Do You Believe In God?
 

First of all, this is not a religious aimed question. I could really care less about religion.

Do you believe that there is some sort of God, or do you think everything is just evolution?

And why?

Personally, I don't think there is a God per se, because if there was, people wouldn't have all kinds of huge miserie.

I think it's just evolution. Like the earthquakes around the globe recently, I personally think it's just the evolution of Nature that is reshaping and reforming, and not a "punishment of God".

Evolution seems the right way for me, i love how science prove things
Though the day my father died ( i was watching We where soldiers at the cinema ) for some reasons i knew he had unfortunatly succombed to his cancer.
I came back home saw my mother in tears, of course had a talk about it but i already knew
On his death she said to me that she feeled a energy hugging her and somehow left his body from above
i think now i can say that i beleive in some kind of enregy system but not god

Right-wing, conservative-libertarian, young-earth creationist, Protestant Christian, RIGHT HERE. <----

And yet, despite the large majority of people like me who hated Avatar, I loved it. HA! :D

I do believe in God...its not something easy for me to explain my reasoning behind, but something I feel and believe.

i only believe in things i can see and things that go down to reason.... so i´ll go with Darwin....

and btw religion isn´t always something good! in Austria some really bad things are happening right now! church related things....

from my point of view, Religions bring up conflict and wars when in the wrong hands because we all know we are humans..

jeah and the catholic church has not the best history ;)

right now i´m thinking of leaving the church..

Religions are a cheap excuse for war.

but unforunatly was used way too much in history
sorry to have said anything about that .. i took the thread to a off subject..
please lets continue!

There is NO war that hasn't used it as excuse.

"Oooh, but they're muslim" and "oooh, they're Jewish"

and now we are back at the religion thing

but it is really hard to seperate god and religion....

No, we're not. We're talking about how war abuses religion and gods.

but it´s boiling down to that religion is bad....

but u are right, war has always used religion and god

This x10.

Exactly. Completely right.

Religions was created by man for the need of man

To conclude my opinion about relgion, I think they made religions as an explanation what they think is God and made a whole book about it.

It's like writing a regular book. A story.

We all understand that religion isn't the cause of many wars, but rather the excuse for certain men to wage it, right?

Just wanna get that out there. For instance, the Crusades were fought mostly by criminals who were released from prison with the promise from the pope that they'd be absolved of their sins if they joined the cause. They raped women, pillaged and plundered the towns and cities they conquered, and murdered God knows how many thousands of innocent people. The pope didn't care, however. Clearly he wasn't a man of God, and neither were any of the others who condoned the crusades following the 1st and 2nd. In fact, I don't believe any pope who's ever lived was really a man of God...

But that's another story, considering I have very hard feelings against the Catholic Church...

Im pretty sure the Catholic church 'eradicated' quite a few religions
but then again, i dont really have any proof for that

I do, but I won't take the time to post about it (I've debated this topic many times before). Again as I said, I really, really don't like the Catholic church...

I'm going to throw a c-c-c-combo breaker in here and get back on topic ;)

I don't believe in a 'god' as such, I believe in evolution. However I also believe there are certain things science can not explain. Human emotion for example, you could claim is just the release of particular chemicals into the brain, but does it really feel like that?

I think there is something behind the physical matter and chemical processes, a 'soul' if you will...

God doesn't exist in the form of a white bearded man up in the sky , god is us and the world we live in , god lives in our decisions , god is something mankind came up with to be able to describe what they weren't able to understand 2000 years ago or even further in the past .

If I would think of any god , the only god I would believe in is nature , the whole system is really based on the term that you actually "give back the energy you borrowed from it".

Actually we are our own gods , since we are able to create or destroy , and we can choose whether of these two things we ultimately practice , so it's all a matter of choice .

^ This. Personally I'm a Catholic and I believe in God, but I just can't follow the church anymore. It sickens me.

Then how do you explain anti-depressant medicine for example if you believe that science and emotion do not mix? Those fields of science aren't just profitable enough to draw in the kind of funding required in order for them to progress on the same level as many more practical sciences do. I mean we can't base our understanding of the world around us purely based on how we feel, because our senses are deficient compared to proper measuring instruments for example.

As for more on topic, it's not a matter of believing in something that could exist, but cannot be proven or disproven in any way, because that's just ultimately silly. There are infinite number of things that could exist, yet in no way can we ever say if they do or do not. So how can one seriously think that there is this one thing above all those other possible things?

There's a really good short video on YouTube about this all. It's a metaphor called Teapot Atheism

From the results of this experiment, we can conclude that there is no god.

I personally don't believe in a god although I would like too, but I just play devils advocate a lot and think of reasons why there couldn't be.

I do however like some of the ideas of religion - Bringing people together under one common interest. And if you look into history (at least in the Western World) the Churches were the center of the community, everyone went, everyone knew each other, everyone contributed.

I look on God in the same way as I do with aliens, they might be there, but until one knocks on my door & tells me to stick the kettle on, they don't exist.

This guy pretty much hits the nail on the head if it's about religion , George Carlin :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNy6ziOyxoA

While I can not say that anti-depressant medicines do not work, I do think that with everything in medicine there is somewhat of a placebo effect, you feel better because you know you are taking a drug that alleviates depression. Again, that's not to say they don't do anything at all, I just believe it helps if you believe they are helping you.

If I came across as saying science and emotion don't mix, I appologise because I believe they do. I just do not believe emotions are quantifiable.

For example if someone who knew absolutely nothing of human emotion came to me and asked "What is euphoria?" I could say that it is the release of certain tryptamines into the brain. This would indeed give them a basic idea, solely because we know what tryptamines do in the human brain. But for them to truly understand euphoria, they'd have to experience it.

As for Teapot Atheism, it is an interesting idea, but I do not know enough personally to discuss it.

I like the way you think. ;)

Well said fkeua, that's more or less how I see it, too.

And I also agree with Apollo that Religion is bad (Bad Religion), not by its definition, but like all things, where power is involved, they turn into something bad for someone. Think of AF.

Why is it that the question is usually placed in this kind of context. Can't we have some kind of God and evolution? I just don't see why it has to be black or white, one or the other.

I am not trying to push anything on anyone, but for those dismayed about "conventional" religions take a look at Universal Unitarianism. It seems pretty much aligned with these forums. http://www.uua.org/

I don't believe in God. Funnily enough, I believe in Eywa and Evolution.

I see a general problem here.

First of all is the definition for "god". Without an explaning definition no discussion is possible.

Second: The view on "religion". Religion is to see with the whole construct of the time, it is connected in. The free view we have now is a modern view. It is only possible because we divided church and politics a few centuries ago.
You all just forget about the fact, that politics, religion, society and people weren't divided in the past.
So you can't say "The church did bad things in the past." It didn't. The PEOPLE did bad things because of politics and power. And the church was one of the instruments. But that is not something you are supposed to look at separated.


I'm sorry, when i interrupt this discussion with that, but i study EXACT these topics.
And i don't like it if complex things are thrown out of their context and simplified to a small lie.

Placebo is a very real effect and not fully understood, and the thing about it is, that the mind can influence the rest of your body. It's not as simple as such of course, but the statistic probability of getting better is usually slightly higher for those with more optimistic views for example.

Still it's only a part of the process of getting better, because people don't just survive cancer or such simply by sheer strong will. The positive spin usually always increases the odds, but it's the physical treatment that eventually makes one better.

And why do you think emotions aren't quantifiable? We have emotions for a reason, even if we don't know what the cause of a certain emotion is. The issue is just too complex to put into words without any deeper understanding of psychology, but we can at times pinpoint the cause for certain emotions, and from that we can observe the effects happening inside our brain.

As for the example as to how describe emotions to someone who can't experience them or doesn't know anything about them. It's the same as telling a blind man how beautiful the sunset is, you can describe it in some ways sure, but eventually it's never the same. This is also due to the fact that even if the man wouldn't be blind, he'd still percieve the sunset quite differently than you would for example, based on his personal life experience.

Of course we can't describe emotions correctly in just words, because that's just how WE feel them. I was implying to the point how the chemistry that goes about in our brain makes us feel that way usually is pretty much same for all those, whose brains are pretty much in standard working order.

And lastly about the Teapot Atheism, you did watch the YouTube video that I linked in my post? I mean what is there not to know about such a simple example? And there really isn't anythign to discuss either, since the idea itself is pretty self explanatory and leaves no room for ambiguity.

Religion is an excuse for people to do what they would anyway, not the cause. A tyrant will always find a pretext for his own tyranny. I get very irked when people make that mistake. Because if anyone followed their religion well, they wouldn't be causing problems.

As you may have guessed, I'm religious. I'm a Protestant.

Very well said. Thank you Eon.

I am an agnostic, so i dont pretend to know one way or the other. as far as faith goes..... i'm a scientist, you don't get too far in my field having 'faith' in things, everything comes down to analysis. thats how i live my life.

is it empty? i dont have anything to compare it to, but it feels full. Do i know where I am going when I die? no. but all i know is that when I do die, hopefully years from now, I will be extremely tired and will be ready to rest and give myself back.

Through my studies there seems to be something that... well, makes the universe exist 'in equilibrium', but i am not inclined to call it god.

EDIT: i was brought up Irish Catholic, hmmm.... maybe thats why I am agnostic? haha (no priest jokes)

NO. Forgive my anger, but hold your tongue when you know nothing of it.

Jihad means struggle, not war. Only AL QAEDA INTERPRETS IT OTHERWISE.

If you open the Qur'an, you will find instructions to allow everyone their beliefs, give to charity, and promote peace. One verse reads "there is no compulsion in religion." Another states that if God wanted everyone to believe the same thing, he'd make us himself, therefore its not man's place to force others.

Yet everyone and his brother who knows nothing insists on being the expect and fueling Islamophobia. SO STOP IT.


Islam has just been as cruel on it's people as every other worldreligion , religion causes people to stupidicly stick to their beliefs and trying to force them on others , that's like 2 unstoppable forces colliding , they won't change their minds , everyone thinks his or hers is better , which causes conflicts like they have been fought since thousands of years , war caused through religion is the worst plague mankind has succumbed to since it's existance , it has caused more conflicts and taken more lifes than anything else .

The qur'an tells people to cut of thiefs hands and other things I can't quite remember anymore , so please don't try to portray islam as what it simply is not , I'm not against muslims , actually I don't care about peoples beliefs , but religion is and that's a undoubtable fact used for bad purposes , if people would actually start living religion , and what they praise for instead of being hypocrits and doing the exact opposite of it , religion would be a good thing , but it should be voluntarily , everybody has the right to choose what he believes or not , religion is ok , as long as it's not forced upon people , if people think they can find their wellbeing in religion , that's ok and they can go with that IMO , but please don't try to be like "Hey,you are wrong , my religion is better than yours".

Accept other peoples beliefs as long as they don't question others freedom .

Now it's my turn to thank you, Shatner. Thanks.