Do you believe in God?

Yes i believe in GOD because if you are an intelligent person you should think it in alone that everyone has a boss.Your body has a boss itself ie your brain.So there is something which is helping in the daily work of this universe or you can say this earth.There is a driver who is driving the vehicle earth and we all are it's passenger's.
 
I'm a bit iffy about believing in G-d or not. Of course, I respect the fact that there could be one and that others believe in such a being, but after so much time it's hard for me to know if there really is someone there for me. I grew up not to befriend G-d, but to fear him. The fear of G-d is what makes us who we are and will allow us to follow commandments. Judaism is the culture that I take pride in, however, the G-d part can get very frustrating on account that I believe you shouldn't fear someone because they are stronger than you.

My mother is a very big believer of G-d. She says that good things will come from His judgement. Her entire life has been altered because of estranged parents and family. She wasn't loved growing up, she was homeless for months at a time, she was in a shelter for 2+ years, she has a voice disorder (stutters) thus couldn't get a job because everyone wants customer service, not someone who can't speak to their customers. Everyday she says that He will help her throughout the hardships. The person helping her out is her one sibling out of 5 and my brother and I.

So right now I am straying more towards an Atheist Jew until I can open up once more. I don't necessarily believe that there is a G-d at the moment, but I will forever take pride in being a Hebrew and celebrating the long 5773 year culture.
 
The question of the existence of God is not a trivial point. It behooves us all, believers and nonbelievers. And he lies with a reality beyond itself and respect the boundaries of our being, where outlines the issues on the meaning and destiny. It was written that the evidence for the existence of God have the uniqueness to convince those who already believe and not to convince unbelievers. Maybe it's because they have not responded to vital sectors not reached by reason alone. What would be considered more honest belief and unbelief affect us all, and you better go to the unbeliever that is latent in us and believing that lies at the heart of the unbeliever. All men are close relatives here.
 
Nope, I don't. I was raised in a way that we weren't religious, but I was able to explore and create my own beliefs. I didn't ever find that I believed in a god, so I still don't.
 
Yes, I believe in God. No, my belief in God doesn't quite fit any religious mold. Now, why do I believe that there is God?

Let me start with my own journey. There was a time when I didn't believe in God. Or, more accurately, I didn't believe that belief in God is necessary to live a good life. My parents taught me morals without telling me about God. However as I grew up, I began to wonder whether my parents had taught me the right things.

I just looked at the people around me. Those who were successful were the ones who did what my parents taught me not to do. They cheated. They lied. In many cases, they stole. In worse cases, they killed. Those were all the things which my parents taught me not to do. And those were the very things which I could see other people doing and living a good life after doing it.

Then, one day, through listening to the words of a lecturer, it dawned on me the reason to believe in God. I found out that the reason for my being here was not to get rich, nor to become famous. My reason for being here is to appreciate the beauty of God's creations. For we, alone among all the other creatures on this planet, has this ability to appreciate the beauty of God's creations.

Consider a cow. And a black rose. A black rose is the Holy Grail of horticulturists. It's impossible to get a pure black rose. Let's say that there is really a black rose. A human being can appreciate the tremendous amount of dedication and time and effort that has been spent cultivating generation after generation of roses until the black rose is produced.

Back to the cow. It looks at the black rose. If it's hungry, the black rose is just a small snack. If it's not hungry, it may step over it. Or step on it. Or cover it with a steaming pile of cow pie.

Wait, isn't that black rose a creation of man? Wasn't I talking about appreciating the creations of God? Seriously speaking, a black rose is a creation of God. Man just enhanced what God has created to produce the black rose. Assuming that a black rose is possible.

So do I think that those people who do not believe in God are lesser beings? Do I believe that all non-believers must be forced to believe or die for their non-belief?

Let me put it this way.

I love eating budu. It's a fantastic delicacy. Yet, there must be millions upon millions of human beings who don't even know budu existed. Does that make them lesser human beings? There are also lots of human beings who have seen and smelled and tasted budu. And find budu to be totally revolting. Does that make them any less worthy to be called human beings?

Bad analogy, I admit, but that's one way to understand how I stand on this issue. Over to you.
 
I was born in a family with not so strong muslim beliefs, in Albania. Here in Albania there are lost of muslims, as we were, till 100 years ago, occupied from the Otomans, that ruled for 500 years and left their religion here.

My grandmother is the one that believes the most in God, next comes my mother. My father, my grandfather, my brother and I are now completely atheists. I was given lots of stuff to read about religion from my grandfather and I have discovered other resources as well ( Stephen Hawking :) ), and I am nowadays convinced that religions are a big lie. And I wouldn't like to go into the bigger picture cause there is so much you can say about it, I would just like to state that I am an atheist and I do NOT believe in any God, since there are thousands of them already :)
 
Cecil15 said:
I was raised in Christian by my parents and majority of the people surrounding me are also born Christians. So I can very well say that everyone, including myself, here believes in God. Growing up, my siblings and I would always attend bible studies and it taught us all about God and our existence. I really believe that God made us and also everything that exists around us. Inspite of the studies of science, I strongly believe that there's an Almighty One that exists out there to guide, teach and give us strength whenever we needed it.

So now, I am curious as how everybody thinks about God and if He really exists.
Do you believe in God? Why or why not?
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Yo may call me an ardent believer in God. I'm a Born Again Christian with a strong persuasion as you have about God's existence. My evidence would be the nature itself. To me this is the perfect proof that there is a Creator since every human effort has failed to explain convincingly the origin of Nature and Humans. Evolutionist religion has also failed miserably on this matter!
 
I believe in god but not in the way most people do. Many people seem to view him as being of human nature and that just seems to narrow-minded. If god exists then he would be beyond the laws of physical reality even when it comes to existence and non-existence. My answer to the age old question "does god exist or not exist" is "both and neither".
 
Not at all, in fact I'm probably what you'd call a militant atheist. I believe in science and evidence, evolution, and I wholeheartedly believe the world would be a much nicer place, without the foolishness and backward thinking of religion. I find it very disconcerting that so many people worldwide, still subscribe to the theory that our world was created, and it didn't evolve. I would like to think that we as human beings, would be considerably more intelligent and informed, than that.
 
As an agnostic who leans towards atheism, the simple answer is no, I do not believe in the existence of god or deities. I recognize the possibility that I may be wrong, as there is currently no hard evidence that objectively proves or disproves the existence of a greater being or beings. However, if there are, I feel that many major religions perceptions are somewhat off the mark, particularly the Abrahamic faiths.

The problem with a question such as this lays within the fact that before any reasoning can be taken into account, it is a belief first and foremost. Furthermore, the paradox to me is that both theists and atheists are right, at the same time. I remember hearing a joke that goes something along the lines of this:

There were two neighbors that lived next to one another. In one house lived a young man that was firmly an atheist. In the house next door was an older lady that was a devout Christian. Every morning, the Christian woman would say her prayers outdoors and end it with, "Praise Jesus!" and the young man next door would tell her that God doesn't exist. This continued for quite some time and the older lady fell upon hard times financially. She prayed for help and guidance through the difficult times, in hopes of being able to provide for herself. One morning she finds bags of groceries on her front door as she comes out to say her prayers and excitedly exclaims, "Praise Jesus! The good lord has provided!" Suddenly, the young man jumps out from behind a tree and says, "Hah! There is no God see? -I- bought the groceries!" The older lady slyly adds, "Praise the lord for not only providing for me, but making the devil pay for the groceries."

Hahaha. Good one right?! What I love about that joke is that in their own ways, both the atheist man and Christian woman are both absolutely right, by their own views. It all comes down to perception and belief.
 
I'm just going to keep this short and say yes, I do, and I'm a practicing Christian. Yes, I've had my doubts before, and struggled at some points to maintain my faith, but I still have it.
 
I'm a Pagan and my view on deity is perhaps a bit different. I do believe in a universal life energy that emanates from and to all living things. As for individual deity...I think we bring anthropomorphic deity into existence through our shared belief. The more believers and the stronger the energy given to belief in that deity, then the more "real" it becomes as a thoughtform servitor.
 
I do not believe in God. I was raised in a Christian family and attended church during my entire upbringing. However, the older I got the more I started to question. I no longer can bring myself to believe. I just can't and don't believe in God or religion.
 
I do not believe in the Christian god. Nothing in my life has ever proven any existence of the divine to take the form of the Christian personification of it...in fact, the divine I believe in is not petty, wrathful, judgemental or hateful. My belief has nothing to do with a book with hundreds of inconsistencies or a centrally flawed system of beliefs.
 
Nakhash said:
I'm a Pagan and my view on deity is perhaps a bit different. I do believe in a universal life energy that emanates from and to all living things. As for individual deity...I think we bring anthropomorphic deity into existence through our shared belief. The more believers and the stronger the energy given to belief in that deity, then the more "real" it becomes as a thoughtform servitor.
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Quite similar to my beliefs, always lovely to see another Pagan! ;)
 
I believe in God, I just get upset of how he does horrible things and lets bad things happen to some and not others. People say how God protects them, but he obviously doesn't protect all of us. People brag about being blessed, obviously not all of us are blessed. Some people had their kids murdered the other day, and some didn't. Some people grow up being abused in many ways, and some people are born with good parents. I don't get how he chooses and why he has favorites.
 
I do believe in God. I was raised in an atheist family that disliked the Church very much. I started looking into the evidence for Christianity while in University and became convinced after about a year long journey. My family took it pretty hard and so did my friends but what can you do? Its got to be one of the most important questions one can ask in life. I hope everyone will consider it.
 
I do believe in God. I was raised in an atheist family that disliked the Church very much. I started looking into the evidence for Christianity while in University and became convinced after about a year long journey. My family took it pretty hard and so did my friends but what can you do? Its got to be one of the most important questions one can ask in life. I hope everyone will consider it.
 
I don't believe in God but I don't really care if other people do. I'm a lifelong Atheist but I only came to terms with it around the time I started college. I still being in being good to others and treating people with respect, but I don't do it to please anyone; I do it because it's the right thing to do. I have a pretty clear idea of right and wrong, but I'm always willing to consider other viewpoints and whatnot. But don't get me wrong--I'm a strong Atheist and that's not going to change.
 
Molzahn said:
It feels strange to be a minority within this thread as I myself am agnostic.

One thing I must strongly stress is that true scientific data does not speak one way or the other about the existence of God as it is an untestable phenomenon. Without the ability to control and repeat conditions relating to the entity someone is studying, no empirical information of any kind can be produced. Simply said, God cannot be put into a test-tube.

[video=youtube;GViS6Z2Y7L0]


I must add moreover, that there are some theologians who embrace the concept that God exists naturalistically, and therefore eventually capable of scientific discovery. See Edgar Allan Poe's Mesmeric Revelation (here).

Science isn't a factor here. The question of God's existence stands by itself. My question to everyone who has answered that they believe God exists, why do you believe this is so?

If the difference between an atheist and a theist is a question of whether we can definitively say reality is guided by a personable force or not, what makes us believe one way or the other?
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Molzahn, I have to disagree that "true scientific data does not speak one way or the other about the existence of God as it is an untestable phenomenon." Seems to me the study of quantum mechanics has made a pretty good case for the creative force in the macroverse, and it is consciousness itself. Of course this gets you into the whole 'chicken and the egg' argument, but I think quantum physicists have come about as close as science CAN get to proving the existence of God.

This is the basis of my belief. Do I believe in God? Yes. Do I think he is a big, bearded white guy in the sky keeping a list of your good and bad deeds? No. I think of God as the creative force that (somehow) set the wheels of creation – and subsequently life in the form of divisible consciousness – in motion.
 
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