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ottomann
2008-02-14, 03:00
I don't really post in this forum much, but I am very interested in religion. I myself am atheist - I dont push my beliefs (or lack of) on other people, and I don't like when others do it to me, so please refrain.

I was just wondering, why do you believe in [insert god(s) here].

I am a firm believer in science. There are answers for everything out there, and it is just waiting to be uncovered. All the questions that were once answered with "because that's the way God wanted it to be" are now being answered with lots of evidence to support it. To me, science just makes sense, and that is why I believe in no religion.

I went to a Catholic elementary school, so I know the core beliefs of Christians and all that jazz too.

(Also, I highly recommend The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins; its a very good read about...well...atheism i guess)

Thought Riot
2008-02-14, 03:08
I just do. That's really the best answer I can give you. When I walk around in nature and let my thoughts wander I just get this really positive feeling of something greater than myself. Well, I don't know if it's "God", but something bigger than me.

ottomann
2008-02-14, 03:22
I just do. That's really the best answer I can give you. When I walk around in nature and let my thoughts wander I just get this really positive feeling of something greater than myself. Well, I don't know if it's "God", but something bigger than me.

But what god do you believe in? Are you a Christian, believing in God? Or are you one of the few left who believe in "Mother Earth"?

Did your parents influence this belief? Have you always felt this way, or did you have a good 'think' one day and realize thats how you feel?

Sorry for seeming so inquisitive, i just like to gather information :)

kurdt318
2008-02-14, 03:53
I've always felt connected to other people and the natural around me, and it is this thought/emotion that I equate with 'God'. No, for me he is not some old bearded individual meddling in the affairs of humans from atop his cloud. 'God' has no gender, it has no location, it does not judge and does not hate. God is oneness. It is the connection of all human beings, animals and the earth that surrounds us.

Hexadecimal
2008-02-14, 04:12
God makes sense to me. The idea of searching my self for a purpose seemed to make sense, so I did it. As I searched my self for a purpose many things came to pass: I came to agnosticism at first - I doubted what I thought my purpose was, then atheism - I saw my purpose as doing what my heart and mind dictated, then a different agnosticism - I doubted the soundness of my own dictates, then I found faith - something came to me as I am able to understand it. Once it is found, it cannot truly be lost; my understandings of it have changed over the past few years, but it wasn't until I put genuine trust into it that my life showed the whole impact of what it could do. Existing inside of me is a connection to something FAR greater than myself; this entity, energy, or whatever you wish to call it that I have found a connection to is what I choose to call God. It has a voice, a mind, and a body: unheard, incomprehensible, and unseen...yet there.

Obbe
2008-02-14, 22:30
Because God makes reality make sense. God is the oneness of all.

godfather89
2008-02-16, 05:25
I don't really post in this forum much, but I am very interested in religion. I myself am atheist - I dont push my beliefs (or lack of) on other people, and I don't like when others do it to me, so please refrain.

I was just wondering, why do you believe in [insert god(s) here].

I am a firm believer in science. There are answers for everything out there, and it is just waiting to be uncovered. All the questions that were once answered with "because that's the way God wanted it to be" are now being answered with lots of evidence to support it. To me, science just makes sense, and that is why I believe in no religion.

I went to a Catholic elementary school, so I know the core beliefs of Christians and all that jazz too.

(Also, I highly recommend The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins; its a very good read about...well...atheism i guess)

I will reply to each statement / Paragraph...

1. I can respect a person for not imposing their beliefs on anyone else excerpt for themselves, I thank you for that. The world is to full of people who try to impose there Utopia's on the world, when they should impose there utopia on themselves.

2. I believe in the Gnostic idea of God, I often quote from the Bible and Nag Hammadi Library. Here is only a brief description of the idea of God I believe in:

"Uncontained, incomprehensible and cannot be seen or heard... God is infinite, without beginning or end and is the ultimate origin of all things. He encompasses all things without being encompassed... Everything including the world lies within the Father and continues to be part of him. God manifests himself through a process of self-unfolding in the subsequent multiplicity of being while maintaining his unity.... God incorporates both masculine and feminine characteristics, this is related to the notion that God provides the universe with both form and substance... Most importantly the one transcends the very idea / name / word God."

I believe in God largely because, I am not a Nihilist I believe there is more out there than just what is in front of you. It is not so much that I wish to "feel" comforted by the idea of something higher but rather, because, I feel we are part of the divinity and by denying God's existence we deny a part of our own.

3. I respect your belief that science is largely our No. 1 way in search for truth about the physical world. I am glad that the old ways of explaining it as "God" are fading we are largely becoming more inventive with our ability to help ourselves through scientific advancements, however, science is a tool not a toy it should not be used for selfish purposes like the way it has in the past. Part of the reason why I go to God is that I believe that science deals with objective reality while God deals with the subjective, however in my beliefs I find it that subjectivity is the basis that allows objectivity to exist.

4. You know only the dogma and doctrine of the Judeo-Christian rules. But have you considered questioning the dogmatics of God instead of the nature of God? I believe most people have confused God's nature with Dogma and treated them as one and the same.

5. I am not a big fan of that man. To me he represents a trend-setter, making atheism into a trend and also him being a figurehead for the scientific community working to obliterate apart of our own nature. The enlightenment is over but we have this residue of it today as humanism has become more of a trend than a school of thought.

crackhead
2008-02-18, 21:02
1. The bumble bee can fly
2. Because I know that the bigbang and evolution are pure bull shit! Think about it, for the big bang theory to be true all that dust would have had to come from somewhere! And evolution is just plain silly.

ArmsMerchant
2008-02-19, 22:28
In my universe, the less you believe and the more you know, the better off you are. So I don't so much believe in God as simply know that there is such a thing--not an entity per se, but a sentient and loving intelligence/enegy that permeates everyone and everything.

Some might call it the Holy Spirit, others might call it the Unified Field, some call it the Higher Self.

godfather89
2008-02-20, 05:34
In my universe, the less you believe and the more you know, the better off you are. So I don't so much believe in God as simply know that there is such a thing--not an entity per se, but a sentient and loving intelligence/enegy that permeates everyone and everything.

Some might call it the Holy Spirit, others might call it the Unified Field, some call it the Higher Self.

Ah the Gnostic stance on things: Less you believe... More You Know (Intutively;Not so much intellectually)... God is not an entity... Concious and Loving Mind that is in everything yet has its own source...