Does anyone here believe in God?

[Cloned]

I was just reading "How quick is evolution?" question when Bob a job said "toby19 i hope your joking,this is the science section." So does anyone believe or is everyone here atheist? Discuss. Sorry i'm bored and gonna watch derren brown anyway.

[samz90]

Sorry but I dont beleive in god but I do respect people who do. It takes me back when someone asked me how did the world start? was it the big bang or the creation story? people look at things in different ways. Some unreligious scientists say it was the big bang, whereas religious scientists say god made the big bang happen. You cant win, no one will ever know!

[kempie]

'no one will ever know'

That's why I'm an agnostic.

[Chillum]

No, and absolutely no,no,no in the context of toby19's answer.

[Clanad]

The question was addressed here in a very active thread, but it's been inactive for some time, primarily because there is no reference to it under History and Myths as there used to be...

 

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/History-and-Myths/Question49388.html

[brachiopod]

Where is / what was toby19's answer, chillum?

(Devout atheist, by the way)

[j2buttonsw]

I think that being a scientist doesn't preclude you from believing in God. You may well question certain details of certain religious faiths which is, after all, man's interpretation...

[Chillum]

toby19's inference was that god would have something bad to say about the content of the question???? I don't think he's a registered member anyway.

[Bob A Job]

I have nothing bad to say about any religion that doesnt force its opinions and moral views on innocent people in the quest for truth.

As far as i know thats only only Zen Bhudism.

Im not saying that these religious believers are bad people, far from it. But I personally believe that religion is another way of those with power stopping those without from taking control. And keeping the mass's inline with their way of thinking.

I dont agree with the christian ethic 'if you do not believe in our god, you will be damned to hell' but a catholic can commit greivous crimes, repent, and have a clear conciense. It makes no social sense whatsoever.

I quote Peter Kay 'as a child i preyed every night for a bicycle. Then I realised god didnt work that way. I nicked one, and asked for forgivness.'

 

phew! (ranting & raving finished, sits down with cup of tea)

[GOD.]

I don�t care what you all believe in if your name's not down you�re not coming in. Bless you all. 

[Clanad]

I've seen Bob a Job's contention that religion controls the masses several times before.  I've always wondered how that works.  Certainly, there's no denying the power of the Roman Catholic Church in the middle ages and perhaps beyond, when the masses, by and large were illiterate and the Church prohibited reading of the Bible. However, I don't think that's the case now or for many years.  Additionally, I think it's important to seperate the tenets of a given faith from the actual practice of it.  There are many things in history  that, when applied improperly wreak havoc... but they were never intended to do such.

The other theory I recall seeing proposed is that many, if not all wars resulting in great slaughter were the result of religious persecution or differences.  That, demonstrably, is simply not true.  All one has to do is study rather recent history to disprove that contention.  WWII, for instance, did not have a religious component, nor did the Vietnamese war nor the resulting slaughter under Pol Pot in Cambodia, nor the killings in China or Africa (still occurring today).  Granted, there are evidences of such conflicts throughout history, but the vast majority were not founded in religion... IMO...

Lastly, belief in the God of the Judaeo/Christian scripture can be reason based.  Many well educated and credentialed scientists today and certainly in the past, have found the evidence to be compelling...(With respect to those who choose otherwise).

[mikeyp]

I think perhaps toby19 was a little quick to assume that evolution is a problem for god. I am religious, but have no problem with believing evolution or any other scientific theory. I mean, if god can do everything, I don't think evolution would be too hard for him.

[slimfandango]

problem is, mikey, that evolutionary explanations supplant previous explanations that found 'God' as a conclusion. If they were wrong, and evolution shows that they are, then the case for God as a force behind them is very weak and should be ditched.

[silly moo]

Yes
I don't think you can 'convert' eople to any religion with 'facts'.
If you have faith that is enough, but I accept that some poeple just don't believe ( like my other half )
We all have the right to believe or not.

[silly moo]

people not eople.
need to practise my keyboard skills.

[slimfandango]

yeah, the problem is that the rest of us have to share the planet with some people who are perfectly happy to throw reason and logic to the wind to follow up on some daft drummed up bs from a bunch of guys hundreds of years ago, who, if they were alive with us today, knowing what only half of us seem to have digested, would laugh out loud at those who are happy to perpetuate their myths.

Sorry, religious belief and the nutters that subscribe to it give me indigestion with my porridge.

[crisgal]

no

[crisgal]

that is, no i don't beleive, not, no i won't discuss!

[Ralph]

I'm a fervent non-believer. For me, it all fell apart when I did some rational thinking without any influence from anyone/ anything else. I got to thinking about how the universe has no end. (Please don't start about curved space-time, it was a long time ago!) I came to the conclusion that even the concept of an endless universe was too big for our human brains.
As humans, we crave answers to everything. God is used to explain a lot, in my opinion an easy answer to difficult questions. This may have washed with us 1500 years ago but has been largely been superceeded by science, yet people still believe.
One of the last big reasons to believe in God (or a god) is that it will guarantee us a place in the afterlife and we'll go on for ever. This (IMHO) is just human ego, a feeling that we deserve more than the short time we're given. As far as I'm concerned, the lights go out and that's it. There is no afterlife reward for any hardship suffered in the here and now, that notion is part of the control mechanism that Bob A Job was talking about earlier.
I could go on, but I don't have enough alcohol taken yet! Ohhhh I'm going to hell! In fact, as a religious friend told me once after a particularly big night out, I've got my own special hell all to myself!

[Clanad]

Problem is, many, if not all of the conclusions expressed by slimfandango and ralph, just do not reflect current scientific discoveries.  For example, ralph states that a prime motivation for his position is his belief the universe has no end.  Fact is, the universe has been measured and has dimensions.  It had a beginning, and will have an ending, granted, unknown at present. Don't take my word for it, do the research.

Slimfandango's vitriolic dislike for Christianity has been noted before... but here again, he bases his position of evolution.  But, how do you define evolution?  If you define it as change over time in response to environmental impact, well fine.  However, if you define it as producing speciation, you have a problem, since that has simply not proven to be true.  There are many faults with it, however suffice it to say, many branches of science are scratching their collective heads.  You can do the research as easily as I have done.

I find it ironic and commentable that one of England's leading atheists, Professor Antony Flew, recently decided, on the evidence, that in fact there has to be a god.  Admittedly, he is more of a theist or a deist than a subcriber to an established religion.  But he came to that conclusion at the age of 81, due to his reasoning that the evidence for design in the universe demanded the conclusion that there must be a designer.

[Clanad]

Contd.

Again, many, many well educated, credentialed men and women of academic achievement have reached the same conclusion, based, at least in part, on their reasoning abilities. I, certainly don't throw reason to the wind.  Simply put, a thorough study of the evidence can, in my honest opinion, only reach one conclusion.  The fact that others choose to either not do the study or choose not reach the same conclusion does not trouble me.  Glad to share the planet...