Do You Believe In God

mygga_med_stil wrote:

I'm atheist. Heck, pretty much everyone I'm related to are atheist.

Lucky you... my family are rabid Catholics.

no, i don't believe in god..i don't believe in any of the gods. my family, or better said my grandparents are christian, so i was forced to go to church when i was little, but i stopped when i was 9. luckily my mom isn't very fond of religious stuff so she let me decide for myself.
the only 'power' i believe in is the power of nature. nature has the power to destroy us all through natural disasters, and no god can do shit about it. that's just my opinion.

I proudly describe myself as a Nihilist Agnostic, i.e. I don't think there is any way of saying that there is or is not a god, but whether there is or not, I won't let it affect the way I live my life. I used to call myself an atheist as I'm highly skeptical of the existence of an all-might 'maker' but I have since come to the decision that to blindly disregard the existence of something you cannot prove does or does not exist is in many ways just as ignorant as blindly believing that it does. I have nothing against religion except the hierarchial systems of most organised religious systems, which generally put people in power - and as we all know, power corrupts and these people tend to abuse their responsibilities.
Despite this I believe that religion (sadly) may be necessary for some people, as without fear of a greater being they may think they can do whatever they want, even when it affects other people's lives as well. Much as I agree that people deserve free choice, I also think that respect for others is an important element of life and when religion enforces that I feel it is doing us all a favour. Sadly, a lot of religions enforce respect for only a limited number of people, and this is where they lose my sympathy.
In short, religion and belief in (or fear of) the existence of an afterlife/deity etc. does a good job in bringing people together, but tragically and historically this has been abused and used to turn these 'groups' against other groups and incite hatred and death.
Heh, I think I went off on a bit of a tangent here, but most of the replies seem to have named one religion or another so I suppose I wasn't going too far off the topic. Anyway, just my opinion - if you bothered reading it I hope you enjoyed it.

^^^well said dude...well said

I believe there is something that watches over us but not in religions and not that kind of god they tell us to believe in.

I'm Jewish, but don't care for religion and believe in God through Pascal's Wager.

Hungryfreak wrote:

I'm Jewish, but don't care for religion and believe in God through Pascal's Wager.

IMO Pascal's wager is the dumbest argument ever. First of all, in order for it to make sense you already have to have some belief in "God". After all, the wager doesn't account for all the other gods that have just as much of a chance of existing as the Jewish/Christian God.

I think Zeus would be mighty pissed that you worship a different god than him or one of his buddies. That's my wager.

It's more the idea of divine power than a specific god. The point is, why not? You've got nothing to lose. And on the off chance that you end up with a wrong god, at least you tried.

My belief is that there is definitely a god, but not necessarily in a sentient form. As far as I'm concerned, whatever started existence is god, be it a simple random occurrence or some big bearded asshole.

You got nothing to lose, but what if it's a waste of time?

When I die, and I find out there is a God and he asks me why I didn't believe in him, I'll say:

"What have you done to make me believe in you? As far as I have seen, any religion associated with you has lead to nothing but violence and death. On top of that, do you expect me to believe all the stories in the bible that obviously did not actually happen? If they are just stories, it's not a far stretch to figure you as being just a story as well. Can you blame me for not believing?"

Rusbel wrote:

stuff

I agree with this. Except I feel that ethically, good things are good and bad things are bad. A god protecting it's creations would tell you not to do things for your own good. Most religions put a large slant on things, as well as a large element of self serving bias and even without that, can be interpreted several ways. In the end, though, what I'm saying is that the existence of a giant old man or whatever you do or don't think exists, does not change what is good or bad. So instead I choose to define good and bad based around effects and intentions, throw in an element of humans being fallible and work from there. As such, while I'm agnostic, I might as well be atheist. I don't adjust my actions for a maybe, I shouldn't have to even if it was definite. Of course this means that religions should all push beneficial ethics, but should doesn't mean does. Even if there is a god, they're likely to have been corrupted by the human element over the ages. So I chose to follow my own moral compass. Anyway, I'm agnostic or pastafarian depending what mood I'm in.

Its not a waste of time if you don't do anything. I think religion's bullshit, haha.

Mash wrote:

Hungryfreak wrote:

I'm Jewish, but don't care for religion and believe in God through Pascal's Wager.

IMO Pascal's wager is the dumbest argument ever. First of all, in order for it to make sense you already have to have some belief in "God". After all, the wager doesn't account for all the other gods that have just as much of a chance of existing as the Jewish/Christian God.

I think Zeus would be mighty pissed that you worship a different god than him or one of his buddies. That's my wager.

Good answer, Mash.
Besides that Pascal´s wager is just oportunistic and has nothing to do with belief in first place.

Be careful what you say ´bout Zeus, he´s one angry and jealous man

Why do people need to believe in a god to live? ive heard that so many times...its just bullshit.
they go like how can you live without believing in a god or having a religion? tbh i never got that.

Sigyn84 wrote:

goose wrote:

I'm not religious at all though I have respect for most religions except Christianity and Catholicism - the most paradoxal religions known to man.

I´m sure that, if you dig deep enough, you´ll find many paradoxal "facts" in every religion. This is why you have to "believe" and not think too much about it, because if you do, you might figure out, that any organised religion is just a simple tool for controlling people´s mind and behaviour. I´m glad, we´re not in medieval times anymore, but many religions are...

As far as respect is concerned, I only respect these religious people, who respect my atheism and don´t try to play missionare all the time and convert me. Radicals, fanatics and this kind of missionares aren´t something that deserves respect in my eyes.

I totally agree with you there man!

there is no meaning behind life, there are no gods or higher intelligent beings who made the universe. there isn't anything special about life on earth, life is scattered throughout the universe.

you're extremely lucky to be born, you live without a higher meaning, you die and there is no life after death.

That's right, dr.nutslap. Life is what you make it. No meaning of life at all.

dr.nutslap wrote:

there is no meaning behind life, there are no gods or higher intelligent beings who made the universe. there isn't anything special about life on earth, life is scattered throughout the universe.

you're extremely lucky to be born, you live without a higher meaning, you die and there is no life after death.

I agree.
I guess people just need something to believe in, otherwise-- if there`s no meaning and no prizes for good behaviour in the end, we would fuck up everything and doom us all and the world, too.

But I guess we`ll do it anyway.

Cheese wrote:

Why do people need to believe in a god to live? ive heard that so many times...its just bullshit.
they go like how can you live without believing in a god or having a religion? tbh i never got that.

I´ll quote Bill Maher freely from his movie Religiolus and say that I can understand, that underprivileged people who don´t have anything else in their life (he gave the example of prisoners), go and "find" their god. So, if you think about it you can only come to the conclusion, that living without god is actually one big privilege! According to Maher, people who believe in god and have everything in their lives, should grow up or die

It´s easy to be philosophical about god, when you have the most rudimantal needs appeased, I guess.

whilst my family is catholic or christian (i do not know nor overly care) I am an athiest. or close tehre to.
I find it a paradoxical idea that there is a god, simply for the fact 'if there is a god where did they come from'. religion is just used as a measure of control.
I will respect someone who respects my own beliefs. While i disagree with many religious ideas I will however say that religion can teach us things, I will just differ in the belief of where these ideals originate from.

god sucks

god sucks satan's hairy balls

Now that pisses people off!!

God or gods are fictional characters, much like Sauron or Gandalf. I could easily catagorize them as fairytales, to the same group with other bedtime stories. But aliens... They are totally a different matter..

Wise words from many users and like many of them, I'm an atheist too. And luckily I was never even baptized. My grandparents and uncle from fathers side are jehovas witnesses, but father doesn't belong to church, tho he isn't really an atheist.

I have to say that I hate religions. People often wonder why I hate religions and say that I should hate people that believe in that religion. But if you think more clearly, people resemble that religion they believe to, so religions aren't innocent. But still, if someone wants to believe in something, I don't resist that IF he/she has good argumentations about his/hers reasons to believe.

Mash wrote:

You got nothing to lose, but what if it's a waste of time?

When I die, and I find out there is a God and he asks me why I didn't believe in him, I'll say:

"What have you done to make me believe in you? As far as I have seen, any religion associated with you has lead to nothing but violence and death. On top of that, do you expect me to believe all the stories in the bible that obviously did not actually happen? If they are just stories, it's not a far stretch to figure you as being just a story as well. Can you blame me for not believing?"

You shouldn't have to say anything, as long as you have been a good person then that should be enough. If believing in God is the key to heaven then thats not for me.

goose wrote:

I'm not religious at all though I have respect for most religions except Christianity and Catholicism - the most paradoxal religions known to man.

Isn't Catholicism a "branch" of Christianity ? I think that we rather respect one's decisions (we refuse to have any influence upon any of those who surround us) and not the religion itself.