Do you believe in God?

[Calihan]

I thought this would be an interesting thread to see everybody's religious beliefs. Please don't post if you don't feel comfortable talking about your beliefs on here.


Personally I call myself a spiritual atheist. I don't believe in a God however I do believe in finding your own route to happiness and peace with yourself. I believe that peace with yourself comes not with religion but with thought about oneself and meditation.

 

[Finch]

Yep, I believe in God, pray, and I'm not super super 'religious'. Besides, you don't have to be religious in any way or believe in any sort of diety to be a good person. (just that small part of the poll bothered me. :lol: but I know what you meant)

I'm the kind of person who will go to church every now and then (more out of the spirituality aspect, not the ritualistic aspect) but certainly doesn't think the bible is literal and the whole world is going to Hell. I don't concentrate on all of the standing, kneeling, hand motions etc. as much as the basic idea of leading a good honest life and treating others as I'd expect to be treated.

A lot of things have happened in my life over the years which has made me more spiritually aware and willing to have faith in something other than what I can see. And that's not to say I don't believe in science/facts/proofs etc. because frankly I think it would be arrogant to put all my eggs in one basket. Yep, I believe in God and I'm totally down with evolution. :lol:

 

[shazza_018]

Haha reading your answer made me laugh Geni :lol: ....I have to be honest here are say I believe in God and live religously...but I not super religious I'm kind in the middle of the second two option..so I'm religious but not super religious :lol:....I'm actuallly Muslim (Don't get scared :lol and so religion is a big part of my life and in this day and age and with what going on in the world its often very hard for me to express my religion...you know the war in Iraq, the general "War on Terrorism"...it kinda gives muslims a bad name but I'm a good person I think :lol:...

Also I study Religion right now, even though alot of its Islam which means its easy for me we do do a bit of Ethics...You know what is good, bad, right and wrong - doing that made me kinda made me understand how hard it can be to define what makes a "good" person or a bad person...Generally I find studying about my own religion and other religions really interesting.....And I have plenty of Atheist friends who I've tried to convince that there is a god :lol:

As a muslim my religion is not a "religion" - its a complete way of life...from the moment I get up in the morning to moment I go bed at night.........

That's all for my rambling :lol: so bottomline I believe in God!

Sophia

 

[_Hush_]

I don't believe in God/a god, simply because I've never had one shred of evidence that anything like that exists. I guess that's the definition of believing, but I still can't wrap my head around it.

Believing is a concept I love to discuss and think about. I've recently come to the conclusion that I actually envy people who can do that. Believing there's a higher power, that someone's there watching out for you, is a very comforting thought. But for some reason, I just can't seem to do that. I try to believe in mankind (believe me, it takes quite the optimist to do that ), but it's really hard given the world we live in.

I do respect people who are religious, until a certain point. When they start taking action in the name of *insert a god here*, that's where I draw the line. And I mean any god, whether it's a terrorist atack in the name of Allah, or Bush saying "God bless America". I cringe in both cases

I have more to say, but I just woke up. My head still lingers in the land of dreams.

*needs coffee*

 

[4blueeyez]

I don't believe in God, but my father's side of the family does. When my parents got married, he didn't practice his religion anymore, so I wasn't raised with a religion. I do respect my family, I just sometimes feel that they don't respect me the same way. Sometimes it's like they really want to push into being religious like them... It's a good thing that I see them once a year.

 

[Dragonfly]

Interesting poll... but where's the option for those who don't really know what they believe?

Or those who believe in a different "God"?

Just a thought

 

[MiaCharlize]

I'm an atheist, I don't believe in God, but I see a purpose in religon. I find it fascinating.
I dislike how religion is being abused for political intents, which is why I am not really supportive of modern religious groups and the main monotheist religions.

It's still interesting from a socio-scientific point of view, though.

 

[starzsgirl]

I believe that there is a higher power perhaps it's God perhaps, like Meg said, there is another God or being. But in the end there is someone or something out there for everything to believe in, doesn't have to be God persay.

 

[shazza_018]

Yeah there should have been an option for those who believe in a different "God"....but I kind of didn't pick that up at 8 in the morning :lol: hence the rambly post....I totally understand all the atheist views here....I have a lot of atheist and agnostic (another thing not coverd in the poll :lol friends so I'm constantly asked me reason for believing in God...I guess alot of it has to do with my upbringing...My parents are religious and from a very young age we were taught alot about my religion....I think its interesting that I get asked this question that if I hadn't been born into a Muslim family would I still have followed Islam or found Islam....and my heart instantly says "yes, ofcourse", and you minds thinking " erm, well maybe not"...its hard to explain :lol:

Okay I'll shut up again :lol:

 

[allmaple]

i am a member of the church of the flying spaghetti monster and devout pastafarian. so in other words, no, i dont believe in god :lol:

although i was raised catholic, my parents never really made a big deal of it. went to catholic school until grade 5, but i never believed any of it. i thought the stories were only stories, and im pretty sure i was that smart ass kid who said 'what about the dinosaurs?' on noahs ark day.

monothiests and athiests are not so different. there have been thousands of gods in the history of humans, and monothiests reject all but one. i merely reject that last one as well. humans change religion over time to suit their needs, so maybe in a few centuries todays religions will be taught as mythology as well as those of the ancient empires. who knows.

i understand that religion can be important to people, if it works for you thats great. it just never worked for me. the more i learned about genetics and science the more i felt there could not be any intelligence behind what is going on (thankfully the flying spaghetti monster works by unintelligent design he was drunk after all...)

and for people who think there should be more options on the poll, the questions do not specify which god one believes in so there is no need for a 'different god' option

I think its interesting that I get asked this question that if I hadn't been born into a Muslim family would I still have followed Islam or found Islam....and my heart instantly says "yes, ofcourse", and you minds thinking " erm, well maybe not"...its hard to explain :lol:

richard dawkins (an athiest and evolutionary biologist for anyone who doesnt know) gave a speach to a school once. one girl, whom i would assume is christian, asked him 'what if youre wrong'. and he basically said 'you only ask me that because you were raised a certain way, what if you are wrong?'

so although i find no reason for myself to believe in god, there is no way to prove myself right or the opposite view right for that matter.

 

[Jacquie]

I do believe in God. I was baptized, raised and confirmed an Anglican. I use to go to church every Sunday and stopped about the time I got married. My husband has nothing wrong with the church as he was baptized and confirmed before we got married. We jsut didn't go. He has more knowledge of the bible than I do and he didn't have a religious up bringing.

One reason I don't go to church these days is I don't like what the Anglican Church has done to the service. I grew up with the service from the 1970's and I just don't understand why they needed to modernize it.

As I've been thinking about how to respond to this thread I got to thinking about the Anglican Church with all their in fighting these days about woman priests and gay marriages, amongst other things. And I truly believe that if the Anglican church would let they gay and lesbian ministers be in a relationship that the minister that married my husband and I over 26 years ago might still be alive today. He was murdered in Montreal over 10 years ago. He was killed because he was gay. I don't have a problem with women being ministers. I think I'm more disillusioned by what's going on in the church today which may also be a factor as to why I don't go.

I also find other people's religions interesting. You respect me and my religion I will respect yours. I also respect people that don't believe. But again respect my beliefs and I will respect your non belief.

 

[xPORCELAINDOLLx]

I believe in God and believe that He gave His only son to save us from our sins because He loved us. Unfortunately, I refuse to go to church because most of the churches are so stuck on preaching about sins that they forget to preach about God's love. It makes me sad. Oh well, I'll just read my bible and worship my own way.

I only have one rule when it comes to religion: respect my beliefs and I'll respect yours. It's that simple for me.

 

[Speedystokesgirl]

I've been think about if I wanted to respond. I voted, but wasn't sure if I wanted to respond.

This has been something I've been struggling with for years. I was raised Catholic, now I consider myself a recovering Catholic.

Do I believe in God? No, I used to, but not now. There is no proof of his existence, yet, evolution has been proven. People will say you gotta have faith. I do have faith. I have faith that the sun will always rise, the moon will always be in the sky and that life will continue even when mine doesn't. I have faith that there will always be good people and bad people, etc.

I've studied a couple of earth base religions, like Wicca and Shamanism. I've read up and Buddahism too. I find it ironic that God didn't exist until Christianity came along and that the devil is a Christian created entity. The earth base religions have been around a lot longer than Christianity and the Christian God never existed. Not to say, that some of the older religions don't have their Gods and Goddesses.

I mean look at Mythology. Apparently, they call it mythology because these Gods and Goddesses never existed, but the Christian God or any other God does. Whose to say that these God and Goddess didn't exist once? Can't have it both ways.

I've given up on religions because of some of these reasons: the lie to their followers, the twist the bible and the testaments to go along with what that particular religion's beliefs are, they have created most of the problems in the world today (I didn't say all the problems, just most, if not, some of them), most wars are fought because of religions. Religions create religious fanatics: terrorists, David Koresh, Jim Jones, etc. Don't even get me started on Scientology.

However, I totally respect and believe that everyone has the right to follow the religion of their choice. I would never tell them their nuts or wrong. However, I don't count cults in this. I also, believe that I have a right for you NOT to push your religion on me.

But like I said in the beginning, I've been struggling with this for years and who knows, my belief in God may come back, but I have found to strong of evidence that he doesn't exist.

 

[Cara1090]

I definatly believe in God but right now I am not a member of any religous order. I totaly agree with xPORCELAINDOLLx on how the church is acting;I myself am more of a spiritual believer.

 

[miss_blue]

I believe that there is a God, although I am not the most religious person out there. i have my share of sins that probably assured me a one way ticket to hell :lol:

On a more serious note, as a Christin Orthodox I think that some of us need to think that there is a spiritual force out there, that is watching us and sometimes guiding us. I must say, that I think that the God I believe in has a very twisted sense of humor :lol:

I don't believe however in some things that are written in the Bible. I can;t say that I have read it, but it was still written by human hand (no matter that it was with divine inspiration or not) and most importantly IT IS INTERPRETED BY HUMANS. Priests or not, we are all bound to make mistakes and I cannot confide and believe whole heartedly in what was written by man.

When I was in high school we had to study Religion. Our teacher was a young priest who tried to convince me for 3 years that world was created by God as was described in the Genesis. We used to have long and intelligent discussions with the whole class that would extend to hours. He always gave us books to read, and the next week to come and talk about them. And almost everyone in the class read the books and came to school with theories. Honestly, I don't believe the the world was created by God. I am a scientist in formation and I believe in Physics, in Chemistry and in Biology.

I think that true religion and spiritual believe come from inside one's soul. It doesn't matter if you didn't go to church on Sunday, it matters that in your heart you bear the belief that someone is out there in the sky. Everyone has a personal view on God, and certain expectations from him. Although the Bible says that there is only one God, I believe that there is a God for every person. The one that we create and the one that we believe in.

I have mentioned a very controversy-worthy word up there, and that is "church". The sanctity of this institution was lost, if it ever had it. Since the whole political dramas over the years with the church, I have come to the conclusion that many churches around the world have left God. There are still a few places that when you enter you can feel and smell peace and serenity and spiritual calmness, but unfortunately those places are few. I'm not drawn into the whole going to church thing because this institution is not sacred anymore. It hasn't been for centuries now, even a whole millennium. I can only think about the Great Separation of the Catholic church in 1054 and name only political reasons for doing that. The Inquisition that was killing people left and right during the Middle Age couldn't have been God related.

Moving on, I believe in tolerance. I accept Buddhism, Muslim, Jew and whatever you believe in. I believe in my God, and my vision of him and you can believe in yours no matter how he's called Buddha or Allah. I don't care. At the end of the day the basic idea is pretty much the same: a superior spiritual force that keeps an eye over us and over our actions.

To conclude (finally) I have noticed that nowadays there is this trend to show off that you are a religious person, that you go to church, that you respect every single religious holiday written in the calendar. If a person does that with me, my first thought won't be "Wow! What a good Christian" it will probably be "Way to brag yourself about it."

Religious belief it's a very intimate thing for me. I don't like to show my relationship with God, and I don't like to see others' either. You can say that if I don't like to talk about it God will punish me and blah blah. If there is an all-knowing God out there, he knows that I believe in him and that I respect him and for me that is all I need to know.

Sorry for the long post, but this subject can get me talking for hours on and on. Congratulations for the thread it's a very good way to stimulate good discussion.