Do You Believe In God?

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Ooh, now I'm divided

The puns could multiply on this one...

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

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!

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.

Science bitch :pac:

No, obviously

Yea I do believe in God It's the way I was brought up.and although I would not be a regular church goer I could never say that I dont believe in the man above

K4t wrote: »

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.

I wouldn't necessarily correlate gullibility with youth K4. I believe that children are far more skeptical than adults give them credit for. I know far more adults that hold fast to some woefully incredulous ideas than I know children who do the same. I also know far too many adults who will believe the first thing they're told, as opposed to children who will always question the veracity of what they're being told.

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

Indeed that is, or at least should be the more pertinent question, as questioning the existence or indeed lack thereof, of a supernatural deity or deities, the answer is a simple yes/no, that tells us nothing about the person (unless you're one of those people who immediately dismisses people as idiots, upon discovering that they don't share your world view, which says more about you* than it does the other person).

Well, for me personally, the question of "why?" is easily answerable. I wrote this response in another thread recently in response to a person who felt they were losing their faith -

One eyed Jack wrote: »

LuckyDude before you go traipsing through the Bible, and looking for a needle in a haystack is what you'd really be doing there, trying to rediscover your faith by reading through whole tomes, I'd suggest you start with the Beatitudes. Forget about the commandments, well, not "forget" about them but put them aside for now, as they're just common sense really, but the Beatitudes are a much better guide for living your life as a Christian and in particular, certainly in my case anyway, as a Roman Catholic -


http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02371a.htm

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/st-augustines-commentary-on-the-sermon-on-the-mount

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=24112


I will say too that when you find something tedious - stop doing it. There are many, many ways in which you can indulge your faith without feeling you have to prove anything, to anyone. In my opinion at least, a person's faith is deeply personal to them and them alone, and what's most important is what their faith means to them, not to anyone else.

I have many, many times questioned my faith btw, and I've researched other religions (and none) and I've found that has actually strengthened my faith. They just weren't something I could personally identify with, though I do attend a Pentecostal service after mass on Sunday and they really do know how to rock the joint, worth attending just for the experience alone!

I can say that were it not for my faith, and were it not for my continued questioning of my faith, I wouldn't be here today. One of the things I constantly have to remind myself of is that I don't get to choose when I go. It's simply not my place, so I make the most of life while I'm here.

One thing I always try and explain to people is that it isn't ideas, or even shared ideals that hurt other people. It's people that hurt other people. It's people that interpret ideas to suit themselves, and how they impose their ideas upon other people, to control and exploit other people, that hurts other people. It's not the ideas themselves that are harmful, it's how people interpret the ideas for themselves that they can use either to do harm to other people. The opposite is also true - ideas can also influence people to do good in the world.

Depending upon your perspective, that can either be a good thing, or a bad thing.


*Not 'you' personally, but 'you' in the objective sense of the word.

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 think so tbf. In truth I think that I would prefer to invest my faith far more in the abilities of medical staff to either cure what ails me, or send me off expediently and painlessly as possible were a miracle not forthcoming. I would also invest my faith more in the abilities of the pilots actually flying the plane, to be able to pull it from a nose dive (the Israelis can do it with jet fighters, the Americans just say 'fcuk it' and eject... amazing how we take things for granted when we can afford to), than for the hand of God to intervene and pull the nose of the plane upwards...


(it's also quite possible in either scenario that I may end up simply soiling myself before the thought of prayer would occur to me as a viable solution. I've always said I have no problem with people who talk to God - it's when they claim He's talking back to them that I may raise an eyebrow)

Generally speaking no but sometimes I'm open to the possibility he exists and just doesn't want anyone to know about it. He is probably kinda annoyed at all the people worshiping him.