Do you guys/girls beleve in god?

[Memphisis]

dont forget crisps

[LoneFury4590]

When I see footsteps I know that they are the signs of some being that passed by and when I see the mountains, trees, the stars and others I see the signs of a creator.

http://www.islamreligion.com/category/39/

[Threethumb]

I do not believe in a god as described by religion on Earth. By saying their god is invisible and not understandable, they make themselves immune to argument, which in my mind negates the validity of their claim. I am not the one claiming it exists, so I do not bear the burden of proving the in-existence of a god. I'll keep an open mind to the possibilities of such a thing, but unless tangible evidence is provided: I see no merit in simply believing. If all these religious people can somehow prove to me that their beliefs have not originated through hallucinations, the placebo effect, and indoctrination, only then shall I consider their words to hold any value.

Besides, it seems highly unlikely to me that we inhabit the only living ecosystem among at the very least 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets in the visible universe. Yet the extraterrestrial is hardly mentioned in Old Age religions (It is however mentioned, and focused upon, in New Age religions, which came about after we learned about the cosmos... I wonder why.)

[QuomQuit]

I do believe in the existance of God; although my beliefs do not exactly correspondend with those of the commonly spread Christianity.

Think about it. "God is invisible" and cannot be drawn, neither described. Doesn't the Bible means that God is the world that surrounds us - the space itself? God may be that something that created the Universe and forms the planets, the solar systems, etc. It is hard to imagine, but try to do so: Imagine that God is everything, that He is everywhere (in the Universe, not only on Earth) and He can easily influence our destiny and us ourselves at the same time. The Christianity is all about love: Isn't that a universal feeling and emotion? It is a part of the expectations from the future - that love would be that thing that stands over the evil.

Or, if God was actually something limited in space, He would definitely put some obstacles on our way to discovering Him - as the cosmos. Maybe everything is created by Him to escape our gossipness?

But, after all, these are just some theories (not exactly my beliefs). We live in democracy and you are free to believe what you want to, everyone has theirs POVs.

[-Ninjex-]

There are too many flaws in the world. If there was an omniscient God, I don't think I would see these.

Genesis 6:6 - "The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled."

How can omniscient (all knowing) have form of regret, assuming he would know the outcome before hand?

The whole story about Adam and Eve, if you know there is a sacred tree (tree of wisdom) of which you shouldn't eat from. Why did god not just block access to the tree with whatever means necessary. If you have power over all of the world, you can surely protect a single tree.

The whole story about Noah's Ark, what did all those animals eat for all those days, each other? lol

I believe in a higher state of being, not really a God as described. In all honesty, Christianity could have been made for self defense if you think about it. People who are told god exists, will believe it over time (flash back to when people that the world was flat) so now that a lot of people believe this. If you are about to kill someone and they say some christian shit, or say may God help this man in his years to come. It will play head games, you may start feeling regret or remorse, and thinking about your actions, and if you want to spend eternity in hell. This could in fact be a psychological sense of self defense.

Christianity, could have also been something made up to hep keep the population in check, so that we could progress in life. Having standards is essential, and having a story of why you should follow these standards must have been prevalent in the old days. Just telling everyone, you need to live like this, without any explanation as of why, would have made you out to look like you want to rule over people, and you probably would have been executed for it.

Just some thoughts, real fast, as I don't have much time around this place anymore.

Ninjex, out!

[KthProg]

I will offer responses/explanations to each of these, though they may not be my opinion, and then briefly describe my opinion.

1. You are not yourself omniscient, so what is a flaw and what is not is your opinion. i.e. You have no concept of bad without good and vice versa, since both are relative and subjective. So you could immediately make the argument that flaws are a necessary pat of a perfect universe, or that there's no such thing.

2. The Bible is filled with metaphors and re-translations; you can never really know what the original meaning of something was, or whether or not it was metaphorical, a parable, etc. since you didn't write it.
Also, since we were 'made in his image' and we feel regret, doesnt it follow that 'he' can feel some sort of emotion too?
[try to think of all these answers abstractly]

3. Again, many of these are parables and metaphors with very deep meaning. [Also Adam and Eve is not in the King James Bible s this would conflict with the 7 day creation story]
Why so many metaphors? Because some things are simply too difficult to truly comprehend, a story that the common man can/could relate to explains things in terms that a deeper part of himself might understand.
[Think parable of the mustard seed, another biblical 'story']

4. Noah's Ark is Old Testament, not New Testament, and the same things I already said apply, also 'With God anything is possible' applies here.

To summarize, you're reading it too literally, the overarching thing that you should take from it is that humanity itself has an overwhelming belief in a higher power. Whether or not there is one, it's the belief that means something, the stories just help us to relate that feeling of something larger than ourselves to a life that we're used to or can understand.

They help explain things that are beyond our ability to comprehend fully, assuming those things exist.

Also, people do not just 'make' a religion for some reason. Not usually anyways.
It grows out of thousands of years of tradition.
I suggest you read up on the history and variety of religions, you'd be very suprised.

If you want to see a view of christianity that gives a more literal view of the events that happened in Jesus's lifetime, I suggest reading some books by Edgar Cayce, a purported psychic who died about 60 years ago and talks quite a bit about the events of jesus's life, riencarnation and such.
Also I suggest you read up on Eastern religious traditions.

Feel free to respond.

Ah! I forgot to include my opinion...
I don't know
I don't claim to know
I may never know
I might not want to know
It may be impossible to know

To think that I know would be to think that I am the same as God himself.

I like to think there is one though, and I live by that assumption.