Does God exist?

[zoltanspawn]

Human belief in God seems a lot to me like a gambler's belief in good luck.

 

[Willie Boy]

I must say: Yes I do exist.

 

[JasunStrikesBack]

Being afraid of something isn't weak. It's sensible.

True. But inventing a God to protect you isn't.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

True. But inventing a God to protect you isn't.

The main idea in religion isn't enabling the gods to project you, but enabling you to protect yourself from gods.

It's about dealing with implacable forces.

 

[TickTockMan]

As an Agnostic Atheist my thoughts on this are summed up by the following.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
Voltaire

 

[bankside]

Which one?

 

[MikeHere]

I wish I could dance and make it rain, but the universe is random.

 

[saymyname]

I don't believe in any kind of God with a capital G or organized religion or any sort of rational, self conscious 'being' of a creator. No fucking way. I think that's ridiculous and it's sad that in this day and age, people still believe in such nonsense.

I voted for the 4th option though, because my atheism is in regards to organized religion and capital G god as a self-conscious deity. I'm agnostic when it comes to other things - phenomena we don't understand yet, "energy" in that new-age kind of way, yoga, SEX, drugs (psychedelics like DMT, LSD, shrooms), meditation, not being alone in the universe, the overwhelming feelings of synchronicity and coincidence, etc. I think all of those things can be very spiritual without the necessity of a central concept of 'god' but perhaps something greater than our own material reality and subjective consciousness.

But usually that's too hard to explain and I sound too much like a hippie so I just say I'm atheist.

 

[The_Reaper]

Don't know, but I suppose I'll find out when I die; and hopefully the conversation doesn't start with him saying "What the fuck are you doing here?"

And just random quote:
God is dead - Nietzche
Nietzche is dead; I win - God

 

[wastingmymind]

I mean, I haven't read Nietzsche either, but I have a feeling he's been truncated after he said that.

 

[yeeeaaahhh]

There is no way of proving either way that a god does, or does not exist. Therefor, my opinion is that I do not know.

Yay agnosticism and looking at the evidence

 

[Edward Twinkletoes]

I started out in life believing myself to be an atheist and not really thinking much about it. As the years went on, I realized there was no way to be absolutely sure of anything. So I'm officially agnostic. I have no idea. I think the notion of the "God" of the Bible is pretty silly and obviously seems fabricated by human beings. That said, I can't completely write it off if I wish to remain objective.

I would just say that if there is such a thing as a god or creator, it would probably be well beyond anything human beings have the capacity to comprehend or even translate into something that sounds rational.

 

[pigface]

To me god, or gods, is/are just a psychological tool to make most peoples lifes more comfortable.

What I would really like to know though: is religion an inevitable consequence of evolution. I.e., will all life-forms that evolve to the point of civillisation inevitably develop some form of religion?

 

[chuck10x]

Something had to start everything, So yes I believe in a god.
The real question is do you believe in god as religion explains him- (or her).
My answer would be - NO.

 

[Swellegant]

What a gross misunderstanding of prehistoric man--we have no reason to believe that their brains were functionally any different from ours, capable of the same vivid imagination. If anything, ignorance and isolation should have fueled the creation of myths to explain the incomprehensible world around them, not inhibited it as you've suggested. And prehistoric peoples most certainly did have a way of remembering the past: the oral tradition.

I didn't say their brains were functionally different; I said that they had less information with which to build imaginary constructs than we have, and to build a concept so abstract as God out of nothing observed or experienced strikes me as unlikely. Not factually impossible, just seemingly unlikely.

I mean, everything we imagine is based on something we know, even if only the tiniest kernel at the base of the abstraction. I don't know what animal observation, what instinctive primate behavior, what naturally-occurring construct would provide the kernel for making up gods. If you have any ideas on that, I'd love to hear them.

Swellegant, I tend to agree with you about 98% of the time. But on this point, you've gone way off the deep end.

How so? Don't leave me hanging, tell me what's wrong with my statement. What's the point of telling a person he's wrong and then walking away without trying to enlighten him?

You know, something that has been getting up my wig lately is the contempt that people display for other people's beliefs. I was listening to Christians do it at my Grandmother's church last week and came close to causing a scene over it; and I'm seeing it here and feel very much like causing a scene.

I'm all for rational discussion of differing points of view, and I love to strengthen my logic by dissecting my own arguments, but I don't appreciate the sneering intolerance for differing points of view that I've seen in this thread.

My belief in the existence of a creator intelligence doesn't hurt you, so why do you feel you have to sneer at it and spit on it? Your belief in a random universe is just as much a choice as mine in an ordered universe, with no more or less proof; and while I enjoy discussing and even pointing out the flaws in your reasoning - and hearing your objections my reasoning - I extend the courtesy of respecting your beliefs and I don't think it unreasonable to expect the same courtesy in return.

 

[mbamike]

Yes, I believe God exist.

We are too wonderfully made, our world/universe is too complicated, and we interact with our environment too well to have all just happen. Evolution doesn't even come close in explaining the whats, hows, and whys. There has to be a master engineer as the cause of it all.

 

[kallipolis]

I didn't say their brains were functionally different; I said that they had less information with which to build imaginary constructs than we have, and to build a concept so abstract as God out of nothing observed or experienced strikes me as unlikely. Not factually impossible, just seemingly unlikely.

I mean, everything we imagine is based on something we know, even if only the tiniest kernel at the base of the abstraction. I don't know what animal observation, what instinctive primate behavior, what naturally-occurring construct would provide the kernel for making up gods. If you have any ideas on that, I'd love to hear them.

How so? Don't leave me hanging, tell me what's wrong with my statement. What's the point of telling a person he's wrong and then walking away without trying to enlighten him?

You know, something that has been getting up my wig lately is the contempt that people display for other people's beliefs. I was listening to Christians do it at my Grandmother's church last week and came close to causing a scene over it; and I'm seeing it here and feel very much like causing a scene.

I'm all for rational discussion of differing points of view, and I love to strengthen my logic by dissecting my own arguments, but I don't appreciate the sneering intolerance for differing points of view that I've seen in this thread.

My belief in the existence of a creator intelligence doesn't hurt you, so why do you feel you have to sneer at it and spit on it? Your belief in a random universe is just as much a choice as mine in an ordered universe, with no more or less proof; and while I enjoy discussing and even pointing out the flaws in your reasoning - and hearing your objections my reasoning - I extend the courtesy of respecting your beliefs and I don't think it unreasonable to expect the same courtesy in return.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post. So much common sense.

I am a big fan of Kahlil Gibran's words, and appreciate your reference to him.

 

[GL]

i have faith in god.

and that's all i've got to say on the matter.

 

[Swellegant]

Thanks, Unclean... but what is wrong with my reasoning? What correction or alternative can you suggest?

I'm not married to this rationale, it's just a theory taking into account a few things I've observed and some philosophical ideas I've heard. I'd love to refine it; and if it's not refineable, I want to discard it. The difference between a rough diamond and a piece of shit is that you can't polish a piece of shit, you can only spread it around; but you won't know which you have until you rub.

It's like what Gery said, that there had to be something that started it all. The flaw in that argument is that you have to assume that "it all" had a beginning. But what if it's eternal and cyclical? What if it never came from anywhere because it was always there?

But the counterargument is "if It All had a beginning that God made, that suggests the possibility that God came from somewhere, and so where did God come from?" But what if God was always there, no beginning or end. We perceive things as having beginnings and ends because our lives and thererfore the boundaries of our perception have beginnings and ends. Something always came before. But outside of ourselves, how do we know this is so?

You can go around and around, and it's always a lot of fun, and you always end up with the same thing: no proof. And so in the absence of proof, you just have to believe. And even atheism is a belief: you believe there's nothing there.

 

[Fucker29]

This question is kind of redundant since there's not a definitive answer to that question.