Why you do or don't believe in God?

[summerbloom]

Interested to hear people's views on why they do believe in God or on why you don't believe in God.....

I don't have all the answers, but you've got to remember the bible was written by man, but why would everything have to be mentioned, but doesn't it depend on how it's interpreted, it was wrote in the language of the time. Btw, he's not my God, he's everybody's. You not believing in him doesn't change that. But anyway, why do you care, you don't believe. If i didn't i couldn't be bothered arguing. But atheists always do.

skerry what is your point, are you implying i think scientists are stupid? all i'm saying is they don't have all the answers, if they could disprove the existence of God they would, but obviously they can't.

I can understand people believing in God. I just can't understand why they aren't horrified by him.

dawn- scientists are not in the business of disproving the existence of imaginary creatures.

The burden of proof is on you- you are the one making the claims.

barbarian- exactly.

Even according to the bible he seems a pretty cruel deviant character.

The biggest barrier to me believing in a god is:

If God made us, who made God? (and please don't say 'he was always there', that's a cop out)

Which IIRC is what a lot of what the God Delusion is about, but it remains a very interesting and unanswered question.

@dawnviews

There will be many things that you personally don't believe in (the tooth fairy, santa, a giant lizard holding up the earth, etc) that you cannot actually disprove the existence of.

skerrywind I'm not justifying the existence of a God based on the fact that there's loads we don't know... just saying it's a possibility. I think it would be rash to say there's definitely nothing, there's so much we cannot explain, how can we say there's nothing?

I just like to keep an open mind on this.

I don't. I was brought up in a religious household, went to church every week and at university joined a Christian society and looked for a god in the various denominations nearby but never found one. I did try (not that my mother believes this) but I never really believed anyway, and once I'd decided to come out the closet, as it were, as being an atheist I felt as though a huge weight had lifted.

There are many reasons. As I said, I never found a god, despite looking and praying.

I was also pissed off that so much of my childhood and teenage years had been wasted at church (was about 25 when my mother finally let me not go to church when staying with her. I had to turn down a job when I was 20 because it involved working on a Sunday and when I told my mother was told "But you can't, you have to go to church!" I was not strong enough to argue.)

Then there's my personal situation. My dad died when I was very young, my sister left for university the next year (large age gap) and my grandmother died two years later. I also lost my mother to depression (unsurprisingly) and my beloved grandfather to dementia. Yet I was brought up with the message that God loved me. Yeah, he loved me so much that all the adults I loved abandoned me, in one way or another, when I was still a child. I know I didn't have it as bad as a lot of children, but still. I came to the conclusion that God either hated me or he didn't exist. The latter was the preferential option.

Elon Musk thinks we are in a computer simulation & the chances we are not 'is one in billions'.

40 years ago we had 'Pong' 2 rectangles & a dot. If you assume any rate of advancement at all games will become indistinguishable from reality. Therefore there is a one in billions chance this is base reality.

skerry you're wrong, the existence of whether there is a God or not has baffled scientists and physicists minds for hundreds of years, to call him an imaginary creature is insulting to all those on here who believe in him.

It's interesting to read the views on here. I find myself thinking about the possibility of there being a higher force vs religion, which has been created and manipulated by man for its own means.

I can't decide to be honest. We had a humanist welcome ceremony/naming day for our DD and I like the principles of humanism - to be the best person you can and support other humans - without being "forced to" by a religion or a God.

I did go to a church service recently and the. "You must worship and obey me" seemed to override the love your neighbours message. I do love the music tradition inspired by the Christian church!

Do I believe in the existence of evil ?
People do evil things
lots of religious people do
often against other religious people

but "evil" is no more solid an entity than the Tooth Fairy

But god is an imaginary construct Dawn.

If someone told you they believed in unicorns or flying badgers, I'd expect you to respect their choice to believe that, but I wouldn't expect you to accept it as the truth. If they wanted you to do that, you would expect them to produce evidence. If they didn't, you would judge them to be wrong, if well-meaning. Personally, I'd love there to be evidence of flying badgers 😊 but it still doesn't mean it exists.

the existence of whether there is a God or not has baffled scientists and physicists minds for hundreds of years, to call him an imaginary creature is insulting to all those on here who believe in him.
It has amused them, not baffled them.

Which god?
Thor ? Hanuman ? Jupiter ? Allah ? Jehovah ?
any of the many thousands of gods in the various religions?

There is no "evidence" for any of them.
Belief is not evidence.
And people assume their god is the real one, giving them the right to kill infidels and unbelievers

Has it hell amused them. What a ridiculous idea. Apart from that there is only one God, and scientists are not in the business of trying to amuse themselves. No, belief is not evidence. In fact you dont have any evidence youre controlling your own mind, but i bet you believe you are. I do too but i don t have evidence for it.

I used to believe when I was a teen, but the more I read the bible the more I realised that if the God described did exist, I really didn't want to worship him! He just seemed awful. From there it didn't take much to see how Christianity and other religions built themselves up and to find it impossible to take the the idea of scripture being the revealed word of God seriously. Of course not believing in religion isn't the same as not believing in God(s). But it did make it seem pointless. And now I can't look at the world around us and think there is something outside of nature that acts with Intent towards us as humans. I don't discount the possibility of the universe being intentionally created with by something outside of nature, but I don't see any evidence of it either.

Later I studied some religious philosophy and found the religious arguments to be ridiculously self-serving. I'm much in tune with Hume.

I view all gods as fictions created by humanity to try and explain the unexplainable.

To me, the Christian/Muslim/Jewish variants on god and associated mythology carry no more weight than the gods of polytheistic religions past or present, and the stories of the Bible are just as likely to have occurred as Perseus fighting Medusa, or Loki turning himself into a mare, getting slagged by a stallion and giving birth to an eight legged horse. I find it a bit bizarre that Norse and Greek mythology are treated as 'mythology' (or indeed, as others have said, Santa or the Tooth Fairy) , but Christianity and the like are supposed to be taken seriously.

I mean, let's take the Christian god as an example (as it's the current religion that I'm most familiar with).

He allows the Bible, a tome of staggering misogyny, to hold sway for a millenia or two. He kills the first born children because the rules of their land doesn't do what he's told. He torments Job for a bet. He sends bears to kill children. He doesn't want people eating pork, shellfish, or getting tattoos. He's petty and wrathful.

Then we get to the notion that if you don't believe in this particular god, or accept his son as a saviour, you'll go to hell. Raised in a different religion? Hell! Born in the rainforests of South America with no exposure to Christianity? Hell! Perfectly nice, moral and charitable atheist? Down you pop! Child abuser or rapist that believes and has said sorry? Through the pearly gates you go!

I mean seriously, who writes ten commandments for how people should live their lives, but leaves out 'treating people equally' or 'don't rape' in favour of the first five basically saying, "I'm the best god, worship only me" , etc. He's basically the Donald Trump of deities.

Because

If God was real he could have made us free on sin so no one had to suffer.

Loving parents don't punish their children severely for the actions of one.

I don't believe a God could be so heartless.

I have seen God, heard him, or felt him in any way.

I have logic.

I'd like to pose a question, of we all (every single person) followed Jesus' philosophy and teachings, don't you think the world would be a better place?

Well, for a start I'd ask which of Jesus teachings are you going for? Because there are huge question marks (over which wars have been fought) around what Jesus teachings actually are.

If we take what I would consider to be the best of the interpretations of his teachings and everyone stuck to to them, then in general, yes, I think the world would be a better place. But I think it would be a huge amount better than that though if everyone followed Humanist teachings and philosophies.

Apart from that there is only one God

What evidence is there for that?

dawn I totally respect your right to have your faith.

Don't expect me respect your god though. He is described in detail in the bible as a genocidal maniac.

Skerry i'm not asking you to believe, i respect anyone's views. What i do object to is anyone making fun of my beliefs with talk of "imaginary friend" santa claus" etc. It's deeply offensive in any religion, Christianity as much as any other.

Steven Fry has a lot to answer for. I'd never heard God referred to in that way till he had his vile rant.

dawn- we have the right of free speech.

Is your faith so fragile?

Exactly, skerry. People have the right to believe in God and say so with reasons why, but others are equally allowed to say that they don't believe, with reasons why.

It would be rude to say you're an idiot for not believing, and it's rude to compare god to santa clause because you are pretty much calling people with faith in god idiots. So perhaps just hAve a bit of respect for different views.