do you believe in God

[Altair]

Do uneducated men write Stoic works like Ecclesiastes, poetry like Psalms or the Song of Songs, or tragic drama like the book of Job? Do they demonstrate an awareness of the best knowledge of their age as St Paul does in his Epistles? There were profound debates on ethics and the cosmos in St Paul's time. He himself mentions the Stoics and Epicureans. Many subjects scientists/philosophers still debate precede this time: cosmogony, zoogony, stoichogony, abiogenesis, natural law, heliocentrism, evolution, uniformitarianism, different types of multiverse (parallel, cyclic and nested), atoms, elements, physicalism, the conservation of matter/energy, quantitative/mathematical models of the cosmos, probability, isonomia, emergence, the principles of sufficient reason and ou mallon. People asked the same deep questions that we ask now: Is the cosmos eternal or finite? Is the cosmos bounded or infinite? What is the first principle of the cosmos? What processes gave rise to the cosmos? Does the cosmos have a purpose? Is there one cosmos or multiple cosmoi? Are there fundamental constituents of the cosmos (atoms, elements, geometric shapes), or are things infinitely divisible?

I find much of the Bible immoral. Still, if the Bible's authors were utterly devoid of morals, how do you explain Christ's teachings of unconditional love, compassion, forgiveness, humanism, asceticism and final judgement? Why would men without morals write books like Proverbs?

QUOTE....."I find much of the Bible immoral. Still, if the Bible's authors were utterly devoid of morals, how do you explain Christ's teachings of unconditional love, compassion, forgiveness, humanism, asceticism and final judgement? Why would men without morals write books like Proverbs"?

The same MEN who wanted to sanctify themselves for their wrong doings....They KNEW what they were doing was wrong..They had no choice but to try and make excuses to forgive themselves.

Pathetic really.

 

[harrisonworks]

I do believe in God,,i trust in him

 

[Altair]

Hmm...!

 

[Jude99]

Elea you didnt answer my question..........I take it you dont know?

 

[badly]

What 'Accepted theory' ?...Never heard of it.!

Am in hospital on my phone once am home i’ll explain

 

[Jude99]

Am in hospital on my phone once am home i’ll explain[/QUOTE

I do hope you are ok badly and are home soon.

 

[Tan]

No...
But science will never answer the question of whether God exists or not. Science provides relatively proximate cause and effect explanations about the natural world immediately around us, which we're then able to formulate models from and make further predictions with, but it can never affect peoples propensity to attribute a more broader and ultimate cause of things, to a God - particularly one whose nature may be said to be inherently beyond measure and/or comprehension, and therefore beyond the realm of empiricism itself. Science and a faith in God aren't incompatible; Science will always leave space for a God to exist.

But in any case it's irrelevant for me personally, I just don't care if one exists or not.

What I do care about though is the existence of entire belief systems and ideologies centred around the concept of a God; the effect that these belief systems and ideologies have on the emotions and behaviours of the individuals who adhere to them; and the resulting effect that these individuals now have on me and my surroundings in the present. Of course, I'm talking of religion. It's principally religious interpretive frameworks of God that carry the greatest real life implications, and so this is where the focus should be.

Though with this said, there is a particular type of Atheist who really frustrate me: those who always dogmatically frame the issue in certain narrow black-and-white terms of God vs no God, Theism vs Atheism, or religion vs no religion, and in doing so completely overlook the nuance of what religious adherents interpret their respective Gods to want from them, and how that then impacts them (the Atheists) personally, and too the rest of society at large. Religions differ, believe it or not, as do their effects. Smart Atheists ought to be able to differentiate between them, assess the general aggregate effects that they each have and bestow onto society overall, and then seek to promote (or at least defend) those whose effects are largely positive, while attacking those whose effects are largely negative - this is, rather than just conflating all Gods and all religions together under a single banner and attacking them all outright, as so many Atheists do. There needs to be more selectivity in which religious scriptures/interpretations should be challenged and undermined, and whose God be attacked.

For example, take normative Christianity.
I'm no Christian but yet I will defend Christianity because I can see that, on the whole, it has a benevolence-promoting effect on its adherents and that, comparatively speaking, it stands to be the most viable candidate for creating the most preferable conditions under which to live freely and happily - in stern contrast to certain other religions that exist out there currently competing for a similar level of prominence.

This video (which is pure art) perfectly demonstrates what I'm talking about. You don't have to fully agree with the guy, but it's hard to watch this through and not appreciate the effect that his belief in Christianity has had on him, and then too on society at large. Quite frankly, you have to be a complete fool to even want to attempt to argue him out of what he now believes - particularly when you bear in mind when you watch this that he has been clinically diagnosed as a sociopath, and has spent time in prison for attempted murder:
(better watched on Youtube's site)

 

[Christianincardiff]

God does not cause suffering! Full stop we cause suffering through our selfish and greedy ways.
Or lack of humanity has increased with every generation that passed. God gives us a way out through Christ, as for you suffering or anyone else we work with the cards where dealt and until where i heaven where stuck here so deal with it.. like God said so..

 

[megs233]

God does not cause suffering! Full stop we cause suffering through our selfish and greedy ways.
Or lack of humanity has increased with every generation that passed. God gives us a way out through Christ, as for you suffering or anyone else we work with the cards where dealt and until where i heaven where stuck here so deal with it.. like God said so..

MMMMM
not lets see i had christian teaching too and did not God send in the plagues eg:
Because Pharaoh refused to set the Israelites free, God decided to punish him,sending ten plagues on to Egypt. These included: The Plague of Blood. God ordered Aaron to touch the River Nile with his staff - and the waters were turned to blood.

 

[Jude99]

Its been too long since I was at school so cant remember all that stuff Tango.

 

[megs233]

View attachment 579

yes a small dog who wants tolove you as much as you love it.

 

[Altair]

yes a small dog who wants tolove you as much as you love it.

Big dawgies like love too.!

 

[Altair]

There is No God. There has never been one and there will never be one. As soon as you realise that you will lose all your Bigotry and contempt for others.

 

[Altair]

Prove it ! Springs to mind but nooooooo.
I have decided not to argue this.
On scientific and philosophical grounds I believe in God.
I'm not even sure if belief in God is a good thing and what others choose to believe is up them.

I can't prove it.!! Exactly the same as i can't prove there aren't Fairies living at the bottom of my garden.

I prefer to believe there aren't.

I'm firmly in the Science camp and Science rules out the 'Supernatural', so from that perspective, i have to rule out there being any God or God's.

If you had NEVER heard of God/Jesus etc.... and someone just came up to you and told you the stories of God / Jesus and the Miracles etc...Would you believe them?

There are good people who believe in God....Nothing wrong with that, but, If you choose to believe in something Supernatural then you have to admit to being 'Irrational'.