Why do you believe in God?

[5ayle]

Jesus loves me, this i know, cuz the bible tells me so.

Actually it's all thx to Mel Gibson.

I'm being dumb cuz it's late and i'm deprived (of sleep that is).

 

[Siddhartha]

I do not know if there is\are a god(s) or not. I have heard and seen a lot of people who believe in god talking about god.

If you forced me to choose a god I would vote for the sun which is the energy source that pushes almost all activity in my world.

 

[Krakerjak]

In my mind, I cannot explain either side of the argument.
As of today, science cannot explain why and how we exist today.
I have not ruled out science but I rely less on science as an explanation.

Religion, or should i say belief in a higher being(s), gives a how and a very vague why but equally cannot be explained.
I take much comfort in the fact that Jesus walked the earth and performed these incredible miracles.

Not everybody believes that he actually did these things, and you have a rightfully so as there is no concrete proof that these miracles took place. If you don't believe, would witnessing one of these miracles change your mind? ( Such as Jesus raising the dead, calming a storm, walking on water, healing sick/blind/deaf, or rising from the dead ) and abandon the search for the answer in science?

 

[Fudssa]

There is no God.
So easy.

 

[ed21x]

Originally posted by: Fudssa
There is no God.
So easy.

There is a God.
So easy.


man, i just love your line of reasoning

 

[Fudssa]

Originally posted by: ed21x

Originally posted by: Fudssa There is no God. So easy.

There is a God. So easy. man, i just love your line of reasoning

What reasoning?

 

[Krakerjak]

Originally posted by: Fudssa

Originally posted by: ed21x

Originally posted by: Fudssa There is no God. So easy.

There is a God. So easy. man, i just love your line of reasoning

What reasoning?

Well put

 

[Corporate Thug]

why not?

if i believe in god, and god exisits, i go to heaven
if i believe in god, and god doesnt exist, nothing happens
if i dint believe in god, and god exists, i go to hell
if i dont believe in god, and god doesnt exist, nothing happens

there is nothing to gain by NOT beliving in God and everything to gain in believing in him

 

[Darien]

Originally posted by: shady06
why not?

if i believe in god, and god exisits, i go to heaven
if i believe in god, and god doesnt exist, nothing happens
if i dint believe in god, and god exists, i go to hell
if i dont believe in god, and god doesnt exist, nothing happens

there is nothing to gain by NOT beliving in God and everything to gain in believing in him

Perhaps in a "Christian" God. What if the Greeks were right?

 

[ThePresence]

Originally posted by: Hardcore

Originally posted by: ed21x

Originally posted by: pr0tus

Originally posted by: Hardcore

Originally posted by: pr0tus
I have read through this whole post and was surprised at how many people don't believe in god. I think its safe to say nobody knows, pretty simple. I think people who believe in god, or think there isn't a god have an unrelated reason for it, others like me can admit we don't know.

People who 'admit they don't know' are just lazy and never tried looking for an answer either way.

proof there is or isn't a god! where?!

people see Jesus as proof that there is a God because of the miracles and ressurrection. It's up to you to decide on whether these eyewitness accounts are true or not.

Just remember that of the 12 apostles (Jesus' disciplers), 11 of them died for refusing to reject Christianity. Would 11 people conscientiously die on the basis of a lie? That is another thougt to ponder.

You have suicide bombers killing themselves because they believe they'll become martyrs, and get all these virgins in heavens. Are what they believe in true then? If you think the middle-east is heavily dogmatic today, imagine what it was like 2000 years ago.

You had kamikaze's in WWII killing themselves because they believed in the divinity of Hirohito. He later renounced any divinity ascribed to him. The Heaven's Gate freaks killed themselves because they believed that they would hitch a ride on a UFO that was hiding in the Hale-Bopp comet. People will kill themselves because of what they believe strongly in. Doesn't make that belief correct because of that.

 

[JupiterJones]

Originally posted by: Stefan
There are many things in this world that I cannot explain, things such as where the very first particles of matter came from and when/why they got there. I cannot define a legitimate purpose for life. I know we are here and I know it is in our nature to prolong the species. We have our consciousness, which I cannot understand how it works (our consciousness is more than the sum of all our neural connections).

I believe that everything in this world can be explained in a logical manor without attributing anything to a devine being. I can see everything we have learned and see no reason why the things we cannot yet explain, will not be explained as our collective knowledge increases. I see no basis to resort to needing a god to explain what we cannot at the moment.

For those who do believe in God, why do you believe?

Your statement that "everything in this world can be explained in a logical manor" is in direct opposition to Gödel?s Incompleteness Theorem. Fact is, it has been proven that no system of logic can prove all that is true. Therefore, anyone who will only believe that which can be logically proven has made the decision to intentionally disbelieve some things that are true.

Incidentally, Anselm, Descartes, Leibniz, Gödel, and Fitting have all addressed ontological proofs of God's existence. If you "logically" decide that God cannot exist, then you need to first address these proofs (along with all the others).

Back to your question, I believe in God because it is logical to do so. (By logical, I am referring to Aristotelian logic, not symbolic logic).

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: pr0tus

Originally posted by: Hardcore

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: Hardcore

Originally posted by: pr0tus
I have read through this whole post and was surprised at how many people don't believe in god. I think its safe to say nobody knows, pretty simple. I think people who believe in god, or think there isn't a god have an unrelated reason for it, others like me can admit we don't know.

People who 'admit they don't know' are just lazy and never tried looking for an answer either way.

I mean no offense, but that was a really stupid thing to say.

Given that "God" is an abstract concept (that is, there's nothing tangible or measurable to point at and say "that is God") that takes a leap of faith to believe even exists, "I don't know" is a fair answer. Personaly, I do not know if there is God or if there isn't. Honestly, does it really matter to me? No, because I would not "worship" God in any case.

So you haven't searched for an answer either way, haven't read on why he exists, or arguments for why he couldn't, because it doesn't really matter to you? Sounds like laziness to me.

I don't think he was saying he didn't search for answers because it doesn't matter. Maybe he came to the conclusion that there are no answers?

My conclusion is that all possible "answers" are equally arbitrary, and therefore meaningless. It's not laziness; I participate in a lot of religious threads here, and have had many discussions with people of a variety of religious faiths.

To me, personally, the concept of "spirituality" has a null meaning. I simply can't relate to it.

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: MrCodeDude

Originally posted by: MrCodeDude

Originally posted by: MrCodeDude

Originally posted by: MrCodeDude

Originally posted by: MrCodeDude
D

E

P

O

T

DING DING DING !!


Sysadmin

 

[Josephus]

"Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." (1CO 1:20~21)

I've experienced too many inexplicable and miraculou things, some would call them mystical experiences, through faith.. to deny the existence of God.

 

[BigToque]

Originally posted by: db
"...I cannot find a way to even comprehend "letting go".
What would happen if you "let go"?

What would happen is that I will feel foolish. I will feel like I've given in to the masses. I will feel like everyone will think I am a fool for believing in something so seeming ridiculous, not unlike how I feel about those who currently believe.

If I were to believe anything, it would be this:

God set the universe in motion at the moment of the Big Bang (or other universe starting events), and from that moment on, everything has been random. Kind of like God wrote the source code and executed it. The application is running on random numbers created as a function of time.

I don't believe any religion has everything figured out. I could never associate myself with any particular religion.

There are so many things written that have to be explained a lot better...

Eg. Humans have souls, and animals do not.

Chimps are animals just as humans are. Humans and chimps have a common ancestor. Does this mean that all primates or chimps/humans have souls? Do all animals have souls? Did God decide at some point ?hey, I like humans. I think I'll choose them to have souls?.

Believing in God gives me questions that have seemingly ridiculous answers, whereas not believing in God leaves me with some fundamental questions, but no ridiculous answers.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: shady06
why not?

if i believe in god, and god exisits, i go to heaven
if i believe in god, and god doesnt exist, nothing happens
if i dint believe in god, and god exists, i go to hell
if i dont believe in god, and god doesnt exist, nothing happens

there is nothing to gain by NOT beliving in God and everything to gain in believing in him

So could you believe in the tooth faery if you wanted to? What if she's the real god?

 

[TitanDiddly]

Alright. Somebody please explain to me how threads like this one are allowed, but any 'pro-God' thread is teh lock3z0rred in 3 seconds flat?

With that out of the way, I beleive in God for many reasons. One is that it's statistically impossible for the universe to exist be accident.
*anticipates somebody asking for a cite, and tries to find where I put it

 

[BigToque]

Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox
Alright. Somebody please explain to me how threads like this one are allowed, but any 'pro-God' thread is teh lock3z0rred in 3 seconds flat?

With that out of the way, I beleive in God for many reasons. One is that it's statistically impossible for the universe to exist be accident.
*anticipates somebody asking for a cite, and tries to find where I put it

Is it impossible to flip a coin 10,000,000,000 and have 10,000,000,000 heads in a row? Unlikely yes, impossible no.

 

[TitanDiddly]

Originally posted by: Stefan

Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox
Alright. Somebody please explain to me how threads like this one are allowed, but any 'pro-God' thread is teh lock3z0rred in 3 seconds flat?

With that out of the way, I beleive in God for many reasons. One is that it's statistically impossible for the universe to exist be accident.
*anticipates somebody asking for a cite, and tries to find where I put it

Is it impossible to flip a coin 10,000,000,000 and have 10,000,000,000 heads in a row? Unlikely yes, impossible no.

There is a threshhold of statistical impossibility. The universe's accidental creation is waaay past it. It's one in xx^xx^xx. I believe they example they gave for this number was this: If you could write one zero per second 24/7, you would die before you could write it out.

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: shady06
why not?

if i believe in god, and god exisits, i go to heaven
if i believe in god, and god doesnt exist, nothing happens
if i dint believe in god, and god exists, i go to hell
if i dont believe in god, and god doesnt exist, nothing happens

there is nothing to gain by NOT beliving in God and everything to gain in believing in him

That's Pascal's Wager, and what a HORRIBLE fraud of a person you'd have to be for believing in god for such reasons.

 

[TitanDiddly]

Originally posted by: Descartes

Originally posted by: shady06
why not?

if i believe in god, and god exisits, i go to heaven
if i believe in god, and god doesnt exist, nothing happens
if i dint believe in god, and god exists, i go to hell
if i dont believe in god, and god doesnt exist, nothing happens

there is nothing to gain by NOT beliving in God and everything to gain in believing in him

That's Pascal's Wager, and what a HORRIBLE fraud of a person you'd have to be for believing in god for such reasons.

And 'believing' that God exists doesn't do the trick, either. As long as we're talking about Christianity, to be saved, you have to have a real relationship to get the job done.

Oh man, what did I just get myself into...

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox
Alright. Somebody please explain to me how threads like this one are allowed, but any 'pro-God' thread is teh lock3z0rred in 3 seconds flat?

With that out of the way, I beleive in God for many reasons. One is that it's statistically impossible for the universe to exist be accident.
*anticipates somebody asking for a cite, and tries to find where I put it

Educate yourself on the anthropic principle; it's an antiquated idea, but people still bring it into religious discussions. To what statistics are you referring? Have you accumulated data for the existence of accidental and nonaccidental universe creations? If god create space and time, then how is it possible that any identifiable causality (creation of a universe) could possibly be statistics derived? It makes no damn sense.

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox

Originally posted by: Descartes

Originally posted by: shady06
why not?

if i believe in god, and god exisits, i go to heaven
if i believe in god, and god doesnt exist, nothing happens
if i dint believe in god, and god exists, i go to hell
if i dont believe in god, and god doesnt exist, nothing happens

there is nothing to gain by NOT beliving in God and everything to gain in believing in him

That's Pascal's Wager, and what a HORRIBLE fraud of a person you'd have to be for believing in god for such reasons.

And 'believing' that God exists doesn't do the trick, either. As long as we're talking about Christianity, to be saved, you have to have a real relationship to get the job done.

Oh man, what did I just get myself into...

Yet how many christians use the same argument? To believe in jesus christ as the son of god only for lack of a better explanation is not only intellectually apathetic, but blasphemous too, imo. You are essentially relegating god to a position of secondary influence; you'll believe in him only because the possibility exists that the gospels are true. If you're going to believe in it, there can be no equivocation, imo.

 

[BigToque]

Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox

Originally posted by: Stefan

Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox
Alright. Somebody please explain to me how threads like this one are allowed, but any 'pro-God' thread is teh lock3z0rred in 3 seconds flat?

With that out of the way, I beleive in God for many reasons. One is that it's statistically impossible for the universe to exist be accident.
*anticipates somebody asking for a cite, and tries to find where I put it

Is it impossible to flip a coin 10,000,000,000 and have 10,000,000,000 heads in a row? Unlikely yes, impossible no.

There is a threshhold of statistical impossibility. The universe's accidental creation is waaay past it. It's one in xx^xx^xx. I believe they example they gave for this number was this: If you could write one zero per second 24/7, you would die before you could write it out.

Think about this though...

The universe as we know it is the sum of an infinite number of probable outcomes. Assuming that matter has always existed, it is possible for certain atoms to bind to each other. They have an affinity for each other, so it is probable that they will find each other and bind. This means that many atoms will bind and will always find another atom or set of atoms to bind to. Eventually, these become molecules. Because there would be a seemingly infinite number of these molecules, it is not unlikely that a few of them could start reactions that formed the first life.

There was no single statistically significant event that created the universe. It is many probable events that happened in random fashion. Humans are a sum of a large number of events that just happened to go "right"

 

[eldorado99]

You put it best yourself. You believe that everything in this world can be explained in a logical manor. So you have placed your faith in theories of man.
I on the other hand have placed my faith in literature which I believe is from a higher being.

Both god and literature -ARE- theories of man.