Honest and regular opinions of the idea of God

I want to hear nothing but what is written in the title.
If you believe in God then tell us why.
If you don't believe in God then tell us why.

I do not want to hear:
I believe in God because my parents told me.
I don't believe in God because there is no evidence.

Actual opinions on a regular level people, come on, can't be so hard can it.

 

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I don't believe in God because I'm smarter than that. It's also prudent to know that I'm not typing from my deathbed.

 

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That's your explanation.
Looks foolish to me.

 

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http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=22326

 

I don't believe in God because religion is the opium of the masses.

 

I don't think there is a God, because the Bible just seems to convenient for me. If God loved his children so much. Why did he have a favorite child (the Israelites)? Plus on a personal level, while I do like to read about the philosophies of Jesus, I just don't like the God of the Old Testament. He's comes off as mean and petty. I can't see why someone would want to worship a deity who doesn't much care for women who are raped, but decides to punish unborn children for mistakes that their great-great grandfather made. That doesn't sit right with my moral code so thats why I don't worship God and am quite skeptical of his existence at all. Considering the rules laid out for the Israelites just seems to be a way of scaring a large group of people into doing what their leaders wanted. As I said earlier a little too convenient for me.

 

Fantastic post.

 

Who me? Thank you

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You don't need to adhere to a specific religion in order to believe in God. Religion simply encourages people to live the lifestyle God has commanded, and organizes His decrees. If you can't find comfort in religion, then there's always pure monotheism, as exhibited by Abraham. As for your reasoning ("opium of the masses"), I haven't much to say, although I will point a cautious finger at the man who wrote those words. Moses Mordecai Marx Levy (I suppose he's better known by his alias, "Karl Marx") also wrote: "We must war against all prevailing ideas of religion, of the state, of country, of patriotism. The idea of God is the keynote of a perverted civilization. It must be destroyed." Do you agree with that, too? It seems the "civilization" he envisioned is far more dangerous and repugnant than one with prevalent religion serving as "opiate". The truth is, Karl Marx's works were intended for the sole purpose of destroying religion and, with it, God. Here is part of a letter Karl Marx wrote to Baruch Levi:

"In this new organization of Humanity, the children of Israel, scattered to all corners of the earth, will be transformed, with no opposition at all, into the ruling class, above all, they will gather the working masses under their exclusive control. The Governments of the nations composing the future universal Republic will fall, without force, into the hands of the Israelites, thanks to the victory of the proletariat. Private property then will be eliminated by governments of the Jewish race who will administer, everywhere, the public funds.

Thus the promise of the Talmud will be realized, according to which, when the time of the Messiah comes, the Jews will possess all the riches of all the peoples of the earth."

By destroying religion and, with it, God, Marx theorized that the domination of the world by a single party would be achieved easily. Unfortunately, it looks like he was right.

A personal question: didn't you say before that you believed in God, DeepThought? Or did you simply scrap the concept entirely somewhere along the way?

Kadark the Shadow

 

God and logic

The Faithful say that God knows absolutely everything, and that there are no limits to what he can do.
.
If God knows everything, then nobody could construct a box so that God doesn't know what it contains, whereas if there were no limits to what God can do, the he could construct a box so that nobody knows what it contains.
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Can anyone be God if they aren't both omniscient and omnipotent?
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If there were no limits to what God can do, then he could give an example of something he couldn't do --- and if he couldn't give an example of something he couldn't do, that in itself would be an example of something he couldn't do.
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Can anyone be God if there are limits to what they can do?
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That's all I wanted to say.

 

Old One Eye,

Ask yourself, what is this box. I mean what is it in cold hard reality.
Is it not unltimately the same thing (teeny-tiny particles), configured according to our level of perception. And how limited is our perception?

Have you tried looking at it from the point of view that god is omniscient and omnipotent, then work your way down. Just another option.

Why would anyone not want to be able to do something. If there was nothing you couldn't do, why on earth would not being able to do something be of any interest to you. I
'm a musician, and I have no plan to try not to be able to play music.

I don't see they could be.

jan.

 

I don't know what your stance is on abortion, but it puzzles me when people who don't believe in the biblical God remember details like the events in Exodus (perhaps thousands of first born human&animal(I don't know which unborn reference you could be referring too)).

It puzzles me because compared to how many unborn children human beings have killed (45million+ since the early 70's in the US alone) it is but a drop in the ocean.

So why do the same people believe in humanity but not the biblical God because he is mean?

I believe in humanity and God btw.

 

sis,

The idea has never helped us to understand anything about the universe. With the 100% past failure record for anything useful it seems unlikely that the idea will ever produce anything worthwhile.

 

i don't agree with god's values either. for someone who knew the consequences of all his actions, he sure created a lot of misery and evil. he's supposed to be omniscient yet demonstrates having completely misunderstood the value of mercy, forgiveness, compassion etc. i see what is described as God as just a powerful entity. i respect wisdom, benevolence etc., not power. If i worshipped God i might as well worship mike tyson.

i call myself an atheist, but only in the sense that every religion i've been exposed to seems questionable, and my own ideas seem wishful thinking. 'God' seems pretty synonymous with entities described within religions rather than a possible divine entity, with that in mind i'd say i don't believe in god.

 

I feel that if there were a God, it would be apparent. There is no evidence, reason, logic, or experience to support the notion. Therefore, it is highly likely to have nothing to do with reality.

As an aside - One of the problems with 'God' is a problem of language. The term is too general to be of use. When I say 'apple' there is a general understanding of what I am talking about - though details may be fuzzy (green or red?). But the term 'God' does not offer that accepted specific relation to the world. The general definition would be something about a supernatural entity that creates and controls the universe. So - are we talking about Zeus or the father of Jesus or Jah or Yahweh or....well you get the point.

 

I always wondered about the god of the OT. What was up with the story of Job? For those of you unfamiliar with the story, here's my take on it:

So the devil comes up to god and says:

devil: So Big G, your boy, Job...he's mighty faithful to you. I bet it's all because he has a nice life, that he loves you so much..I bet if his life wasn't so great, he'd forsake you.

god: I got 5 dollars that says your wrong.

devil: Your on!

So god allows the devil to totally screw up Job's life. Kills his family and his lifestock, covers him in boils, but Job remains faithful through the whole ordeal, and the devil has to pay god 5 bucks.

So god rewards the faithfulness of Job, by letting the devil screw him over, just to make a point to the devil.

 

I believe in God because there must be an original cause, and the scriptures give good solid explanations of its nature and character.

jan.

 

I still think it is unfair for your father to rob a bank and then the police put you in jail. The specific case that popped into my head at the time was Ham laughing at his father because he was drunk, so God cursed his family line. Because Ham laughed at his naked father his children, grandchildren, great grand children and so on would be the ones who had to suffer this curse, Ham would have died before he even saw the effects of this curse. It just doesn't sit right with me is all. I find it hard to worship someone that I don't harbor much respect for is all I was saying. Of course my lack of belief has very little to do with that, I felt like that even when I was devout Christian. I was just picking and choosing what I liked and didn't like about God in order to justify my faith. Now that there is no need for me to justify the the Christian faith I've found that I don't care much for God's character, but I do harbor much more respect for Jesus Christ, whether he existed or not.

 

Well I try not to judge people, I most certainly wouldn't attempt to judge God with my limited knowledge, as if He is a perfect judge then what seems wrong to us is simply incorrect thinking by us.

I don't think the curse would have been as severe as the example you wrote.

 

I read the Bible and the message of the Bible resonated with me that God is and He is the God of Abraham.

All Praise The Ancient Of Days