................................
I forget that too, ah you know who Im talking about, he used to drive that blue car?!
:P:D

On a serious post though, I believe that theres something out there or up there or down there thats bigger than all of us and eventually we shall see or experience it, it comes as different for everyone - God, Gods, Goddess, nature, books, knowledge, science or just in general and thats just personal to everyones individual beliefs, nothing right or wrong imho because tbh I dont know how anyone can honestly 100% say thats there definitly nothing out there other than us or that there definitly something out there

Unless youve died, experienced something and came back and can prove it of course

Some overtly Athiest people can be as bad as the overtly reiligous imho, Id just love proof and to be able to tell the tale in this life, but sure well see!

endacl

sugarman wrote: »

No.

How anyone can take a book from 2,000 as word of god / the truth is just beyond me.

We laugh now at our ancient ancestors before us worshiping planets as gods, it'll be the same hundreds of years down the line with us and god/faith.

I mean, c'mon... They even lost me at a young age as soon as it got to the burning bush. There could have very well been a burning bush, but to see/hear god coming from it just sounds like it was a bush made from hallucinogenic material.

People were also a hell of a lot more uneducated and extremely gullible back then.

I hear the burning bush thing was a mistranslation of cystitis.

:pac:

Peregrine

Sheep Lover wrote: »

Funny how everyone is just assuming this a Catholic thing, and the usual bandwagon haa rolled up.

What about Islam or Judaism?

Everyone? I don't think Catholicism was even mentioned on the first page.

Considering how over 90% of Ireland come from a Christian background, I don't find it funny at all, to be honest.

Penny Tration

Sheep Lover wrote: »

Funny how everyone is just assuming this a Catholic thing, and the usual bandwagon haa rolled up.

What about Islam or Judaism?

A few (not many) people mentioned the Catholic Church. It's not exactly a Catholic bashing thread. Most people (barring yourself and one or two others) have given polite, tolerant answers.


As for me - no, I don't believe in a god. I've no issue with people who do, whatever their religion. It's their choice and while I may not believe in the same things, I respect their right to their own views and beliefs.

Hammer89

Personally, I don't know. Isn't it more fun to believe that death isn't perhaps the end? I'm not saying I believe in heaven, but there's a comfort in not knowing I think. I lost somebody very close to me in the past year, and one of my methods of coping with the loss was to imagine being with them again. Somewhere. At some time.

I also often wonder whether or not atheists are atheists at the very end; when their bodies are riddled with cancer and on the brink of shutting down, or when their plane is plummeting from the sky. In these moments, you have to wonder if they would have a bit of an aul' pray. Personally, I think a lot of them would.

CuriousOwl

I don't believe in a god myself just because there isn't substantial enough evidence to believe in one. I don't claim that I can say for certain that there isn't one, but I live my life on the basis that there isn't because of a lack of evidence to the contrary.

I also respect everyone's right to believe in whatever they wish as long as their beliefs don't impose on the rights of others.

fergus1001

Science bitch :pac:

Bongalongherb

Hammer89 wrote: »

Personally, I don't know. Isn't it more fun to believe that death isn't perhaps the end? I'm not saying I believe in heaven, but there's a comfort in not knowing I think. I lost somebody very close to me in the past year, and one of my methods of coping with the loss was to imagine being with them again. Somewhere. At some time.

I also often wonder whether or not atheists are atheists at the very end; when their bodies are riddled with cancer and on the brink of shutting down, or when their plane is plummeting from the sky. In these moments, you have to wonder if they would have a bit of an aul' pray. Personally, I think a lot of them would.

I don't believe that death is the end. There's something after it but I can't physically prove it, but This is completely different to the thinking that God was the control of this or has any meaning in it, because of the lack of any proof of God.

All I'm saying is that I'm positively sure that something happens after death. I don't think it is the final end into nothingness, as if we even know what nothingness is in the first place, as nothing is something, we just don't know yet what it is. There's something occupying the space.

Pherekydes

No.

But most people actually believe in Frigg. Every week millions, if not hundreds, say, "Thank God it's Friday!" (Frigg's day). Ergo, Frigg is the one true God.

To the people who believe there are no atheists in foxholes (or on sinking ships), if the thought of dying brings one closer to God then suicide bombers must be doing God's bidding. Think about it: now what's the one true religion?