Do you believe in God, and if so, why?

This philosophical discussion is nice but it doesn't make God real.

You're welcome :P

No I don't believe in a God, even though my mother's side of the family are pretty devout Christians... But I've always been an atheist. I simply don't believe it.

Yeah same here, finally I had to explain to my mom that I just don't believe in it no matter how much convincing, I only believe in science stuff that's real.

Agnostic Atheist here.. The only thing that irked me with the belief of god was the pompous notion, that we are some how his/her/it's greatest creation, that we are some how important.. When in actuality there is no word out there that can describe how small we are in the cosmos.. This isn't suggesting we are worthless, merely the hilarious precedent of self importance many popular religious beliefs hold that we are some how the center of attention of this great being.. A great being that has created a universe with stars that far outnumber how many grains of sand we have on every beach in the entire world.. IN which we occupy one grain of sand, and we can't even get beyond our own planet.. And most likely never will before we die out.

Equally amusing are the many people out there who believe in god who completely disregard every scientific discovery we have made as a species because it doesn't fit in their overly simplistic view of reality, even when it doesn't contradict the existence of a greater being to begin with.. Something like the Big Bang Theory does not contradict the notion of religious belief in there being a god, in fact I would argue that such event is far more fantastical and awe inspiring, then god taking 7 days to create one planet.

No. Because I'm very happy in life and don't need religion to be happy or drown out guilt. Some need religion and some don't.

I believe in God but I believe that we are God, you want proof? You create your reality everyday.

Does that mean I can make myself a multibillionaire chick magnet?

@TheWalkingGhost: if that's what you really want, if you want something bad enough then it will happen. what are you doing to make it happen? through our thoughts, emotions and actions we create the realities we live in.

That man was amazing. I watched the entire thing. He reminds me of my teachers who thought me a bit of Sufism. Now I know that Sufism and Buddhism are even more alike that I'd imagined. He makes some wonderful remarks and I agree with more than 80 percent of what he says.

That said I don't completely fail to understand why one would not find "God" there. This happens to me as well especially when I'm fully synced with haqq. To me it's not "But I can't sense God" but it's rather "which one is God?" which are the same thing when you think about it. There are only four possible interpretations:

First to say that "God is inferior to haqq" which easily contradicts the concept of God.

Second to say that "God is superior to haqq" which means that seeking haqq is not seeking God but in reality seeking haqq is all we need so then why does God need to exist and why do we need to follow him instead of haqq IF he exists?

Third to say that "God is haqq and haqq is God" which means that we now understand the essence of God which makes God inferior to us.

And the fourth option is to say that "There exists no God only haqq" which at this point makes the most sense.

"Even kill the Buddha if he's standing in your path" . We have a similar concept and we call it "luminous hijab" hijab meaning curtain. You're so close to "him" that his light illuminates the curtain but he is not the curtain and the curtain is not him and thus the luminous curtain too needs to be overpassed. And these curtains will block your way until you completely disregard your every definition of him. Doing this doesn't hurt someone who already doesn't believe in God but what if you're a believer in God? Doesn't this mean blashepmy? And think of it: You have to disregard your every definition of him But in doing so what will happen?... You will completely lose trace of him. You will no longer have your ropes and strings that connect you to him. At this point your only choice is to be with him completely, at all times, everywhere. To "solve in him" is the only way you can be certain that you truely comprehend him...

I guess this is where we go our separate paths. Before I entered this state of bewilderment caused by what I described above, God asked me to take an oath that I should keep believing in him even in "a time of not knowing him and yet knowing him". This is quite bitter... And I wasn't strong enough and broke the oath countless times through my words and actions... And this is the reason I haven't been a very devout person for the past three years...

Anyways since you were kind enough to post a wonderful link let me do something similar. There's this book called "Conference of the Birds" and in my opinion it's the best Sufi book out there. It's less than 50 pages and it has been my spiritual guideline. Ignore it's Islamic tone and give it a try. There are already two versions of it on the internet. Get the one in prose.

To me the whole concept of "God" unnecessarily complicates things. As (my memory isn't as good as it once was in this area) a Buddhist figure (I think it was the Buddha) said; every concept, idea or "thing" you conceive of or use to try to define your experience is merely one more hurdle or roadblock on the path to enlightenment. The more you try and "connect" with God (nirvana, supreme reality, Atman, etc), the further away you will get from it/him/her. In essence.

To me, this experience revealed an impersonal oneness that defied all sense of "being" or "essence". It lacked inherent existence and truly fell in line with everything I have read about the Buddhist concept of shunyata (or emptiness). It was, essentially, nothing... and everything. Ever since, I have found it easier and easier to fall into the same "non-state" of existing (mentally) within the moment, but only when I have been truly happy and free (which has almost exclusively been behind the wheel of a delivery truck on the open highway).

I'll give that book a look. Sufism always appealed to me (as a mystical tradition from the South Asian area) and always look to learn more about religion that doesn't focus on politics and war (i.e. most historical religious institutions).

If you are interested in some academic work on mysticism, I suggest you take a look into Jeffrey Kripal. He has some, very unique, ideas that are not yet making waves in the academic study of religions (but I predict they will in the next decade or two).

1. I've never seen him on TV. In fact I haven't seen him anywhere.

2. I never heard him

3. I never felt his presence in my life.

So my conclusion is that God doesn't exist.

Yes, because

LOL. Don't tell me, I don't exist.

Now you're just trolling I think.

Have you ever seen me on TV?
Have you ever heard of me?
Have you ever felt my presence?

By your logic, I shouldn't exist as well. Maybe you need to work on your wording. Or maybe you can just find a better reason to not believe in God.

@top_lel: That set of criteria doesn't suggest something doesn't exist, only that there is no reason to actively think it does.

@-Blasphemy-: Tommorow I shall be Iron Man

@dsmccracken: Exacta, that's why I discouraged that type of thinking.

it has to be something realistic

Your logic is infallible I'm impressed! I approve of this message. People have you ever seen heard, smell, feel, taste God? Doesn't exist!

@aretilda: to whom was that directed?

@magicalclick: omnipotence is logically impossible. Still not Iron Man today. :(

You were the only one that was quoted :)

That didn't make any sense then.

I am a Reformed Baptist. Another name for it is Calvinist, in case some don't know. If anyone wants to ask me anything specifically about my faith, please do.

In the meantime, I'd like to address this question: "If God exists, why is there so much evil in the world?" The truth is, God actually restrains many peoples' evil, including yours and mine. As humans, we have disgusting, evil thoughts. We think about doing things that are absolutely repulsive. You know you do it. But what is it that restrains us from turning some of those thoughts into illegal actions? Yes, society and laws, for one. But Romans 13 communicates to us that God has established governments to punish the evil of men, to restrain it. So that's one way he does it. God does not restrain everyone, however, and those people are examples to us so we can see our condition.

But why is it that we look at the mugshots of criminals on television and not see ourselves? They're human like us, so that tells me that we have the propensity to do similar evils. The scary thing is, we do commit many evils against God daily. You've disobeyed and mistreated your parents, hated people in your heart, stolen, cursed the God who created you, coveted things that are not yours, lusted and cheated, etc, etc. Instead of asking, "Why does God allow so much evil?", the better question is "Why has not God taken my life in judgment for all of the horrible things I have done?" If God must deal with evil, he must deal with all of it; He can't pass by you just because you have ranked your evil on a scale and decided that it is not as bad. That is the reason that Christ died, for our transgressions against God. Yes, the death of Christ displays God's love for the people whom he saves, but it also shows how terrible we are as humans, sinners. It took the death of a member of the Godhead to redeem those who come to believe in Him.

god can be historically traced to human fiction to explain natural events that were once unexplained.

/thread

Well I know that I consider the belief in aliens legit, but I'm sure that doesn't count. God... Hmmm, eh.

I believe in steel, gold coins, and men's wits.

This is a rather old thread.

@scottpsfan14: So you bump a 2 month old thread just to say this?