Poll: Do you believe in a higher power?
- Thread starter Easykill
- Start date
However, the flaw in this is that it assumes that a process or an object is a conscious being. Just because the sun allows life to live and God is said to do the same thing doesn't make the sun God. It makes them similar, but not entirely the same.Fire Daemon said:
If you can't find proof that God exists, why do you let his followers threaten you with something that is just as (un)real as him?Colton Caramihalis said:
I do believe in God. Before I had God, my world was a dark realm of darkness and grief. Once I gave my life to God, everything turned good. People say that there is no evidence of God, yet I believe that there is evidence. Once you have God in your life, you can "feel" Him. Others say that it is a crutch for the weak, yet I don't believe that. Believing that God can help you and make your life better doesn't make you a weak person. It makes you a strong person. Once you can admit that your life is out of your control and that you need help, that is when you are a strong person. I can understand the feelings that most people feel. For the longest time, religion was a Christmas/Easter thing for me and I really didn't care much for it. However, once things in my life became out of control and totally horrible, I gave my heart to God and to Christ. Since then, I don't have to face the world alone. I have the strength of God to face my trials along side me.
For those of you who don't know the comfort of God, I say to you that it would be a wonderful experience. I will pray for you all and your well beings. :O
And to lighten the mood of my previous statments: "Boingo Boingo, Whoopsy Knickers"
For those of you who don't know the comfort of God, I say to you that it would be a wonderful experience. I will pray for you all and your well beings. :O
And to lighten the mood of my previous statments: "Boingo Boingo, Whoopsy Knickers"
I do not beleive in any god thought up by an organized religion, rather an anonymous force outside the confines of human thought.
To CodeChrono:
Ironically, since I became an atheist, my life has been great. Organized religion seemed like too arbitrary and prejudiced to be true so I renounced it and decided to find things out for myself. I found that most explanations for God are simply weak rationalizations and that if he does exist, then there's no way anyone has it right. Since then, I feel confident about my control over my own life. I now am able to rationally make moral decisions without being bothered by ancient prejudices and rules. That and it's always fun to play the devil's advocate (ba dum pish!) and heckle the faithful.
As for any despair, I don't feel any. I know now that the only person who's judgement matters is mine. I don't bother pleasing a god or upholding a set of rules, I just do what I want. I don't feel the need to conform to the so called morality that organized religion touts and I don't care about my soul, if such a thing exists. I'm now focused on improving my life, rather than my afterlife. My lack of faith doesn't make me scared of death either. I know it's inevitable and that not a damn thing I do will change the fact that my cells will one day get sick of working and quit. When it comes, I won't care. My nihilistic outlook leaves me with no regrets or worries. I found that loving life is much better than preparing for death.
Ironically, since I became an atheist, my life has been great. Organized religion seemed like too arbitrary and prejudiced to be true so I renounced it and decided to find things out for myself. I found that most explanations for God are simply weak rationalizations and that if he does exist, then there's no way anyone has it right. Since then, I feel confident about my control over my own life. I now am able to rationally make moral decisions without being bothered by ancient prejudices and rules. That and it's always fun to play the devil's advocate (ba dum pish!) and heckle the faithful.
As for any despair, I don't feel any. I know now that the only person who's judgement matters is mine. I don't bother pleasing a god or upholding a set of rules, I just do what I want. I don't feel the need to conform to the so called morality that organized religion touts and I don't care about my soul, if such a thing exists. I'm now focused on improving my life, rather than my afterlife. My lack of faith doesn't make me scared of death either. I know it's inevitable and that not a damn thing I do will change the fact that my cells will one day get sick of working and quit. When it comes, I won't care. My nihilistic outlook leaves me with no regrets or worries. I found that loving life is much better than preparing for death.
Amen.John Galt said:
Just Kidding. I personally think that the afterlife was an invention meant to cover what people couldn't understand;non-existence is hard to contemplate. Does it actually mention that heaven and Hell are alternate planes in the bible? Surely it would be considered a reward after your death if those you've imprinted yourself on in the real world live in a better place. Pieces of yourself anyways. I mean, you can say that's not the same as you being rewarded, but would it bother you to die if another being popped up right where you were a second ago with all your memories and personality? Even if it looked different? It certainly wouldn't bother me. Sorry if this seems a bit nonsensical, but I have a headache.
And that's fine! Seriously, there is nothing wrong with that kind of lifestyle. A lot of people live that kind of life and find happiness. Speaking from my own personal experience, I couldn't do it, but at least you are happy.John Galt said:
I find that the true purpose of Christians have been lost. We are meant to spread kindness and forgiveness to others, yet we judge and attack others recklessly with threats of hellfire and eternal suffering. We are meant to merely spread the word of God in nonviolent and nonconfrontational way. I digress though. :O
I know you and many other people don't believe in God, yet I still think that it doesn't matter in the long run. God can do anything to anybody. I would love for you all to know the wonders of God and the peacefulness of it all. But it's not for you, and I can respect that. I wish you happiness regardless!
Again...
Boingo Boingo Whoopsy Knickers.
I haven't voted in the poll because there is no option that corresponds to my view.
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Read on...
Before I start I would like to make it clear that I do not consider myself part of any religion. Neither do I have any formal scientific training beyond high school. The ideas I will put forth here are just that, ideas, conclusions formed from a lifetime of curiosity, reading and thought. My sources come from all over the place, I have no wish to convert the faithful nor any need to persuade the sceptical. Having said that...
The gods exist. ALL of them. Without exception.
"But there's no proof!" Wail the scientists,
"It's a matter of faith!" Cry the religious among us...
I disagree. I'm not implying that we can trek up mount Olympus to go and shake hands with Zeus. Gods exist in the same way that Santa Claus exists (no offence meant). None of us could sit and have a beer with the 'Fat Man', but each of us knows and can form an image of who I'm talking about. The reason I use the 'Fat Man' as an example is because this idea has already been expressed more clearly than I ever could in Terry Pratchett's book 'Hogfather'. I don't have the book to hand, so forgive me if the scene is not transcribed verbatim:
**The head of the Guild of Assassins is presented with a picture of the 'Fat Man' as a target for ellimination**
Assassin: "There are many who would say that this...person...does not exist."
Client: "He must exist, how else could you so readily recognise his picture?"
As for higher powers, I have to say that I firmly belive in intelligences greater than our own. Becasue one of them spoke to me. It said, in a voice that was warm, reasuring, slightly disjointed and strangely reminiscent of Isaac Hayes;
"Its all right, you don't need to worry, everyone is the same, just love everybody, it's all going to be OK." These words were accompanied by an indescribable feeling of warmth and security the like of which I have neve felt before or since.
Unfortunately I was quite deeply under the influence of a psychotropic fungus at the time, so it's impossible to know whether what I heard and felt was my imagination being run through a gazzillion-watt amplifier, or whether the hallucinogen tuned my mind to a frequency normaly drowned out by the bullshit of 'life'. But I don't need to know, nor do I care where the message came from, the important thing for me is to listen to, and live by what it said. Which is easier said than done. I have tried to test the whole 'is there someone up there?' hypothesis but came away only with anecdotal evidence. I decided one day: "From now on, I do not belive in coincidence." then of course, coincidences started turning up with increased regularity, nothing huge you understand, little things, like borrowing a book, then straight after getting on a bus to go home and read it, only to discover that somone else was reading the same book, in the same edition. Was it some guiding force revealing itself to me? Or was I just noticing these little things because I had decided to treat them as fateful? It's impossible to know, each person has to make up their own mind about these things.
My own epiphanies aside, the most plausible candidate for anything close to 'god-like' would be alien intelligences, the universe is a wierder place than we can imagine, perhaps there are beings that have evolved in a higher set of dimensions than we have, and can move around through time as freely as we move around in space. Such beings would, of course, be able to perform incredible feats, unfathomable to the human mind, 'miracles' if you'll pardon the expression. It's worth remembering that sufficiently advanced technology is indistiguishable from magic.
Or perhaps we are merely characters in a story, unable to percieve, reach, or contact our authors, when you close a book, where do the characters go? Do they cease to exist?
Maybe the universe is a giant computer system built to find the questions of which only mice know the answer. Whatever it IS, it's probably not any of these things. It's very likey that we will never know, perhaps it isn't possible for us to know, with our fleshy, primitive brains.
But what I do know is this: with all the possibilites out there in the vast cosmic coreography of time, space plus however many dimensions Physics needs to opperate at the moment, I think it's just a wee bit arrogant for a bunch of clever monkeys on an miniscule blue rock, after only a few millenia of sentience, to say: This is what your god is, this is what pleases him, this is what angers him and if you do not please your God you will suffer. To me that view seems horribly limited and leads only to schism, stagnation and misery.
I much prefer the approach of awe and wonder, with each person exploring their own mind unhindered by fear and dogma, a universal acceptance of how little we know, an acceptance that we may very well never know the truth, but we should always keep looking, always keep discussing these things and above all, always be excited about the progress humanity can make by forgetting our differences.
If you read all that, thank you, I apologise for errors in spelling orsyntax. Now I realy must sleep, because it's daft o'clock in the morning.
BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS
BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS
BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS
BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS Ahhhhh.....
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Read on...
Before I start I would like to make it clear that I do not consider myself part of any religion. Neither do I have any formal scientific training beyond high school. The ideas I will put forth here are just that, ideas, conclusions formed from a lifetime of curiosity, reading and thought. My sources come from all over the place, I have no wish to convert the faithful nor any need to persuade the sceptical. Having said that...
The gods exist. ALL of them. Without exception.
"But there's no proof!" Wail the scientists,
"It's a matter of faith!" Cry the religious among us...
I disagree. I'm not implying that we can trek up mount Olympus to go and shake hands with Zeus. Gods exist in the same way that Santa Claus exists (no offence meant). None of us could sit and have a beer with the 'Fat Man', but each of us knows and can form an image of who I'm talking about. The reason I use the 'Fat Man' as an example is because this idea has already been expressed more clearly than I ever could in Terry Pratchett's book 'Hogfather'. I don't have the book to hand, so forgive me if the scene is not transcribed verbatim:
**The head of the Guild of Assassins is presented with a picture of the 'Fat Man' as a target for ellimination**
Assassin: "There are many who would say that this...person...does not exist."
Client: "He must exist, how else could you so readily recognise his picture?"
As for higher powers, I have to say that I firmly belive in intelligences greater than our own. Becasue one of them spoke to me. It said, in a voice that was warm, reasuring, slightly disjointed and strangely reminiscent of Isaac Hayes;
"Its all right, you don't need to worry, everyone is the same, just love everybody, it's all going to be OK." These words were accompanied by an indescribable feeling of warmth and security the like of which I have neve felt before or since.
Unfortunately I was quite deeply under the influence of a psychotropic fungus at the time, so it's impossible to know whether what I heard and felt was my imagination being run through a gazzillion-watt amplifier, or whether the hallucinogen tuned my mind to a frequency normaly drowned out by the bullshit of 'life'. But I don't need to know, nor do I care where the message came from, the important thing for me is to listen to, and live by what it said. Which is easier said than done. I have tried to test the whole 'is there someone up there?' hypothesis but came away only with anecdotal evidence. I decided one day: "From now on, I do not belive in coincidence." then of course, coincidences started turning up with increased regularity, nothing huge you understand, little things, like borrowing a book, then straight after getting on a bus to go home and read it, only to discover that somone else was reading the same book, in the same edition. Was it some guiding force revealing itself to me? Or was I just noticing these little things because I had decided to treat them as fateful? It's impossible to know, each person has to make up their own mind about these things.
My own epiphanies aside, the most plausible candidate for anything close to 'god-like' would be alien intelligences, the universe is a wierder place than we can imagine, perhaps there are beings that have evolved in a higher set of dimensions than we have, and can move around through time as freely as we move around in space. Such beings would, of course, be able to perform incredible feats, unfathomable to the human mind, 'miracles' if you'll pardon the expression. It's worth remembering that sufficiently advanced technology is indistiguishable from magic.
Or perhaps we are merely characters in a story, unable to percieve, reach, or contact our authors, when you close a book, where do the characters go? Do they cease to exist?
Maybe the universe is a giant computer system built to find the questions of which only mice know the answer. Whatever it IS, it's probably not any of these things. It's very likey that we will never know, perhaps it isn't possible for us to know, with our fleshy, primitive brains.
But what I do know is this: with all the possibilites out there in the vast cosmic coreography of time, space plus however many dimensions Physics needs to opperate at the moment, I think it's just a wee bit arrogant for a bunch of clever monkeys on an miniscule blue rock, after only a few millenia of sentience, to say: This is what your god is, this is what pleases him, this is what angers him and if you do not please your God you will suffer. To me that view seems horribly limited and leads only to schism, stagnation and misery.
I much prefer the approach of awe and wonder, with each person exploring their own mind unhindered by fear and dogma, a universal acceptance of how little we know, an acceptance that we may very well never know the truth, but we should always keep looking, always keep discussing these things and above all, always be excited about the progress humanity can make by forgetting our differences.
If you read all that, thank you, I apologise for errors in spelling orsyntax. Now I realy must sleep, because it's daft o'clock in the morning.
BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS
BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS
BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS
BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS BOINGOBOINGOWHOOPSYKNICKERS Ahhhhh.....
Well, my personal belief is that there are two parts of a human's subsoncious. One part is instinct, which tells us to be selfish and be forceful to get the things we want. This could be seen as our "evil" side but it's more to ensure the survival of our species. I believe the other part tells us to deny these urges to be selfish, and to help people even if they can never help you. This side is pure good; benevolence. I believe this part is God. God exists in people. He is pure good, but He can't be all powerful because He is separated. We've all seen the good that can be done when humans come together with benevolence in mind. If we all come together, every one of us, regardless of race and creed then I don't think that there is a problem on earth that we can't solve. So yes, I do believe there is a higher power, it's us.
This is an argument that isn't often brought out or countered but it's fundamental to believers everywhere. Because they feel god It must exist. Well if feeling god proves It's existence then not feeling It must proves It's non-existence. When I was young I believed in It and felt It. Then one day I realised that the universe made much more sense without a consciousness called God and ever since then I've felt that there is no God. Does my experience prove that God doesn't exist? No, just like feeling the opposite doesn't prove his existence.CodeChrono said:
my vew is that people beleve what ever they want but i thing everyting is guided by natrutal events that repeat them selvs over time until besides the higher power could energy it links everything and every one if i worsheped anything its nature/energy (the only thing that gets me pissed off is religon bashing and forceing religons onto people im from a jewish famley so i have to deal with this all the time)and im not saying science can explain everything nor do i beleve it can nature has misterios ways of working
on a side note i applaud the moral guide lines in most religons but they get ignored i thing that socity has to relearn its morals in gereral
on a side note i applaud the moral guide lines in most religons but they get ignored i thing that socity has to relearn its morals in gereral