Does God Exist? (1 Viewer)

[superbird]

i got a uai of 91.75!! God does exist

 

[snapperhead]

i believe their is a creator, i call him god, but he may or may not be the same god as the christian god, as i am still skeptical about christianity.

as you are entitled to believe...
*as a side note, skepticism was actually encouraged in early Christianity as can be seen from all the written "proof" offered by the early church fathers as to the validity of Chrstianity...another thing we can thank the Greeks for!!*
Me, I kinda believe that the God of Christianity is the same god across all religions as virtually all religions (both 'modern' and ancient) have one creator god. What makes the religions different is how god is depicted. As one form (Christianity, Islam and Judaism- though Trinitarian theory does question this) or as many forms (Hinduism). History/socio-anthropology points out too many similarities across cultures and religions to argue otherwise. What makes things different is the concept of belief in a "prophet/messiah" figure (for want of an all inclusive, non-discriminatory term) if you think about it and it is this prophet/messiah figure that non-believers (both religious-as in criticising other religions- and non-religious-as in criticising all religions) use as the basis of their "beliefs" re religion/other religions
(I know this sounds contradictory coming from a Christian but hey, Im Catholic so Im a little more tolerant!!! LOL)
My fave expression is that "God is too big for one religion"....works for me

 

[lengstar]

i'm reading the da vinci code and it brought up alot of good points i already thought about previous to reading it.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

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My favourite way of "showing God" (I know thats worded wrong but I cant think of a better, non-fundie/"believe or die" type analogy) is to ask someone to draw the sum of all human 'knowledge' (what is known) in the form of a circle on a pice of paper. You then get then to place a dot/mark in proportion to the size of their cirlce to represent what their 'knowledge'....always gets them thinking when they see the vast difference in size of what is known and more importantly, what is unknown....

Um, no

 

[Not-That-Bright]

My favourite way of "showing God" (I know thats worded wrong but I cant think of a better, non-fundie/"believe or die" type analogy) is to ask someone to draw the sum of all human 'knowledge' (what is known) in the form of a circle on a pice of paper. You then get then to place a dot/mark in proportion to the size of their cirlce to represent what their 'knowledge'....always gets them thinking when they see the vast difference in size of what is known and more importantly, what is unknown....

Yes because you don't have full knowledge of everything you can't make a good judgement.... people should have political science degrees before they can vote.

Either way... why does that make you think god exists? because you don't know everything? I can claim that god doesn't exist and once we know everything we'll know he doesn't exist lol

 

[clancy04]

People with religion are, from what I have experienced, generally more happier, feel they have a sense of purpose in life, can find answers to many challenging things and as Anne Deveson suggests, more 'resilient' - able to work through and cope in times of adversity. For these reasons it can be totally understood why people would want a God or Gods to believe in.
What I personally find really interesting is how throughout civilisation people from almost every different background have always questioned where they come from and where they are going. Fair enough. You might even suggest there is a biological homosapien propensity to believe in a higher power.
But there is no God.
The Christian God has been around for only at most 3/4 thousand years? Whilst humans with brain functioning at times equal to those today, have been around for I think 200, 000 years [I'm quoting my dad here...soo hmm], well at least longer than Christianity has been around for. So what does this mean for all these people who were never introduced to the Christian God or any higher power for that matter? Eternal damnation? Burning in hell for never knowing about something which was to be introduced tens of thousands of years n the future? I think thats a bit unfair. A bit unrealistic.
And it always amazes me how religion is passed on. I mean 4/5 of my very close friends are absolute atheists, because their parents are. While 1 of my very close friends is a dedicated Christian, because his parents are. Or more specifically because he was brought up to believe in a Christian God.
More interesting still, is that religion is passed on through language and anyone who has studied poststructuralism will understansd that the slippery, always-changing, multi-layered snake that is language creates an absolute different meaning for every single person...or interpretaton. This suggests that God is different, absolutely, for every single person. They can never share the same understanding of him/her/it because religion is, unfortunately, communicated through language.
But for a person like myself, my first understanding of God is of him as a theory an idea. This understanding holds. I do not believe in a God, and never will. I would like to say I pity people with religion for their ignorance and blindness. However, they seem so much happier and fulfilled in life that I think it is I who should be pitied.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

my parents are christian, i'm a total atheist.
I agree with all ur points, and if u read what i wrote earlier... i quoted there are ALOT of good reasons why it's nice to believe in a god.

I also agree with u in the pity aspect, at times it can be hard knowing the limits of your life.

 

[snapperhead]

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Um, no

why not?

As I said, its my fave way of showing we dont know everything....


surely your sum argument cant be "um, no"...I would ask you, "well, why not?". It is after, my opinion that you are telling me is wrong ....

*wonders what they are teaching law students at uni now-a-days when it comes to logical argument and retort*

 

[snapperhead]

Either way... why does that make you think god exists? because you don't know everything? ....

my counter to that would be "why wouldnt that make me think god exists?" and yes, its because I dont know everything. To me, to say God doesnt exist is to assume you know everything as the very concept of god is an intangible concept based upon faith and belief. (surely you will give me that as its the basis of what you have been saying as a 'non-believer')

Me, Im not arrogant enough to assume otherwise as it is my belief and faith! If it doesnt work for you, I can accept that. Just dont try to tell me Im wrong for believing in what I believe in cause you dont hold the same belief! (well, not you but you know what I mean)

 

[Xayma]

Snapperhead while your idea has merit.

Nothing must know all human knowledge. The collective workings of a group with multiple parts of knowledge can work better then one being with all the knowledge.

There are alot of unknowns there and I never plan on knowing them all, however, I fail to see why a God can still exist. Not in any form presented by Christianity (Christianity the only one Im familiar with, having only been in a country town) at least, I just see too much evidence against it. If there was to be a God his/her impact would have to be absolute minimal and left to starting the universe and itself (something from nothing except this time we have infinite intelligence).

 

[katie_tully]

Somebody was trying to have an intellectual conversation with me about God yesterday, then when we got onto the historical side...they showed they were an idiot
Anywho, their argument was ... oh..I cant remember, because it was shit.

I do not believe in God because I don't believe in leprechauns, unicorns, cyclops's, santa or tinkerbell. I don't believe in live after death, I don't believe that we are the image of god, and I do not comprehend how Jesus died for our sins.
Somebody explain that part to me, ebcause no matter how much I think it's about to make sense...it just doesn't.

I have faith. It just isn't in God. If you want faith so that there is some sort of gap in your life filled, how about having faith in yourself?

 

[acmilan]

Somebody was trying to have an intellectual conversation with me about God yesterday, then when we got onto the historical side...they showed they were an idiot
Anywho, their argument was ... oh..I cant remember, because it was shit.

I do not believe in God because I don't believe in leprechauns, unicorns, cyclops's, santa or tinkerbell. I don't believe in live after death, I don't believe that we are the image of god, and I do not comprehend how Jesus died for our sins.
Somebody explain that part to me, ebcause no matter how much I think it's about to make sense...it just doesn't.

I have faith. It just isn't in God. If you want faith so that there is some sort of gap in your life filled, how about having faith in yourself?

@ the non-comprehension of Jesus dying for sins:

God traditionally specified to the people that as a temporary covering for their sins, humans were to sacrafice an animal to Him to show they are sorry. However like God said, this was only a temporary covering for sin, and it is through God sacraficing Jesus that he gave humanity a covering for their sins. Think of it this way...one human sinning means a small sacrafice, whole of humanity sinning means a large sacrafice, meaning Jesus. This is basically how I see it, but perhaps snapperhead could add some more depth to it as i havnt really studied this in great depths.

 

[acmilan]

i got a uai of 91.75!! God does exist

Haha i was thinking the exact same thing for me

 

[katie_tully]

we'll stop and pretend im religious and i believe this;
by that reasoning though, id go so far as to say he did it vain...he sacrificed Jesus for the sins of humanity, but what did it achieve.

 

[acmilan]

we'll stop and pretend im religious and i believe this;
by that reasoning though, id go so far as to say he did it vain...he sacrificed Jesus for the sins of humanity, but what did it achieve.

God's forgiveness of our sins

 

[lengstar]

but that's cyclic reasoning. jesus died for our sins so why should we need forgiveness for them now?

 

[katie_tully]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we don't get forgiveness until we ask for it, right?
If God sacrificed Jesus, in order to show he is sorry and forgiving of our sins, we would all go to heaven, regardless. But as I know it, we have to ask forgiveness, and we have to dedicate our lives to God before we go to heaven.
I see a blurred line.

 

[acmilan]

but that's cyclic reasoning. jesus died for our sins so why should we need forgiveness for them now?

Because of Jesus dying, God now forgives us for our sins when we die.

 

[lukebennett]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we don't get forgiveness until we ask for it, right?
If God sacrificed Jesus, in order to show he is sorry and forgiving of our sins, we would all go to heaven, regardless. But as I know it, we have to ask forgiveness, and we have to dedicate our lives to God before we go to heaven.
I see a blurred line.

you have to ask for forgiveness, and having sins forgiven doesnt mean you can go to heaven. as you said you have to dedicate your life to god.

 

[asscookie]

Yeah, before Jesus died the only way to get forgiveness was to burn sacrifices.