Do you believe in 'god'?

[Addie]

I dont,I mean how could one guy create all dis, But monkeys turned into men and Adam and Eve were the 1st ppl on earth BUTT NAKED!

[Flunky-Sunset!]

To an extent.

I find religions a waste of time though as they're created by man and man is fallible.

But you have to believe in something otherwise you live a pretty useless life. I don't care what you believe in, it could just be that you believe that a giant shoe created the earth and that if you were good then you'll get to lace it for all eternity. As long as it's something. And you can't really back up beliefs... it's called faith. It can't be proven, it can't be disproven. We'll just find out when we get there, but until then enjoy your life and hope that there's something after it.

You can disprove faith. If I went off in a rocket, found a giant shoe - yet found it was a sculpture made out of licorice, unable of movement, or even, creation... I've disproved that faith. Whether people would deny it or not, that's up to them... (also, you could prove it exists if you take this giant supernatural shoe back to Earth, where it would promptly be put in a cage. Though being an allmighty being, maybe this shoe wouldn't consider the idea of going to Earth. You might be able to convince it to settle for being filmed, though. Am I going off topic?)

Which ever way you look at it — the evidence from the Bible, the incredibly complex, organized information in living things, or the origin of the universe — the conclusion in an all-powerful, all-knowing creator god, is completely viable.

As I've said before, living things have had millions of years to develop, adapt and evolve. As for the origin of the universe, I don't think anyone's going to agree on this. I can't see that the universe had any help beginning. But when the Sun exlodes, I guess this argument can die out with the human race...

Why is it essential that someone created the universe for us? Is it because we're the only planet, that we know of, that has life?

People used to explain away the unknown with witchcraft. They used to explain it with theories that have now been proven wrong. Why is God an exception to these examples in our history?

My Opinion- I think hes real im a christian i go to church every sunday , morning and night and wed. nights! So i believe in god

But you didn't say why you believe in God.

[Emicat]

Well, i do NOT beleive in god but there is a point here...

[Biseinen]

Well, i do NOT beleive in god but there is a point here...

Right, what point would that be exactly? o_O

[RedStratocas]

Okay, a few more things I noticed about religion:

I hate it when people's houses burn down, and they thank god they are alright... GOD JUST BURNED YOUR HOUSE DOWN, I WOULDNT BE THANKING HIM!

And when people ask why god lets bad things happen, and people answer "God works in mysterious ways". That didnt answer the question at all. We already know god (if he exists) works in mysterious ways, but why? That was the question

[Largo]

To me there is always a guardian as in God (in a respectful way). He/She is always looking over us and seeing what we are doing. So yes i do believe in God. Someone people might think that is funny but to me its not. Its soemthnig i believe in. If you don't back off.

Well do you, I mean, theres tons to argue over if there or isn't there...



I want to believe in God. I really do. And an afterlife.

It would be so great -- so reassuring, so comforting, so peaceful -- to know that there's Someone out there who's in control of a world that seems so out of control. That, despite all appearances, all things really do work together for good to them that love God. That an Eternal Reward awaits all of us (or at least, me) in a future life to compensate for all of the **** we have to put up with (some more than others) in this one. That in the end, I can look back on my existence and rejoice that all the balances are added up and everything has worked out to be just and fair.

This is just what religion (just about any religion) promises.

Except that it all sounds *way* too good to be true.

And if there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Of course, it might not be. Let's consider the possibilities.

Ah, but that's where things get really hairy. There are so many possibilities, and God has done a really miserable job of making Himself(1) clear about which ones are the right ones. Each possibility has its share of adherents, all of whom are convinced (by the spirit, or by some analogous means) that their beliefs are the "right" ones.

(Footnote 1: In this essay, I will chauvinistically use male pronouns to refer to Deity, because it makes the narrative flow more smoothly than saying He/She/It/They all the time. Apologies in advance.)

So, searching them out by the spirit doesn't tell us anything, since the spirit is demonstrably telling one thing to one person and another thing to another person. How about logic and reason? Well, logic and reason are no help, because each one of these belief systems is demonstrably self-contradictory in one way or another. And what's more, the adherents of those belief systems don't see those things as contradictory at all -- they have found ways to explain these things away so that they don't seem like contradictions after all ... not to the believers, anyway. One example: two books of the New Testament say that Mary saw one angel at Jesus's tomb, and two more say that there were two angels at Jesus's tomb. Clearly, there *were* two there, but Mary only *saw* one of them. It all makes sense ... if you believe.

Ah, and that's really the bottom line, isn't it. Logic and sound reasoning are "misleading", and even spiritual witnesses aren't reliable -- but that leap of faith, that will answer all your doubts. Just believe. As I've been told so often, "Seeing isn't believing; believing is seeing." ... which is a clever way of saying that "we who are believers, we don't let troublesome contradictions get in our way; we've made that 'leap of faith', which renders doubts and contradictions irrelevant. God will make everything clear, in His Own good time. Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to sit quietly and wait for the Second Coming (or some analogous occurrence), at which time, all these things will be made clear."

Sorry, but I just can't buy that. If there is a God, He wouldn't have discontinuities that would need explaining, or at least, He wouldn't wait forever to make them understandable to the average mortal mind. If there is a God, He wouldn't *want* me to suspend reason and doubt and critical analysis for the sake of a "just believe, and that will make everything all right" mentality -- on the contrary, He would welcome questions and doubts and fears, and would explain them clearly and understandably. He loves me, after all, presumably, right? He wants me to know the truth. So why all the (apparently deliberate) secrecy? He's my Parent, after all, in at least some metaphorical sense, right? Why then does He act so much like an absent father?

If God could create the universe, God could speak to me and help me understand Him. God wouldn't need a spokesperson, and wouldn't need a book, and wouldn't need a Holy Spirit. If God wants me to know Him, He knows where to find me.

Until then -- to be truthful -- I'm really better off trusting in the good old arm of flesh. The arm of flesh doesn't let me down. I pray to God, asking for guidance, and what happens? Nothing. I trust in the arm of flesh -- work hard, keep my nose clean -- and I get ahead in the world. I pay tithing, hoping that God will open the windows of heaven, and what happens? Nothing. But if I put that 10% into my savings now I've got a retirement to look forward to. I believe that God created the world in 6 days, 6000 years ago, and how does that help me understand the observable universe? Not at all. On the contrary, it forces me to come up with clever theories about how the light from stars tens of thousands of light years away is already arriving here on earth, and how dinosaur fossils can be millions of years old, and on and on. But if I believe that the universe is billions of years old, that it evolved into what it is now -- then the observable evidence fits neatly into place and makes all kinds of sense, thank you.

In the end, I've been unable to discover any system of belief -- Christian or otherwise -- in which God can exist without colliding with observable evidence in significant ways.

And so, after looking for God using logic and reason, using blind faith, using spiritual witnesses, using written scriptures -- in short, using any and all means available to us -- God simply fails to emerge as a viable concept, much less a living, breathing, existing being. I really want to believe that there's Someone out there who will make everything all right. I suspect that we all do. I suspect that it's built into us, a holdover from our childhoods. But eventually we have to grow up, and face facts. There is no one out there who has all the answers. We're on our own for that. I have come to the conclusion that the sooner we get ahold of that and hang onto it, the happier we will all be.

So that leads to what I think, what about you?

[jgosden]

I do think there is a God and a God that I can have a personal relationship with.

When you look at the world can you really think, this all happened by chance, see I can't i know that there was a creator and this was not just a big bang. You see the world is so complex and so is the human body everything is so perfectly formed.

You could argue that scientifically there may have been a big bang many christians believe such a thing but the key to christiananity comes at somewhere something has to have happened something had to be there in order to create the world. And some people argue the whole 7 days as "periods of time" but thats not really important.

Another important thing is there is SIN in the world, otherwords all the stuff we have done wrong which means that there is suffering many people will argue that if there was a God then wouldn't he take away suffering but this is because of the wrong doing of the world and in some ways its the price that is paid. I won't go into much more detail because you will tell me to shut up

Finally we all have free will we can choose whether we do or not believe because the world would not work if we were all robots , God gave us a choice

If God could create the universe, God could speak to me and help me understand Him. God wouldn't need a spokesperson, and wouldn't need a book, and wouldn't need a Holy Spirit. If God wants me to know Him, He knows where to find me.

Good Point and some many people struggle with. The thing is though God does speak to people but probably not in the way you would expect. If your a christian then you believe the book is Gods Word and so God can speak to you through it. Also God commonly speaks through other people and what they say which is important. And its often in the quiet times where you can here God its not always easy and he is mysterious and hard to understand!

We will never all understand the christian faith or God in general because there people will always have arguements but sometimes you can just "feel" God and sense his presense and it is in those times you just know deep down that there is a God. Now i have been a christian for a long time so will have different views to you guys i accept that. During the summer i went on a Youth Christian confrence with 11,000 others and it was awesome seeing God at work

Hey slate me as much as you like and ask questions if you like because it is something i have strong views on. But everyone is entiled to there opinion just as much as you are to yours! If you want to ask me anything send us a PM and i promise to get back to you!!

Thanks
Jon!

[Steph]

Gods supposed to be ominsiant, meaing he already knew what we would do before we did it, so why did he need to test us to start with? Plus he made us that way, knowing the way he made us ment we would, why is he punishing us, for whats oviosly his mistake?

Ok so you have a point there, but lets say "he" gave them the choice. He knew they were gonna take the apple, but he warned them anyways, to see if they hopefully listened and knew they had done wrong, and maybe changed their actions. If that kinda makes any sense...oh well I know what I'm on about.

[jgosden]

It all comes down to Free Will you see if your a christian you believe that God gave us freewill for us to choose because otherwise we would be like robots.

And so God knew this would happen all the time but he didn't want it to. However the important part of the story comes later on when God sent his son because of what we had all done wrong as a choice of free will we all mess up but God was saying let Jesus talk what you have done on him so you can be pure in my eyes and go to heaven

Keep asking questions!

[Mentor]

Ok so you have a point there, but lets say "he" gave them the choice. He knew they were gonna take the apple, but he warned them anyways, to see if they hopefully listened and knew they had done wrong, and maybe changed their actions. If that kinda makes any sense...oh well I know what I'm on about.

but the way he had made us think, ment that we would do it anyway, he new that already, so even thogh he warned us he still new what we would do, so why do the test to start with ?