God

[Gavin]

No, absolutely not.

I'm all about proof and facts. Faith is just an excuse when those facts simply don't exist.

 

[Snoo]

No, of course not.

I'll respect anyones belief regardless of how propostrous I find it all.

QFT!

I like to think of a quote by Carl Sagan when it comes to religion.. ect..

"It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."

 

[furie]

I'm not sure about God, but I'm sure there must be a creator. So yeah, the world could have been created by the big bang all by chance, and we could have been evolved from bacteria or whatever. Seriously, what are the chances that the world happens to work perfectly, every single thing in the world having a purpose. The world is just too well designed for me to think it might have happened by chance.

There are 100 billion stars in our galaxy, and an estimated 500 billion galaxies in our universe, each with roughly 100 billion stars.

That's 50,000 billion stars in our universe (conservative estimate). Given that immense number, the chances of life evolving in the way it has here, is actually quite high. The numbers are so staggeringly massive, that it would be wrong to consider ourselves so unique and 'created'. The sheer size of the universe pretty much makes the chances of life developing naturally, in at least one place, very high indeed.

We live in an imperfect world, but one in which the good conspicuously outweighs the bad and one which any person could imagine as possibly being much worse if it were simply accidental or unintended.

Yet most of the bad which is committed in the world is done in the name of one God or another.

Chimpanzees live a much more peaceful society than we do. They have a strong social hierarchy, they show kindness and love. They live in a lifestyle which most religions would believe that God wishes for us to live in. Why do they live like that? Why don't we? It's because we have evolved our social structures beyond those of the primates. Our intelligence forces us to try and improve our lives. We spread and expand rapidly, and that causes us to come into conflict with other groups of humans. Chimps will fight off a rival group they share territories with. The difference is, we communicate, and then lie and cheat and deceive to give ourselves the upper hand and more chance of survival. We are complicated animals, too clever for our own good.

Religion is a superb way of laying down rules for people to follow to help us find that Utopian state our primate fore-fathers have. In theory, there's nothing wrong with it - in practice, it is used as an excuse to commit violence and hatred. In closed societies, religion is often a good thing. However, it doesn't cross boundaries well, and almost always causes conflict, hatred and violence when one meets another.

And finally: We each have a desire to seek love. From childhood on, we try to fill that gap that exists within us. Sharing a life with another person, enjoying the companionship, stems from Adam & Eve, and God saw that Adam was lonely and so he created Eve to fill the desire to love and be loved, and as a means of creating a world of mankind. If we believe that, then it follows that there is a God.

Many animals search for a partner and mate for life. It's an excellent survival technique and great for ensuring your offspring get the best chance at success. It's certainly nothing unique to humans.

And it makes me laugh how all these people who claim to not believe will pray when they're desperate.

Sorry, but not me...

It's worth pointing out at this point that I was brought up in a very religious environment. Sunday school every week, church afterwards and every religious celebration. Confirmed, church youth group, God discussion camps, no sex, drugs, rock, roll or excessive drinking; not even swearing -the whole thing. I was very devout until I was 17 or 18 - then I started to think about the doctrine. There's a huge amount in the bible, the church service, the church (organisation) itself and the congregations which is contradictory. There's a lot of subtle hatred, one up-man ship and quiet unpleasantness.

I started off by just trying to ignore it all, and only 'cherry pick' the nice bits. Then I found that I was in conflict - I had ask God to forgive me for not following his service, not saying certain things because I believed that those things caused hatred and violence. I was o longer following His ways because they conflicted with my own morality. I could follow Him and consider myself a bad person, or not follow Him and then have to ask His forgiveness. It got generally worse and worse as I realised that more and more of the people in the church were selfish, self-centred and generally actually not very nice people. Yet these were the people who put in a lot of effort for the church, but they only seemed to do it for personal gain. This wasn't isolated to my Church either - we had a kind of exchange thing and would have a service once a month as guests at another church in a kind rotary cycle. The same kinds of people, it was just all there, same in Stafford too.

I'm not saying it's a universal thing - there were certainly some very good, kind and pious people in the Church - it's just that they were not only a minority, but they were essentially abused by people with greater ambition.

It came to a head when I returned after being in Stafford for 12 months. I came to church, and to the youth group (I was a leader in the group, and put in many weekss of effort over the years to organise and run it). I was ignored by everyone - all the people I had been friends and collegues of for many years - except for one person. He was the father of a good school friend, and until that day, we'd never 'chewed the cud'. He was the only person who made any effort to speak to me and make me feel welcome back into the community I'd left just 12 months before. From that day on, I found it harder and harder to have any faith at all. I was certainly agnostic for many years, but within the last 5 or so, I've been atheist.

I've done a lot of research into religions over the years, and I know the histories. I also know Christianity pretty much inside and out from my youth. So I have a good foundation for my atheism, I've looked at all the alternatives, and there is just no reason to believe in God.

Big question for people though - was it my church upbringing which made me a slightly more pleasant and level headed person? Can I thank the Church for showing me a good sense of morals when I was growing up? Or would it have happened naturally, given the expansive evidence of unpleasant Christians out there?

Did I say 'No' by the way to the original question? :lol:

 

[danielfitzgerald99]

I believe in God but not organised religon or the church. There is too much corruption in religion. Wars because of it and all these redneck cults in America where people marry kids.

I was brought up Roman Catholic and went to Church til I was about 11 then stopped going. I still believe in God and always will but I don't believe half of the Bible. It was written by a load of men hundreds of years back and gradually corrupted.

I don't like the whole God hates gays. This contadicts the God loves everyone spiel and why would he make gay people if they were "wrong"

I don't like some of the sexist views incoroprated and I certainly don't believe that people from other faiths go to hell.

My religous beliefs are the simple black and white rules of Christianity.

If you are good you go to Heaven and vice versa Hell etc.

I believe in God and Jesus.

I try and be nice to everyone and generally a good person and I don't force my opinions on others.

My argument for God exsisting is this...

If I said I would give someone £100 after an infinate amount of time they would never get it because we would never reach that moment. That means that an infinate amount of time can't have passed before now.

There must have been an origin. We can determine that the big bang happened because the universe constantly expands outwards and must have require an intial charge that was massive to still be expanding.

I believe that God was/caused the big bang and if you look at how complex cell structure and everthing else is it is more logical to say it was carefully constructed by something of vast intelligence than it just appeared out of nowhere.

People often use the whole "why does bad stuff happen" argument. Bad stuff happens because humans are corrupt. We bring it on ourselves. God doesn't bomb us and start wars. We do and more often than not use God as an excuse.

As for natural disaster that is just the way the whole world works. It is scientific. We have ruined the ozone and cause half the bad weather ourselves.

In the end I just try and be a good person and whatever happens when I die happens.

 

[Sam]

Excellent post DFG99- best I've ever read by you.

Well done, I've just gained a lot of respect for you there.

 

[furie]

DF99 - that's exactly the place I was for a long, long time - many years in fact. I think it's a sensible enough place

In the end I just try and be a good person and whatever happens when I die happens.

I do exactly the same. If there is a God (a true atheist will never deny the possibility utterly, you just work on probabilities), then I'm sure he'll look at my life and decide I'm more deserving than a lot of people who do actually believe in him. If he doesn't, then tough on me I guess, but at least I know I've lived a good life, trying not to hurt other people.

 

[Ian]

Yeah, but if She's the total-unforgiving as these fairytales proclaim then she'll forgive me for not believing in her? Correct?

I just can't believe that there is some being that decides on what happens to me when I stop existing.

Nah, still not convinced by any of these arguments for it existing.

 

[Anonymous]

God is green, and his name is John Deere.

 

[Pokemaniac]

I think for me, I wouldn't be surprised for either. I'll just go on and do the things that seem right, and take the beating afterwards. I think it might be somewhat healthy to have something to believe in, but if others tell you what your personal beliefs should be, things may seem a bit wrong.

But I think the reason why God haven't proven to us that he is there (if he is), is the fact that evidence makes believeing unnecessary, and without believing, God is nothing. (Douglas Adams)

 

[nealbie]

Despite giving an attempt at how you would argue that he exists (if you ever wanted to that is) I do not believe in him

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

I think this poll could've done with a 3rd option...

I was brought up as a Catholic, but now I just don't believe in it as much as maybe I used to...

It changed really when I did R.E in secondary school (primary being Catholic so it was that or nothing, and of course it wasn't as diverse as they are now), when I learnt about other religions, I felt that they all had some issues within themselves of the contradictory nature, and hence, my belief has slowly dwindled over the years...

I very much doubt I'm going to be confirmed, and if I get married, yes it'll be in a church, but not much of 'God look after these two' stuff, since I feel hypocritical singing religious songs in church for Christmas/Wedding...

One thing I dislike about religion in general are the 'Extremists', seeing some of the American actions (it's not a major thing in Britain nowadays) in regards to God (see the Gay-Hate campaigns), makes me sick and I wouldn't want to be part of that religion, as it gives the people who are nice and quiet a bad name...

I disgress, overall God is certainly different for everyone, he can be the omnipresent, omnipotent being of all creation, or he can just be something to bring the children up on to give them some decent morals which are lacking in modern society...

If God loved us, he'd give me a better football team too

 

[Harvey]

Yes, God is all loving and cherishing, and he gave me cancer when I was 17 to show how much he loved me.

I'm there every Sunday, front and center as you can simply imagine, >.>

 

[PLCP]

Yes I do.

The world isn't here by accident.

I try to live a good life, and if there is a God (which I believe), hopefully I'll be rewarded forever in heaven. If there isn't, then at least I know that I lived a good life and made some other people happy.

That's my view in a nutshell.

 

[Error]

I believe that there's definately a higher power out there, because there are somethings we just can't explain. And on that note, there are also several things disproving the possibility of a God.

Religion wise I'm staying clear. My dad is a religion nut and made it not fun in any way, shape or form.

So, my answer is simply 'I don't know'

 

[Jake]

Not so much.

Practically every religion would have me burned and branded a witch anyway .

 

[John91]

Over the past year I have lost any faith I had left. My RE teacher made damn sure of that.

 

[Gavin]

^^ You'd probably be ok with the Buddhists.

^R.E teachers are only one rung up on the ladder of evil from P.E teachers.

 

[nadroJ]

Seems interesting to me how most of the people saying they believe are American, must say something about our country.

And I, for the record, am a sworn atheist.

 

[Pierre]

No.

And if he did he would have been sacked by now because the human race is a shambles.

 

[F.A.S.T.]

Yes I belive in God...

And the big bang theroy, that just bull.
Some examples of how it can be wrong.
The Big Bang:
1)When something explodes, they dont come out is nice round sheres.
2)When something explodes, all fragments spin the same way. (There is a law about it somewhere, I just cant rember the name) and thats not the case with the plants.

The Sun: As the sun burns, it uses up its energy. Right.....
So if the universe/earth is a billion years old, the sun had to be alot bigger. Thus engulfing the earth. AKA: NO LIVE POSSIABLE!