Poll: Does God exist?
You do not have permission to vote in this poll.
Yes
45.00%
18 45.00%
No
32.50%
13 32.50%
Doesn't Matter
22.50%
9 22.50%
Total 40 vote(s) 100%
* You voted for this item. [Show Results]

Existence of God
#41
Mmm. I would like to think there is something beyond when we leave this Earth. I don't necessarily believe in the stereotypical God, but I believe there is something waiting up there in Heaven.
The Following 1 User Says Thank You to Janelle For This Useful Post:
  • gemj
Reply
#42
I believe that the concept of deities and an afterlife are coping mechanisms to help us deal with grief and explain things that we couldn't otherwise explain(like natural disasters and cycles). The idea of some all powerful creator that loves me and has a plan is a nice thought, but that is all it is.
We can explain natural disasters, the seasons, the tides, birth/conception, the sun and stars and even rainbows now. We don't need folklore anymore. The only use religion has in the developed world left is to deal with the grief of death, but it also creates an us vs them mentality and does more harm than good.
Reply
#43
where I was raised, religious belief is tied mainly to immigrants. I hope there's something beyond life and hey, we're here now, aren't we? what's to say some sort of God or afterlife doesn't exist if 7 billion humans do right now?
Reply
#44
What im curious about is the eerie experiences a mind can have regarding some environments.
Like i had many dreams where i wasnt me, and i experienced the entire world differently, it was amazing.
What these dreams and experiences got to do with life i wonder.
[Image: 213.jpg]
Reply
#45
I think it's reasonable to assume there's some form of intelligence out there beyond our comprehension, and for all intents and purposes is basically God to us (think the monolith in Space Odyssey/tesseract in Interstellar). I haven't found sufficient reason to buy into any one religion, though there is value to be found in them. Considering how vast the universe is, though, chances are such a lifeform (or lifeforms) exists.
Reply
#46
"God is dead", like others have said, is from the German philosopher Nietzsche. It refers to the idea that the increase in scientific reasoning brought about by the age of enlightenment made it so that belief in God was no longer the default.

Here's how I interpret it: If you were to create a brand new society in the pre-enlightenment era that had absolutely no concept of God, eventually such a concept would be created by that society. Try the same thing in a post-enlightenment era, and the concept of God would not arise naturally as a matter of course.
Reply
#47
(19th January 2018, 8:56 AM)Bluelightning Wrote: Yeah me too
Reply
#48
(19th January 2018, 1:28 PM)Robobot Wrote:

this pretty much sums up exactly how i feel

Here's my problem with this. First of all, Neil is a smart guy, I like him - and he's proven it several times through what he says and has done. So when he goes "that's why it's called a *faith*, because it's not based on any evidence" I was confused. This is exactly what I say when discussing the topic of God with people who question it. The whole point of religion is that we need to have faith in the creator through the inherent spirituality that is given to mankind, and if we fail to do so then we face the repercussions of it (in Islam, at least, these "repercussions" depend entirely on how Allah deals with you, which obviously will vary person to person - much has to do with deed and intention). If God gives us the evidence of his existence, then even the most evil of people will worship him out of necessity, knowing that he exists so they have no choice. This is a really important concept in Islam, called "iman" - faith in God which goes hand in hand with the "goodness" of people. People who chose to stray and live a life of sin will weaken or perhaps completely drop their iman in order to do so. You wouldn't do evil if you were keenly aware of His presence, and your iman was "strong". Since life is a test, it wouldn't make sense to give the "answers" (evidence of God) to the test, that would defeat the point of the test.
Reply
#49
(8th March 2020, 9:40 PM)ForestDweller Wrote: Here's my problem with this. First of all, Neil is a smart guy, I like him - and he's proven it several times through what he says and has done. So when he goes "that's why it's called a *faith*, because it's not based on any evidence" I was confused. This is exactly what I say when discussing the topic of God with people who question it. The whole point of religion is that we need to have faith in the creator through the inherent spirituality that is given to mankind, and if we fail to do so then we face the repercussions of it (in Islam, at least, these "repercussions" depend entirely on how Allah deals with you, which obviously will vary person to person - much has to do with deed and intention). If God gives us the evidence of his existence, then even the most evil of people will worship him out of necessity, knowing that he exists so they have no choice. This is a really important concept in Islam, called "iman" - faith in God which goes hand in hand with the "goodness" of people. People who chose to stray and live a life of sin will weaken or perhaps completely drop their iman in order to do so. You wouldn't do evil if you were keenly aware of His presence, and your iman was "strong". Since life is a test, it wouldn't make sense to give the "answers" (evidence of God) to the test, that would defeat the point of the test.

Sure, IF there was specifically an Abrahamic God then the world that we live in could still be possible. But that's only one of many possibilities. For example:
-What if there is no God?
-What if there is a God, but he prefers when people do evil acts and rewards them in the afterlife?
-What if there is a God, but he's a big nacho fan and only lets people into heaven who create a large amount of nachos in their life?

ect.

What exactly about the world we live in makes a God more likely than any other alternative?
Reply
#50
(10th March 2020, 9:41 PM)1amayzingman Wrote: Sure, IF there was specifically an Abrahamic God then the world that we live in could still be possible.  But that's only one of many possibilities.  For example:
-What if there is no God?
-What if there is a God, but he prefers when people do evil acts and rewards them in the afterlife?
-What if there is a God, but he's a big nacho fan and only lets people into heaven who create a large amount of nachos in their life?

ect.

What exactly about the world we live in makes a God more likely than any other alternative?

This is similar to the question of why Islam, or Christianity or Judaism? What makes one religion the truth and the others false? That has to do with deeper studies into religion and history, and the use of unbiased, non-impulsive, deliberate intuition in choosing your faith. We know these three religions definitely had a common origin and stats from 2015 (from Pew Research Center) tell us that 4.11 billion people in the world currently follow an Abrahamic religion which was 56% of the world's population. Atheists and agnostics make up the next largest group - of 1.2 billion people. Hindus and Buddhists make up the rest of the 1.6 billion but do not proselytize and moreover, are cultural religions. Hence, we see a split between those who believe in Abrahamic religions and those who don't believe in God or are unsure. Why aren't there hundreds or even thousands of religions being widely followed? Why did a few religions take precedence in the entire world for at least 2000 years? Global history tells us that human patterns of thought and culture don't last that long. We're seeing less diversity in everything, sadly language as well, in this globalized world. However, Abrahamic religions have survived changing times unlike anything else and always had a macro-scale influence in the world. There's something for you to think about - what do these religions teach that enticed humanity, and perhaps was there with us since the beginning?
The Following 1 User Says Thank You to ForestDweller For This Useful Post:
  • lalafox
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)