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?

So many people on this site and others seem to suffer from mental health issues that they try to fix with medication. To me it just seems obvious that they lack a deeper meaning in their lives - or just haven't found it yet

Oh hell no
Mental health is related to brain chemistry and imbalances, thats what medication fixes, puts the chemistry right

Saying peoples mental health issues are cos they dont believe in a mythical being is honestly disgusting and a complete disrespect to drs who study and help people who suffer.
You have as good as said
You didnt pray hard enough, thats why you suffer, its your own fault. Now THAT is evil

Reading through this thread, I have to say, I still don't believe in god. (...and yes, I am one of those who had to trott to church every Sunday as a child.)
I agree that it's a human concept of explaining away all the shit that life throws at you. It's a way of making us more biddable and accepting. It's grouping us together for ease of control...
God is just an other word for placebo, a way to make you feel better about yourself and the world around you.

EileenGC sorry I went to bed (time difference). I lose respect for believers simply because it demonstrates that they are credulous and willing to suspend rationality to believe stories with holes you could drive a bus through. Sorry, I’m sure you won’t like my answer.

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 :/

Christ. And they say non-believers are myopic and idiotic... fwiw our Neanderthal ancestors had language and you can do an awful lot of history without looking at written records. Writing was developed by the Sumerians to keep things like land records as settled communities grew too big to keep track of them orally.

I firmly believe that most people that believe in God are scared of death in some way or form, and turn to religion for comfort.

I believe that when we die, everything stops. There is no soul. We think nothing, feel nothing; we don't even know we've died. I think knowing we are dying is probably far worse than the actual event.

I've lost relatives (including my dad) and I like to think that their afterlife exists in the form of our memories. 😔

I firmly believe that most people that believe in God are scared of death in some way or form

Oh wow, that's a corker 🤣🤣
How can you "firmly believe" this? Where does this belief come from? It's just a half-baked opinion you've come up with off the top of your head, not a firm belief. Ridiculous.

Being a firm believer of Christ, or any other religion, doesn't make a person into someone who fears death. Some do fear it, and some don't. Just like other people. You cannot possibly claim to firmly know the opinions on death of billions of religious followers around the world.

When I was a child, I experienced a kind of miracle. I prayed for something impossible to happen and I promised God that if he did something for me, I would believe in him forever. I can not explain how it happened but the thing I asked for was granted, there and then in front of my eyes. There is no possible scientific explanation. I am not lying or misremembering. So I have to believe in God, because we made a deal and I have proof so I know for sure. It is hard after 40 years sometimes to keep the faith because it is hard not to question or be sceptical. And I don’t go to church or really agree with the ceremony of religion. I do believe in God however and I try to lead my life in a good way, treating others as I wish to be treated.

@TimeForDinnerDinnerDinner

I firmly believe that most people that believe in God are scared of death in some way or form

Oh wow, that's a corker 🤣🤣
How can you "firmly believe" this? Where does this belief come from? It's just a half-baked opinion you've come up with off the top of your head, not a firm belief. Ridiculous.

Being a firm believer of Christ, or any other religion, doesn't make a person into someone who fears death. Some do fear it, and some don't. Just like other people. You cannot possibly claim to firmly know the opinions on death of billions of religious followers around the world.

Tbf, that person can firmly believe that the same way someone else firmly believes in god. No evidence of either.

Leading a good life and treating others as you would like to be treated is nothing to be with following any religion, it’s to do with being a good person.

I believe that Jesus was a real person but I don't believe in God or miracles. I think the idea of a fatherly figure (God) and heaven and hell, miracles etc developed out of our human desire to understand our amazing and complex world, at a time when scientific knowledge was nowhere near what it is today. They also give comfort and a set of rules to live by. I can understand why people hold on to those things. But I don't and have never believed.

Tbf, that person can firmly believe that the same way someone else firmly believes in god. No evidence of either.

No... there is evidence of people who believe in god who aren't scared of death. I don't supposed there are any actual statistics on the relative numbers to verify the 'most' or not but there could be so that's the sort of question which isn't in the domain of belief.

@squeekums every word you just said. This is what I find the most irritating thing about certain groups of believers - that they constantly trot out this bullshit that we unbelievers must be miserable, empty and lonely, we just don't know it. Unbelievably patronising and arrogant.

@ErrolTheDragon

Tbf, that person can firmly believe that the same way someone else firmly believes in god. No evidence of either.

No... there is evidence of people who believe in god who aren't scared of death. I don't supposed there are any actual statistics on the relative numbers to verify the 'most' or not but there could be so that's the sort of question which isn't in the domain of belief.

I meant there is no evidence of the existence of God, not evidence of people who believe in God.

Well:

If there is a God, and there is a heaven, do you think you have to believe in God to get in?

Or is it just tough shit and off to the fire pits for you?

Even if you've on the whole had a pretty good life, tried to help people, done your bit etc

In history, the landowners (land takers!) needed something that would keep the rest of the population in line, and working hard on the land, and belief that they would get their reward in the next life was one way of achieving it. It also served to exert control in the days before an advanced legal system with a police force. No longer necessary.

That those poor people should spend their days in hard physical exertion, and were expected to give up a proportion of everything they had, to support the church that effectively oppressed them, makes me angry and sad in equal measure. We still have a gulf between rich and poor and any work religion does seems ineffectual against this, because religious leaders know who butters their bread.

When I see the gold and the ornamentation of a Catholic Church in particular, I just think about all the people who staved to death when they could have been fed. All the children who could have had an education but were instead abused by people they believed they could trust.

Most religions only believe in their god or gods, and reject all others. I just go one step further and reject even that one.

So many people on this site and others seem to suffer from mental health issues that they try to fix with medication. To me it just seems obvious that they lack a deeper meaning in their lives - or just haven't found it yet

You're on rather thin ice here! People who have "relationships" with supernatural beings, and who hear messages from people that no one else can see are usually regarded as having far more severe mental health problems than those who get by with a bit of Prozac.

@Natires

@NaturesEnd sorry, fat fingers on keyboard there, origins of language is one of those things that we know we don’t know about, but it’s something in the region of 50 000 years. There was debate about whether Neanderthals had language, oral or perhaps gestured. They certainly had symbolic elements to their lives. Writing did develop following the development of agriculture and permanent settlements, which brought with it serious interest in the accumulation and keeping of wealth. It is far more fascinating to look at real records of real people and how they lived in my view, I could fill up this thread with my unlearnings or we could start another which would attract lots of interest. I really don’t get why religion is coming back just as we begin to unpeel the mists of time and realise how much has been lost with these socioeconomic collapses - we are living in a many-times apocalyptic world. I think some of the origins of religions in the near East dependent on ancient writings are actually a response to those traumas, with people trying to save what they could.

Meant to say, I know there was debate about Neanderthals and language, but it may have moved on from when I was at uni and be more certain now. As knowledge does.

@TheSandman
I feel the same way about not having to sit through a Nativity play this year!

I was similarly joyous about the absence of a harvest service where we all thank God for the food we eat. To the best of my knowledge, there is quite a production line of real humans involved in getting the food from farm to plate. But never let the truth get in the way of a good religious tradition.

And when I say accumulation of wealth, bear in mind that ‘wealth’ here means initially that which stands between people and starvation, when they can’t simply move to new areas with untouched resources. Then it started to be taxed in order to produce public goods such as irrigation which generate greater wealth, and to support trade expeditions and so on. The process of how social organisation developed is fascinating, and despite what some would like to think it doesn’t really need to change that much, as the purpose doesn’t change. The trouble begins when it is abused and everyone forgets why it exists. (I did say I could fill the thread up! )

god came in before all of it. The absolute beginning of beginnings. That someone had to create the thing which started it all.

If there was a first conscious mover of space and time, they would exist on a scale so astronomically different from ours in space and time that the idea they could intervene to help Jim pass his driving test or make me less sad when granny dies by sending a symbolic sunrise...is just laughable.

then you get the issue - if they are able to operate on cosmic scale right down to quantum mechanics, with something approaching human consciousness in the middle level...what created them? Gods all the way down.

Douglas Adams had a good thing about people who "just feel" the existence of God. Like a puddle which moulds itself to the shape of the hole in the road and says "Astounding! This puddle hole is the same shape as me! It must have been made for me!" The bodies which house our brains do well when they identify faces in shapes (in clouds, in trees...) as we are better able to socialise and evade predators. Our monkey brains also do better when they can identify causality - monkeys who think "I wonder why that tree is all burned" do better making tools and avoiding problems.

I'm afraid if you have that strong, powerful feeling of a loving causer of life, you're just really well adapted to evolve - it doesn't mean your feeling is true.

What's the appeal in believing in God? He sounds pretty awful.

@Popcorntoes

Great summary (and demolition) of two of the most common reasons why people conclude there's a god.

The need to explain the amazing complexity we see all around us is particularly odd. Religion explains it by inventing something infinitely more complex, but then absolutely refuses to accept that by the same logic the origins of that thing now need to be explained

I feel that my early life was damaged and stunted by a religious upbringing in all sorts of ways. One of the greatest harms it does is to discourage people from actually using their brains to think and reason properly.

At the end of this all, you cannot discuss the existence of god with a religious person, because they always come back to the line about 'having faith' and as a non-believer you don't understand/have faith. It's a rubbish end of discussion on their part. Because there is not any retort to 'faith' as an argument. To people who think rationally (ie no faith) and have weighed up the possibility of a god and come down on the side of non-belief, they are always poo-pooed by believers/hit this wall. And therefore any proper discussion is finished.

I care not what other's take solace in and believe as long as it doesn't impact my life. Organised religion has had a detrimental impact on the world and continues to do so. Religious people (whichever faith) cannot agree with this.

I refer back to my original comment (at the start of the thread) - humans think they need to mean more than have a transitory stab at a happy life on the planet thus religion gives their life meaning/entrance into 'afterlife' thus perpetuity. In reality, once we die and those who knew us die, we are forgotten. Humans narcissistic traits don't like this....