Existence of God/gods

Haven't seen any recent thread on this debate recently, so I figured I'd bring it back.

What is your opinion on this?
Do you believe there is a God or gods?
Or do you believe that there is simply a higher power?

Personally, I don't believe that there is any kind of higher power, God or otherwise. There's too much evidence against it, and not enough to truly support the argument.

 

In my own opinion, I don't believe in any god or higher power. As you said, there is no official proof to say that these really exist and there's so much against these ideas.

Another question I ask myself alot, and actually appeared in my Mock RE paper last week, is "If there is someone with 'higher power', then why is there still suffering going on around us?" I mean, if there was someone who could actually stop all of this going on around us, then why hasn't it?

/end of mini rant xD

 

I belive that matter in the universe made this planet, all of the universe and all inhabidence of it

There was/is no imaginary man in the sky that created everything in 6 days.

I would rather beleive the 2012 theiory then that bull

As you said theres to much evidence against it, thats why i am a proud Atheist.

 

I think what I have to say can be a good brain teaser for you who don't believe in any God or Higher Power.
If you ever research the information mentioned in The Bible, you will notice that a lot of information it holds has a lot of non-fiction references, such as Egypt, The Mediterranian Sea, and a lot of things that can potentially lead to the same end.
I respect your opinions, but look at it realistically. The information resources regarding Higher Power mentions is relevant and doesn't talk about "Fairies casting spells" and all of this "Magical Tale" business. It consists of things that we know have been proven.
Plus, we can't explain...for example....South America and make it all sound the same. Therefore, with historical references regarding "Gods" they all lead down to the same end...and are written by(In my belief) different people from the past. This is another thing for you to think about.

I respect your opinions, but I believe that it's nice to fill your life with a bit of this information to give you "hope", and it makes you have more belief in things.

 

god/no, gods/maybe , higherpower/ maybe. since magic is usable by us "mere mortals i would say there is a power though more a power source we can draw from but truly the bible is naught but a work of fiction. though a documentation of egypt or other events or place could be a coincedence though remember nothing is new perhaps there was another country similar to egypt then used it as a reference to the eygpt we know now and other events maybe it hashappened before because we cant really see the past so we have no real idea other than observation and hypothesis

 

If God does exist by some very, VERY unlikely chance, he's not exactly a nice guy. In fact, he'd be on the edge of a jackass. Sitting back and letting tons of the people he "loves" suffer.


If God exists, why are there so many little kids dying in Africa and other areas?

 

Personally:

i do not believe in a higher power

i do not believe in god

i say that if there WAS something like these things, to me it wouldnt matter honestly

 

Absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

I believe in a higher power we call God.
My faith tells me there is God is real, and I strongly believe it.
Yes, I still have my doubts with the way things are, but I still believe in Him.
However, I don't believe in Him the exact the way the Bible talks about Him.
It's hard to explain.
I've also been toying around with the idea that all religion is wrong, but they all stem from one truth, or at least most of them.

 

i personally dont' believe in god, but the thing that a lot of people dont' seem to get about religion is that it's not a matter of logic, because logically just because you can't disprove the existence of a god doesn't mean it exists. it's just a matter of faith, i think someone told me that "if you believe in God, he exists", and if you don't, he doesn't, or something like that. even though it isn't logical for a god to exist, i understand that it would be just nice to believe that someone is listening to our prayers. i remember another person told me something about "if there is a god, how come bad things still happen", i remember that person explained to me that apparently God has become more of just an observer and only intervenes when necessary which i guess somewhat explains it a little. i honestly don't know enough about religion to debate this effectively, but i find it a very interesting topic to learn about.

 

I believe in the God of the Bible. I think the concept of human life and existence is far too complex to have happened by accident. The theory of evolution is also extremely flawed in some areas, and I do not accept it. I believe we are all designed by God and made in his image.
Evidence?
I don't need any. I was raised to believe in God, and I'm happy believing in him. No amount of evidence is going to stop me from believing. I don't even care if time travel becomes possible and we can see evolution happening. If that ever does end up happening, then as far as I'm concerned, it's a test of faith.
Yes, I'm very closed minded about this subject. I have the right to be.

 

Now me being a wiccan, I worship nature but I see that as God's own image being a cokaroach because what else can survive nuclear warare, we can't.
I personally believe in the Asmithodian Gods, (can't remember how to spell it, sorry) because i've seen things that te Wiccans do come true. as said in another thread things like hexes and curse, Wiccans control them because wiccans that are good with their studies can be like neo-psychics. They can influence dark spirits to do their bidding. I also believe in Alchemy but i'm trying to find some good books about it.

 

My stance is probably known on this.
I'd like to point something out though.

God's supposed to be our Father right?
And when an atheist asks a Christian "Why is there still evil in the world?" we often get an answer like "God gives us the freedom of free will, which includes the freedom to be and do evil".
How can any worshipper of God even say that with a straight face?
If a human father abandons his child at a premature age, we condemn him and call him a bad parent. But how is God any different? If mankind still lashes out so destructively (more destructively than ever before perhaps), wouldn't that be an obvious signal meaning:
"Hellloooooooo! Stray lambs here! C'mon Big G, give us some guidance!"
If my kid wasn't ready for the big world (which mankind arguably isn't either), I wouldn't let him go under the premise of free will. Not when it's so obvious that he still needs my help.
Some explanation on this would be nice.

That's a thought I've been meaning to throw in here.

 

God didn't abandon us, we abandoned God.
*Adam and Eve story here*

 

So if I tell my son that boiling water is dangerous and he pours it all over himself anyway, I should kick him out of the house. Because he abandoned me by being disobedient. Thanks, Dr. Phil. I'll do just that.

Of course not, because the kid's a kid.
Adam nor Eve had reached maturity when they were exiled from Paradise. If God were any sort of father he'd have known that.
And by maturity I'm not talking about age.

 

If a father abandons his child at a premature age, there's a chance he'll die, and the father will most certainly be condemned.

But the kid may also learn to survive. He'll adapt the skills he wasn't taught. And that makes him stronger, because they're not just arbitrarily enforced rules of his universe; they're habits. They make him better, in ways, than children raised in luxury, or even just simple comfort. Yeah, they have problems, but regular kids have problems too.

Concerning the actual existence of God as opposed to His/Her/Its nature... We don't know. At all. We can't. Not in this state. Unless the big man upstairs pops in to say hi--and some people have claimed He has, credibly or otherwise--we can't say He does or doesn't exist. Granted, depending on your persuasion, you can assume He doesn't until you see Him.

Of course, I think humanity as a collective is God, but that's an argument for a different thread, methinks.

 

maybe a bit off topic but wiccans arent the only people who can do magic but i have researched this and wiccan and satanic magic are similar except for a few small differences. also, many gods are believed in so if there is only one true god which by the way is so unlikely its not worth mentioning. plus, if only the christian god is real then hell must be VERY crowded. that and paganism is older than christianity or judiasm combined

 

Except that the Adam and Eve story is based on one of the stories from the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh.
There are quite a few Biblical stories that are taken from the Epic, including the Adam and Eve and Noah and the Ark.

Are we supposed to believe in a book that was written based off of stories of a Sumerian king that supposedly lived for over a hundred years?

What kind of non-fiction references?

Such as? I never mentioned anything about faeries or magic.

Wait what about South America?

You know the "historical references" are more likely than not myths, right? If you show evidence of some of this stuff I'll take a look at it. And of course it's from people from the past; the mainstream religions are all thousands of years old.

 

i don't know much about God and such, but i would believe it that there is free will so that mankind can better themselves....by themselves. parents have to let go of their children and to let them make their own decisions, it's part of growing up, because if the children just kept depending on their parents, they'll may never become strong enough to take on the world by themselves. for example: a 40 year old man who still lives with his parents because he isn't ready to live on his own. if that man never leaves his parents care, he may never be ready to live on his own. he might be too immature to live on his own, but unless he gets out there, he may never be mature enough. hope that was the right example to use, because i guess arguably the 40 year old man was mature enough (both in age and the mentally) to leave on his own and just chose not to. don't get me wrong, i don't believe it's right to abandon (or exile, in Adam and Eve's case) someone just for one disobedience. but if i recall correctly, didn't Adam and Eve do just fine after being exiled? i remember something about them having children and starting a family together. so what i'm trying to say is, if there is a God (which i'm not saying there is, because i personally don't believe there is), maybe it was just mankind's time to leave God's care and to become independent.

i wanted to ask about the thing with Adam and Eve not being mature when they left Paradise. are you really sure about that statement? does it actually say that somewhere (like maybe the Bible)?

anyways, i hope everything i said about the religious parts was accurate, and if it isn't, just feel free to correct me.

 

See, the thing about it is, evidence =/= to faith, so most people will never be able to see completely eye to eye on this subject. But, in a manner staying true to the debate corner, it would be possible enough for science and religion to exist side-by-side and not contradict each other if people weren't such douce******s about it.

 

Wasn't it said in Angels and Demon, "science and religion are two languages telling the same tale?"