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?

I don’t believe in God, it’s a bit like Santa for adults.

I don't share my faith with many people. Faith is such a personal, beautiful experience. And yes, I do feel better for it (= blessed).

Religion is complicated. I found it absolutely refreshing to study with some nuns who were honest about how they felt about it all. These nuns were better than the JW's who kicked me out for asking too many questions, but even their studies helped introduce me to the Bible. The Bible is amazing to read imo, but I don't take it literally. I've many friends who believe in many things (or nothing), I feel happy to live in such a world where we can all come together as friends without conflict. But of course, my world is not the world, and it's so sad that religion is in the middle of a lot that happens. I'd rather be truthful about that than try to make excuses (that's why I love those nuns!).

Religion is community, but my faith is only God.

I do. I don't see there being a conflict between science and faith - I think the story of Creation is a pretty neat summary of our current understanding for something written 5000 years ago (if you translate 'days' as 'periods of time'). And the story of the Garden of Eden to me is an allegory for how humans moved away from our peaceful, natural hunter-gatherer existence as God intended and started to gain the knowledge and skills which took us further away from His intended purpose.

I can recommend the Bible Project for anyone who is interested in learning more about God. The app breaks it down into a year's worth of daily readings, with really accessible videos that explain the concepts, themes and narrative structure. There's a lot of misunderstanding out there. A lot of very intelligent people are religious so I don't think it's something that can just be dismissed as stupid out-of-hand.

I don't believe, but I find the phenomenon of belief fascinating. It is entirely understandable that the belief grew up in more primitive times as a means of making sense of the universe, but that doesn't work now that we have much more knowledge of how the universe works. So the fact that it still exists now has to be a combination of tradition, people wanting the comfort of believing in the afterlife and a higher power, and a degree of very firmly entrenched vested interests. But it still fascinates me that some very clever people who must in their heart of hearts know that there is simply no evidence of God's existence whatsoever still claim a very firm belief.

Ricky Gervais is also good at putting it into wirds.

I dont believe in God. It seems illogical to me and as silly as Santa Clause and tooth fairy.

Of course there isn't a god. Any rational person knows this. However if it makes someone feel happier or more secure believing there is a god. Who am I to judge ?

I was brought up Catholic, even so I did not believe until I seen posters for Alpha courses in my area many years later and I didnt know what made me sign up. I attended sessions with Alpha and 8 years later I truly believe in God without whom I would be lost.

I am analytical and a more scientific approach to thinking but also bought up catholic

I struggle with believing in god because of how I’ve been educated in the sciences

I would love to believe but there is a clash between those two worlds

Do you believe there is a God?
Yes.

...how can he exist alongside modern science?
It exists alongside modern science as easily as it exists alongside everything else in the universe.🤔

Aibu to believe in something more?
No OP.

I am a Christian, and believe that God, who is beyond the bounds of the space time continuum, created the universe with His “Let there be light”. Once created, He gave it free will to evolve. Knowing that evolution would eventually produce creatures able to respond to Him and to make moral choices.

That's an interesting one. It's difficult to know why a supreme being would want to go to all that trouble only to take such a hands-off approach, but at least it goes some way to explain some of the conundrums like allowing natural disasters and the birth of seriously disabled children. But what I don't understand about that is why such a hands-off god would want us all to congregate in places of worship at defined times and pray to him, given that he has no intention of ever answering prayers - let alone why he would want people to confess to him and to bang on about how wonderful he is.

@Margymoon

I was brought up Catholic, even so I did not believe until I seen posters for Alpha courses in my area many years later and I didnt know what made me sign up. I attended sessions with Alpha and 8 years later I truly believe in God without whom I would be lost.

An Alpha course turned me right off. One session was about prayer and people were talking about prayers that they said had been answered. They were all claiming that God had granted the most extraordinarily trivial prayers, e.g. that their ankle would get better in time for them to play in a football match, or that a cake they were baking would rise. It seemed to me that this was just ridiculous and I couldn't contribute or have any fellow-feeling with the others, and I never bothered to go back.

Non believer here - raised a Catholic. There are lots of gods in different countries around the world which stem from folklore etc. How can one be the only one or the 'right' one. To me a god is an explanatory device rather than an entity.

I'm agnostic, I'm hedging by bets!

Science may one day prove the existence of God. What it hasn't done and can never do is prove beyond doubt that God does not exist.

I still make bread (challah) on Thursdays, bake it on Fridays separating a piece to burn in the oven, and have a rest day on Saturdays. If I were to have faith it would be in God. But to believe is to see, and we cannot see, so on that basis God is like anything else we can not see, we would need to suspend rational thinking. Unless we use science to find God we never will. But i think we might one day. Hegel sets out a compelling teleological argument.

But to have faith but proclaim to others that you have "found god" is an oxymoron to me. Its like hearing voices, medical science would call these hallucinations. If you have found god I'd like to see the proof.

I do believe I know God and this relationship is real , hard to explain but makes living so much more impactful and fun .

No. I don't believe an omnipresent being impregnated a teenager with the messiah.

No, I don't believe we are all descended from Adam and Eve and that females were made out of a rib.

What a load of bullshit.

Buuuuuut, i respect that peoples faith is important to them and i totally respect that.

If it gives so.e people strength, who the fuck am i to judge 🤷‍♂️

My mother and brother are both committed Christians. I am not. I hated church and it never made sense to me.

My mother says grace at every meal. Thank you lord for the food you have provided..... if he’s provided my food then why the fuck has he not provided food for the starving children in Yemen? (Or the starving children in this country for that matter) Can’t square that in my head at all.

Oh and just to add to my post above - I wouldn’t have a problem accepting god alongside modern science - he made the rules of physics etc etc, I can cope with that. It’s the idea of an all loving gracious god who can apparently do anything, who lets innocent people and children suffer and die every day. Live your life doing as he commands, praying and worshipping only him or go to hell for eternity?

I asked my mum once if someone who was a truly good person, who had lived their life helping others and never doing anything bad would end up in hell because they did not go to church.... yes apparently.

Which god are you referring too, I assume the Christian version?

Historically god was useful to explain unknowns and I do believe we need to let go of this illogical comfort blanket if we are to grow as a species.

Not knowing things is not evidence of god, if we can't explain a unifying theory between the very small quantum world and general relativity yet, it doesn't mean the lord works in mysterious ways, it simply means we are still learning, remember the onus of proof is on those making a claim.

It's organised region I can't stand though, what a gig that is, they have been a absolute leach on humility for millennia, they are in schools, government and part of the national curriculum.

They protect their own who commit crimes against children, horde unimaginable wealth which could be used to ease suffering and they ensure small children get exposure to religious dogma and infiltrate every part of society to perpetuate the nonsense.

Organised religion is a cancer.

I hate how religion has hijacked and claimed desirable behaviour, "christian values" are not values exclusive to the religious.

You don't need region to not be a dick in life, just treat everyone as how you yourself would want to be treated is all we need.

The question I am curious about as a born again atheist is for those that believe there must be a god to start thing off as it were, who made your god?

And who made that, and who made that ad infinitum?

That isn't an argument, it's simply a deferral!

No.

And I find it vaguely insulting that about once a month someone comes to the door trying to tell me I'm wrong (we're apparently equidistant from the Mormons and the Jehovah witnesses) yet if I went to their house to tell them there's no god I'd be committing a hate crime.

(Same goes for anyone who offer to pray for me to find Jesus)

Like some of the songs though.

If you deny the existence of God, you still have the problem of explaining how the universe came into being.

Explaining the universe by invoking the existence of something more complex
is really no explanation at all though.

I was brought up in a very Christian family, but I haven't believed in god since my early 20s. University CU helped with that!

Gods are the product of the human mind, and religions are man-made social systems.

Of course there's a god. There has to be. Bollocks that the universe came about from Big Bang and humans from evolution. What a load of crap. So why haven't we humans evolved any further??? There has to be a creator to the creation. Do you think humans just come out with amazing interventions, god gives them the knowledge.
Everything happens for a reason. Why is there poor people? If there wasn't how would we learn to be good in giving charity, to be grateful. How does our good deeds increase? Life is a test. I believe all those poor people, innocent people being killed, etc they aren't suffering for nothing, they will get paradise of eternal bliss. Those of us in better positions are given the choice of doing good for others, for ourselves.

I do not believe in god or religion but I have no issues in what others believe it. I would never judge them. My only issue in regards to anything is the Catholic Church as an organisation. Its a disgrace. Oh and I am Irish and have very good reason to feel as I do

I hope there's a God. Seems a shame if there isn't and all those good people believing in something that is just a fairy tale.

YAnbu to believe in whatever you like. Religion snd the privileges it affords people is another matter entirely

Do you think humans just come out with amazing interventions, god gives them the knowledge.

That's one of the oddest statements I've read on MN. No, humans don't 'just come out with amazing inventions'. Most are the product of a hell of a lot of study, experimentation and work.
'God gives them the knowledge' is frankly insulting to scientists and engineers. Oddly enough, they're more likely to be atheist or agnostics than average.