Valhalla Legends Archive

Why do, or why don't you believe in god?

I don't believe in god because of a decision that I made at the age of 6. I had just come home from school (at the time I was attending a highly orthodox jewish private school). I was taught that god knows everything that happens, and everything that is going to happen. Being a curious 6 year old, I was trying to trick god. So I went outside and got on my bike; I thought to myself, ok I'm gonna turn left. I then thought to myself, wait, god expects me to turn left, so I'll turn right. Then I thought, oh wait, then maybe god wants me to go right! I'll go left. Etc.... After about 5 minutes of doing this, I came to the conclusion that by me believing in god, my life was pre-written and I was just living out a story. I decided that if I don't believe in god I can make my own choices. That's why I don't believe in god.

Or, was it already written that you were gonna try it?

I don't believe in God simply because of the fact that .. well .. I don't believe in someone leading my life. If there truly was a God .. then Science would be the devil.

Here we go again.

This is my only post in this thread (I swear). I believe in God because it's what makes sense to me. The truths taught in church are fundamental in every day life and make you a better person, and easier to deal with. If every thing from the bible can be applied to every day life then all of it must be true.

As for the "not controlling your life", he gave people something called "free will", a radical concept where you can choose what to do and he does not control you, simply guide you if you choose to follow.

I beleive in God because, as j0k3r said, it's what makes sense to me. It's also how I was raised. Anyway, I don't see how all of a sudden the universe appeared without somebody creating something. Also, the beleif in God has been passed down through many generations, and many people follow him. It's hard to beleive that a story like that would survive witihout some truth, even though many accounts in the story were proven to have actually happened by an Iralie (sp?) scientist.

Hrmmm, I'll go with the easiest possible explination from my point of view:

At one point there had to be something that was just *there*. Either god was there, or the universe was there. I don't think that there was just some  random all-powerful being just sitting there in emptieness that decided to start making things one day. A universe, or simply matter for something like the big bang (which admitedly I don't entirely understand, but few people probably do, heh)  would seem more logically to have been just *there*, with nothing else, in the begining.

I believe in god because you cant physically make something (universe) out of nothing. Therefore there must be a higher power.

Wow... didnt we just have a thread about this.
Part of the reason why I believe the bible is factual is because I see prophecy being fulfilled daily. The prophecy in revelation about israel etc. I am leaving this thread now.

I believe in God because everything I read in the Bible makes sense and relates to real life.

God is a myth.. *It* only exists in thought.. It is simply one mans perception of his own higher power.. In this world there is probably a billion different Gods in which people belive in. It's all a matter of faith and there is no proof what so ever to substantiate that one single entity is the creator of all life...  If what the bible says is true, then after 40 days and nights of rain, we are all incestual decendants of Noah and his drunken wife... I'm sure he also fit all the animals that now exist on to one big arc too..

The jew's have been very successful in this world in their beliefs in the old testament. It simply states: Obide by these "rules" and generations to come will prosper.. No where does it promise life after death, or that some "God" is going to save you all from the hell we call earth..

Point being, who you chose to see as your higher power is your own "God", and in essence God exists only in thought.  I say fuck it, I'm gonna go worship this bottle of JD and call it God.

It's better to have faith just in case.

People who belive something "just in case" need to be violently flogged by rabid monkeys.

If I was God I'd have more respect for you not believing in me at all as opposed to believing in me just in case.

I believe in God.  An interesting story about how I came to it, from hardcore atheism.    Ultimately, it's a matter of faith.  But honestly, either way it's a matter of faith; empiricism cannot logically be the only philosophy by which we live, because it's limited to what we can observe.

Although, I would say several thousand people observed and recorded a resurrected Christ, whereas nobody has ever observed the evolution of new phyla or genera of organisms.  

Now, I'm not trying to put anybody's beliefs down, but here are a couple examples of things I've overcome in my personal beliefs.

Quote from: Newby on July 26, 2004, 03:10 AM
I don't believe in God simply because of the fact that .. well .. I don't believe in someone leading my life. If there truly was a God .. then Science would be the devil.

I disagree.  Science is a gift to us from God.  Without science we would have no medicine, archaic transportation....  Science is awesome.  Abuse of science is bad.  

Quote from: Noodlez on July 26, 2004, 03:08 AM
I don't believe in god because of a decision that I made at the age of 6.... I decided that if I don't believe in god I can make my own choices. That's why I don't believe in god.

One of the big battles right now among the major branches of Christianity is among what are called the Armenians and the Calvanists.  Calvanists do not believe that people have the free will to choose God -- but rather that God chose them, whereas Armenians believe that the choice is ultimately on people's shoulders.  (This is a gross simplification in the differences in positions, but it's generally correct).

Personally, I believe that we have free will.  It is possible for an outside entity to have foreknowledge of an event, but still not be in control of it.  In fact, it only makes sense for a being that created the universe to be eternal; if the being is greater than the whole of the universe, of which time is a component, the being should in fact exist at the beginning and the end of the universe.  It should be possible for that being to have all of the knowledge it will ever contain, but also be possible for that being not to cause that knowledge to come to existence.

It's like if I had $1,000 and I had a choice of ten people to give it to.  I didn't give it to somebody because I knew ahead of time I was going to give it to that person.  That's retarded.

Quote from: Bsd on July 26, 2004, 12:33 PM
God is a myth.. *It* only exists in thought.. It is simply one mans perception of his own higher power.

How do you know?  If empiricism can only tell you what you see, then how do you know of what you cannot?

Quote from: Bsd on July 26, 2004, 12:33 PMIt's all a matter of faith and there is no proof what so ever to substantiate that one single entity is the creator of all life...

Nor is there proof that one single entity is not the creator of all life.