Do you believe in God?

[VirtualPA]

I am interested to know what the majority of people belive.

I personally believe in a Christian God, Heaven and hell etc.

I raised a strict an athiest

Actually - there are religious beliefs that I don't think should be respected and I won't encourage my children to respect.

I agree with that Seeker.

But Christianity is more than the default faith, it's the established faith, the official faith.

You don't like it but there it is. It doesn't inhibit freedom to worship other faiths: or to withdraw from Christian worship.

Re faith schools: I don't think they're a brilliant idea. But they survive only because generally they are better schools providing a better education.

It's interesting how, every time there is a religion/atheism thread on there, somebody challenges atheists to do the philosophically unnecessary and "prove" a negative.

You can't "prove" negatives - you can't prove there is no Thor, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy. You can't 100% that the Earth isn't flat or that the Moon isn't made of green cheese, if there is someone out there cussed enough to believe the opposite. But you can demonstrate, with as much evidence as possible and to the satisfaction of most educated people, that these things are so highly unlikely that they may as well be considered untrue.

(I like your name, ShatnersBassoon. "Cake!")

But why should I have to withdraw my children from an important part of the life of the school community-assembly- because I don't want them to take part in Christian worship? I'm not stopping people practicing their religion at home or anywhere they like- why should thier faith be imposed on my children in school? the smoking analogy is a good one here- Christians want to add something to the air my children breathe- I want them to just breathe air. Christians can add whatever they like to thier own children's air-but they shouldn't insist that everyone else breathes it!

Excelent analogy Seeker!
PadmeHum: People are entitled to believe whatever shit they like, but it is vitally important to retain the right to say that all religion is rank bullshit from beginning to end.

You shouldn't RESPECT people's religous beleiefs, because those views are silly. You SHOULD respect religous people because a) they are people b) they can have perfectly sensible views about other things and c) there may be perfectly sensible secular reasons for some of the things they advocate on religous grounds.

Well, because you don't like it. I can see that you don't want your children to stay or to be withdrawn but everyone has to put up with things they don't like. Why should you be any different?

The problem we have here is simply.

Creationists are not actually interested in how the world came to be. They are looking for an emotional crutch.

Sorry to be blunt.

what has creationism got to do with believing in God? All the major churches in Britain think creationism is false. Rowan Williams says that he agrees entirely with Richard Dawkins on evolution.

Not sure if this is a straw man or just ignorance about what the churches believe.

Seeker, it all sounds so childish. "It's not fair!" "Why should I?" "I don't want to!" It just sounds childish.

Nope, and if he is out there he is in fact an arsehole. Fact.

"The bible stated the earth was created in seven days. We have disproved this.

According to the bible, the universe is around 4400 years old. This has been thrown out."

I have always believed that the 7 days were a metaphorical 7 days - to make it easier for us to understand, they put it in a time span that we can grasp. so 7 days are just 7 periods of time, probably spanning a million or more years each.

and the 4400 years thing was probably the longest period of time that the ancient theologists could get their head round.

it's all relative.

I feel a bit because I feel that whatever I post on here as a Christian just gets stamped on as irrelevant by a small group of non-believers. Don't get me wrong, I respect your right not to believe and your right to have a hearty debate, but I am fed up of being treated as if my faith is an emotional crutch that I need because I am a weak individual who doesn't know better.

For what it is worth I do not buy into an organised religious belief system - I have a personal relationship with Jesus. It's a faith not a religion.

And it is not always comforting either. There are times when it almost feels like it's easier not to believe and just coast through life like that. The question where were you when I was raped aged 8 is not that easy to answer. But I'm not afraid to ask the question because He's a big God who can cope! And the evidence of His existence is all over my life and that of my husband, child and friends.

Guess what I'm asking is take me as seriously as I take you.

Yes, is the answer to the OP.

i was raised CofE and went to sunday school/church all through my childhood. i rebelled a bit when i was a teenager, but never really believed that i didn't believe.

i have no proof, i have no reasoning. i love the church and its traditions, and i love singing, and i love the idea that Jesus died to save me from sin. (except the dying bit was a bit harsh.) and i love the thought that the spirit of god is in me, directing my thoughts and morals.( i believe that the soul is the earhtly incarnation of the holy ghost)

so, yes, i believe in father (but not necessarily a male god...), son and holy ghost.

but i don't believe in happy-clappy-ism.

willsurvivethis

everything you have described there IS emotional. We all have our crutches, even me!

stuck thanks for proving my point

I give up

No I don't. Raised without religion, but encouraged to find our own path if we wanted; both my brother and I turned out happy atheists.

Atheists have their own belief system, consisting entirely of the conviction that they are the most rational people on the planet. Safe to say this is also bullshit.

I don't either - raised RC, dabbled with evangelism as a teen, now humanist.

Thanks for that sweeping generalisation, backtotalkaboutthis, but I'm quite happy to describe myself as irrational.

Willsurvive: it doesn't matter: it's a requirement that atheists cannot de facto respect your belief. Atheists believe they are more rational and more capable of logical thought and cannot conceive that clarity of thought and intelligent reasoning can accompany religious belief.

If they did accept this, their construct would be fatally undermined. So it's not personal: disrespect is an integral part of their faith.

Thanks also for that sage piece of wisdom. Are you reading these off beermats?

Faith is the antithis (sp?) of rationality. To be rational, it would require evidence. The whole point of faith is that no evidence is required.

UQD: how many times do I have to tell you this?

"You can't "prove" negatives - you can't prove there is no Thor, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy"

You can prove that the Christian God cannot possibly exist. It's not just empirically unlikely, like for example Hinduism.

Once more unto the breach: the Christian God is meant to be, as you know, all good, all knowing, all powerful and the creator of everything. If Christianity also requires that we accept the existence of evil, which of course it does, then we have a self-contradiction and a logical impossibility.

You know this. Tut tut.

Of course for a Christian it is no obstacle: for what would be the function of faith otherwise? One cannot "believe" in something that can be proved. It is a necessity to believe in something that can be disproved.

(I do understand that this is where you would throw up your hands in despair )