Do You Believe In God?, Just write down if you believe or not.

I dunno if this was in answer to my post, but...okay.

My belief in god depends on how you define "god". I am a Nicherin Buddhist. I have a firm belief in the Mystic Law of the Universe. I activate this law in my own life and use it to influence my life and the universe around me by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. Why? Because it works. I don't view the Mystic Law as a person or being. It simply is. I don't claim to understand it, it is mystic (duh). The results of my practice are concrete and readily repeated. So, my faith in the Mystic Law is real and will continue to be my philosophical base.

I don't disparage anybody else's beliefs.

Just as planets drifting away from the sun become colder and more uninhabitable, so goes the Spirit when we drift away from God.

Jillian

Actually, no it wasn't. I just got tired of the reasoning that states that because bad things happen in this world that this proves that God does not exist. By that reseaoning I can prove that gravity does not exist because birds can fly. For just as many bad things that exist in this world one could possibly point to an infinite number og good things. Or a number a bad things that led to good things. The existance og good and bad circumstances is not the most reliable proof for the existance of God.

I'm curious to know what you think is the most reliable proof for the existence of God, if any.

Antwn;

There is no reliable proof the God exists, at least the God that is taught by religion. There is however proof abundant that there is a Creator, a guiding force. One merely has to look around to see the marvels that the Universe has wrought.
Good and Evil, Right and Wrong are Human concepts a base for Law and what is acceptable behaviour within the Human Society. Some where along our evolution the idea that there must be some supernatural creature, somewhere to explain the Whys' and Wherefores' of the Natural World took hold and from that came God.
Man created God so God could create Man. Personally I stopped believing 50 years ago, in the idea that there was a God in Heaven watching me and taking notes. As I said that is personal, I will not make light nor ridicule anyones beliefs. I know from experience that a great many take comfort in their religion and that of course is their right and I for one will defend it. Mayhaps the day will come though when Humanity doesn't have to rely on a God to define who they are.


Camac.

Yes. (Christian)

When I behold a corpse, there is no clearer evidence that God exists and that it is not the concept of God which is problematic, but rather our existence here in this world has some serious problems.

For the spirit or soul which animated the corpse came from some where and has now been separated. Yet the material body remains wasting away. To where did what animated and gave life to that corpse go, and from whence had it come? Why has not the body left too, or rather, why has not the soul remained? Where is the conservation of energy & matter?

God has given life and God takes it away, and one day God will unite the two again on the Resurrection according to His promise.

englishmix;

As life is a form of energy and under the Laws of Physics can neither created nor destroyed, when the body is no longer capable of sustaining that energy it returns to the Universe from whence it came. As to being reunited I don't know but I do suspect that the Universe has a use for it and it is more than likely recycled as something.



Camac.

A God/Creator of some sort, in whatever form - Absolutely I believe.

"When people are free to do as they please, they usually copy one another" - Eric Hoffer

"Believe" seems to be the operative word here, whether that word is used or not. What is evident is that no one seems to know. Don't you find that interesting? Of all the questions we could and do ask ourselves - what is the nature of our existence - for example - is the one we know the least about, yet its the one many assure themselves and others that they're absolutely sure of, often from the flimsiest evidence and often no evidence at all, or its veracity is assumed from the continuity of tradition.

Here's a question. Do you think its possible to know what God is? And even if you came up with an answer, how would it be possible to be verified? Who would do that? If you had some deep mystical experience to which "God" would be the best word you could think of to call it, how would you ever know if it was a, the, actual bonafide God? What guru, priest, roshi or other authority would be able to authenticate it for you, and why would you even need such authentication? Could it be possible that God is an unverifiable idea, only?

All in all, belief doesn't cut it. Why? Simple, it doesn't answer the question. If the question is "what is the nature of our existence" and converstation diverts to various beliefs about God, then the question is still unanswered, because the question asks for knowledge. So much has been invested in our "beliefs". Why has so little been invested in our knowledge? If its possible to know at all.....and if we conclude its not, how do we know that? To what extent is that also a belief?

Here's another question. Does it really matter? Apparantly we're not as interested in finding out as we are in being sure about our existing theories, prosthelytising them, debating them, making laws based on them and even murdering because of them, so the truth of the matter, if knowable, is not particularly important to anyone. Does that matter? Would it invalidate anyone's profound mystical or spiritual experience or intuition to say that it might be impossible to know whether it was "God" or not? If so, why call it God? The word "rose" is a symbol of an actual thing, not the thing itself. God is also a word. It has a meaning everyone defines but no one can verify, because they don't know anything about it. That's the truth. That's the elephant in the room no one talks about - except atheists, who are just as sure nothing exists, and don't know that either.

Its interesting that a set of assumptions which have become the foundations of culture for millennia are not known at all, but merely assumed. What does that say about our intellectual honesty not to mention our ontological courage?

Yet if such a thing is not knowable, and all we have is theory, upon what principles do we base our lives, our societies? This has been the big question from those with staunch beliefs and faith in their rectitude.

Would it be possible to base a society on the highest attributes of human beings without having to justify their legitimacy by cockamamy cosmological theories? Are we wise enough yet to do that? Strong enough to admit we don't know what we're talking about? Do we care? That's the bigger question. After all we've invested in our ideas already, we probably won't unless we have to, or better information comes along. Will we have the courage to live outside this paradigm where ignorance is, if not bliss, then a comfortable dream to mask for our existential insecurity?

If life was just a form of energy then "Dr. Frankenstein's Monster" wouldn't be in the 'Fiction Section' in the library. There's something more to 'life' than just energy. Otherwise some scientist would have been able to 'create' life by now.

If life was just a form of energy then "Dr. Frankenstein's Monster" wouldn't be in the 'Fiction Section' in the library. There's something more to 'life' than just energy. Otherwise some scientist would have been able to 'create' life by now.

But MacDonnchaidh...scientists have created "life" not yet a human one though some try to pretend they did...but "life" was created using "cloning" and genetics cells to create another being. Just look at all the controversies surrounding the creation of Dolly the sheep...and the religious sect of Raëlians who their leaders have claim to have "created" the first human clone and believe that cloning is a step towards human immortality.

This practice has been done for a while now.

So I agree that "life" is a form of energy... our body itself is energy as we need it to go forward.

LOA

I am Agnostic so I entered this thread with a great deal of skeptisism, fully expecting to see hypocritical neo-nazi christian mudslinging mumbo-jumbo bullshit flying all around this thread.

I must say I was quite surprized to instead find some incredibly insightful and though provoking posts here. Kudo's to (most) of you for having an open mind to this discussion.

And BTW, I couldn't help but smile at the line "God is a imaginary friend for grownups", classic. That reminds me of what my wife, (who is a strong minded christian) said to me one time, and as simple as it was, it made me think. She just looked at me one day in frustration when I laid one of my analytical points of view on her as always and said, "You know, even if there isn't a God, isn't it nice to at least have something to believe in?" As much as I hate to admit it, she is right. Be it false hope or not, it truly gives some people reason to live, and I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing. What is so odd about that statement is that it goes against almost everything I say and believe anymore, it's a bit of a paradox.

My two cents? Antwn's latest post. I don't think anyone could pose a better argument about our belief sytem. Very very well said sir.

Only if you think the human mind runs on logic and algorithms, or that objective consciousness is the majority of its contents. And if you do think that, you are deluding yourself about more things than the existence or nonexistence of a deity.