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.....

people will continue to believe this rubbish because they've had "experiences" and until we start telling people that their experiences aren't facts, they'll continue to push their woo on us
Or you could butt out and stop being so pushy yourself.
Honestly i can't abide anyone who wants to "convert" others.

However I've yet to starve her and beat it. Humans starve and beat other humans, nothing to do with the life force.

You're saying it leads to good stuff. It doesn't at a certain point. Why do you think the Red Cross/save the children/Oxfam exist? Because we know how damaging suffering is for the outcomes of a child.

I was brought up Catholic. I don't think I do or I don't. I find it too hard to believe in the dogma accociated with the church. I don't know if I believe in "god", but I believe there HAS to be something.

DevelopingDetritus

In which case it's a belief then, not evidence, isn't it?

I can solemnly believe I'm a potato, but it doesn't make me one.

Sweets101

Not converting anyone, just think that for society to move on we need to do away with all religions. The fact that the church still has so much power over politics is maddening - the fact that even now, they can refuse to marry a gay couple, and they're tax exempt for the privilege. It really grates on me.

Either we become an entirely secular society or we risk stagnating I think. There's going to be some morally icky things we have to do in the pursuit of science and technology - look at Stem cells as an example - and it would be far easier without people objecting because of their imaginary man in the sky.

I'm baffled by people saying there HAS to be something else. Why does there?

Is it so hard to believe that we evolved to this point, and that we're born, live and die, with nothing after?

babycham

It's hard to explain. I think it's coming to terms with your own humanity, that when you die you will go somewhere. Whether that somewhere is nothing, nowhere, or whether we roam the earth still, or come back as someone or something else, or there is a heaven, limbo, or hell. I don't know, I kind of think there has to be something

...just think that for sociwty to move on we need to do away with all religions.

Babycham, so you think that society will benefit if everyone believes as you do? That makes you no different than Crusaders who thought that about Christianity or Muslims who believe it will all be better in a Caliphate.

imaginary man in the sky. You're truly obsessed, who is this man in the sky. I've not a clue.

I'm a scientist too and don't believe as I've not seen the proof, but I am envious of people who do have faith (whichever one that may be) as it must be a strength to them. Also, now I have kids I do hope there is something more and beyond this life but I'm yet to be personally convinced .

I do not need to feel that I am being watched to do good by other people

I see enough good and bad in the world to know that any god is a bastard

I know that earth is so utterly insignificant in the big scheme of things that its all random

and still I fight for what is right, I fight for my kids, I grow trees that will outlive me
because its the sane survival thing to do

I am an atheist. I just don't understand religious people or their thinking ! The idea of prayer particularly baffles me, I see here on mumsnet and on Facebook literally millions of people praying for someone to be cured. If their condition improves god is wonderful and to be praised, if they sadly pass away god is mysterious and wonderful and to be praised. Because of social media and the internet surely the power of prayer is a thousand fold stronger than years ago and yet it seems to make no difference. If prayer is futile because it's all gods plan then why bother ?

Breath of Angels

I do not hear the breath of angels
I do not kneel and humbly pray
I do not sense the moving of the spirit
Or thank a lord for every dawning day

I do not see the need for praising;
I do not find the world that kind.
I do not share the guilt of ages
For ancient crimes I cannot call to mind

I do not place that burden on my children
I do not seek a meaning where there's none
I do not spend my time in striving
To solve life's mysteries; chase the sun.

I do not waste my life in speculation
I do not turn away reality
I do not rate the lives of mystics
Who hide away from life's brutality.

I do not shun the mess of loving
I do not seek an outside hand to guide
I do not want a ghostly being
Forever skulking at my side

I want to greet the world in all its sorrow
I want to taste the joy before it dies
I want the sullied purity of living
And do not look for heaven as a prize.

But the mountains are there and we are still having earthquakes. Haven't we got enough mountains? There are an awful lot of people who wouldn't be dead if it weren't for earthquakes
The planet doesn't work that way, it's constantly evolving and changing.

My point precisely, Detritus. It's evolving and changing because of all sorts of physical forces, not because of a god who decided one day to design a beautiful world. After all, if you wanted to do that, and also wanted to put people on that world, and if you were not a nasty, evil vindictive sadist, why would you design that world so that every so often some massive earthquake or tsunami would happen and ensure that thousands of people would die horribly?

Least the poem had the words love and joy in. That's what life is about IMHO.

If there is a God then he/she//it is one evil bastard. So many things happen that's a "God" would not let happen.

I used to think that. How could a so called God (as in sky man) let the innocent suffer. But don't you also think that 99.9 % of the suffering is down to humans inflicting it onto another humans.
I don't think the source interferes once life is created.
Also, natural disasters are down to an evolving planet. Well, some natural disasters are down to humans effect on the planet too.
People suffering due to genetic disorders etc, created life has flaws or differences sometimes.

I'm atheist and think god was a man made idea to help control people. I.e if you do this you will go to hell blah blah blah. When we die, we die, if we are buried we decompose and our nutrients go into the soil the same as any other animal. Until there is proof of this god people invest so highly in I will never believe in god, its like believing in unicorns in my opinion.

Even if you believe that suffering is man made why does a benevolent god not help his followers. E.g. Jesus apparently healed the sick and brought the dead back to life - why did god then stop ? Or he can and he just doesn't ??

But don't you also think that 99.9 % of the suffering is down to humans inflicting it onto another humans.

If you found someone being attacked in the street would you ever feel justified in not doing anything because 'you're not the one attacking someone'. Why is it acceptable for a supposedly morally superior, all loving God to acquiesce in the face of suffering, but if I, being the flawed human that I am, fail to act then I'm judged harshly. There's no logic to it. I'm held to a much higher standard. I would expect a god to be more loving than me. The fact that he isn't as moved by suffering as other humans are should ring alarm bells.

God, Jesus and the rest of them are from a story in a book which everyone has their own interpretation of. God is the bad guy as he does nothing to stop bad things happening to the good and the innocent. One of my friends got told when she was little that thunder and lightening were God loosing his temper!

why does a benevolent god not help his followers. E.g. Jesus apparently healed the sick and brought the dead back to life - why did god then stop ? Or he can and he just doesn't ?? I don't believe we follow the life force, we are the life force. I think Jesus was a wise soul but still a human being, if you want to look at him as being the Son of God, then that makes us all the Children of God. I prefer not to use that analogy.

If you found someone being attacked in the street would you ever feel justified in not doing anything I would like to think I'd try and help.

But don't you also think that 99.9 % of the suffering is down to humans inflicting it onto another humans.

No. Agreed, a large proportion is, but not that large. And even when it was, why would a supposedly beneficent god not step in to protect the innocent?

I don't think the source interferes once life is created.

Why not? It it just a toy to "the source"?

Also, natural disasters are down to an evolving planet.

But why, if you are omnipotent, would you create a planet in such a way that it kills and maims the human beings you also created?

I don't. To plagiarise from Sytephen Fry on this, I can't believe in an almighty, powerful, kindly being who will allow children to die of cancer, create parasitic life-forms that torture and kill their prey, and so on. To me if there were such a thing as god, then it's not something I'd worship or devoutly follow. More practically, where's the evidence? Since it's purely based on faith, and there is no empirical evidence for the existence of a god, I might just as well believe in unicorns. Except people would think I'm nuts. Even religious people. Yet the exact same quantum of proof applies to both. If you can believe in one and that's somehow credible and acceptable, then the same standard should apply to the other.