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've given you my opinion.

You are free to have yours.

Yes, totally.

For me, I believe that the human mind has a deep seated primal need to place meaning upen the randomness of existence. Because of this we are preprogrammed for superstition and religion is an by-product of that.
I still occasionally have sleepless nights caused by the existential dread of the fragility of my own short lived existence. These are the whys of existence.
The closest I can get to belief in a higher power is stimulation theory, but as much as it's an interesting theory, the chances of it being true are infinitesimal.

Fair enough. I am a little puzzled about what you’re doing in the thread at all, though!

I came to answer this query below

CoffeeCantata · Today 08:45
I would really, really like pps who claim to believe in a benevolent God to address the issue of human suffering. But I won’t hold my breath.

I haven’t read the whole thread, but has anyone answered the question about how a loving god can cause such immense human suffering as innocent children starving or dying of cancer?

I am genuinely interested and open minded!

I am so blessed I am not blind and lost like you are. I hope one day you can feel God's presence too. But I thank the Lord for not forsaking me. I thank Him for never letting me be blind to His love for me, like so millions of people in this current world. So blessed.

@Lemonadepie

My answer as a pagan polytheist is that the gods and goddesses are not all-powerful, all-knowing and not all of them are necessarily loving.

In pagan polytheist philosophy, deities have limits to their power and are not aware of everything. Some may not not care that much about the world and humanity in general.

So, deities are not aware of all the suffering world, are not capable of preventing mass suffering, and some may not care too much.

My heart goes out to every person that doesn't let God into their lives. And I'm so blessed that God never let me be blind like you. To feel His love, to hear His voice, to get to communicate with Him every single day of my life.... Man, I can't even put into words how full my heart is right now.

An interesting thread with views from various sides. There are two separate issues though that continually get confused and those two things are "God" and religion.

Religion to me is a man made way of control where society didn't have laws in a bygone era and it was used to control the masses effectively saying " Don't do xyz as God won't approve". The idea that humanity is descended from the garden of Eden which had talking snakes etc is utterly absurd and not more advanced in maturity than Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. It isn't coincidence that most of the ten commandments basically coalesce with modern day law such as " Do not steal/rape" etc as it prevents anarchy and keeps society in order. The various religions and "Gods" in ancient times were also used to explain various phenomena that Science wasn't sophisticated to deal with such as Thunder which was the "Thunder God" or the sun God Ra and Helious in Egyptian times carrying the sun across the sky in a chariot. All complete nonsense of course which is now replaced with the " garden of Eden" where a talking snake appears in the bible representing " the devil". I don't understand how any rational person can read the bible and other religious books with a straight face but each to their own.

The topic of whether there is a "God" ( creator) is much more nuanced. The many argument from theists supporting the idea of a God is " something can't come from nothing. Some physicists, like Lawrence Krauss, argue that quantum mechanics allows for universes to emerge spontaneously, but others counter that. The argument still persists though that even if something emerged spontaneously from something, the pre requisite conditions would need to be in place for something to be in place ie a God but then a pandora's box is opened. Who or what created God? If man was central to God's plan, why did the universe exist for billions of years without humanity? etc etc

I'm an atheist, but no one can say with any certainty whether there is a creator or not. If we assume there is some kind of God, one has to ask why would any creator necessarily be a force for "Good". We are told that any negative, evil events on the planet whether it is natural disasters/ murders/ rapes is down to " the devil" or " free choice" but presumably if God created everything, those things were created by God as well. This points to a more malevolent entity rather than an all loving one. I don't see why it follows that any divine being is necessarily one that is all loving and a force for good as these things are not only subjective but illogical parallels to draw between intelligence and how "good/bad" something is.

The second point is why does the existence of any God determine we are going to have an afterlife. All things are created with a finite life in every area, the idea that we are all floating up to heaven or hell ( which is subjective ) based on how "Good" we are is as advanced in thought process as believing in Santa Claus. Given all our personal ideas of heaven and hell are completely different, are there separate places for those who enjoy drinking and football, whilst there is another room with great Aunty Pat reading the bible where we all get on and harps. Many religions believe hell is reserved for people who don't believe in God - if you are hellbound for not believing in someone there's a word for some entity like that..it's called a narcissist. Then we come onto who is going to an afterlife, many believe cats and dogs will be floating upstairs so do worms and ants also get sent to heaven if they have behaved well in the soil?

Of the 3 scenarios

1. There is a God watching over us all and if we are good we float upstairs to "heaven" whatever that's supposed to be as everyone has different ideals.

2. There is a God/creator who isn't a loving being, and has no afterlife planned for insignificant beings on a ball of rock who only appeared on it at 11:59pm if the Earth's history was a 24 hour clock

3. There is no God and it is random chaos

Of the 3 possibilities, options 2 and 3 are the most likely with 3 standing out. People always assume there has to be a purpose for things but there isn't. Children get murdered, women murdered, natural disasters killing people with no rhyme or reason to it. The likely truth is depressing but there it is.

I can’t tell if you’re being serious or sarcastic?

How can you feel any love for a being that 1) allows so much suffering and pain to happen and 2) that requires admiration and worship and threatens to punish you if you don’t??

"The likely truth is depressing but there it is."

See, that's where I disagree. I find the idea that the universe is as it is because of pure chance and natural processes far more exciting than the idea that it was created. That idea I find depressing.

Life has meaning and beauty precisely because of chance and because this is the one shot we have - not because of the possibility of some eternal happiness based on whether we are gullible enough to buy into some half-baked teachings about a God who completely lacks any sort of moral compass.

Why do you think god didn’t let you be blind to him, but he let me and others be blind to him? What would be the rationale?

For many people who mess up their lives though or have them ruined for whatever reason as they head to old age, the idea that you only get 1 chance and this is it, isn't very positive.

I have a lovely life - my family, a beautiful home and no shortage of money to enjoy our lives. I can’t think how a religion would make it any better.

Of course, other people's opinions may vary.

No. No God, whatever type. 👍

Yes I do absolutely believe in a creator and life after death. This thread will undoubtedly turn into religious bashing as these always do. I watched my aunt die, even my atheist cousins was scratching his head at the things she said and old relatives she saw at the end.

Great post and articulated much better than I could have!

That’s a good question. I often wonder why god, if he exists, doesn’t make contact with all of ‘his’ people? Why is he happy for so many people to remain ‘blind’ to him?

How do you envisage this life after your death? How long would you live? With whom? Where? What would you do all day? Who would pay for it all???

Yes, I've seen and experienced enough that I fully believe in god, and try to follow the bibles teachings to the best of my ability.

Sorry to hear your going through a rough time, I'm going through it myself with illness and bereavement. Life can be going well then it can all fall around you. If your interested in the Christian faith, the book of job talks about suffering and the importance of faith. It'll all work out one day is my motto- some of us are tested more than others in this life is my view.

No, not a higher power as in a “god”.

But I do believe that nature plays a way bigger role in the function of everything than we give her credit for.
For example: the human body is mostly water right? A huge percentage of our bodies is made of water. The moon has a pull on every body of water on the planet, so why wouldn’t it also have a pull on our bodies? All those stories of people getting crazy during a full moon - no smoke without fire 🤷🏻‍♀️

And would the dearly departed be the same age in heaven as when they died or will they age like we do on earth? So many question to wonder…

And would your beloved pets be back with you?

Would you have a meaningful purpose in heaven or might you get bored?