AIBU to ask your opinions on God?

[Violetduck]

Do you beleive there is a God? I would like to, but how can he exist alongside modern science?

Aibu to believe in something more?

God was a human that walked on the earth..he is in the history book
No. That’s Absolutely not in any reputable book History or other literature

[quote EileenGC]@TheSandman why does it mean shit? I've said numerous times on this thread I can't prove God's existence. Same as you can't prove He doesn't exist. It's one of those things, where certain people feel they're superior, or more intelligent than others, just because of their different beliefs. [/quote]
That argument doesn't work, because you are equating the inability to prove a negative (which is inevitable) with your inability to prove something that you claim is all-pervasive. See Russell's teapot argument referenced above.

God was a human that walked on the earth... he is in the history book
No. That’s Absolutely not in any reputable book History or other literature

Why just in the last few thousand years have we developed language?
Being a pedant, I think you mean writing . Language is a lot older than that. The pace of technological change is increasing, has been massive since the industrial revolution. We search technology out for its own sake now.

@80sForever

So where do you get your hope, strength, joy and comfort from if you don't believe? There must be a niggling hole, emptiness then surely

That's a fascinating admission. It rather looks as if you cling onto belief because you are terrified that without it you won't feel normal positive human emotions,, not because you actually do believe. Yet so many of us with no belief feel all those things and much more, including great love. The difference is that we love real people, not mythical entities; and we derive our hope, joy etc from the world and people around us, not from some weird notion of a supposedly benevolent being who allows awful things to happen.

So where do you get your hope, strength, joy and comfort from if you don't believe? There must be a niggling hole, emptiness then surely

No emptiness in the least

I’m overall happy grounded and resilient. My hope strength,comfort and joy come from a lived human experience,from my work,from feeling affirmation and reinforcement in my life.

Nice fantasy but no. Imo.

Don't believe in God. If he did exist he'd be the biggest prick the world has ever seen, allowing world wars, famines, untold suffering on a micro level every single day. In fact, if he did exist I'd fucking kill him.

@MayYouLiveInInterestingTimes

Why just in the last few thousand years have we developed language? Being a pedant, I think you mean writing . Language is a lot older than that. The pace of technological change is increasing, has been massive since the industrial revolution. We search technology out for its own sake now.

Thanks, how long have we had language? We just have no idea what went on before written history. If genetically we have been the same for a long time, why did we suddenly learn to write things down :/

Don’t believe in God at all. If there is this one all powerful deity he/she/they are a pretty messed up evil one really. The world is an utter mess. Human civilisations have dreamt up their own versions of this deity then made up sets of rules that must be kept or the deity will punish them in some way. Most of the rules are to keep the poor in check. Oh and don’t forget to wage wars on others who don’t believe in your deity, kill rape and torture in the name of your deity too.

People now just seem so fucking smug, like they know everything, oooh there's a peer reviewed study on this idea. Jesus fucking christ have a bit of imagination. We don't know everything, people can easily be wrong. I don't think most people even care,.

@NaturesEnd

People now just seem so fucking smug, like they know everything, oooh there's a peer reviewed study on this idea. Jesus fucking christ have a bit of imagination. We don't know everything, people can easily be wrong. I don't think most people even care,.

No offense but obviously people do care. Nothing wrong with that. And people get defensive about their religion or lack of. Nothing wrong with that either. Although it's probably boring AF to read 😂

We just have no idea what went on before written history. If genetically we have been the same for a long time, why did we suddenly learn to write things down :/

we have some idea what went on before written history, from prehistoric artefacts etc . Learning to write things down wasn't 'sudden', it developed over quite long periods - and independently at different times in separate cultures. The clue is there... although we may not have evolved (much) biologically in the last 6000 years, there have been many and varied societal developments. Its an interesting question - the earliest 'writing' may have been for keeping track of commodities. It's not hard to see how agriculture and the development of settlements, towns, law systems would result in people having things they wanted to record which needed something other than pictures and oral traditions.

@NaturesEnd

People now just seem so fucking smug, like they know everything, oooh there's a peer reviewed study on this idea. Jesus fucking christ have a bit of imagination. We don't know everything, people can easily be wrong. I don't think most people even care,.

That implies you don't know many practising scientists. We're well aware we're just scratching the surface of many problems, and finding new questions to ask. That's part of what makes it exciting!

I believe in God. My faith in Jesus as God’s son has been with me from a young age, despite being raised by parents who were non believers. Faith is just that. I trust and have faith. Like most humans, I’ve had a terrible things happen to me, but I have never doubted my faith.

There is no god. I believe religions developed back in the days prior to scientific knowledge, when people were looking for reasons why things happened. Religion causes so much trouble in the world; I sometimes wish all forms of it would simply disappear. How could a loving god allow abhorrent behaviour like abuse, rape, murder or allow natural disasters etc etc.

@youvegottenminuteslynn Just to respond to you, i would reject the idea that contracts are unambiguous and can be taken at face value. I work with contracts and assure you that so many can be silent about significant detail.

Nevertheless, my experience of God doesn't begin and end with the scriptures, although thats something I love to study, learn from and be challenged by. I have also had real physical miraculous experience of the power of the Holy Spirit. I dont share too much generally because I get jaded by the scoffers but I know and thats enough for me.

@Pinkfreesias

There is no god. I believe religions developed back in the days prior to scientific knowledge, when people were looking for reasons why things happened. Religion causes so much trouble in the world; I sometimes wish all forms of it would simply disappear. How could a loving god allow abhorrent behaviour like abuse, rape, murder or allow natural disasters etc etc.

I believe the usual get out clause is 'choice'. Humans choose to do this crap to one another. Which they do. But what's the point of God then? He's fairly useless if he doesn't prevent this stuff imo. He's a bit like like Santa.

[quote Warpdrive]@youvegottenminuteslynn Just to respond to you, i would reject the idea that contracts are unambiguous and can be taken at face value. I work with contracts and assure you that so many can be silent about significant detail.

Nevertheless, my experience of God doesn't begin and end with the scriptures, although thats something I love to study, learn from and be challenged by. I have also had real physical miraculous experience of the power of the Holy Spirit. I dont share too much generally because I get jaded by the scoffers but I know and thats enough for me.[/quote]
Scoffing can be a result of other people scoffing at us. I couldn't care less what people believe in and I expect the same courtesy, but it's surprisingly hard to shake off the Catholic yoke. That said, I really wouldn't have an issue/interest in a random person who was Catholic as long as it wasn't shoved in my face (my mum was horrified that I didn't baptise my child).

Useful fiction. Religious belief and spiritual practices often make people happier, more secure etc. But God as a being in the sky is not literally true.

There are attenuated ways of describing God that make some sense to me, but it’s mostly semantics, just another way of describing “all that there is”.

The "problem of evil".

He's either not very powerful (so can't fix our problems), not very kind (so won't fix them) or not here or even able to hear us some/ most of the time (so again won't fix our problems). If a God of some type exists, "he" cannot be benevolent, omnipresent and omnipotent at the same time, the evidence if the world around us proves this. And any two of the three characteristics without the other onemake "him" a God that we'd be betteroff without.

I very much doubt "he" exists given that I'm in favour of a scientific approach to knowledge, i.e. actively try to disprove a hypothesis until you have evidence it's true. I'm not sure why any God would have "given" us a rational brain and then expect us to suspend rationality and believe completely irrational stories written thousands of years ago - which also say some awfully offensive things - when "he" could just prove "he" was real at any time "he" wished if "he@ was real.

People can believe in sky fairies or spaghetti monsters or whatever things they want to make stories about, just do not push it on other people please. And in my opinion it's really inappropriate to indoctrinate children into this kind of cultish, counterfactual stuff.

I understand that some people get some comfort from these fictions, like I get some comfort from a novel or someone else from running and that's fine I guess, just don't bore other people with it and definitely don't inflict your hobbies on your children.

I believe the usual get out clause is 'choice'.

Ah yes, the divine victim blaming! We are blessed!

I believe in God. I also believe in Science. I find them compatible and lots of scientists do too. There is always mystery to be found in life. I find God in the mystery.

So where do you get your hope, strength, joy and comfort from if you don't believe? There must be a niggling hole, emptiness then surely
Nope no niggling hole or emptiness
Joy, strength, comfort all comes from me, people around me, my experiences.
I survived the shit times in my life through MY inner strength, from the people around me
I can make or break joy in my life
I achieved things from MY ability
Not some mythical being having its odd input and control

A relationship with God is experiential rather than theological or philosophical. The Holy Spirit brings enlightenment so if you don't believe then it is either he hasn't started to work on your heart or he did his work and you rejected him

Or its a load of BS
Cant reject what dont exist