God

[TheDude]

I am interested in how many people believe in God.

The choices of answers are quite simple.

1. Yes, I believe in God as described in the Bible. I believe in the Bible as a go to for the direct word of God.

2. I believe in a God, as believed in by christians, jews, and muslims, but I do not necessarily follow the bible dogmatically. I believe in that god as a being, and that there is someone or something in control of the universe that is itself sentient.

3. I believe in a god, but not a sentient one. I believe that there is "god" out there, but the it is not a being necessarily. I just believe in a divine and omnicient force or power of some kind that does impose morality on the world.

4. I am agnostic, I believe there may be a being that is god, there may be a force that is god, or there may be no god. There is no way to tell, but I will believe in morality as it's own entity until there is proof.

5. I do not believe in god. I believe God is a human construction, purely. Religion, usually, is simply a giant astrological metaphor that has branched out over thousands of years and developed into what we see today.

6. I do not believe in god or religion as a functional or justifiable means of describing morality. There is no god, there is no morality. It is all human invention. What is best for the species IS what is moral.


This is completely anonymous, and really is simply for my own personal interest. Please answer honestly.

 

[Ethan]

I believe in God, and the Bible. As a teenager, I struggle with keeping to it, but I go to church, youth group, and try to be the best I can. I know I may not show it sometimes, especially on the computer, but hey, we are all human! The reason for me believing what I do growing up in Christianity, and the influence of my mother, who is a hardcore Christian. I find myself questioning things more and more however, but that is only normal.

 

[Titoezz]

I'm not scared for some internet discussions, but discussions that topics like this can bring up can be seriously harmfull to some.
So i would like to add as idea that you can comment what you voted but not the going in too deep about the reason why you voted that.

I voted for 5 myself, i just dont think there's anything up there that controls us etc. Reason i voted 5 instead of 6 is because i don't know and couldnt find the exact definition of morality.

 

[TheDude]

We have admins and moderators for a reason. Please keep comments limited to your own personal experience and feelings. There is no need to bring politics or anything besides extrapolating your beliefs into the mix. No one is wrong in this thread. Let's be mature, shall we?

I, myself, always include morality as a self preservation mechanism for humanity. Whether it is a human invention or not, it's purpose is obvious.

 

[Trasgu]

I believe that both God and morality are human inventions. I wont go too deep into the GOD thing cuz after all, Im just a teenager. However, what I do dare to talk about is morality.

Morality. With this we define whats right or wrong. Helping an innocent person is good, raping a young woman is bad. But why do we think so? As u can see I have used an example to explain myself cuz Im not able to do it in other way. I want to take another example if possible.

Theres a great book called "Dune" (which Im not gonna talk about cuz its damm long and complicated. It cant be explained, u need to read it) in this book theres a desert planet in which humans need to recycle every single bit of water they have in their bodies. When someone dies, they suk all the water of that person and distribute them to others. Now, in our world that will defenitelly be consider wrong, even more, outrageous. But to them its a tradition, a NEED. Another example. Spitting in front of someone means that you are disguted of how they are, however in this fantasy its one of the most trust-worthy acts because u are losing humidity for nothing.

What I mean with this is that what we consider right or wrong is something that has just being built up in our heads through history. My final example comes from my own personal experience. I once beaten up a girl whose only desire was to mock and make fun of me in front of others. "Beating up a girl is not something a man should do" told me a teacher. "Why?" I asked "Because shes a woman" "Shes still human right?" "well, yea" "Then she was smart enough to realise she shouldnt provoke someobody stronger than her. Weather shes male or female." Some of u might actually think that Im WRONG, yes the wrong coming from morality, thinking like this. But, isnt it true that considering woman the "weak" half of humanity creates sexism and therefore all the trouble with woman over our own human history.

Morality. With this we define whats right or wrong. But if us humans were in another world or in different situation I can tell u, our moral would be very different.

 

[PwnSauce]

Religions are created to control people and their minds.
People are made to fear the almighty and holy men as their conduits to heaven.

No god actually exists, only that which you are lead to believe either through scripture or social intimidation for non-believers.

Believe what you like but that is the truth.
Even if a "God" existed it would be unknowable to human beings. We cannot fathom the existence of a non-entity like a god to begin with.

wn:

 

[AVC]

It must be answer 3!
Haven't you seen Star Wars?

 

[517Houston]

i believe in god yo

 

[Ethan]

I guess why I believe in what I believe in is because it is a good explanation for why we are on this Earth. Any thoughts on how we got here?

 

[517Houston]

cum shot meets egg...boom

 

[MasterCLiP]

So are humans natural or man made?

 

[517Houston]

both............

 

[H1pFiR3]

I believe in what I was raised to believe. In a way you can say that I am neutral or I really don't give a fuck. I live life for myself and control my own faith. And as to how we got here, again, Who gives a shit? We are hear now and reproduce the way that was never questioned. In the end I put #1 because that is what my family believes in and is what I am expected to believe in. But I do believe that morality is a human invention and the examples that Trasgu gave were perfect. Now we all understand that Religion itself is a man made concept. We all here were taught about religion from our parents, and they were taught by their parents and so on. What if no one ever asked the question "How did we get here?" We would all live our lives without ever thinking of a "God" or any other divine force. Consider the life of a hard core Christian that spend their lives trying not to commit a "sin" because they are "deadly". Who wrote the list of the Seven deadly sins? Did "God" write it? Who can prove that if you commit one of these "sins" you will be punished in the "afterlife"? I mean think about it AFTER Life! Did anyone ever come back to life after their death to tell you about where they went or if they were punished or not? This is my opinion but in the end I am only a teenager and as everyone know most teenagers especially between 13 and 16 don't think about God or Heaven and Hell so I merely wrote down what came to my mind at this instant. Well there you go. Now I gotta go :jerkoff:

 

[felon]

I'm agnostic, I neither believe or disbelieve.

On the subject of morality, there are many ways of calculating the moral value of an action. If you choose to use the greatest happiness principle, and calculate by total happiness, then you come to the repugnant conclusion, where a massive population of people with a life barely worth living could be seen as superior to a small population with really good and happy lives. But also, if you calculate by average, you reach the mere addition paradox, where If you have a population of extremely happy people, and one person gives birth to slightly unhappy baby, then this woman has committed a sin, even though she has brought new life into the world, which seems idiotic.

How then can we calculate the moral value of an action?

 

[CiTyCHiLD]

Well I believe there is a god like in option two, but I don't think the bible is the word of God. To be honest, I think the bible was created by people to help them live better lives. I was told by a church that God did not write the bible but various people wrote the bible. If that's true, then you know the bible is really exaggerated. Anyways I think I'm going to go with option two.

Did anyone else have to look up what sentient and dogmatically meant?

 

[Joe Momma]

For the sake of the discussion, I want to ask athiests a question. Why do you think there is no god/bigger force out there than us? I mean, just thinking about what is out there. The planets, the universe (milky way) and the rest of the galaxy makes me think there is a bigger force out there that caused our existence. There is no way we just exist just like that. Science tells us that there is a cause and effect. Kinda makes you wonder a little.

 

[PaigeBoo]

I don't really know how to answer this question for the poll. I don't believe there is a god, I don't believe there is someone out there that houses all the control over everything. Who makes decisions, and alters the courses of some peoples lives in insane ways. To me that just doesn't make sense. But... I want to believe there is more to life than this. I want to believe that, even when our bodies die, something lives on. Not saying there's a god to decide what happens when I die. But I want there to be something to look forward to after life. I guess for me, that's my way of dealing with death. I don't want there to be an end to myself, or anybody I love. I hope to see them again, and bridge the gap that's been created. Will that happen? Who knows.

Joe, I don't believe there is a god (which I guess you can consider Athiest) because I don't believe there is an all powerful thing for lack of a better word, that decides our fate, and makes everything that happens happen. I don't think there's a thing that controls everything. So many things that were once "the work of god" can now be proven by other things. I just can't see myself believing my life is happening based on what someone else wants to happen to me. That makes no sense at all.

 

[MikeK]

omGod so long posts about God

 

[TheDude]

Religions, whether they have merit or not, have in many cases served to organize and empower cultures and better their survival rates.

Morality as a function of religion has helped in this effort. Just look historically.

Also, some little specific things from religions could also be explained as a result of culture and every day human struggles. Look at Judaism.... Do not eat pork... why? Because pork carries diseases...... whether it is unholy or not, for the jews, not eating pork must have saved some lives.


Myself, I choose to find a god that is present only in the actions of mankind and morality. Whether religion/morality are products or god or it is the other way around makes no difference. I think what matters is finding a higher calling.


Also, considering physics, there is a shit ton we don't know about this world, from the tiniest to the largest of things. Other-dimensional beings aren't even out of the question.... at all. To say absolutely that there is no god bewilders me. It is akin to people who latch on to any other belief for dear life.

Just thoughts.

---------- Post added at 07:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:05 PM ----------

For the record, I am still trying to find god. I fkin' need to.

 

[Kacey]

I believe in God, and the Bible. As a teenager, I struggle with keeping to it, but I go to church, youth group, and try to be the best I can. I know I may not show it sometimes, especially on the computer, but hey, we are all human! The reason for me believing what I do growing up in Christianity, and the influence of my mother, who is a hardcore Christian. I find myself questioning things more and more however, but that is only normal.

This is pretty much spot-on for me too.