GOD: How much do you believe in him?

[Shooting Star]

That's interesting. You don't require any evidence or explanation then from the 36 that claim that "God does NOT exist, FACT" ?

How bizarre.

This.

I'm not going to have an argument on here purely due to the fact that I've done it before a couple of months ago. What does make me laugh though is how many of the atheists on here accuse those who do believe in God as being idiots and ignorant, whilst in making these comments they are actually ignorant and arrogant themselves. I have no problem with people not believing in God; that is their free choice. But it's a question of respect both ways. You don't see many of those who do believe in God on here saying 'atheists are all f***ing idiots' do you?

I chose "I cannot be certain, but strongly BELIEVE he exists and live my life on that basis" because that's what religion is based on, faith. Christians/religions can have much evidence (Jesus Christ, the Bible etc.) to back up their claims, and atheists can have evidence to back up their claims, but at the end of the day neither can prove anything. If we could, then we wouldn't be having this discussion.

 

[NMH]

Religion was created as a form of control of the masses through the use of fear, and has relied on ignorance for it to be effective .It seams the last strongholds for this form of control are America, Iraq, Iran etc , but most communities have accepted that Darwin was in fact right.

See, the idea that Darwin has a strong case doesn't necessarily refute all that religion expounds.
I can't go along with literal statements of instantly created species, but then I also won't accept that everything came up from a single cell either.
Even if increasing cellular complexities did branch out from a root one, the cell still has to have that amazing ingredient called life. That's an energy yet to be explained by anyone!
I read that the human body loses a minute amount of weight, in the moment of death. Whether this is true, it's also curious to imagine that life actually WEIGHS something!

 

[Bwian]

That's interesting. You don't require any evidence or explanation then from the 36 that claim that "God does NOT exist, FACT" ?

How bizarre.

Not bizarre at all-they're not believing in 'miracles' that supposedly 'happened' thousands of years ago and for which there is absolutely no evidence of them happening nor of the worker of these miracles. That wasn't my choice in the poll by the way.

Images of God/Mary/Allah on slices of toast don't count.

No wonder most wars throughout history have connections to religions, believers and non-believers will never find common ground.

 

[GoldWithFalmer]

This.

I'm not going to have an argument on here purely due to the fact that I've done it before a couple of months ago. What does make me laugh though is how many of the atheists on here accuse those who do believe in God as being idiots and ignorant, whilst in making these comments they are actually ignorant and arrogant themselves. I have no problem with people not believing in God; that is their free choice. But it's a question of respect both ways. You don't see many of those who do believe in God on here saying 'atheists are all f***ing idiots' do you?

I chose "I cannot be certain, but strongly BELIEVE he exists and live my life on that basis" because that's what religion is based on, faith. Christians/religions can have much evidence (Jesus Christ, the Bible etc.) to back up their claims, and atheists can have evidence to back up their claims, but at the end of the day neither can prove anything. If we could, then we wouldn't be having this discussion.

All those voting - does NOT exist fact-prove it? tell me what you like but PROVE it,you cannot,neither can i that God exists-however,i have faith,i could die tonight,but i would die happy,and start again,for surly i am not created by mere chance,my Mum and Dad shagged hard all night to make me.

 

[00snook]

That is a great book. If you want a GREAT read and yet some extremely dry chortles along the way - I highly recommend God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. His spoken word audio version is even better. The man is a sardonic legend.

I can echo this Hitchens is a great writer and that book is superb.

Just reading this whilst watching a documentary called Jesus Camp. Absolutely terrifying.

Strongly believe if we could rid the world of religion then our species could move on leaps and bounds.

Look at the medical advances that stem cell research could give if the Christian right would just let it happen. Potentially cure cancer, allow us to grow new organs, nerve and brain cells etc.

And of course earlier this year you have the pope announcing that condoms do nothing to protect against HIV. There are over a billion Catholics taking sex advice from a virgin pensioner!

Remarkable!

 

[Stoo82]

religion had a good purpose at some previous place in time,not now.

Which one?

 

[Don Quixote]

Man created Religion, but man created Atheism too, and he created Science. I don't know if God exists or not, and I tend not to think about it too much because I think Atheism depresses people.

 

[e77]

I can't prove the fact but I personally believe there is no god.

However the current Richard Hawkins hardcore atheist fad is actually quite boring.

 

[Buzzer]

Whilst I wouldn't necessarily disagree with you about religion being a form of controlling the masses, it also never ceases to amaze me how the arrogance of the materially rich and secular minority can claim that the majority of the world's populace is somehow living in ignorance because they've chosen not to believe that scientists have all the answers. It's as if the non believers have read Psalm 14:1 and just turned it around The God concept has been present in every society since the year dot, and that remains so today.

Isn't it also a bit of a leap of faith to be expounding Darwin's Theory of Evolution as if it were Fact

Absolutely agree. My own view is that there is that man is clearly more than the sum of his parts. There's something undefineable that gives us life and thought. Likewise the universe is more than the sum of its parts but we just don't have the necessary mental tools to comprehend it. Man trying to prove whether God exists or not is like asking a caveman to explain Tetris.

 

[MattBackHome]

I think these are very heartening results.

 

[Crawley 'Gull]

I'd like any 1 of the three (so far) who know that god exists-Fact! to provide me with some evidence of 'his' existence.

Surely in this technological world we all live in, somebody, somewhere has a video on their phone ready to upload to YouTube? A burning bush or water into wine would be good for starters-nothing difficult like curing lepers and leaving them without a trade.

God was created by man so that a few smart people can control the masses (not the catholic masses btw) and let the plebs fund their lifestyles.

Do you realize that you sneeze at 120 miles per hour? Did you also know that every time you sneeze, you have been programmed to close your eyes? Where does your hair grow from? How can the thin layers of skin on your head send out a special hair? It has been formulated in your genes to send out a certain type of hair for the head - hair different from that which grows on the arm, on the eyelids or the eyebrows. Imagine if you had eyebrows or eyelashes that grew to the length of the hair on your head. Think of the fine row of hair that makes up the eyelash or of the way the hairs face the same direction on the eyebrow.

Have you ever studied the ordinary garden snail and wondered how its shell is able to grow in proportion to its body? When it is a baby snail it has a baby shell. As it doubles in size, it doesnt discard it. The hard shell also doubles in size. Do you credit the snail with having a mind brilliant enough to make its own shell?

How does a grubby little caterpillar get rid of all its legs while inside a cocoon, grow two fresh ones, then form itself into a beautiful butterfly? Perhaps you could mumble 'evolution,' and believe that it could happen if millions of years were involved. But all this happens in a few weeks.

Do you give a baby credit for having the ability to grow its own teeth? How did you grow both sets of yours? If you ever decide to get false teeth, will you have them made, or will you wait for 'chance' to make a pair for you?

How is it that your lungs keep breathing irrespective of your will? You have been doing it without a second thought while you have been reading this. In fact, becoming conscious of it can hinder the process. Lungs seem to work best without any conscious thought from the mind. How does you subconscious mind continually feed you with thoughts, even when you sleep? Listen to it talk to you and keep you company. It never stops. Try and stop it yourself. Stop reading this and try and think of nothing for 5 minutes. Bet you cant. Your subconscious mind has been set it motion, and it has little to do with your will.

Think of the complexities of the human mind. It is feeding your mind with knowledge right now by translating ink shapes on this page, speaking them to your mind, and automatically filing them into your memory bank.

Right at this moment your liver, kidneys, heart, pancreas, salivary glands, etc, are all working to keep your body going. You dont even have the power to switch them off and on. During your sleep tonight, your heart will pump seventy-five gallons of blood through your body each hour.

Contrary to common belief, your lungs are more than just bags into which you breathe smoke. They are designed to filter oxygen out of the air you breathe. These organs contain 300,000,000,000 tiny blood vessels called capillaries. Your entire blood supply washes through your lungs once every minute. In your lifetime, the marrow of your bones will create approximately half a ton of red corpuscles.

You have focusing muscles in your eyes that move an estimated 100,000 times each day. That same eye has within it a retina that covers less than a square inch and contains 137,000,000 light-sensitive cells. Even a wide-eyed Charles Darwin said To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.

Your brain contains 10,000,000,000 neurons, microscopic nerve cells. Your stomach, which produces four pints of gastric juice each day, has 35,000,000 glands lining it. Next time you eat a delicious meal, be thankful to God for the 8,000 taste buds that were put into your mouth. Imagine how boring eating would be without them.

George Gallup, the famous statistician, said, 'I could prove God statistically; take the human body alone, the chance that all the functions of the individual would just happen, is a statistical monstrosity.'

Was it an accident that your ears were designed to capture sound? The grooves, bumps and ridges were made to capture passing sound waves and channel them into the ear drum. Again, your hands were made to grip and feel. The tongue was made to taste food and to shape speech. The nose was made to smell. What if your ears faced backwards or your nose was upside down (What a nightmare in a rainstorm), or your mouth had two tongues? I am serious. If humanity just happened (with no purposeful design), why dont we see such creatures? In fact, we see the very opposite. From the teeth of a dog to the legs of a grasshopper, one can see practical design in everything that has been made.

Now if the incredibly brilliant, creative 'force' made all things, then it is not only infinitely more intelligent than man whom it made, but it is surely familiar with what it has made. Not only did it create every one of the 100,000 hairs on the average non-bald human head, but it is also familiar with each individual hair. If the force can make the eye, it is not blind itself. (See Psalm 94 - 8,9, the bible).

Creation reflects the genius of the creators hand. Lets look at a common cow. Someone once said, 'How is it that a brown cow eats green grass, which turns into white milk, than yellow butterall from a little stirring and churning.' Imagine if you were able to invent a machine that could turn your grass into milk. The cow does it with little effort. Is she wiser than you?

Explain how a sparrow knows he is a sparrow and stays with other sparrows or how a baby knows how to look into the eyes of its mother when no-one has taught it to do so. How do strawberries can grow next to garlic, and yet both derive their own unique tastes from the same soil and water. How was a wasp made so that its wings flap at 100 times every second or the housefly at 190 per second or the mosquito at an amazing 500 times every second?

The most Godless, must be humbled by a sense of awe and wonder when standing beneath the mighty power of Niagara falls or as he gazes into the grand canyon or stares into the infinity of space. How much more should we be humbled my the maker of these things?

 

[birthofanorange]

Great read...but do you say that it's proof? I suppose it depends on how one defines proof in the first instance.

 

[Half Time Pies]

Is he for you the guvnor up in the sky, or is it just a load of old baloney?

It is strange that whenever someone asks 'do you believe in God' it is almost always assumed that everyone knows what is meant by 'God' and that there is a common understanding. The fact is that there are many different definitions e.g. realist definitions of god as a 'thing', non realist as no'thing', God as meaning goodness or right living, super-being definitions and mystical positions of God as an experience or state. A clear meaning is often difficult to achieve even within the same faith therefore the question 'do you believe in God' is almost impossible to answer.

 

[alan partridge]

Man created Religion, but man created Atheism too, and he created Science. I don't know if God exists or not, and I tend not to think about it too much because I think Atheism depresses people.

man created science??

eh?

science is.

there's no two ways about it.

 

[GoldWithFalmer]

Man created Religion, but man created Atheism too, and he created Science. I don't know if God exists or not, and I tend not to think about it too much because I think Atheism depresses people.

Much can be said and gained from science,long may it continue,as education is the way forward,Atheistic types,whilst i know a few who are good friends and have great common interests,well to be frank,bore the out of me,but i allow for this and try to show the path,if they choose not to see- i can not have no grievance,nor will they as they will seek other alternative paths,rewards,and pleasures-live and let live,black white,fat skinny,gay or lesbian(i think i am one of these as i like women too) it matters not-up the Albion and i wish you well,i do,who knows,you may have a bad day,and cut me up on the A23 and cause me to have a bad day too-

In short i believe & if i did not,i would i assure you,i would be dead by now,i am only 38 and God saved my life-i am not religious and have no time for bible bashers-always keep the faith and remember there is always a way out,of any situation,even death is a possible path,my only hope is it's swift.

God does exist-and here's the proof.

 

[birthofanorange]

^^ Now I've seen your faith, I'm a believer.

 

[GoldWithFalmer]

Do you realize that you sneeze at 120 miles per hour? Did you also know that every time you sneeze, you have been programmed to close your eyes? Where does your hair grow from? How can the thin layers of skin on your head send out a special hair? It has been formulated in your genes to send out a certain type of hair for the head - hair different from that which grows on the arm, on the eyelids or the eyebrows. Imagine if you had eyebrows or eyelashes that grew to the length of the hair on your head. Think of the fine row of hair that makes up the eyelash or of the way the hairs face the same direction on the eyebrow.

Have you ever studied the ordinary garden snail and wondered how its shell is able to grow in proportion to its body? When it is a baby snail it has a baby shell. As it doubles in size, it doesnt discard it. The hard shell also doubles in size. Do you credit the snail with having a mind brilliant enough to make its own shell?

How does a grubby little caterpillar get rid of all its legs while inside a cocoon, grow two fresh ones, then form itself into a beautiful butterfly? Perhaps you could mumble 'evolution,' and believe that it could happen if millions of years were involved. But all this happens in a few weeks.

Do you give a baby credit for having the ability to grow its own teeth? How did you grow both sets of yours? If you ever decide to get false teeth, will you have them made, or will you wait for 'chance' to make a pair for you?

How is it that your lungs keep breathing irrespective of your will? You have been doing it without a second thought while you have been reading this. In fact, becoming conscious of it can hinder the process. Lungs seem to work best without any conscious thought from the mind. How does you subconscious mind continually feed you with thoughts, even when you sleep? Listen to it talk to you and keep you company. It never stops. Try and stop it yourself. Stop reading this and try and think of nothing for 5 minutes. Bet you cant. Your subconscious mind has been set it motion, and it has little to do with your will.

Think of the complexities of the human mind. It is feeding your mind with knowledge right now by translating ink shapes on this page, speaking them to your mind, and automatically filing them into your memory bank.

Right at this moment your liver, kidneys, heart, pancreas, salivary glands, etc, are all working to keep your body going. You dont even have the power to switch them off and on. During your sleep tonight, your heart will pump seventy-five gallons of blood through your body each hour.

Contrary to common belief, your lungs are more than just bags into which you breathe smoke. They are designed to filter oxygen out of the air you breathe. These organs contain 300,000,000,000 tiny blood vessels called capillaries. Your entire blood supply washes through your lungs once every minute. In your lifetime, the marrow of your bones will create approximately half a ton of red corpuscles.

You have focusing muscles in your eyes that move an estimated 100,000 times each day. That same eye has within it a retina that covers less than a square inch and contains 137,000,000 light-sensitive cells. Even a wide-eyed Charles Darwin said To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.

Your brain contains 10,000,000,000 neurons, microscopic nerve cells. Your stomach, which produces four pints of gastric juice each day, has 35,000,000 glands lining it. Next time you eat a delicious meal, be thankful to God for the 8,000 taste buds that were put into your mouth. Imagine how boring eating would be without them.

George Gallup, the famous statistician, said, 'I could prove God statistically; take the human body alone, the chance that all the functions of the individual would just happen, is a statistical monstrosity.'

Was it an accident that your ears were designed to capture sound? The grooves, bumps and ridges were made to capture passing sound waves and channel them into the ear drum. Again, your hands were made to grip and feel. The tongue was made to taste food and to shape speech. The nose was made to smell. What if your ears faced backwards or your nose was upside down (What a nightmare in a rainstorm), or your mouth had two tongues? I am serious. If humanity just happened (with no purposeful design), why dont we see such creatures? In fact, we see the very opposite. From the teeth of a dog to the legs of a grasshopper, one can see practical design in everything that has been made.

Now if the incredibly brilliant, creative 'force' made all things, then it is not only infinitely more intelligent than man whom it made, but it is surely familiar with what it has made. Not only did it create every one of the 100,000 hairs on the average non-bald human head, but it is also familiar with each individual hair. If the force can make the eye, it is not blind itself. (See Psalm 94 - 8,9, the bible).

Creation reflects the genius of the creators hand. Lets look at a common cow. Someone once said, 'How is it that a brown cow eats green grass, which turns into white milk, than yellow butterall from a little stirring and churning.' Imagine if you were able to invent a machine that could turn your grass into milk. The cow does it with little effort. Is she wiser than you?

Explain how a sparrow knows he is a sparrow and stays with other sparrows or how a baby knows how to look into the eyes of its mother when no-one has taught it to do so. How do strawberries can grow next to garlic, and yet both derive their own unique tastes from the same soil and water. How was a wasp made so that its wings flap at 100 times every second or the housefly at 190 per second or the mosquito at an amazing 500 times every second?

The most Godless, must be humbled by a sense of awe and wonder when standing beneath the mighty power of Niagara falls or as he gazes into the grand canyon or stares into the infinity of space. How much more should we be humbled my the maker of these things?

 

[magoo]

God botherers f***ing ANNOY me! I mean GROW UP! We can now explain why the Sun exists, why the sky is blue and why Humans exist and it wasn't some magical man in the sky, f***ing pratt!! You don't need to fear some retribution in a non existent next life to be a good person in this one. Humans are on the whole good by nature.

 

[Crawley 'Gull]

Great read...but do you say that it's proof? I suppose it depends on how one defines proof in the first instance.

Well...it's not the only reason why I believe in God, but it's a start.

 

[magoo]

Do you realize that you sneeze at 120 miles per hour? Did you also know that every time you sneeze, you have been programmed to close your eyes? Where does your hair grow from? How can the thin layers of skin on your head send out a special hair? It has been formulated in your genes to send out a certain type of hair for the head - hair different from that which grows on the arm, on the eyelids or the eyebrows. Imagine if you had eyebrows or eyelashes that grew to the length of the hair on your head. Think of the fine row of hair that makes up the eyelash or of the way the hairs face the same direction on the eyebrow.

Have you ever studied the ordinary garden snail and wondered how its shell is able to grow in proportion to its body? When it is a baby snail it has a baby shell. As it doubles in size, it doesnt discard it. The hard shell also doubles in size. Do you credit the snail with having a mind brilliant enough to make its own shell?

How does a grubby little caterpillar get rid of all its legs while inside a cocoon, grow two fresh ones, then form itself into a beautiful butterfly? Perhaps you could mumble 'evolution,' and believe that it could happen if millions of years were involved. But all this happens in a few weeks.

Do you give a baby credit for having the ability to grow its own teeth? How did you grow both sets of yours? If you ever decide to get false teeth, will you have them made, or will you wait for 'chance' to make a pair for you?

How is it that your lungs keep breathing irrespective of your will? You have been doing it without a second thought while you have been reading this. In fact, becoming conscious of it can hinder the process. Lungs seem to work best without any conscious thought from the mind. How does you subconscious mind continually feed you with thoughts, even when you sleep? Listen to it talk to you and keep you company. It never stops. Try and stop it yourself. Stop reading this and try and think of nothing for 5 minutes. Bet you cant. Your subconscious mind has been set it motion, and it has little to do with your will.

Think of the complexities of the human mind. It is feeding your mind with knowledge right now by translating ink shapes on this page, speaking them to your mind, and automatically filing them into your memory bank.

Right at this moment your liver, kidneys, heart, pancreas, salivary glands, etc, are all working to keep your body going. You dont even have the power to switch them off and on. During your sleep tonight, your heart will pump seventy-five gallons of blood through your body each hour.

Contrary to common belief, your lungs are more than just bags into which you breathe smoke. They are designed to filter oxygen out of the air you breathe. These organs contain 300,000,000,000 tiny blood vessels called capillaries. Your entire blood supply washes through your lungs once every minute. In your lifetime, the marrow of your bones will create approximately half a ton of red corpuscles.

You have focusing muscles in your eyes that move an estimated 100,000 times each day. That same eye has within it a retina that covers less than a square inch and contains 137,000,000 light-sensitive cells. Even a wide-eyed Charles Darwin said To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.

Your brain contains 10,000,000,000 neurons, microscopic nerve cells. Your stomach, which produces four pints of gastric juice each day, has 35,000,000 glands lining it. Next time you eat a delicious meal, be thankful to God for the 8,000 taste buds that were put into your mouth. Imagine how boring eating would be without them.

George Gallup, the famous statistician, said, 'I could prove God statistically; take the human body alone, the chance that all the functions of the individual would just happen, is a statistical monstrosity.'

Was it an accident that your ears were designed to capture sound? The grooves, bumps and ridges were made to capture passing sound waves and channel them into the ear drum. Again, your hands were made to grip and feel. The tongue was made to taste food and to shape speech. The nose was made to smell. What if your ears faced backwards or your nose was upside down (What a nightmare in a rainstorm), or your mouth had two tongues? I am serious. If humanity just happened (with no purposeful design), why dont we see such creatures? In fact, we see the very opposite. From the teeth of a dog to the legs of a grasshopper, one can see practical design in everything that has been made.

Now if the incredibly brilliant, creative 'force' made all things, then it is not only infinitely more intelligent than man whom it made, but it is surely familiar with what it has made. Not only did it create every one of the 100,000 hairs on the average non-bald human head, but it is also familiar with each individual hair. If the force can make the eye, it is not blind itself. (See Psalm 94 - 8,9, the bible).

Creation reflects the genius of the creators hand. Lets look at a common cow. Someone once said, 'How is it that a brown cow eats green grass, which turns into white milk, than yellow butterall from a little stirring and churning.' Imagine if you were able to invent a machine that could turn your grass into milk. The cow does it with little effort. Is she wiser than you?

Explain how a sparrow knows he is a sparrow and stays with other sparrows or how a baby knows how to look into the eyes of its mother when no-one has taught it to do so. How do strawberries can grow next to garlic, and yet both derive their own unique tastes from the same soil and water. How was a wasp made so that its wings flap at 100 times every second or the housefly at 190 per second or the mosquito at an amazing 500 times every second?

The most Godless, must be humbled by a sense of awe and wonder when standing beneath the mighty power of Niagara falls or as he gazes into the grand canyon or stares into the infinity of space. How much more should we be humbled my the maker of these things?

What a load of f***ing bollocks! Yes the world as we know it is probably more than a million to one chance but it's still more likely than God!