Do You Believe In "God" In ANY Way, Shape or Form?

by minimus 48 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Alpaca

  Hi All,

  I used to believe when I was a Dub -- but it was always belief with a heavy duty dose of doubt (which, of course, I could never express to anyone). Now, on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 = no doubt / total belief and 100 = total skeptic / atheist, I am probably at a good, solid 98.5 % skeptic.

  I think that religion, belief in God and the attendant belief (usually) in an afterlife is a superstitious hold over from our species' primitive past. For those who are raised with a belief in God, it is scary to think that this life may be all there is. Yet, there is more empirical evidence to suggest that this is all there is, rather than the some fanciful ideas about God, an afterlife, and divine intervention in the earth's affairs.

  The history of the earth tells us that species appear and disappear throughout time. Many people think that humans are somehow special -- but we are not. We are just another species that has been here for a relatively short time and at the rate we are going won't be here too much longer.

  Why am I not at 100% on my scale? Because, now I structure my belief system(s) on a continuum from false to true in the same way that the scientific method works. As evidence piles up, things / beliefs are driven toward one end of the continuum or the other. All of the available evidence indicates to me that there is no God, but there does seem to be some kind of energy that connects things (maybe science will eventually peel back those mysteries). Additionally,I would be just as dogmatic as the hardcore fundamentalists, at the other end of the continuum, to categorically declare that God does not exist. In formal logic you cannot prove the non-existence of anything. The best we can do is to deal in probabilities and at this stage the probablities are that we are on our own, which means we better wake up as a species and start caring for the earth in responsible way.

  Thanks for considering my view.

  Alex
• 

  Faded-out

  For me it's not a matter of believing or not. I consider myself an apathist. I just don't care either way. It's a case of "what have you done for me lately"

  The simple theory of the apathist:

  Perhaps there is a god, or gods, or goddesses, or higher powers.

  Perhaps not.

  It's irrelevant.

  You do the most good you can with what you have.
  If you get help from somewhere else,
  that's just icing on the cake.
• 

  Layla33

  I believe there is an entity higher than us, a supreme being, if you will, but not in the way that most attribute it.

  I also believe there are negative and positive forces in this universe that are not of this natural world.

  However, to me "God" is too easy. There are many "gods" and people create "gods" for whatever concept and belief system they have, it doesn't make it so.

  I prefer to live my life based on philosophy rather than theology, but that's just me.
• 

  myelaine

  dear Terry...

  "2.An all-knowing, all-powerful entity should not have to construct elaborate, far-reaching plans to achieve something as simple as the snap of the fingers to accomplish. Yet, God's apologists would have us believe that is how God's will is done. A Rube Goldberg scheme that not even the most adept theologist can adequately explain without charts, graphs and a heaping dose of gullibility."

  here's a shot in the dark...

  if you had a son that, on becoming an adult was accused of killing a bunch of people and other henious crimes...and before he spoke to anyone he killed himself. would you take back his "conception"...if you could?...or would you wait for the courts decision as to his guilt or not?

  love michelle
• 

  LouBelle

  I do yes - it may not be the conventional way of believing in god.
• 

  myelaine

  The God that walked in the garden said this: "Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; when I fixed My limits for it, and set bars and doors; when I said, this far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!" Job 38:8-11 love michelle
• 

  Quentin

  I believe...it's a personel belief, no longer fell the need to broadcast it to others, nor do I believe you get all there is to know from some book, or what an other tells you...

  One other thing, I am not a knuckle dragging dim-wit because I believe, anymore than a person who doesen't, is a knuckle dragging dim-wit because they don't...
• 

  mind my own

  I do still believe in God, but it's much different than the way I believed before. I am very spiritual yet not religeous. I am very aware that there is a God. I do talk to him but it is in different terms... I don't pray really, it's more like meditation. I am very careful to live my life in a way that I am proud of and that I can justify, yet I no longer fear God in the way I did before when I was in the religeon.

  MMO
• 

  mind my own

  I should add that God to me now is what I have created for myself. The way I view him is so much different. I am no longer afraid of him and the idea of what he represents. My idea of him is now friendly and kind and I didn't view him like that before. It works for me on my terms but it is not even close to how I believed in God before.

  MMO