Do you guys/girls beleve in god?

[romulous]

I am a Pagan, and thus a polytheist. While I believe in many Gods, and Goddesses, there are still a great many I have no use for as I concider them morally screwed. Just because a god exists does not mean you have to worship them. The Christian God for example has committed multiple autrocities over the millenia that make me have no desire to follow him. Infanticide, murder, mass murder, torture, mass rape, genocide, etc... and he says he still has a lot more killing to do... WTF!!!!!! Seriously folks, find one you like (There are a great many) and follow him/her/it but do so with your eyes open, not just because your mama told you to.

[T3hR34p3r]

I'm an Agnostic. I believe that it's impossible for human beings to comprehend something like God in its true form. It's impossible for us to know whether or not there is a god. I also don't believe in any of the mainstream religions, and I'll tell you why.

There are nine planets in our solar system.(Yes, I'm counting pluto, it will always be a planet in my book)
There are billions of solar systems in the Milky Way Galaxy.
There are trillions of galaxies in the universe.
Hawking thinks there might actually be two universes, and he's got some data to back it up.

Now that is an unthinkable amount of planets, and some of them MUST have life. It's egotistical and stupid to think we are the ONLY planet out of all of those that has life.

Each of those planets undeniably has religions of some sort.

That means that there are billions upon billions of different religions in the universe, and I doubt that we are significant enough to hold the correct one.

Edit: I might add that I believe it is possible that there is a God, I just haven't seen any proof that I like.

[RedSoxNation]

I believe in God, and if you look at the facts, there is not that much evidence supporting the other theories.

[RedSoxNation]

Just read this article.

Proof of God - Intelligent Design
What would constitute objective proof of God? Well, consider the following self-evident and universally recognized truth: Concept and design necessitate an intelligent designer. The presence of intelligent design proves the existence of an intelligent designer. It's simply cause and effect. In our search for proof of God's existence, we could examine the various claims of supernatural occurrences, determine whether or not these are legitimate experiences, and build a case for the existence of the supernatural, which would be a step towards identifying a supernatural Creator God. Or we can just apply what we already know and search for signs of intelligent design within creation itself.

We know that design necessitates a designer. In fact, in accordance with this fundamental axiom, design detection methodology is a prerequisite in many fields of human endeavor, including archaeology, anthropology, forensics, criminal jurisprudence, copyright law, patent law, reverse engineering, crypto analysis, random number generation, and SETI. And how do we recognize intelligent design? In general, we find "specified complexity" to be a reliable indicator of the presence of intelligent design. Chance can explain complexity alone but not specification -- a random sequence of letters is complex but not specified (it's meaningless). A Shakespearean sonnet is both complex and specified (it's meaningful). We can't have a Shakespearean sonnet without Shakespeare. (William A. Dembski, The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities, 1998.)

Proof of God - Nature
So where's the proof of God's existence? In accordance with our familiar axiom and in light of the tremendous advances we've made in molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics and information theory, the proof of God is all around us!

Through the microscope, we observe the E. coli bacterial flagellum. The bacterial flagellum is what propels E. coli bacteria through its microscopic world. It consists of about 40 individual protein parts including a stator, rotor, drive-shaft, U-joint, and propeller. It's a microscopic outboard motor! The individual parts come into focus when magnified 50,000 times (using electron micrographs). And even though these microscopic outboard motors run at an incredible 100,000 rpm, they can stop on a microscopic dime. It takes only a quarter turn for them to stop, shift directions and start spinning 100,000 rpm in the opposite direction! The flagellar motor has two gears (forward and reverse), is water-cooled, and is hardwired into a signal transduction (sensory mechanism) so that it receives feedback from its environment. ("Unlocking the Mystery of Life," video documentary by Illustra Media, 2002.)

When we apply the general principles of detecting specified complexity to biologic systems (living creatures), we find it reasonable to infer the presence intelligent design. Take, for example, the bacterial flagellum's stator, rotor, drive-shaft, U-joint, and propeller. It is not convenient that we've given these parts these names - that's truly their function. If you were to find a stator, rotor, drive-shaft, U-joint, or propeller in any vehicle, machine, toy or model, you would recognize them as the product of an intelligent source. No one would expect an outboard motor -- much less one as incredible as the flagellar motor -- to be the product of a chance assemblage of parts. Motors are the product of intelligent design.

Furthermore, the E. coli bacterial flagellum simply could not have evolved gradually over time. The bacterial flagellum is an "irreducibly complex" system. An irreducibly complex system is one composed of multiple parts, all of which are necessary for the system to function. If you remove any one part, the entire system will fail to function. Every individual part is integral. There is absolutely no naturalistic, gradual, evolutionary explanation for the bacterial flagellum. (Michael Behe, Darwin's Black Box, 1996.)

The bacterial flagellum (not to mention the irreducibly complex molecular machines responsible for the flagellum's assembly) is just one example of the specified complexity that pervades the microscopic biological world. Molecular biologist Michael Denton wrote, "Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small, weighing less than 10-12 grams, each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of one hundred thousand million atoms, far more complicated than any machinery built by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world." (Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, 1986, p. 250.)

Proof of God - His Fingerprints are Everywhere
Where is the proof of God? If we're willing to open our eyes, we'll see the fingerprints of God all around us and all throughout us. Our very existence proves the existence of a Creator God.

I got this article from http://www.allaboutcreation.org/proof-of-god.htm

[RedSoxNation]

I found this online yesterday.

The Atheist and the Bear!

An atheist was taking a walk through the woods, admiring all that the evolution had created. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!", he said to himself.

As he was walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly charge towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing.

He ran even faster, so scared that tears were coming to his eyes. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. His heart was pumping frantically and he tried to run even faster. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw the bear right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.

At that instant the Atheist cried out "Oh my God!...."
Time stopped.
The bear froze.
The forest was silent.
Even the river stopped moving.

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky, "You deny my existence for all of these years; teach others I don't exist; and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?"

The atheist looked directly into the light "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as Christian now, but perhaps could you make the bear a Christian?"

"Very well," said the voice.
The light went out.
The river ran again.
And the sounds of the forest resumed.
And then the bear dropped his right paw ..... brought both paws together...bowed his head and spoke:

"Lord, for this food which I am about to receive, I am truly thankful...AMEN!"

[Karec]

For those of you who believe in something so absurd, I highly recommend the film "Zeitgeist". It explains the origins of Christianity and how it is plagiarized from various older religions that all revolve around the adoration of the sun. There is also a part about corruption in America that is super interesting.

The point I'm trying to make here is that organized religion, Christianity in particular, is an organization that only worries about forwarding their own agenda. They impose their beliefs on people, and anyone who disagrees is labeled 'blasphemous'. I'm not saying all Christians are assholes but I honestly believe that the world would be filled with many more intelligent people if religions like Christianity didn't distract people from the real world, with bogus stories like Noah's fucking arc.

P.S. GOD IS DEAD

First off even though you do make some points a good portion of your post is Ad Hominem, someone reported this for insulting religion but i'm afraid it falls on a gray area which us staff are debating about. We hope to get an official list of rules to post on the forum to deal with gray area's like this in the future but for now we will leave this post.

[OneArrow]

I'm an Agnostic. I believe that it's impossible for human beings to comprehend something like God in its true form. It's impossible for us to know whether or not there is a god. I also don't believe in any of the mainstream religions, and I'll tell you why...

This is more or less what I believe, though I don't count myself as Agnostic, but rather Neopagan (that is, unless family is over...). Rather than refute all mainstream religions because of the improbability of us getting anything right, I prefer to see each theological view as just one more lens through which we may all gaze upon the same thing. When a Christian calls to mind an all-loving God, for instance, I see the love, beauty and grace of Aphrodite. We all see facets of it, pieces, fragments that make themselves manifest to us in their own unique way. Assuming an infinite possibility space, then, there are an infinite number of ways to view the Divine. In their purest form, I don't believe any are "wrong," per se, and true perfection is being able to look through all these lenses at once and see the big picture (omniscience).

Though I do believe that over time, religion is warped and perverted to suit sociopolitical needs, like a game of broken telephone (the KJV Bible is one of my favorite examples). This is why I don't believe the Bible, or any other religious text or tradition, to be infallible: anything transliterated, penned, or prescribed by an imperfect being will carry those imperfections, and must be held to the same level of scrutiny. This isn't to say that I think these traditions are complete rubbish, either - only that the lens must be cleaned the best we can before we look through it, and the lenses best suited for us are the ones we ourselves learn to craft.

[PC_MAGAS]

Guy's don't try to approach the God with logic because He's over the limits of it.
Humans can approach only a piece of him, the other just believe it.

[Orion001]

Ok, I think that everyone keeps saying that there is 'no proof' of god/religion, you are correct (although some could argue that there is proof, lets say that it is all happenstance). Religion is not about proof, its about belief, what you believe may or may not be true, such as a round/flat earth, santa clause, and aliens. Christianity, Islam, and yes, even Evolution are all beliefs, religions.
I myself am Christian, but I was leaning toward Evolution a while ago.

I like to base my beliefs on science, and NOTHING but science.

Evolution may still be possible, but until they thouroughly PROOVE it, I tend to think they rely on so much chance, that a god existing has just as much chance of being right as well. An ex-evolution scientist has done the sums, and calculated that a cyclone that sweeps through a junkyard and assembles a boeing 747 has the same chance of occurring as evolution. This is NOT an estimate, it is a calculation. If you dont know how hard it is to assemble a boeing 747, think of the wires, the seats, the engines and frame. So for me, Evolution now has such a small chance of being true, that it is considered neglible.
Some problems with Evolution:
-Spiral galaxies spin themselves up at a certain rate, if the earth was billions of years old, there would be no spiral galaxies left
-The big bang, where did matter come from in the first place? evolution does not answer that.
-No 'in-between' fossils, millions of fossils of creatures in the process of evolving should be evident, which dont exist
-Carbon dating has been known to give very dodgy results, eg. week-old rocks appear to be millions of years old
-In modern experience, life forms of all kind degrade. They dont become better and better, they suffer from DNA mistake and defformations.
-Oceans become saltier. If the earth was billions of years old, the water would be far more saltier than it is now.
-Magnetic Field. The magnetic field degrades over time, so if we back-track that billions of years ago, the magnetic field would be so strong that it would be impossible for life to survive (eg. we would die if we existed billions of years ago with a magnetic field that strong)
-these are just some reasons, there are MANY more

As for other religions, I cannot say that they are definitely wrong, or right, and I found that they seemed, lets say, 'dodgy'. So Christianity was left by a proccess of elimination. And humanitarianism, (long word ) ie. the lack of religion, did not satisfy my thoughts, (humans had to have come from somewhere, and so does matter in general), so that was eliminated as well.

Final note:
Religion is based on belief, and each religion has a chance of being right, Christianity was my choice, based on its values and moral concepts ect. I also thought that it had the most chance of being right, but I cannot disprove, without a doubt, that a different religion is wrong/right.

I hope that this has told you a bit, PM me or email me if you want 2 know more
my 2 pence worth

[Zelth]

I believe in God... period.