Do you believe in god?

[EmperorJeramyu]

lol, I was watching TV, and some scientist guy was saying "Currently, we've spotted about 5 meteors that could possibly collide with our planet in due time. That doesn't seem very intellegent to me."

[War]

I believe in a higher being. This reality is much to improbable for what you see it to be. Like it has been said, it is more like for a twister to go through a junk yard and create Buckingham palaces then for life to be.

I like to follow my own religious. I do think there is something more like I said. I believe life is like a test. You have deal with life from what you have before you. What happens at the end of the test is only known to the dead.

[War]

Oh by the way fwacho. I think when he ment the bible is flawed is the fact that the bible was not written in english and there is facts that they translated parts of the first bible wrong in the english one.

[Strayed Wanderer]

My god (no pun intended) people, if you are going to make consecutive posts, EDIT THE FIRST ONE.

I've been atheist since I was nine

The whole notion of an omnipotent, omniscient being that no one ever sees just seems kind of hokey to me. Not to put any religious people down or anything, but it seems pretty far fetched.

In understand your thought. but the other option (evolution) seems even more impossible to me from the evidence I've seen.

(thus you understand why evolution-Intelligent Design debate is so touchy. darwin was once quoted as saying "If even one example of something not evolving can be found my theory must be discarded" There have been alot of arguements suggesting so. I could argue with you all day but it wouldn't accomplish much becuase Athieism is a much a faith as Christianity. I will say, that sience is a major part of what led me to God.

I really don't believe that's anywhere near what he'd say. If you find me the direct quote, yeah, I'll believe it (that isn't a challenge, it just doesn't sound realistic). Regardless, one example would mean concrete proof of something that did not evolve. If something did not evolve to the point it's at, it was sheer luck that it was created (entropy/randomness/etc.). Most scientific minds would move to 'luck" before god.

Accidents can produce useful things, nothingness can't.

For the record, I'm not atheist, I'm agnostic. I don't actually care if there is a god.

[Forerunner]

I don't know what I class under.
I've been a christian since I was born and I got baptised, then later I did reconsiliation and then communion and confirmation, which are all catholic rituals. But I don't think I got anything out of it. I felt no change, no reassurance of faith or whatever you're supposed to feel If you're religious.
My Dad is Catholic too, and he forces us to go to church every second weekend but I don't listen to anything and I don't really care, and whenever I think about god and Jesus and any of that there's just no good proof. I prefer to take the scientific view of life.
Does that mean I'm not religious and I don't care or believe in religion, or does it just mean I'm a really, really bad Christian?
And another thing, who can tell me that? Who is the one who decides what my faith is? Is it me? I'd sure as hell think so, no God or Priest can tell me what I am, religion blows. "I am my own master."

[War]

The strange thing is the scientific view is life shouldn't be.

[Burning_Flame]

I've always said "If I see sompthing thats really like, spiritual, then I'll come back to religion, other wise, fuck it, I'm playing video games."

[Jalit]

Can anyone prove that god exists?
No didn't think so.

[Telephalsion]

man fwacho, learn how to edit...

anyways, thanks for pointing out that islamic Allah isn't Jesus's daddy. I always thought he was, not that it matters.


Existence is a funny thing, have you noticed on how many mythologies begin creation from nothingness, chaos or whatever they call it:

In norse mythology it came from two springs, one of fire and one of ice, theese tow ahd alwasy been there, end of story. From theese two springs giants came, and from them the world was created, eventually. It ends with ragnarok, in which everyone fights, lots of gods get killed then only a small piece of the world tree remains, and from here two people populate what's left of the world, not exactly sure if it's cyclic or if it explains why there are no gods today :S

In christianity it's nothing, then the word, then god and then creation. Then judgement day.

In greek mythology, chaos, then Chronos and then all the gods and creation. Don't know of the armageddon here.

Not sure on the buddhist belief of creation, or destruction, well, "descruction" is when you quench your thirst of life and sieze your cycle of rebirth.

Hindus believe the world is created and destroyed in cycles, it begins with everything existing together in Rama, then it seeps out and splits, becoming the universe and ganesh and the other gods, then one god dances, and at one time he dances the end of the world resulting in everything getting sucked into Rama again and the cycle repeats.

It makes you wonder, when did existence start, if there ever was a time when nothing existed? Should you take the ninja gaiden view on it?
"In the beginning there was a great nothing, a great emptyness flowed out of the nothing, the nothing was afraid of it's own nothingness..." something like taht, basically: nothing + nothing = something and something = universe


About the weight of the soul thing, it's very interesting to hear that the soul weighs 21 grams (yes, I'm almost exactly sure that's the weight) anyways, I've heard the explanation that that weight is the weight of your final exhale, so when you die your lungs release air., reducing your weight.

[Occurrence of Something]

In christianity it's nothing, then the word, then god and then creation. Then judgement day.

Actually, it states very clearly, "In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"

In Christianity, in the beginning there was God, not nothing. If anything ever started out with nothing, then it would be nothing forever afterward because there would be nothing there to change anything, or make anything into something.

[RentACop]

There is interesting evidence that a soul exists. I'll giv eyou two diffeernt kinds. 1) an expeirement was done with TB pateints a few years back. (they were chosen becuase they barely move as they near death and thus the scales under the beds weren't distrubed) they experiement found that at the moment of death the body loses about a quarter of an ounce. There is your soul (I believe that God wuold be obligated to play by His own rules, thuse a soul would have to have some energy-thus mass-- if it existed).

No. The experiment was done in 1907, the methodology was flawed, the sample size was tiny and his ability to measure weights was imprecise.

also sience suggests that there is a fith dimension (light operates in this dimension giving it both wave and partical properties).

Irrelevant.

2) I have a freind that used to be into Newage. He got grabbed by "something" not entirely friendly while astral projecting. He still has a scar on his leg from it.

Translation: "My friend took LSD once and in the process of flipping out injured himself."

darwin was once quoted as saying "If even one example of something not evolving can be found my theory must be discarded" There have been alot of arguements suggesting so.

As near as I can tell, Darwin never said such a thing. What this seems to be is a bastardization of an Einstein quote "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong." Anyway, creationism is a nice idea, if you ignore every iota of rational thought and reason. Intelligent Design, while less heinous, should be kept strictly in religion class.

[fwacho]

2) I have a freind that used to be into Newage. He got grabbed by "something" not entirely friendly while astral projecting. He still has a scar on his leg from it.

Translation: "My friend took LSD once and in the process of flipping out injured himself."

darwin was once quoted as saying "If even one example of something not evolving can be found my theory must be discarded" There have been alot of arguements suggesting so.

As near as I can tell, Darwin never said such a thing. What this seems to be is a bastardization of an Einstein quote "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong." Anyway, creationism is a nice idea, if you ignore every iota of rational thought and reason. Intelligent Design, while less heinous, should be kept strictly in religion class.

Two points. The scar that my friend recieved was a hand print, like a burn scar.

2) the quote was taken from a pro-evolution new-report.

and as war mention: evolution takes as much faith as Creationism, if not more particularly when considering the evidence. (carbon dating is worhtless--fresh lava rock have been dated at 100,000 years by labs. for one example. then you have the mix up of spposed setiment layers, various hoaxes--piltdown man ect., then their are the protien tests to switch no-organic right-handed prtoeins in to organic left-handed proteins which has been proved impossible.) Scientists are lying to you to protect their careers / reputations. they are telling you what you want to hear. no surprise becasue that's how they get their funding. It all about money and the masses are suffering.


Telephasion mentions nothingness:
yeah, but the first thign God makes is light-- read energy-- which we know can be converted into mass.


P.S. It's hard for pople to read lond passages, that's why I chose to split it up , but because you asked I'm putting it all togther here.


Jalit:
Can you prove that he doesn't? (thus the debate)

Foruner:
There are two definions of christian ... 1) some one who is raised under a belief system (they don't have to believe it just be raised under it... Aka Muslims call all american Christians)

2) the word was originlly a derogatory term meaning "little Christ-like" or someone who is like Jesus. To be a Christian in this sense means to surrender conrtol of your life and choices to Jesus and be like Him. Of course to do this you have to believe 1) he exists, 2) that he loves you
3)that you have been forgiven of whatever stupidity you've done, 4) and that you can't earn this forgiveness because it's a free gift.

That is essentially christianity in a nutshell. There's no promise of easy life, freedom from pain. just the opportunity to work toward those goals for everyone.

yes, the choice is yours but others will brand you anyways because that's what people do. God won't make you do what He lovingly commands (aka don't stick your finger in electrical sockets). He doesn't punish people for doing whatthey want.. he simply allows the consequences of all their choices to come to frutition. (you pant corn, you get corn. you plant rye, you harvest rye). that's what being free to do you what you want means... your choices matter.

War: I took Greek and Hebrew in college. at most we miss a few nuancesin the tranlations. aka some ideas don't come across as forceful as they would have. as far as literallness the NIV is the is great for OT translation while the NASB is most literal for the NT. that's what I discovered from doing my homework at least,

Emporer: sure it is. It's like putting a timer on an oven. Revelations prophecies "a star" falling from the sky. It makes sense that one of those would be already set in motion. God won't break his own rules. He is a God of order and seems to really enjoy math. check out "the bible code" (written by an agnostic)and "God and the New Phyics", there's also a few very cool books on chaos theory "Hyperspace" being one worth checking out.

Actually chaos theory leads into dimensional theory, which oddly enough, allows for a scientific explanation of a higher spiritual dimension. aka souls, angels, and demons can exist without breaking any scientific laws. for more info on this look into "The adventures of Mr. square". I think that's what it was called, then expand the idea of the book up one more dimension.

Burning Flame:
What would it take? Do want to see lives changed, poeple raised from the dead, miraculous healing, foretelling of the future? or would you prefer to see pople brought back from depression, families made functional again, relationships mended, people gaining a mission in life, or just someone who would love you just the way you are?
( from what I've seen so far, the last is what most people really want)

[dettronen]

God exists.
None of the sentences in this pair is true.

Therefore, God exists.

Seriously though, I love the way my psychology professor told me once. "Man created God, but God created Me." When you think about it, it really makes sense.

[Sage Of The Wise]

I always liked the Hitchkikers guide explanation of god the best.

[Telephalsion]

Burning Flame:
What would it take? Do want to see lives changed, poeple raised from the dead, miraculous healing, foretelling of the future? or would you prefer to see pople brought back from depression, families made functional again, relationships mended, people gaining a mission in life, or just someone who would love you just the way you are?

that's a good explanation of why religion is important