Do you believe in god?

[throwaway777]

i was exactly thinking about lost in traslation when i wrote it :D my fav movie :3

That's assuming God is actually benevolent and omnipotent. Now imagine an imperfect, limited creator, with dubious morality. Reminds me of a very good short story by Australian SF author Greg Egan:
http://ttapress.com/553/crystal-nights-by-greg-egan/

saved the link :D thank u :DD

 

[Schopenhauer]

saved the link :D thank u :DD

Existence would be even more unbearable without scapist fiction :)

 

[Pallf]

Yeah I'm religious, Christian specifically. Born into it, raised in it, and if I weren't so dumb, I'd have a minor in it and maybe a PhD. I question God a good amount and I think that's good. To me it means that you're actually putting thought into what you believe.

 

[tothemetalsickness]

I've asked this before and looked into it, what does buddhism have to say about suicide.

It is a sin. We believe that this body is made for us to do good deeds and not to self-destruct. We also believe that this life is precious and we should not do something bad about it.

 

[Escape Humanity]

Abrahamic god (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Hinduism, Greek mythology, Etc. = NO (Atheist)

Creator(s), Something beyond a type 3 civilization, The simulation hypothesis = Maybe (Agnostic)

 

[406blue]

I spent a month in an ashram in india this year. http://www.babajiashram.org/

These were the principles they tried to adhere to. Babaji just means father in hindi.

• Live life in Truth, Simplicity, and Love
  
  
• Keep your mind always concentrated on God's name
  
  
• Do selfless work and service to God
  
  
• Love and serve all humanity
  
  
• Let the Lord's grace set you free

It's up to the individual to interpret what God and Love is, i think it's not a bad place to start. Specifically the point was that there is no religion, just humanity and that god is a metaphor for the connection. It was not suggested that this person is god but that he was an incarnation of something divine. In the mornings at 7 every day there was 'arti', where people went to the temple and sang devotional songs. There were icons and images of this person around the temple as well as his disciples, with flowers and offerings.

There were some people who went to these arti, westerners and indians who prostrated themselves in front of all the icons. Some who didn't, like me and just sat there and sang the words. I have ingrained in me a refusal to adhere to anything, especially kneeling in front of icons but i went every day and learned the words to the songs. It was incredibly beautiful, to be part of the thing but i wasn't able to have faith in the idea that this person was reincarnated from some kind of 'life source'. I became cynical about it all and left because it seemed there wasn't enough to connect me. I refused to kneel before something.

Anyway, my point is that during this time i was at some kind of relative peace and had no thoughts of the bus, smoking or drinking or drug taking. I still had my ingrained shit to deal with. It just seemed to me a different kind of drug. Compared to prozac and diazepam and alcohol though, it was positive and not something that refused life. You can maybe choose your drugs to deal with it all, just better to chose something that helps and doesn't fuck you up perhaps. Nihilism is fine from a philosophical point of view but it doesn't help me live.

I used to think that religion was the opium of the masses and i think it still is. You can maybe at least choose your opium if it helps you live in peace. It's hard to do if you have not been brought up in a culture that encourages faith. I still think about the bus every day and have tried and failed but it's at least an interesting idea and can lead to discussion.

 

[Jon]

Until we know why we exist, from where we came from, and where we go, then God, or gods, or the tooth fairy, cannot be ruled out for certain. Some people find peace in believing these things, just as I find peace in believing the Fates exists, and that everything that happens had to happen, though I have absolutely no proof of that. Let people believe what they want, as long as they don't force their beliefs upon others.

 

[406blue]

Until we know why we exist, from where we came from, and where we go, then God, or gods, or the tooth fairy, cannot be ruled out for certain. Some people find peace in believing these things, just as I find peace in believing the Fates exists, and that everything that happens had to happen, though I have absolutely no proof of that. Let people believe what they want, as long as they don't force their beliefs upon others.

The disparity of ideas about this issue just reinforces the idea that there is no single truth. It's fun talking about it though, well not fun just interesting. To live and die with honesty and conviction requires faith in something.

 

[406blue]

That's exactly my point! Think about it about for a moment. Have you ever heard the saying 'We are the universe experiencing itself'? Especially when we are stuck between two eternities of unknown properties where eternal oblivion may be the default setting of the universe? Also considering that life is a losing game regardless and you enter this world with nothing and will end with nothing. Humans like to define objects and have a certain understanding of what this reality is when it could be the complete opposite of what actually is. Look up Alan Watts 'Nothingness is the ultimate reality' or 'the beauty of nothingness' on YouTube. He briefly explains what I somewhat believe which is the aesthetic Void which encompasses everything. When asked 'Who are you really?' We tell urselves we may know but in all actuality we know nothing. Now of course I could be wrong and it's just that I've taken too many drugs.

i like alan watts very much but he died from alcohol abuse in the end. Many philosophers have been subject to self destruction because they perceive the lack of substance in human existence and the falsehood of the ego and are left with the void. There's a point in the monty python film life of brian where he says 'you come into life with nothing, you leave with nothing'. What happens in between.. to live by this principle. Who are we really? We find out sooner or later i hope.

 

[Lara Francis]

All I can say is that if God exists, he / she is a mean son of bitch!

 

[Going Home]

I think God probably exists but doesn't care.

 

[Deleted member 1768]

curiosity

No.

 

[Roph]

Yes.

 

[Wantingpeace]

That was deep.
To be honest I don't think I ever met a person who didn't like dogs for all we know they could be supreme beings

They are amazing aren't they

 

[Wantingpeace]

Maybe nothingness is the true reality and all of this is but a dream/hologram like matrix where the Void tries to cope with itself. That's what I 'believe' anyway.

I fell in the void lol i do not know what has happened to me..

 

[tothemetalsickness]

They are amazing aren't they

I do not like dogs...I am a cat person.... I do not like dogs cause one of them bit me when I was a kid XD

 

[Wantingpeace]

i have always had the idea of an afterlife in which our souls could be healed with a love that is not accessible in this life ... a love so pure and infinite that cant be reached by this fragile reality…it's like if i perceived that there's something that i cant explain or understand, but whose peace and greatness i can feel … and it attracts me ... i thank you for writing those theories :33 … i'm so sensitive to them … about the existence of god, i can't believe it because of the suffering that is life … but i believe in some sort of energy that is love that we will experience out of this life <33

I believe that I've experienced something like this in life but what i experience most of time Is terror and torture.it hasn't healed me from what I experience most time...I wish for us all to experience this love when we pass.

 

[Wantingpeace]

I do not like dogs...I am a cat person.... I do not like dogs cause one of them bit me when I was a kid XD

I'm like this with cats,,they do not seem to like me. Have been scratched so many times. I get on with kittens :)

 

[musician]

If God is really exist, why he let criminals to use his name to commit a genocide crimes? why he or she let small kids suffers from diseases like cancer and metal illness? why let the power in money only? For me God is metaphoric image of Justice in the centuries where there were no technology and science hasn't yet made it through societies. At that time it was simple, God means good, satan mean bad. This kind of simplicity cannot fit in a world filled with advance technology and science and wealthy people who control the world with secret agencies and powerful execution methods anymore. The reality is we are as human live with built in energy inside us. Once that energy shut down, we simply gone. There is no afterlife, no judgment day, noting.

 

[worldexploder]

No. I am an atheist and very anti-spiritual. I am a determinist and a philosophical materialist. Personally, I believe that anything "spiritual" deludes the mind from what is real.

 

[Miro]

Yes.

 

[MKnight]

I believe in something whatever it is and I accept I dont fully understand it.

 

[Taylored]

I believe a "creator" exists but I don't exactly believe he's a God.

 

[ParamitePie]

لا إله إلا الله ومحمد رسوله

 

[Justanotherconsumer]

In the biblecle sense god is said to have handed the world over to the devil, I always thought that very weird, and possibly just thrown in to explain why the world is evil, the world of giant carnivore Dino's doesn't seem at all good, man is not inherently good, he's selfish, predatory and willing to steal, kill if socially acceptable as in war. It seems to me the Bible seeks to paint a good god, but the creation speaks an entirely different story, maybe the sheep are hidden from the true character of god so the wolves can prey upon there brainwashed timid carcass.

 

[Lost21]

I'm agnostic. Rationally I don't believe in God but I find it hard to believe there's not some kind of divine being

 

[Zaynaldeen]

I am Muslim and I know that it is completely prohibited in Islam to kys, I am really looking for alternatives. The thing is that I really don't feel like killing myself (even though I do think about it a lot), I just really hate living in my current state and have developed hatred for people in general. I want to vanish, but not by suicide.

 

[Final Escape]

curiosity

I don't know but the values set forth by Christianity are worthwhile values or moral rules to live by. Unfortunately all of us are both good and evil to various degrees depending on the person I suppose. It is a fact that every single one of us is corruptable. This is why an honest economic structure is so important to avoid the breakdown of civilization. Since we are not by default moral and respond to environment and economic incentives. Anyway I completely went of tangent again lol! Most people respond positively when we experience noble positive acts done by other people so this is why I know for a fact there is a absolute right and wrong. We were taught religion because those rules taught were what keeps the social fabric and civility intact especially in more intelligent societies. We actually have to work at being good and excellent, but we are not born that way. We're more inclined to be assholes without being guided to be good :)