Do you believe in God?

Don't any of you ever question your purpose in life,and why your here? and why you exist

You have to assume that we have a purpose before you'd want to ask that question. I have no reason to think life has a "purpose" other than just functioning amazingly and evolving.

I'd like to know for definite how all life started, but I can live with not knowing, life itself is a marvellous thing that I make the most of the best I can

Do you ever question why you believe? And I don't mean question your beliefs, I mean question WHY you believe.

There's got to be a reason surely.

What makes you sure?

Perhaps we are on a journey,none of can be certain,but when you have lost loved ones you think about these things.

To me and most people, yes life is a journey, and yes most people do think about these things when losing a loved one.

If there is an afterlife, and i really believe there is,and i manage to get through the " pearly gates" I don't want it to be just full of happy clappy hymn singing,chanting Christians that would be boring.I want it to be filled with people of all creeds and races, even atheists, and they will probably be more of them then anyone.

IF there is a heaven (or equivelent for all the other many faiths) and God exists and is a just God, there would be a fair few atheists who get in and a fair few believers who don't. Faith doesn't qualify people as being good or righteous.

I'm surprised at the poll result.I had expected the belief result to be much lower. On the religious threads i've been on before its usually been a minority of two my side. Now i've said that i expect more atheists will vote!

It's worth pointing out that the answers "No", "Not sure" and "Willing to be convinced" all come under not having the belief.

Regardless of what some may think, anything other than a YES is a NO, some NO's being more open to change than others.

I do get the idea that you aren't big on religion. You don't seem big on your fellow man either.

No, I'm not a big fan of religion because I'm not, unlike some, apathetic towards the harm it causes. I also care about what is true.

Of course there is a God without a God, in whatever form, the universe and its inhabitants would not exist.

Evolution is only a theory never forget that.

Not that old canard. Again. This is only ever wrote by people who have absolutely no conception of what a scientific theory actually is. Do you think that gravity is just a theory? Can I float off into space by simply not believing in it? I think you know the answer to that one.

To prevent more foolishness and to educate you and anyone else who thinks 'it's just a theory' is a valid argument against anything I suggest you read this... it will only take two minutes of your life and you just might learn something.

http://www.notjustatheory.com/

jb

No, I'm not a big fan of religion because I'm not, unlike some, apathetic towards the harm it causes. I also care about what is true.

I would like to ask all the Don't knows and willing to be convinced, just how far they are willing to go

For me it's a weight of evidence argument and bible study backs up science

I believe in God

God never wanted vain and self righteousness people ,people who ridicule

Who gave us human rights anyway?

If your a atheist they should not exist

And if your not why are we better than everything else

If only the willing to be convinced.... Really were

I would like to ask all the Don't knows and willing to be convinced, just how far they are willing to go

For me it's a weight of evidence argument and bible study backs up science

I believe in God

God never wanted vain and self righteousness people ,people who ridicule

Who gave us human rights anyway?

If your a atheist they should not exist

And if your not why are we better than everything else

If only the willing to be convinced.... Really were

Can you just repost this a little clearer?

Who gave us human rights anyway?

A European Convention in 1953.

The idea of 'Rights' as divine was used to justify monarchy and papal power. The protestant church used 'rights' equally as a leverage to take that power away from them. It's all moot anyway. It certainly doesn't prove God.

Personally I believe nature is random chance so I voted no, nature does not care, nature does not intend, nature just is.

If you wish to anthropomorphise nature then the words that I think would be most apt would be indifferent, uncaring and unfeeling, nature doesn't care if you fall under a bus, nature doesn't care if you develop cancer, nature doesn't care if you have blue eyes, nature doesn't care if you have perfect health, these things just happen.

From the same evidence, any god that actually existed, would also be indifferent, uncaring and unfeeling, which really doesn't sound so good.

Now if you develop cancer or have perfect health then this time it's them doing it, and the world goes from merely being random chance to being a child's plaything where you are subject to the whims of some being you need to keep appeased lest they smite you.

Which when you think about it is a control mechanism, "do what you are told or suffer the consequences", and more likely to have been an invention of man trying to control his fellow man than some rule laid down by some supernatural entity who then creates an entire universe and then communicates this rule to a minuscule fraction of that universe just so that some atoms that eventually became intelligent can offer it worship.

Needy much ? a touch over complex perhaps ?

I mean why bother, this is supposedly a god, they can create just those souls that make the grade and populate their heaven with them and skip all this universe nonsense, can't they ? am I misunderstanding the definition of a god ? can they not do this ?

Is this life really just an elaborate game, and we're pieces being moved by the occupants of olympus for their amusement and pleasure, receiving rewards for making them happy and suffering for displeasing them ?

At least with random chance you have a chance.

and bible study backs up science

Really? That should be interesting.

Who gave us human rights anyway?

Humans

If your a atheist they should not exist

Why shouldn't they?

And if your not why are we better than everything else

Not sure what you mean here. Are you saying "if you are not[atheist], why are we[theists] better than everything else?

Or do you mean why are we, as a species, better than anything else?

Personally I believe nature is random chance so I voted no, nature does not care, nature does not intend, nature just is.

 

If you wish to anthropomorphise nature then the words that I think would be most apt would be indifferent, uncaring and unfeeling, nature doesn't care if you fall under a bus, nature doesn't care if you develop cancer, nature doesn't care if you have blue eyes, nature doesn't care if you have perfect health, these things just happen.

 

From the same evidence, any god that actually existed, would also be indifferent, uncaring and unfeeling, which really doesn't sound so good.

 

Now if you develop cancer or have perfect health then this time it's them doing it, and the world goes from merely being random chance to being a child's plaything where you are subject to the whims of some being you need to keep appeased lest they smite you.

 

Which when you think about it is a control mechanism, "do what you are told or suffer the consequences", and more likely to have been an invention of man trying to control his fellow man than some rule laid down by some supernatural entity who then creates an entire universe and then communicates this rule to a minuscule fraction of that universe just so that some atoms that eventually became intelligent can offer it worship.

 

Needy much ? a touch over complex perhaps ?

 

I mean why bother, this is supposedly a god, they can create just those souls that make the grade and populate their heaven with them and skip all this universe nonsense, can't they ? am I misunderstanding the definition of a god ? can they not do this ?

 

Is this life really just an elaborate game, and we're pieces being moved by the occupants of olympus for their amusement and pleasure, receiving rewards for making them happy and suffering for displeasing them ?

 

At least with random chance you have a chance.

A marvellous act of faith so your of school of thought that says if you put enough monkeys in a room with enough typewriters you will get a Shakespeare sonnet?

I admire your faith. You have also identified the critical question

So we have random chance v laws of science nature physics and in the end they lead to God