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.

No one knows what's going on. No one knows what consciousness is, where it arises from, what it means, what happens to it when the physical body loses homeostasis and 'dies.'

Something occurred to cause this existence. Or perhaps it was always 'here'.

Whatever happened or is happening we may term 'god', or 'the universe' or 'a simulation', or 'allah'

But it's something. In that respect 'god' exists.

How you explain it to yourself is personal, but something's going on, we just have no idea what.

The alternative is that it isn't random chance.

Other replies I've had to this explain it as the laws of physics.

Most wars have been regarding resources.

World War 2 was ideology - a non religious ideology.

@PegDope
no, I believe there is one God, who is the god for everyone.
different religions in my opinion are just humanities way of interpreting the feeling we have of god, that is beyond our comprehension.

i personally resonate with the Jesus story so I include it in my beliefs, and attach it to my belief in God.

im not 100 percent convinced of any of this. But it’s the closest thing I have to a feeling of goodness and truth.

Were you raised in a Christian household and/or society? I'm wondering why your experience of something you believed to be a god led you to Christianity specifically and not, say, Islam, Sikhism or any of the dozens of other religions.

Also while most historians agree that there was a heretical rabbi called Jesus, the accuracy of the stories of what happened to him and his followers are much more equivocal. The early church was very keen on gory stories about what happened to the disciples and saints, many of which seem unlikely at best and blatant fabrications at worst.

I find it fascinating that every negative comment is regarding Christianity. No other religion is mocked or criticised in this thread by name. I am for criticism but I find it very interesting.

I had a very strong 'god encounter' when near death one time. It did lead me on a religious path for a while. I now believe it was likely just a chemical reaction taking place in my body due to what was going on, but it does at least give me comfort that death seems to be somewhat peaceful.

You might enjoy searching for ‘how do snowflakes form’ and reading the explanations.

that’s hardly surprising in a historically, culturally and still legally ‘Christian country’.
Many of the criticisms are general not specific.

It is surprising. We are a country of many faiths.

And you don’t think the Holocaust had anything to do with religion?

What was his ideology?

I had an experience once where I was walking at night and suddenly the sky was massively higher, as if the distance between the ground and the stars had increased a thousand fold. Despite this, I could clearly see thousands of bright stars everywhere across the sky, and I couldn't recognize it. It didn't look like the milky way I'm used to seeing in the winter. For a moment I thought I was suddenly in a different universe somehow.

A voice in my head said, if you ever doubt my existence, recall this moment. And it all flipped back to normal. It was the most intense experience of my life. However I then over the next few days went into a manic episode and was hallucinating so I don't know what to make of it.

But I feel like god or Jesus would make themselves known

No. It just seems like wishful thinking to me.

And I simply cannot understand how religious people can praise and thank their God for all the good things that happen, but not hold their God responsible for the bad things. How convenient! (They tend to explain the bad things as being the result of human free will and bad choices, though how that applies to things like earthquakes or illness in babies I don’t know.)

I also get very irritated by people who bang on about their belief in the power of prayer (I’m not just talking about the possibly calming effect on the person praying). What sort of a God would cure one desperately ill child dying in agony because people prayed for them, but let another similar child suffer and die because no-one prayed for them, and why would such a God be the type of being anyone would want to worship?

I don’t know many observant people of other religions. Have known many, many Christians.

It wasn't about religion it was about race

No.

In fact, even answering the question lends it too much respect.

As to the quoted post - I’m generally dismissive of all religions, but as I was brought up in the Baptist church, I have the knowledge and experience to be very specific in my debunking of Christianity.

I can have a pretty good shot at the other Abrahamic faiths.

Shinto and Hinduism I have to object to on atheist principle.

That might indicate a valid response to your observation.

Most of the positive comments are about Christianity. And many of the criticisms aren't specific to any religion but to the idea of belief in god(s) as a concept.

No i wasn't raised a Christian and my entire family think I'm a weirdo for believing in God.

In answer to why it was Christianity rather than any other religion it was because I experienced the Christian God. I have talked about my experience here before but under a different username and was ridiculed and abused and called a liar so I have learnt not to share it here any more.

What I will say is that it is something similar to these healing miracles that have been recorded.

Look up Duane Miller. He was a pastor who had permanent damage to his vocal chords and could only whisper. He was asked to preach on healing and as he preached his voice was healed as he was talking. There is audio evidence of this healing that makes it very obvious how real it was

Another example would be James Drain who was totally blind in one eye and had fragmented vision in the other eye - permanent damage to the optic nerve from chemical exposure and MS. He was baptised and as soon as he came up put of the water he could see. There is video evidence of this. I haven't got time to find the best video but there is a short one here

That’s a whole other thread.
do you really think the centuries of religious discrimination against the Jews by the Christian churches (Catholic and Protestant…ever read Martin Luther on the subject?) had nothing to do with the Holocaust?

Me too… I was one.

Have you ever looked at “no nonsense spirituality” on TikTok? She’s from this viewpoint.

OP, worth looking at her too I think.

I think I believe in a higher power in the sense that we “as human energy and matter” must go “somewhere” when we die. Energy can neither be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed. But I tend to believe it’s more the earth and nature and the universe (as a solid object) than anything supernatural.

As for consciousness, well that’s a debate nobody will ever end. We simply do not know.

What I do know, is that we are here now and the most important thing is finding meaning, I believe that’s in community and connection with other humans. Life doesn’t have a purpose, but it does have meaning.

No.
I became an atheist when I was able to think for myself, probably about 12.

Further confirmation occurred when I gave birth, although I did toy with the idea that God was a nasty, spiteful, misoginist.

There’s no such thing as ‘human energy’ though. Our brain in which our conciousness exists is made of the same atoms as everything else (originally stardust, of course), the energy is no different to any other chemical or electrical energy. An electron is an electron. They’re still there after we die but the processes shut down and the molecular machinery decomposes.

Yes, I do. But I don't care if other people don't as it's a personal thing for me as opposed to an organised thing. I also don't care if others think my beliefs are silly.

I did go through a phase of believing the 'religion is the root of all evil' theory, but given secular and atheist people also do awful things and commit abhorrent crimes against others, I've come to the conclusion that human beings seek to create power structures and there will always be people who seek to use those power structures to exert control over and abuse others. Religion is one such power structure but there are many more. See young secular people idolising their ideologies as gospel, see men enjoying going to strip clubs because of the power it gives them over women, see people abusing children for that same desire for power, etc. Seeking to abuse power structures just seems to be a reality of the human condition.