Do you believe in god?

[xxoozero]

I don't. I'm an atheist. I believe in science and what can be proven. I think everything can be explained given the proper investigation and evidence. I also believe that those who believe in a god are foolish and ignoring every single fact ever made in this world ever.

I also think spirituality is crap. I think if you have to look for a higher meaning to why we are here you are missing the bigger picture that is right in front of your face, which is we are here to do whatever makes us personally happy. Smoke weed, blow shit up, drink a bunch of soda, blah blah blah... whatever gets your rocks off.

Religion itself is a scourge on our society. It should be outlawed and the proprietors arrested and charged with thievery and general nogood-doery. The only thing it is good for is controlling the masses to the point of ultimate submission to where the public lets it control every aspect of our personal lives, including where to pee, what to eat on Friday, and how many bombs we strap to ourselves when going to blow up those dirty no good people down the street who believe something different.

Do you believe in god?

[Grieves]

I believe in faith...I believe in morals passed down through stories...I believe in the human condition and the impending disaster that will come if we don't work as a cohesive unit to become a type one civilization...

I do not believe in being(s) ruling/creating/watching over all...

[JcP]

I don't. I'm an atheist. I believe in science and what can be proven. I think everything can be explained given the proper investigation and evidence. I also believe that those who believe in a god are foolish and ignoring every single fact ever made in this world ever.

I also think spirituality is crap. I think if you have to look for a higher meaning to why we are here you are missing the bigger picture that is right in front of your face, which is we are here to do whatever makes us personally happy. Smoke weed, blow shit up, drink a bunch of soda, blah blah blah... whatever gets your rocks off.

Religion itself is a scourge on our society. It should be outlawed and the proprietors arrested and charged with thievery and general nogood-doery. The only thing it is good for is controlling the masses to the point of ultimate submission to where the public lets it control every aspect of our personal lives, including where to pee, what to eat on Friday, and how many bombs we strap to ourselves when going to blow up those dirty no good people down the street who believe something different.

Do you believe in god?

religion is a scourge and people who profess it should be outlawed, but blowing shit up and doing whatever gets your rocks off is what life is about? Thou hast contradicted yourself.

What if belief in God is what gets your rocks off? Wishing or believing in something better than a pointless existence in a limited world?

You are also making a classic mistake I find when speaking to (young) atheists which is confusing the establishment of a religion with a given message of a prophet or personal spiritual development.

Your examples are examples from dogma...which is the foundation of a religion meant to bring people to the same page (no pun intended) for mutual worship. When taken as strict fact and equally important to the larger message, you get fundamentalism.
Instead, the point of "eating X on friday" is to establish ritual...which is very important to a lot of people. It's a way of re-establishing your faith and belief through an act of either denial (I won't eat Y today), or indulgence (today is the day of rest!).
In effect, you're judging the message of religions by the human institutions that try to speak in place of the message itself. That's a very unfortunate mistake.

You also need to define God. I believe there is more to this existence than science has even begun to scratch the surface of. I look at science vs. explaining "everything" as comparable to the size of an atom to the size of this galaxy. God, to me, is whatever the answer to the questions like: "why am I here" "what is my purpose" "why is there something instead of nothing" etc.
I don't know what God is. It could be the laws of the universe, it could be an omnipotent consciousness, I could be God, God could be a giant cucumber. I don't know.
What I do know is that I don't know. And I urge you to reconsider your "atheism" as it is no different than fundamentalism. You state that there is no God. How arrogant, imo.

Science and spirituality are also not contradictory to one another. I believe in science and what can be proven too! I just also happen to believe that in the infinite unknown is something bigger, smarter, and transcendental.


so with that said, what are these "every single fact(s) ever made" that belief in God ignores?

Also, I'm curious...what is your answer to "where did the universe come from?" Remember, if life has come from something, you have to explain where that something came from...so "the big bang" is not a coherent creation point, as the stuff that went bang was already there.

[SageTree]

God I"m not sure about, but higher states of consciousness is something I believe in. In that place I believe there are more answers for many more questions we have about life, including God or Science.

[verklingen]

yeah

[Blue_Dolphin]

Yes, I do.

[Stoney]

I have a very firm belief in God.

[zerodown]

I don't, and if anyone wants to believe in it/he/she, they are "free" to do so, I don't complain about religious people, I complain about religious people trying to convince me to get into their religion, hey I don't go around telling you to be an atheist, fuck off...

[420smokeman]

everyone has a differant idea of what god is in there "mind"... it makes no difference if you belive it, it makes no differance if you care. god is the space in wich existance exists and you are it. i liek to call it the source more than "god" cause that word is interpreted in many ways by differnt people. nothingness is pure consiousness, pure awarness, and that is really all that exists everything else is an illusion. and it is one, threes is no seperation. only in your mind there seems to be, but you gotta lose your mind before you find it, and when you find it you relize you never lost it at all.

[The Rev]

Of course. I AM God.



The Rev

[Ego Tripping]

I think if you have to look for a higher meaning to why we are here you are missing the bigger picture that is right in front of your face, which is we are here to do whatever makes us personally happy.

Hm...interestingly enough, that's at the core of my spiritual beliefs.

Smoke weed, blow shit up, drink a bunch of soda, blah blah blah... whatever gets your rocks off.

I think if it harms no one, by all means.

Religion itself is a scourge on our society. It should be outlawed and the proprietors arrested and charged with thievery and general nogood-doery. The only thing it is good for is controlling the masses to the point of ultimate submission to where the public lets it control every aspect of our personal lives, including where to pee, what to eat on Friday, and how many bombs we strap to ourselves when going to blow up those dirty no good people down the street who believe something different.

Religion/God is very different than Spirituality/God. Religion is government for the afterlife, Spirituality is a personal and subjective journey to the root of your being and answering the big questions in a personal way (why are we here, where did we come from, what happens after death etc..). I feel that even if you don't believe in the supernatural, just asking those questions is a form of Spirituality. It's a willingness to address the absolute mystery of existence and enigma of physicality. Although I personally believe that if you dig deep enough in the quest to find the answers (or perhaps just ask better questions), you arrive at a supernatural center where somehow 'nothingness' became 'somethingness.' Even with all the trauma and pain we might see in the world, the Universe and our existence is all truly miraculous, mysterious and beautiful. That's what I personally feel Spirituality is and if you can truly embody that sense of wonder, life is f'king awesome. And I don't feel you need to be "Spiritual" to feel and live this way, you just need to ask the questions, reflect on your own self enough and find a bond between yourself and the rest of the people and beings in this world. Really, it's just a path of cultivating and practicing unconditional love.

Do you believe in god?

Being a former atheist/agnostic myself, I can say honestly and unequivocally, yes. There's a force behind the universe and life that is very real, very personal and very beautiful. If that's what someone wants to call 'God/Allah/Tao/Krishna/Spirit/Source/Light/Love/Spirituality', that's their choice.

[Ego Tripping]

Science and spirituality are also not contradictory to one another.

Indeed! Prayer May Reshape Your Brain ... And Your Reality : NPR

[msicidron]

i come closer and closer to believing in a classic christian god every time i hear an ignorant atheist rant like this.

[xxoozero]

what is your answer to "where did the universe come from?"

idk, lolcats?

Honestly, I don't know. It is just too much to bother with, you know, asking the ultimate question. I mean, seriously, will knowing the answer make you a better person? Will it put more money in your pocket... more weed in your bag?

Nope.

Debating it is useless since no one really knows, and we would all be ranting on a subject where any answer is just as likely as the last. It would be more interesting discussing planet formation and the like, because that gives us an idea of where we came from and how we evolved. The universe is a lot older than we are, we need to learn to walk before we swim marathons.

In other words learn where we came from and then worry about the rest of the universe.

[Ego Tripping]

It's not about debating it, nobody knows the answer and that's the point. It's about discussing, pondering, exploring and hopefully learning. I think that's your first mistake in the process and the reason you don't attempt to go near these questions.

And I find them as essential if not more essential than the money in my pocket or the weed in my bag.

[xxoozero]

The only way we are ever going to know for sure is if you have a Delorean and I have 1.21 gigawatts of electricity.

I do have access to that much electricity... just throwing that out there in case someone has a delorean...

[v3d4]

didnt you used to be all into voodoo? if im confusing you w someone else srry but if im not mistaken then im curious whats your take on that now?

[©antSEEme]

god yes, religion no.



i should also clarify my god is not the typical "white haired, long white beard, sitting on a cloud throwing lightning bolts" zeus rip-off. its not even really an entity, nor does it necessarily entitle an afterlife. more along the lines of a binding life force for all living creatures, nature, and anything that you can perceive to be "real" and everything that you cannot.

[msicidron]

idk, lolcats?

Honestly, I don't know. It is just too much to bother with, you know, asking the ultimate question. I mean, seriously, will knowing the answer make you a better person? Will it put more money in your pocket... more weed in your bag?

Nope.

Debating it is useless since no one really knows, and we would all be ranting on a subject where any answer is just as likely as the last. It would be more interesting discussing planet formation and the like, because that gives us an idea of where we came from and how we evolved. The universe is a lot older than we are, we need to learn to walk before we swim marathons.

In other words learn where we came from and then worry about the rest of the universe.

you're too trapped in your specific magnification. asking 'big questions' is just scaling up your viewpoint on the universe. you can never achieve a full understanding of something if you only know it from one perspective.

maybe someone could better put this into words..

[xxoozero]

didnt you used to be all into voodoo? if im confusing you w someone else srry but if im not mistaken then im curious whats your take on that now?

Velicoraptor Zombies.

I will control the world someday with an army of velicoraptor zombies.

But that has nothing to do with this thread here.