Do you believe in God ?

[Telstra]

and why ?


*** I know I know it is such a boring topic,
but there are still Churches and Mosques you know !!!

 

[Cormac135]

Yes.

Why ? Fucked if i know to be honest, as a kid i used to love the church, the whole theatre and it probably is the greatest story ever told.

As an adult i know it's all hokum, though it's still comforting to think there may be someone or something behind the curtain.

 

[Rickrock]

Yes, I believe in God.

First, I was born and raised in a family that practiced religion and I have my parents and grandparents examples of praying daily and attending church weekly and all of the religious classes I had.

Second, I believe in life after this life because of stories I was told about experiences my grandmother and others have had. The church tells us that there is life after this life and if I believe that, then I am likely to believe in God.

Third, I have had at least two experiences in life where I believe God was telling me something about my life by mental telepathy.

 

[jbrown329]

Nope. Atheist to the core. The only Christians I go after about their beliefs are the RWNJs. You know, the ones that cherry pick the bible. They're the ones that ignore Jesus' teachings.

 

[Rickrock]

P.S. In case it isn't obvious, when I say life after life, I mean life after death. Most of you knew this but there may have been someone who didn't understand.

 

[vidarr]

As a kid I remember thinking it was very strange people actually believed a guy called Noah built a huge ark and put all the animals on it.
Or how Jonas was swallowed by a whale.

I knew they were just stories then..
only admitting this to adults I'm sure would have gotten me in trouble.

As an adult I respect people who can look at their own religion objectively and say "Maybe not, but I still have faith in it"

 

[kallipolis]

Ones beliefs reveal nothing about oneself, until one enacts those beliefs into ones every day life...as if to say, know me by my actions, not by my words.

The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. We feel it in a thousand things. I say that the heart naturally loves the Universal Being, and also itself naturally, according as it gives itself to them; and it hardens itself against one or the other at its will. You have rejected the one, and kept the other. Is it by reason that you love yourself? ~Blaise Pascal

Pascal argues that all reasoning can be reduced to feelings that can often, but not always propel the person with a drum to beat to malign those whose understandings are contrary to their own...with the religious fanatic, and the evangelical atheist sharing a common bond...strange bedfellows.

Joseph Conrad wrote wisely when reminding us that the human condition renders reasoning according to ones feelings, on any given matter especially when that matter is one that we hold with a passion, when reason escapes our attention while we are busy attempting to persuade our adversary of the rightness of our argument...evidencing the irrational nature of the human person, when it is convinced that only its position can be considered rational as a result of its self righteous conversion to a passionately held position...once more, with feeling!!

The use of reason is to justify the obscure desires that move our conduct to justify impulses,
passions, prejudices and follies, and also our fears.~Joseph Conrad

I learnt many years ago that ones ideas about the divine mystery tell us more about who we are than they do about the higher power that many believe to be an irrational response to the inexplicable phenomena that not a few human beings experience.

Ah! human experience...the very thought that I should attempt to rationalise my life experiences with a will to understand....that which defies reason...as I understand reason...leading me to believe that I shall need the rest of my life to try and fathom, the unfathomable....

The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him. ~Blaise Pascal

 

[Telstra]

Ones beliefs reveal nothing about oneself, until one enacts those beliefs into ones every day life...as if to say, know me by my actions, not by my words.


Pascal argues that all reasoning can be reduced to feelings that can often, but not always propel the person with a drum to beat to malign those whose understandings are contrary to their own...with the religious fanatic, and the evangelical atheist sharing a common bond...strange bedfellows.

Joseph Conrad wrote wisely when reminding us that the human condition renders reasoning according to ones feelings, on any given matter especially when that matter is one that we hold with a passion, when reason escapes our attention while we are busy attempting to persuade our adversary of the rightness of our argument...evidencing the irrational nature of the human person, when it is convinced that only its position can be considered rational as a result of its self righteous conversion to a passionately held position...once more, with feeling!!


I learnt many years ago that ones ideas about the divine mystery tell us more about who we are than they do about the higher power that many believe to be an irrational response to the inexplicable phenomena that not a few human beings experience.

Ah! human experience...the very thought that I should attempt to rationalise my life experiences with a will to understand....that which defies reason...as I understand reason...leading me to believe that I shall need the rest of my life to try and fathom, the unfathomable....

Didn't understand a word
The answer should be:
"yes i have seen god, or no i haven't seen god ... "

 

[RetiredTeacher]

I am a recovering Catholic and do not believe in god or any life after death.

 

[bankside]

Not in the least.

There is just no reason to think that any mystery is divine.

It would be unnecessary to think about it at all, any more than questions like "are the tyres on my car fluorescent green," but for the fact that so many people seem taken by the possibility, and how we seem to have invested so much in it for so little.

We should be walking around Mars already, another planet where, like ours, Moses did not command the water to stand aside.

 

[kallipolis]

Didn't understand a word
The answer should be:
"yes i have seen god, or no i haven't seen god ... "

Don't worry.....drink a mug of chamomile tea....then relax, listening to the music of Claude Debussy....

 

[kallipolis]

I am a recovering Catholic and do not believe in god or any life after death.

Duly noted.............

 

[zoltanspawn]

No, but I believe in something equally wondrous and terrible.

 

[Mitchymo]

I do not believe in God, but i do not disbelieve either. I'm agnostic.

 

[ludolfo]

~~~I type this as I listen to that most enchanting music by Debussy

When you or someone else asks a question always look AT the question itself. Don't be blind to it. Look at the terms. 'believe' 'God' --what is meant by that?
Which 'God'...? 'Allah'?, 'Brahma'? 'Yahweh'... 'Lucifer'?..lol What is being meant by 'God'

What about 'god' ? What about the pagan sense that when eating certain vegetation you are possessed by the god of the vegetation, the god of nature? What would that mean when regarding this question? How could you doubt a sense of feeling more than one's usual ordinary self?

When you are walking in magical scenery, and you see the sky, the colours, the waters, the whole magical movement of life, and somone whispers in your ear 'do you believe in God?' how do you respond? What if they said it this way: 'Do you believe in the Goddess?' How does that question differ from the former?

 

[Telstra]

"God" usually meant the 3 major abrahamic god from the bible.
No other believes wrote about "god" that way.

 

[Kyanimal]

A bit of background to illuminate where I'm coming from ...

I'm the first male, in about 5 generations of my family, that did not go into "The Church". I'm descended from Quaker, and Methodist, ministers. I was raised with Religion being the core of my Life.

I was lucky that wasn't exclusionary. I was encouraged to study, and discover, the different perspectives of all Religions. The surprising thing about that? All religions, at their Core, are basically the same. Humans struggling to understand their existence in relation to the world around them.

We are not as much a creation of "God", or "The Gods", as they are Our creation.

Do I believe there is a "Higher Being" watching over us? Um ... no.

However, I do believe in a "Higher Power", which is All of "Us", the animals, plants, and minerals, of this planet, as a collective. Together, everything interacts with everything else, which can promote certain outcomes while discarding others.

That might be described as the "Mob" mentality, spinning events, and outcomes, on a grand scale, which impacts our individual experiences, and abilities to influence what occurs around/to us.

Does "God" exist? Yep! Thing is, WE are "Him"!

All the more reasons to ... And, I'm quite Serious about this ... No Matter What ...

Keep Smilin'!!
Chaz

 

[Telstra]

A bit of background to illuminate where I'm coming from ...

I'm the first male, in about 5 generations of my family, that did not go into "The Church". I'm descended from Quaker, and Methodist, ministers. I was raised with Religion being the core of my Life.

I was lucky that wasn't exclusionary. I was encouraged to study, and discover, the different perspectives of all Religions. The surprising thing about that? All religions, at their Core, are basically the same. Humans struggling to understand their existence in relation to the world around them.

We are not as much a creation of "God", or "The Gods", as they are Our creation.

Do I believe there is a "Higher Being" watching over us? Um ... no.

However, I do believe in a "Higher Power", which is All of "Us", the animals, plants, and minerals, of this planet, as a collective. Together, everything interacts with everything else, which can promote certain outcomes while discarding others.

That might be described as the "Mob" mentality, spinning events, and outcomes, on a grand scale, which impacts our individual experiences, and abilities to influence what occurs around/to us.

Does "God" exist? Yep! Thing is, WE are "Him"!

All the more reasons to ... And, I'm quite Serious about this ... No Matter What ...

Keep Smilin'!!
Chaz

So you and I are god.
How come i can't turn water into wine ?

 

[Kyanimal]

So you and I are god.
How come i can't turn water into wine ?

We do use water to ferment grapes into wine.

 

[Telstra]

We do use water to ferment grapes into wine.

Ok, you win there.
How come i can't walk on water ?