Do you believe in God?

[lashbear]

I believe in God, and I have the feeling God believes in me.

[innerSpaceman]

I was waiting for someone to post something close to what my take on it is ... without me having to do all the inner wrangling to put it into words.

This one is pretty much spot on ... with props to Capt Jack - - -

Originally Posted by Capt Jack

I do believe in 'something' beyond our grasp and/or comprehension going on around us that controls every last thing in the universe. It may be purely the quantum laws of particle physics or a ebb and flow so vast as to be unfathomable to our current senses of reality. I dont however believe in 'created in his own image' and view that as pure conceit at the species level.

I believe whatever it is that keeps everything related to everything else and holds all things in check and balance holds little specific love for the human race as a whole. At the very least no more so than the pebble at my feet, the stars buring a billion light years away that no naked human eye will ever see or the dirt 5 miles below the surface of some distant unnamed planet.

That to me makes each of us ultimately responsible for whatever it is we feed out into the 'universe' (multiple parallel universe theories not withstanding) and in that respect holds each and every one of us accountable for our own actions.

So for lack of a better term, I suppose that for me defines 'God'.

and who really cares if circumcision is male genital mutilation when cut dicks are obviously so much hotter. It's a fact. My God tells me so.




.

[Gemini Cricket]

My answer: I don't know. But I don't feel lost not knowing. It's just something I'm not sure of and that's fine with me.

[RStar]

Originally Posted by Frogberto

But if you're going to tie your belief to scientific discoveries, then your belief system is subject to being disproved.

Not necessarily. Take DNA for instance. There is so much information in it in just the right order, that having it form by accident has been compared to an explosion at a printers accidentally creating a dictionary. The more I learn about the human body, the more I realize there is a creator. But that's just my take on it. I respect anyone who has other opinions.

Originally Posted by Frogberto

Big Bang theory shows how

Theory shows nothing more than the person who thought up the theory does. What ever is happening in the universe could have easily been the work of God, a god or group there of, or some E.T. out there. The creation of the universe will never be explained because we cannot prove it. Which is why we cling to beliefs, including the Big Bang.

Originally Posted by Frogberto

Science has an answer to the chicken and the egg question, and it can be proven - the egg came first. A dinosaur that was one mutation away from a chicken laid an egg that contained a chicken -- the first chicken, if you will.

Now that's an interesting theory. To my knowledge they have not yet found a "one mutation away from a chicken" dino, but I read today that they believe there are something like 70% of dinosaur species yet to be discovered. Very interesting, but do you know why the chicken crossed the road?

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Frogberto

As an interview on Salon.com said just a few days ago, there have been thousands of Gods - from Mithra to Gilgamesh, to Zeuss, etc., and yet most people are "agnostic", or even atheistic, as to those 9,999 Gods, but believe in the one God of "their" religion.

I believe in my version of God but feel that all other versions are simply views of the same God. This also reminds me that I don't put absolutes on my beliefs - like others have said here, I could be wrong. But I feel like I'm close...

[Tref]

Dominus illuminatio mea.

[wendybeth]

Tori has a book that explains why kids sometimes see someone they love putting money under their pillow instead of the tooth fairy. The answer is that the tooth fairy takes on a guise most familiar and loved to the child, so the child isn't afraid if they see them.

Maybe that is God's M.O. as well.

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by flippyshark

This is a fun thread, loaded with interesting and wise responses, but I feel it is fair to ask;

Tracilicious, since you opened the topic, what's your answer?

This is an easier question to ask than it is to answer, it seems. Therefore, my answer is:

Hmmmmm.....

Ok, so I do have a real answer, but my thoughts on the subject are a swirl and a mesh so trust me when I say that you'll be better off scrolling past then reading my long and rambly post.

I grew up in a very strict Christian religion. I don't want to name it here, because I feel that it's beside the point, and I don't want to muck up the discussion with specifics of this religion.

When I say I grew up as that religion, I don't mean just went to church on Sundays. I went to church multiple times a week. By the time I was three I could expound on all of the religious views and quote scriptures to back them up. At six my goal in life was to be a missionary and I began public speaking in the church. At eight I was baptized. This religion has certain qualifications for baptism, and eight is very young to make that kind of a decision. You are basically handing your life over to God, and renigging on that agreement has consequences according to the bible as they teach it.

As a teen I still practiced, often as the only member of my family, as my mom stopped practicing for a while and various other family members moved away. Much less zealously though. Then at 19 Michael and I got married and moved to an area where we would be going to a new church and just never really went back. We tried a few times, but it never stuck. I did go through some serious withdrawl/depression because what was a huge part of my life wasn't there anymore, but that apparently wasn't enough motivation to go back.

So now it's been almost six years. For a really long time we intended to eventually rejoin, but now I'm not so keen to do so. Yet I'm tired of living in limbo, so to speak, and feel obligated to make some sort of concrete decision. Either I believe all the stuff that I didn't question for most of my life, or I don't. And if I don't, then there are certain restrictions that I'll remove from our lives.

But here is where it gets complicated for me. Two of my brothers have left the religion completely, causing a great deal of grief for the rest of the family when they did so. One sister is like me, but two more sisters and my mom and dad (and his wife) would be fairly crushed if I left completely. The sister that I'm closest to out of all those might even stop talking to me. Any sort of pressure or love withdrawl those family members might impose on me really wouldn't be because they are being sucky, but rather because they would see it as something that might save my life. In addition, our closest friends (who live in another state, so they have no idea that we don't go anymore) would probably cut us off. I doubt that anyone reading this will understand the mentallity behind that, but I would. They would do it in the hopes that we would come to our senses.

But it's sort of an all or nothing thing for me I guess. Like I grew with the example of the ungrateful Israelites who got sick of the manna. But really, why couldn't God have foreseen that and just given them different flavors of manna? And if God is supreme and all knowing, then he must have intended to create evil, as the bible as I was taught says that nothing is here that god didn't design. And giving a choice of God's way or death isn't really a choice at all.

So having such doubts I would feel uncomfortable practicing that religion in any form. Plus I don't really like most of the people that I've met from various churchs. It's hard enough to find other parents that I relate to, I sure as hell am not going to purposefully surround myself with people smacking 2 yr olds for not sitting still for two hours. (Which isn't common, but does happen.) But if I'm definitely not going to be practicing in the foreseeable future, then there are things that I will do that I wouldn't normally do otherwise. And restrictions that would be pointless for my kids to grow up with.

But if I don't believe in what I've always believed in (which maybe I do believe it, I don't know) then what do I believe? Is God the God I grew up with? The God that has answered my prayers occassionally? Did I answer my own prayers like quantum physics says I did? Is god infinity and absence like EH said above? Is the universe constantly expanding and contracting? If I don't believe in the afterlife that I was taught to believe in, then I certainly don't believe in any other afterlife. Then what is the point of any of our time here? Why do we bother saving endangered species or reducing carbon emmissions? Who cares if the species dies out?

Where will I find the sense of community that I grew up with? No ballgames in the park on Sunday after church? I really couldn't go to another church. Church people weird me out for the most part. I've had enough zealoutry for three lives. But nonetheless, something seems absent. Such despondency annoys me.

But yes, I suppose I do feel the presence of God. I believe in that presence even if I'm not sure what its name is right now.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by wendybeth

Tori has a book that explains why kids sometimes see someone they love putting money under their pillow instead of the tooth fairy. The answer is that the tooth fairy takes on a guise most familiar and loved to the child, so the child isn't afraid if they see them.

Maybe that is God's M.O. as well.

And when the kid learns that the whole thing about the tooth fairy was an elaborate lie, wouldn't that tend to suggest the same thing for god as well?

[LSPoorEeyorick]

But it isn't a lie, per se. The tooth fairy does take the guise of the most familiar and loved to the child. The parent IS the tooth fairy.

And I find God mostly in the people around me.