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Post by Xavier Harkonnen on Jan 6, 2008 12:19:31 GMT -5
My question, which has really been making me lose sleep is Does God(s) exsist? And if they do, why? Or are they just a way to keep us all from going insane? To comfort us and make us feel like we aren't alone? Or is it a way to control the masses?
I'm not questioning God, nor am I bashing him, I am an avid Protestant myself, but I can't help but wonder, Is he real? Or not?
I know that no one here can give me a real answer, but at least I can have opinions.
So, if ya got 'em, share 'em.
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Post by crystal on Jan 6, 2008 12:59:27 GMT -5
Well, in some ways I am still trying to figure out for myself who God is and whatnot, so I can't say I'm an expert or anything--heck I say that no one can possibly be an expert on anything about God or religion, whether you believe in Him or not, because we're all only human. But I can offer up my opinion at least  Well... I guess I only have my own personal experiences to rely on here, in offering an opinion. And I would like to make it clear that I am simply speaking from my own limited point of view, from my own experiences, and I am not saying that anyone else has to believe this way or that they should. Okay with that said, here is my opinion: I believe that God exists, partly because it's the way I have always been taught since I was very young. But also it's because in recent years, God is the only person who has kept me sane, really. I believe He is real because I've seen too many weird coincedences happen in my lifetime, and I've seen too many helpful things happen that truly lifted me up when I felt like I was at rock bottom, right at the nick of time, right when I needed it most. So I guess I will say this... if God does not exist, then I would have to believe in good luck and bad luck, hehe >.> Who knows, maybe there is such a thing as luck, at least in some ways, for all I know. But anyway I'm getting slightly off-topic I think, heh. As for why He exists... I guess it's for the same reason anything exists. Everything exists for a reason and there needs to be a guiding force behind it all, so to speak. (Now I sound like I'm talking about something form Star Wars, LOL, but perhaps it falls under a similar principle) I also believe that... well, God has His own logic, and His own way of doing things, because unlike us, He can see the entire picture, while we can only see what's around us and we can't see into the future. He *knows* what will happen, and about the closest thing we can do to that is speculate and theorize on what could happen. So anyway... that's my opinion, and I hope it made sense. If anyone wants me to clarify let me know |
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Post by Junk Angel on Jan 7, 2008 19:11:23 GMT -5
Due to a number of paradoxes, a sorry to say, plain stupidity of many religious books including the old testament, the christian bible and the quaran, anda number of other personal reasons, I believe or to be more specific, I'm convinced, that the God, or any number of other gods do not exist. Of course, there is a chance, that beings vastly more powerful than us inhabit this universe, but none of them exhibit the same qualities as deities.
They cannot be allpowerful, out of time and all knowing.
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Post by Mandalorian on Jan 9, 2008 18:17:36 GMT -5
I beleive that some form of god exists, and all of the diffrent relegions of earth are just ways to try to comprehend it. (and all of them are most likely wrong, but with a bit of truth) like Crystal said there are just too many coincedences and anomolies for one not to exist. Also it must have a good sense of humor due to how screwed up quantum mechanics is.
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Post by Xavier Harkonnen on Jan 9, 2008 18:19:26 GMT -5
Also it must have a good sense of humor due to how screwed up quantum mechanics is. Ditto.  But I can't argue with all these stories of gods, but people are alike. Just like how Empires were created across the ancient world to control the masses, could religion have been a similar invention? I know it has been used in such cases to control the masses, but my question is if it was invented to control the masses. |
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Post by Mandalorian on Jan 9, 2008 18:45:58 GMT -5
hmm... in some cases yes i think that ancient egyption relegion is an exampe of that. although soem relegions just seem to spring up when there's an empire present against that empire christianity. Although most have been used for control at some point.
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Post by Junk Angel on Jan 10, 2008 12:21:08 GMT -5
Invented is not the correct word. But abused is. Also, if you look at most modern strong religions, that had power on the physical world - Islam, Christianity and a few others, you will notice that most of their traditions and festivities are artificially created.
Most of the dates and symbology are just too coincidental with old pagan rituals to have not been created from these very rituals.
Also, unless I'm mistaken, the pre templar christianity did not have the devil in the form of a ram, or satyr.
Only after the fall of the templars, was their own symbol used for this.
And what coincidences? Look at it this way. Had some physical constant been different for some reason, would it mean, that life could not evolve? And wouldn't the life possibly have exactly the same dilemma? Isn't everything too coincidental to have been a coincidence.
The largest problem of humans, is that they center everything around themselves.
We can't imagine that it might be different, and the belief that life evolved under the circumstances we live in, implies to most, that these are the only circumstances under which it could come into being.
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Post by wes on Jan 25, 2008 19:32:59 GMT -5
I believe in the Christian God. I look at it this way. You can believe either that a Creator created all things, controls all things, and knows how the future will be played out, or that you came from a blob from a bang that made stuff out of nothing(  ), and the blob went under hundreds of rare mutations to bring you to what we have today: Humans. |
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Post by Abby on Jan 25, 2008 20:09:01 GMT -5
I would really like to know if the Greek Gods would still be around. I really love the tales from those times. Posiden has to be my favorite god, along with Athena, Artemis, and Apollo. It would be coo, don't you think? To have so many people watching us from the stars. It'd really be something.
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Post by wes on Jan 25, 2008 20:15:13 GMT -5
It would be coo, don't you think? To have so many people watching us from the stars. It'd really be something. Lol, Like humans watching an ant farm  |
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Post by Abby on Jan 26, 2008 12:50:20 GMT -5
Except that you can't see the huge eyes watching your every move...  |
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Post by Junk Angel on Jan 26, 2008 20:31:41 GMT -5
Well greek gods are typical for humans
you start off with concepts that are all around
you know, like the wind
thne you anthropologise them, giving them human qualities
and thne you have to find the big huhu that has them all
and you end up with the christian god.
But your faith stems from the bible - a book in which many fallacies, paradoxes and illogicalities have been found.
Isn't it better to believe in mere chance then?
Also consider one thing - due to pure luck and chance, you were born in a western family (my own pure presumption). A family that itself believes.
Now consider if luck had been different, and the person that qualifies as you, were born to a hindu family - would you still be christian, or hindu?
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Post by wes on Jan 27, 2008 9:39:31 GMT -5
Ok say I was born Hindu. I could have just as easily heard a missionary that was sent to my country and get converted.
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Post by Junk Angel on Jan 27, 2008 14:48:18 GMT -5
Let's start with the omni qualities of god - most of them tend to be quite illogical.
Also for god to be all powerful, he would have to be exerpt from time, which means, he would have to be outside of our universe. But the moment you have two systems, that exist outside of each other, you always create a third, a combination of both god and our universe - this would imply that there is a more powerful being than god.
Further, you tend to say that evolution is a joke - consider this, god a being much more complex than we, also had to evolve from something, or did he himself have a creator?
As to some fallacies - the world is definitely not 6000 years old.
There was no world flood - among other things, there just isn't enough water on earth to justify it.
Further humans could have never coexisted with dinosaurs. For one simple reason - the layering of fossils. Fossils are not layered after their weight, but after their timeframes, which means that you get dinosaurs on one level, and mamals of similar weight on another.
Then humanity could not begin with only two people - they just wouldn't have enough genes among them to create healthy future generations.
Also considering that Eve was more or less a clone of Adam, as she was created from his rib, this reduces the possible genetic range even more.
The evolution of the cell - a number of cell organels once were other cells - as the mitochondria or chloroplast. You can actually find extremely primitive cell structures were these organels are born externally and only later get into the cell itself.
The entirety of the bible trying to spurn old pagan, greek and roman traditions and deities.
And much more.
As to the missionary - what if you had the same strength of faith in hinduism as you have in christianity today?
Remember the reason why christianity spread so easily was, because it incorporated a lot of the local worship. That's why you have christmas on the 24.12 and a lot of other symbols etc.
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Post by Mandalorian on Jan 29, 2008 2:14:50 GMT -5
Actualle theL0stcat, there is scientific evidence that there was a flood at that poitn intime, that dates back to that timeframe. fo course it didn't cover the globe but it would ahve seemed liek that to a person going through it. Actually almost everythign datign to that period in teh bible can be traced back to an actual event. There even appears to be a palce that coudl ahev been Eden, it has the correct geolgical structure (or atleast it woudl ahev before it eroded) and experiecned a flood. And it happens to eb in mesopotamia the birth place of civilization, coincedence?
Basicly what i'm saying is that relegion is a way to cope with the world, Learn of our past (even if distorted), and teach a moral code. No relegion is correct becouse no one ahs actually talked to god, they may haev though they did but that was probabbly just another way to cope, or they never even thought they did but it was attributed to them post humonisly. Don't take this to say I don't beelive in god, becosue i do but to say that there is a middle ground. Its possibel to beleive in science and evolution and still beleive in a greater power... it helps the mind keep from breakign down to attribute an event ot an outside force and not just a random strign of events that have innumarable outcoems but had the chance to come out the way they did.
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), and the blob went under hundreds of rare mutations to bring you to what we have today: Humans.
