Do you believe in God ?

[jbrown329]

Yes, I believe in God. There are certain parts of my life that are centered around my faith. What I don't believe in is trying to cram my faith down someone else's throat.

Good for you. I've argued with Christians online that "freedom of religion" also gives me "freedom from religion". Meaning that I should not be forced to take part in something (religious faith) that I don't believe in. The majority of them disagreed with me (conservatives).

 

[disciple]

No, because churches proclaim to preach love and support to everyone until they find out you're gay. Then the hate spews out.

 

[TickTockMan]

I don't. I wish I did.

 

[Alnitak]

No, but I don't blame people who do. Belief in the supernatural seems to be universal and inherent. Humans are naturally heuristic (gut feeling) thinkers, and therefore the elements that make an idea scientific (provable) are not required to make people believe in anything.

Science in contrast is the realm of provable, falsifiable, and logical ideas. Thus for scientific thinkers God cannot exist, or at best the existence of one is immaterial. Even if God had an impact on the world, the existence of such a force would be detectable or be involved in a phenomenon that is physically impossible to explain, in which case God would take place among several competing logical scientific theories, and thus be relegated to the least likely explanation (the one that assumes the most).

 

[kallipolis]

Professor Albert Einstein didn't believe in a personal God. Nevertheless he wrote: "

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

Among his many interesting remarks was:"

[I]The fanatical atheists 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 traditional religion as the 'opium of the masses' - cannot hear the music of the spheres."[/I]

 

[tarallucci]

I'm a Pastafarian. Ramen.

I am Pastaiolo

 

[mbamike]

Absolutely yes, I believe in God. However, I don't put a great deal of faith in mainstream religions.

 

[Telstra]

Absolutely yes, I believe in God. However, I don't put a great deal of faith in mainstream religions.

Before you go any further,
What is it (god) ?

 

[offthewall14420]

Why does it matter what anyone believes?

 

[kallipolis]

Oh come on, your contribution seems to be to avoid the point, while insisting that all is unknowable and you don't the time to discuss it.

My contributions are not what you wish to see here.

 

[kallipolis]

Why does it matter what anyone believes?

Conversation can be enlightening for those with immovable beliefs atheist, and theist.

 

[vidarr]

Conversation can be enlightening for those with immovable beliefs atheist, and theist.

Some things in life can't be explained by science. It COULD be god. But there are more interesting possibilities.

What if that near death experience, instead of being God, leads to a revolutionary new brain scanner?

What if that angel was some exotic state of matter we haven't ever seen before?

There are a great many mysteries that deserve better than "God did it"

 

[vidarr]

If God had to show up somewhere, I would be comfortable with saying someone or somethingcaused a massive energy release that created the universe.
Everything that happened after that was the result of physics.

 

[Alnitak]

Why does it matter what anyone believes?

It really doesn't. We could really go into a dither about how beliefs play a role in sociology. It's interesting let's leave it at that.

If God had to show up somewhere, I would be comfortable with saying someone or somethingcaused a massive energy release that created the universe.
Everything that happened after that was the result of physics.

The greatest fear in science is that some phenomenon will never have scientific theories, because no experiment could reproduce them. Physics of the Planck time (the opening act of the Big Bang) is one such example, black holes, string theory, etc.

 

[FirmaFan]

It really doesn't. We could really go into a dither about how beliefs play a role in sociology. It's interesting let's leave it at that.

Beliefs inform actions, which makes them matter a great deal. Since beliefs inform actions, I wish everyone's beliefs to be most representative of the reality in which we all exist in.

The greatest fear in science is that some phenomenon will never have scientific theories, because no experiment could reproduce them. Physics of the Planck time (the opening act of the Big Bang) is one such example, black holes, string theory, etc.

I wouldn't say this isn't science's greatest fear. Instead, the unknown is science's greatest driving force. Only when you believe you have absolute certainty do you remove the motivation to investigate and discover, which is why you find so much anti-science and anti-intellectualism in religion.

 

[eastofeden]

Some things in life can't be explained by science. It COULD be god. But there are more interesting possibilities.

What if that near death experience, instead of being God, leads to a revolutionary new brain scanner?

What if that angel was some exotic state of matter we haven't ever seen before?

There are a great many mysteries that deserve better than "God did it"

I think God moves through everything and everybody in spirit so in a sense...God does do it...

But...like any belief.....it is just that.....a belief. I think it is the truth..but I don't need anyone else to.

 

[kallipolis]

Some things in life can't be explained by science. It COULD be god. But there are more interesting possibilities.

What if that near death experience, instead of being God, leads to a revolutionary new brain scanner?

What if that angel was some exotic state of matter we haven't ever seen before?

There are a great many mysteries that deserve better than "God did it"

What if? Is the proverbial eternal question. This we can agree.

 

[Alnitak]

I wouldn't say this isn't science's greatest fear. Instead, the unknown is science's greatest driving force. Only when you believe you have absolute certainty do you remove the motivation to investigate and discover, which is why you find so much anti-science and anti-intellectualism in religion.

There is a difference between the unknown and the unprovable.

Gravitons may exist (wave-particle duality), but an impossibly large detector would be needed in order to prove it. Some particles are just within the realm of detection, e.g. Higgs boson. An individual photon at the Big Bang had the energy of an atomic bomb. No accelerator can ever reproduce the state of grand unification of forces or even get close. Direct proof for theories as to the physics of the Universe in the earliest state is impossible.

No scientific theory can ever satisfy the explanation of the origin of the Universe because of the precise definition of science - a crying shame. Thus in the realm of the unprovable there is really no difference between science and religion, but we can say that one of the logical (but not scientific) explanations are probably correct.

 

[kallipolis]

Beliefs inform actions, which makes them matter a great deal. Since beliefs inform actions, I wish everyone's beliefs to be most representative of the reality in which we all exist in.

I wouldn't say this isn't science's greatest fear. Instead, the unknown is science's greatest driving force. Only when you believe you have absolute certainty do you remove the motivation to investigate and discover, which is why you find so much anti-science and anti-intellectualism in religion.

Reality proves otherwise.

Belgian Catholic priest, Georges Lemaître was the cosmologist who provided us with the "Big Bang theory."

Shortly before Lemaître's death he learned that Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson had discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation, the first and still most important observational evidence in support of the Big Bang theory.

 

[vidarr]

Thus in the realm of the unprovable there is really no difference between science and religion

This is an old argument theists argue puts science on the same level as religion. Science by definition is something provable, consistent, repeatable. Mathematics are provable, yet they don't exist.
Science and maths are tools to explain how our world works.
Religion is a set of beliefs and partially philosophy.