Do you believe in God/a higher power?

[CuriousAboutWhatYouThink]

Not religion. I have no time for organised religion and the associated man made rules.

But do you believe in 'something'?

For context, my grandad was a CofE vicar but my parent rebelled against it and we were brought up broadly l in the religion (eg we celebrated main religious festivals like Easter and Christmas) but not as practising Christians and without a particular belief in God.

As an adult, I have friends of different faiths and none and it's something we have discussed from time to time. It's also something I used to discuss with my grandma who had a very strong belief in God but also believed the Bible until she became older when she still had a strong faith but admitted she thought the Bible was largely nonsense!

I suppose I've always felt that there is 'something' but I refer to it as the universe. I don't know, I always feel that there has been 'something' looking out for me.

That doesn't mean bad things have never happened because they have and religion/belief doesn't protect anyone from that. And it doesn't mean my life is anywhere near perfect because it's not. But the universe has always seemed to 'step in' when needed.

I don't know. I'm going through a tough time at the moment but I have a feeling everything will turn out to be OK because it always does.

I often think that the word 'God' is missing a letter, and that he may be more popular if it was added in.
How about believing in the power of Good?

Do words make a difference?

This story is true, but I’m hesitant because it will seem as though I’m gloating, which I’m not. But it shocked me.

A friend of a friend was a vicar and she tragically lost her daughter in the 7/7 London tube bombings. She lost her faith due to this.

I Have infinite compassion for this woman as a mother. But - as a minister of religion and a Christian, had she never before contemplated the question of suffering? She must have ministered to many people who’d been bereaved- as a regular aspect of her work - and yet she didn’t take on board the enormity of these sad events until it happened to her?? I found this depressing and hard to believe. Was she really just trotting out the platitudes to her parishioners without examining her own conscience on the matter of human suffering?

I lose respect for people who cannot imagine what suffering is like until it happens to them personally.

@inamo

My answer comes from a pagan polytheist perspective, and we have different theological premises of the nature of deities than Abrahamic monotheists.

We do not believe that the gods and goddesses are all-powerful or all-knowing. We don't necessarily believe they're all completely benevolent either. Certain deities are associated with rather unpleasant things like war (such as The Morrigan.)

Since deities, from our theological perspective, have limits on their power and awareness, it's not necessarily a case of them allowing suffering as in not being able to prevent it, or not being aware of all of it. Perhaps some deities even help to contribute to it.

Some people (such as myself) believe in all of them.

You don't think there's a difference between imagining something happening to your child and something actually happening to your child? It's a whole other story.

I'd obviously heard of other children having cancer before just like I'm certain she'd heard of terrorist attacks before but no matter how much you imagine what it might feel like, it's nothing compared to when it happens to your child and it is much, much worse than you could have ever imagined.

No one knows how they would react to something awful like a terrorist attack claiming the life of your child.

I don't think it's a failure of imagination/putting herself in others shoes. I think it's more that a deep extreme emotional shock can change you. You're making the mistake of thinking we sit around reasoning out our emotional reactions, or of thinking our emotional reactions are subordinate to reasoning and they are not. Emotion/feeling sits much deeper than reason.
So I imagine the loss of faith is much more profound than thinking "if God is real and good how could he let's such a bad thing happen"

Yep.

My son survived cancer and it changed me, I'm a completely different person now. Actually losing your child? Especially so suddenly and in such awful circumstances, of course you are never going to be the same again.

Yes. I feel it's an energy that is everything. Something way beyond my understanding.

There was a poster on here a long time ago who asked for prayers and good thoughts to save her dying child. Many of us joined in, and one Christian Mumsnetter became an unofficial organiser of the vigils. She asked for prayers to lift the child up “so God could see her.” I don’t know how anyone could possibly still believe after that. Believe in a God who needed more prayers so he could see a dying child?
As a point of information,I know the parent is no longer on Mumsnet- and I don’t care if the vigil organiser is. And I was an atheist then and remain one.

With all my heart and soul. God has never let me down. I love Him so much that I would rather die than not acknowledge His presence in my life.

No I haven’t a spiritual bone in my body - I don’t have the God gene, I grew up in a religious environment and I hated it - the enforced worship, the shame directed towards being a non believer, the very public side of worship, the nonsense that people who believe are morally superior, the list goes on. Happy for other people to believe but not happy with the privilege that they have attained in House of Lords, State schools, etc

I do. I think about things like that all the time. I’m a catastrophiser. I thought everyone was like this.

No, I’m sorry, I don’t agree.

i have always been hyper- aware of terrible events and your post has made me realise that perhaps it’s not “normal”. I remember the Indian Ocean Tsunami and not being able to sleep for days and I’m still haunted by what happened to those people…and the Beslan School siege etc etc.

i feel desperate for this woman having lost her daughter. If I lost mine I would be in terminal despair. What I can’t believe is that as a minister she needed to experience this loss herself before really understanding it. So - she must have been going around telling bereaved or traumatised people that it’s OK, God is love etc and that they’d all be united again on day. Then it happens to her and suddenly God isn’t love and in fact she stops believing in God altogether.

Some people DO have the imagination and empathy to foresee the impact of traumatic events, trust me.

That’s OK then.

What about other people? Do you think God has let any of them down? If so, why?

You can be hyper aware, it is still nothing and I mean nothing like actually going through it. Nothing. Trust me.

I’m not talking about “lay” people like me and you (unless you’re a member of the clergy). What we do and think and feel is irrelevant. But if you are a minister of religion, and your whole life’s work is strongly declaring those beliefs etc, then it’s a worrying thing if those beliefs fail in the face of a personal tragedy.

I’ve had several very Christian friends over the years and I’ve found them dismissive of the question of suffering. Yet off they go round the parish comforting people in terrible situations with the idea of God. I’m not criticising that as long as they have looked inside themselves and thoroughly contemplated what loss, illness and disaster might really be like. They should have asked themselves honestly how they would feel if it happened to them. Would the idea of God be enough for THEM, or is it just OK for other people to?

It wouldn’t be enough for me.

Trust me too!

I imagine it’s because they think ‘God’ is looking out for them because they are special.
Perhaps she believed other people had sinned and were being punished…until it happened to her.

I just can’t fathom how any semi-intelligent human being could believe in all that nonsense.

It depends on what you mean by god or higher power. You say the universe, I believe in that, I don't believe it can 'step in' and resolve things though, it is not sentient.

100% this. Thank you - you get it.

Yes, that’s what I suspect. This (poor) woman made the unimaginative mistake of thinking she was special, and (like a pp just upthread) that God was looking after her, and that was all that really mattered.

Forgivable in lay people but not good enough in a minister of religion.

Yes.

What, that you think you can imagine something terrible happening to your child to the point it is almost like actually going through it?

Unless I'm misunderstanding which is very possible. No, I can't trust that at all.

No, but you can have the humility to understand that you cannot understand what bereaved people are going through and maybe to question your own beliefs/faith?

It comes down to the age-old question from RE lesson discussions since for ever: why should I believe that God is watching over me or anyone else when he allows the horrors we see on the news to happen to thousands and millions of other people?

For some unimaginative folk, that’s just the issue: they’re OTHER people.

💯 lived experience outweighs any empathy or support, imagination that you have faced the same situation.
I believe in God. I also believe that genetics and environmental factors cause illnesses, there is plenty of evil people in the world too, drugs and SM are destroying society rapidly, there is a spiritual warmth too.
Bad things happen to good and bad people.

So your God isn’t omniscient and omnipotent, then? I thought God was supposed to be. Please correct if this is wrong.

If God IS these things then we can only conclude God is a right bastard.

Children with terminal cancer? Genocide? War and atrocities?